Comments on: How usable is your world?

How usable is your world?

angry jonny — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 07:07:12 -0800

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.

By: Rhomboid

Rhomboid — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 07:16:43 -0800

I think my world would be usable with more database connections available.

By: peggynature

peggynature — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 07:17:27 -0800

IRONY

By: jessamyn

jessamyn — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 07:17:28 -0800

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.

By: rokusan

rokusan — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 07:23:34 -0800

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.

By: shmegegge

shmegegge — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 07:59:39 -0800

wait, so usability experts do something besides tell people how important it is to have a usability expert on your team?

By: pracowity

pracowity — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 08:34:42 -0800

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

By: Artw

Artw — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 08:56:56 -0800

img alt=""?

By: Artw

Artw — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 08:58:29 -0800

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.

By: Artw

Artw — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 09:01:04 -0800

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

By: mandal

mandal — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 09:16:12 -0800

AARP survey finds Americans are befuddled by financial jargon I guess confused was having a day off.

By: chimaera

chimaera — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 09:25:31 -0800

Usability expert, heal thyself!

By: abulafa

abulafa — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 10:14:31 -0800

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

By: callmejay

callmejay — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 10:26:18 -0800

I see Jakob Nielsen's site is still ugly as hell on general principle. Ugly and usable are not mutually exclusive.

By: Seekerofsplendor

Seekerofsplendor — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 10:56:47 -0800

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.

By: Artw

Artw — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 11:07:59 -0800

Ugly and usable are not mutually exclusive. Jakob Nielsen is really not a guy who makes the case for that well.

By: angry jonny

angry jonny — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 12:04:58 -0800

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...

By: ook

ook — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 13:00:58 -0800

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.

By: Artw

Artw — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 13:20:12 -0800

Useit redesign competition winners

By: rokusan

rokusan — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 13:32:42 -0800

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.

By: rokusan

rokusan — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 13:33:03 -0800

Also, Jakob Nielsen needs to be slapped hard. I just had to say that.

By: sneebler

sneebler — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 19:47:38 -0800

... pragmatically ugly. Or pragmatic uglicality.