World usability day 2011 – Symposium ‘usability methods & tools’
On November 10, 2011 the third Design for Usability Symposium was held at Media Plaza in Utrecht.
The morning programme consisted of three inspiring presentations about design for usability at multinational Philips, design consultancy Indes and the 3TU research project. In the afternoon 6 workshops were held in which participants learned to work with new tools and methods to design for usability. The day was closed with a preview of the Design for Usability Book, which will be handed out to all participants as soon as it’s printed.
In order to relive this day, or see what you have missed out on, check the photo’s.
Within the next weeks we will also be adding the tools and manuals for the workshops, so you all will be able to execute these workshops on your own.
Thanks to all 200 enthusiastic participants who have contributed to this successful day.
PhD thesis defense of Jasper van Kuijk of December 13, 2010
In the media
On December 13, 2010 Jasper van Kuijk successfully defended his PhD thesis on ‘Managing Product Usability’: How companies deal with usability in the development of electronic consumer products. He gained a lot of media attention:
NOS 20:00 news item on December 11
AD newspaper on December 14
Volkskrant newspaper on December 15
Techbusiness website on December 14
He also developed a card set with his 25 recommendations for usability in product development practice. You can download the PDF of the card set or receive a printed version free of charge by sending an email to info@designforusability.org with ‘card set’ in the subject header (and don’t forget to include your postal address).
Managing Product Usability
Why is the usability of mobile phones so poor? Why am I not able to do something as simple as hooking up my DVD recorder? Why do they make these products so hard to use? And are they doing it on purpose? Based on three case studies it can be concluded that there are many – strong – mechanisms in product development practice that prevent the creation of usable electronic consumer products.
Read more…
Also see Jaspers product usability weblog Uselog
Design for Usability research project
Usability
Usability: The extent to which a product can be used by specified users to achieve specified goals with effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction in a specified context of use [ISO 924-11]. Or in common language; is the user able to use the product.
Goal
The goal of this project is to reduce usability problems with electronic products by developing and offering companies a coherent design methodology to anticipate expectations and needs of users on the one hand, and product influences on use practices on the other. The project Design for Usability is a collaboration of the three Technical Universities of The Netherlands together with the companies Philips, Océ, T-Xchange and Indes. This large project is divided into five sub-projects. On each sub-project is one PhD working.
World Usability Day 2010 - Symposium ’Product Impact’
On November 11, 2010 our 2nd Design for Usability Symposium took place. 130 participants attended this symposium about ’Product Impact’. The morning programme consisted of inspiring lectures on theory, ethics, and design of behaviour influencing technologies. In the afternoon participants learned about tools and participated in interactive sessions about guiding and changing user behaviour by design in the various workshops. The afternoon concluded with a panel discussion about product impact and design.
Video recordings of the lectures, workshops and the panel discussion can be viewed on this website.
World Usability Day 2009 - Design for Usability Symposium
On November 12, 2009 the Symposium ’Design for Usability’, organised by TU Delft, TU Eindhoven and University of Twente, took place. This symposium was visited by more than 300 people! The state of the art lectures on design and usability of the morning program as well as the 8 workshops on usability related topics in the afternoon were received with much enthusiasm by the audience.
