World Usability Day 2010
- Date
- 11th November 2010
- Time
- 14:00–18:00
- Location
- User Vision offices, 55 North Castle Street, Edinburgh, EH2 3QA.
- Map
- See a map of this venue
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An official UPA Partner Event
Making communication easy
User Vision is investigating how usability and user experience impacts modern communication methods, in preparation for World Usability Day 2010 .
World Usability Day (WUD) is a global event promoted by the Usability Professional’s Association (UPA) to raise awareness of usability and user experience so that the services and products important to life are easier to access and simpler to use. More than 150 events across 43 countries were held on last year’s World Usability Day.
Thursday 11 November is WUD’s sixth anniversary and this year its focus is on Communication.
We are delighted that our popular annual open-house event has been selected by the UPA as one of only five official Partner Events for World Usability Day 2010. Once again we will open the doors of our head office in Edinburgh and lay on a range of fun and interesting activities for visitors to learn about the world of usability and user experience.
Watch a video preview of World Usability Day 2010 at User Vision
New technology has fuelled great advancements within the field of Communication over the past few years, and we will be helping visitors to explore the potential usability issues associated with social networking sites, collaboration tools and modern communication devices.
Prior to the event, we will evaluate how different communication mediums affect information recall, by looking at the various ways that we consume news stories. And on 11 November, guests will be invited to test the effectiveness of these communication mediums on their own information recall. Results will then be analysed and the final results reported after World Usability Day.
This year’s activities include:
- Do different communication mediums affect our information recall?
Using news stories from paper, web and mobile channels, we will explore how we consume key information and whether the medium affects our recall of the information.
- Does video-calling afford a richer form of communication than voice calling?Users’ emotional response to communication will be measured to test whether or not video calling, offering an interaction with more social cues, allows users to pick up more from the conversation than voice calling.
- Who can access your content on Facebook?Online social network communication has exploded over recent years and privacy issues within the world’s largest social networking site have been a hot topic of debate, especially in the past year, impacting users’ sense of trust.
We will invite you to share your own experiences of controlling Facebook privacy and edit a Facebook account, asking the questions:
- Who can see the things you ‘share’ (Status updates, photos etc.)
- Who can see your personal information?
- What can Google see? – Keeping your data off search engines.
- Eye tracking of advertisements on the iPad and physical environments using Tobii GlassesWe will research communication based apps and websites on the iPad with the help of eye tracking and the latest technology in this field, the Tobii Glasses . Using these specially designed glasses we will investigate how effective the iPad is as a medium for communicating advertising messages.
We will also demonstrate the application of the eye tracking glasses in shopping and other environments. Come along and make your own mind up about the iPad and see the outputs from the eye tracking glasses.
- How accessible are mobile devices?Special guests will help us understand how disabled people use mobile phones and associated assistive technologies. There will be a demonstration of a blind user using ‘Talks’, a form of screen reading software for mobile phones and we will also look at other alternative communication devices used by disabled users.
- Has mobile phone usability evolved with the technology?Our phones have become smarter but have they got easier to use? You will be invited to test whether or not the latest in smart phone technology offers an easier, more usable experience than the older generations of mobile phone.
- How usable is collaborative software?Collaborative software offers geographically dispersed organisations a means of working and communicating more directly. Try out some simple tasks including content creation and editing to help us compare and contrast the user experience of various online collaborative tools.
- How effective is advertising communication?
- Using our IMotions and eye tracking technology we will assess users’ emotional engagement with advertising images to determine if companies are communicating their message with potential customers clearly.
World Usability Day is a red letter day in our calendar every year, and this year’s event looks to be the best ever as we explore the fascinating, diverse and often challenging world of communication. As technologies advance there is always a risk that the user becomes the weak link in the communication chain, and our user experience services are especially relevant to this field. We are sure you will enjoy the hands on activities in our annual World Usability Day open-house.
Chris Rourke – Managing Director
How to book
If you would like to attend, please sign up , call 0131 225 0858 or email Susan Brannan on susan@uservision.co.uk with your name and contact details. It will be an 'open house' from 2.00pm to 6.00pm, so feel free to pop in and get involved in this unique and worthwhile experience. We will be serving light refreshments throughout the afternoon and the event is free !
We would love to see you on the day.
See what happened at last year's World Usability Day event.
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