How usable is your world?
November 13, 2008 7:07 AM   Subscribe

Happy World Usability Day. Download the poster. Take the global transport challenge. Get involved in a local event. Not sure what usability is? These guys can tell you. Usability principals are being applied not only to websites, but to increase the level of accessibility in all facets of life including voting, product development, and how we talk to one another. You're on your own to improve your own usability, though.
posted by angry jonny (21 comments total) 5 users marked this as a favorite
 
I think my world would be usable with more database connections available.
posted by Rhomboid at 7:16 AM on November 13, 2008


IRONY
posted by peggynature at 7:17 AM on November 13, 2008


I promoted this myself on my own blog because I think it's a good idea to think about usability. That said, it's taken me several minutes to get through the "challenge" -- of actually I just got a Drupal "unable to connect to database" error -- which I think is a little misguided anyhow. Like most people don't fly in a plane on an "average" day but some people fly several times a month (*raises hand*) and most don't. Those people have radically differing footrpints. Additionally, there's a difference between someone who drives a car because they don't like public transportation options and someone who drives a car because they don't have transportation options (*raises hand again*).

THAT said, using images to make your 18 point Georgia headlines look pixel perfect with no ALT tags while yammering about usability equals automatic fail to me. I wanted to like this site. Thanks for the additional links, we'll need them.
posted by jessamyn at 7:17 AM on November 13, 2008 [2 favorites]


Between (1) the site barely working, (2) the unnavigable layout of the sponsor organization's website and (3) Bill Freaking Gates as a key speaker, I'm going to assume this is some sort of parody.
posted by rokusan at 7:23 AM on November 13, 2008 [1 favorite]


wait, so usability experts do something besides tell people how important it is to have a usability expert on your team?
posted by shmegegge at 7:59 AM on November 13, 2008


Yes, if the team leaders are smart enough to listen to them.
posted by pracowity at 8:34 AM on November 13, 2008


img alt=""?
posted by Artw at 8:56 AM on November 13, 2008


Yes, if the team leaders are smart enough to listen to them.

They could always pretend to be SEO experts. They say mostly the same things and get listened to.
posted by Artw at 8:58 AM on November 13, 2008


I see Jakob Nielsen's site is still ugly as hell on general principle.
posted by Artw at 9:01 AM on November 13, 2008 [2 favorites]


AARP survey finds Americans are befuddled by financial jargon

I guess confused was having a day off.
posted by mandal at 9:16 AM on November 13, 2008 [1 favorite]


Usability expert, heal thyself!
posted by chimaera at 9:25 AM on November 13, 2008


And Adobe. And... fack. If actual usability had a color, say, "cerulean" this site would be a perfect example of ceruleanwashing.

Adobe? Really?
posted by abulafa at 10:14 AM on November 13, 2008


I see Jakob Nielsen's site is still ugly as hell on general principle.

Ugly and usable are not mutually exclusive.
posted by callmejay at 10:26 AM on November 13, 2008


Irony for sure. Why does Bill Gates say in the "welcome" video that its "World Usability Day 2007"? Didn't he have time to do a new one? It's also choppy and badly edited, and so once again, Microsoft comes off as behind the times.
posted by Seekerofsplendor at 10:56 AM on November 13, 2008


Ugly and usable are not mutually exclusive.

Jakob Nielsen is really not a guy who makes the case for that well.
posted by Artw at 11:07 AM on November 13, 2008 [2 favorites]


Sadly, usability is too often misrepresented by what you may consider minimalist design - or pragmatically ugly.

Fact is, I would guess that many of the sites that many mefites use on a regular basis are both attractive and usable. I would argue that user centered design results in interfaces that are inherently more attractive due to the fact that they are easier to use.

Our brains see as ugly things that it readily doesn't understand. The psychology of usability is fun stuff.

As for the design choices and function of the World Usability Day website - very regrettable. The shoemaker's children...
posted by angry jonny at 12:04 PM on November 13, 2008


What does reducing your carbon footprint have to do with usability?

Why do two out of the three steps in the "transport challenge" have no effect on the results?

Why is every single field in the form marked as 'required' anyway?

Why are error messages separated from the element they're referring to by a 1000x325 splash-page graphic, which appears on every single page?

Why do search results on the site include raw html tags and even javascript functions?

Why do... oh hell, I get it now; I fell right into their trap. They're trying to enrage as many people who care about usability as possible by including all these obvious boneheaded mistakes, so we'll all rant online about it, as a sneaky way to get people talking about the subject. Sneaky.
posted by ook at 1:00 PM on November 13, 2008 [1 favorite]


Useit redesign competition winners
posted by Artw at 1:20 PM on November 13, 2008


I would guess that many of the sites that many mefites use on a regular basis...

"Many mefites" use mint.com and bookglutton.com? And I mean I love Little Big Planet, but... really?

Time to update my bookmarks, maybe.
posted by rokusan at 1:32 PM on November 13, 2008


Also, Jakob Nielsen needs to be slapped hard.

I just had to say that.
posted by rokusan at 1:33 PM on November 13, 2008


... pragmatically ugly.

Or pragmatic uglicality.
posted by sneebler at 7:47 PM on November 13, 2008


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