User Centric participates in World Usability Day

On November 14, 2006, the User Experience Alliance and its partners will mark World Usability Day by conducting the world's first 36 hour global expert review on a number of leading products, including cell phones and Web sites. The event will involve the founding members of the alliance and their partners, and will cover 11 countries in total. The purpose of the event is to raise awareness of the importance of international user experience, and to focus on the issues facing companies designing a user interface that should work globally. Within 36 hours, reviews and reports will be completed, focusing on cultural differences with regards to processes, symbols, wordings, etc.

This is the 2nd annual World Usability Day, an initiative of the Usability Professionals' Association (UPA), whose purpose it to raise awareness of usability engineering and user-centred design. The events - more than 135 in 35 countries - will demonstrate that the things we interact with and experience every day can work better. Crossing cultural boundaries and bringing together people from cities like New York City and London to far-reaching regions like Philippines, Iceland, Paraguay and New Zealand, the events will be hosted by thousands of individuals and volunteers from corporations, organizations and universities and will focus on accessibility and inclusion.

"Expert Review: Around the World in 36 Hours" will be conducted by the User Experience Alliance members and partners at offices across 12 countries. The results of the study will be published in the following weeks. To register your interest in receiving the results, please email Maura Vij at mvij@usercentric.com.

In its first year, the UPA and its partners coordinated 115 events in 35 countries over a 36 hour period. More than 10,000 people - including usability professionals and individuals - participated in local events and thousands more took part online. In its second year, World Usability Day 2006 will be even more accessible with twice the number of Web-based events and more than 15,000 people expected to attend a larger number of in-person events around the world. For a complete list of World Usability Events and Webcasts, visit this site for more information.