World Usability Day

3rd November is World Usability Day.

We've all been irritated by things like milk cartons that seem un-openable, CDs that come in plastic wrapping which is physically impossible to remove, and the old chestnut, gadgets that are dwarfed by the manual that you need to read to use them.

Irritating....

But of course usability can also be a problem on the web. This can range from anything to sites where poor colours and/or layout means you spend 10 minutes looking for the 'Next' button. Text that is far too small to read, even for users with 20-20 vision. Online forms which, if you make a mistake, delete all the information you've entered and take you right back to the beginning. And of course, e-commerce sites where you click 'Enlarge Image' to have a better look at what you're trying to buy, only to have a brand new window open - with exactly the same size image as before.... the list goes on.

Web Usability

That's a fairly light-hearted selection of irritating usability problems, but World Usability Day aims to bring to light some of the issues that make day to day tasks far harder than they need to be for some users. Finding the web an easy place to access is one of these tasks. Imagine how annoying it would be if you wanted to go online and search for holidays (say) only to give up after an hour because half the sites you had been to were unreadable by you?

The web should be a comfortable place to use for as many people as possible. It shouldn't be a place where only techies feel at home, and the rest of the world feels too nervous to venture, in case they 'get it wrong'. Neither should we put up with over complicated, too visual sites, where the usability is seriously impaired by the fact that the font is only 2mm high and you have to wait 4 minute for the Flash introduction to finish - these are fine in their place, but not when you're doing your online banking. Ease of use should be a requirement, rather than a bonus.

World Usability Stories

Check out the World Usability Page for more information and some more stories about the frustrations of unusable items in a supposedly modern world (including the man who paid $3,000 dollars not to be able to listen to music in his truck and the dutch urinal with a fly painted on it to give the gents something to aim at)

Related Articles

If you're interested also, have a look at these articles on the BBC website, 'The secret of making things work' by Max Gadney, Head of Design for the BBC News website, and 'Why easy to use is not enough', by usability expert, Tom Stewart.

Comments

If you have any comments on any usability issues, drop us a line, or you can email stories to the World Usability Day website team at usabilitystories@gmail.com.