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This article from the Sydney Morning Herald about World Usability Day starts off absolutely hilarious:

> The managers of Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport faced a difficult problem a few years ago. They were having to spend a fortune cleaning the men's toilets because the aim of Dutch men was so poor.

> "They hired some guys who sat in the urinals for several weeks, just observing," says Ash Donaldson. "They noticed that if there was a cigarette butt or a fly in the urinal men would aim at it. So they etched the shape of a fly into each urinal - and that reduced the cleaning bill by 80 per cent."

I bet the conducting that ethnographic study was a lot of fun! ;)

Read the full article:

* http://tinyurl.com/acglm

Some interesting quotes:

> But some tech engineers and designers assume too much: that since they understand how the gadget works, everyone should. Bias quips: "A whole lot of companies went out of business because their users were too stupid."

...and...

>"The feature-list wars were not good for software," consultant Quesenbery says. "People threw a function in because it gave them a check-box on a list, not because it met the needs of the marketplace."

> Microsoft is redesigning the user interface for the next version of Office, due next fall. Microsoft will display only the tools you'll likely use most frequently. The goal: to cut the number of clicks to complete a task. In Office 2003, it took 26 clicks to insert a text box into a document; with the new version, four.

Read the entire article:

* http://tinyurl.com/99af6

From the BBC:

> With thousands of products and services to choose from, ease of use is still a bonus factor rather than a norm and those that possess this elusive quality often go on to dominate markets.

> Google, Amazon and eBay are successful brands not just because of their financial models but the ease with which their users are able to achieve their goals on these sites, be they searching, buying or selling.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4393468.stm

Motricity is holding a corporate usability ticketing event. We've asked program managers and developers at Motricity to ticket products with great or poor usability. On Thursday, November 3, we'll collect the tickets and hold a random drawing to award an Ipod Nano to one lucky person.

Corporate ticketing events, like this one, are designed to encourage people to think about how usability issues affects their day-to-day lives, giving them a better understanding of how the products they build affect your customers' day-to-day lives. There's still time to hold your own corporate ticketing event.

A couple of notable updates to the usability ticketing contest:

* Deadline for entries has been extended to Thursday at noon.
* Instead of looking for the most interesting usability tickets, we're now going to hold a random drawing.

For full details, visit:

* http://www.triux.org/usability-ticket/

Another article about World Usability Day on BBC. Here's a quote:

> Thursday is World Usability Day.

> I'm sorry, but I'm not sure the world is ready for such a day.

> It's not that I don't think usability is a good idea - of course it is.

> It's not that I don't think some progress has been made. Of course it has. The success of the iconic iPod is largely down to the usability of the device, especially the click wheel interface and iTunes.

> No, my worry is that the world has so far to go in making technology usable that I fear that celebrating usability is premature and conceals just how much hassle we put up with on a daily basis.

Read the article:

* http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4392644.stm

Human Factors International is conducting a color survey on World Usability Day. What colors would you associate with different types of Web sites, such as banking, healthcare, and news?

On November 3, 2005, go to this page on the Human Factors International site and complete the brief survey. After the survey is complete, the results will be analyzed and discussed in Human Factors International's monthly eNewsletter.

World Usability Day is this Thursday. :-) That's right four days away. We're nearly finished with the preparations--just a few minor things to wrap up.

In the meantime, don't forget:

* Start ticketing! If you haven't already, get out there and get ticketing. That's an order. Well, as close to an order as it comes from someone who has no authority over you whatsoever. Even if you can't post your ticket to flickr, ticket something!
* Ticketing awards. If you do post it to flickr, you'll be in the running for one of two $50 awards.
* Help promote World Usability Day. Whether you're one person on a large company or a lone pioneer in your own company, you can help spread the word.
* And come on out on Thursday. We've got a great event lined up with an amazing line-up of panelists and a UNC/NC State square-off that's sure to be a lot of fun!

Need another reason to attend the World Usability Day? How about $50? We’re awarding two $50 cash prizes to two of the usablity tickets posted to flickr.

We're awarding two $50 cash prizes to the most interesting usablity tickets posted to flickr. What do we mean by interesting? Anything that stands out as unusual--e.g. an unusual product, technology, or person(!?). Your description counts, too...unusual reasons for why you love or hate the product will certainly garner votes among the judges!

**Update:** Instead of awarding a ticket for the most interesting usability ticket, we're going to hold a random drawing; there will still be two $50 awards. For detailed information about the tickets and the event, visit:

* http://www.triux.org/usability-ticket/

All you have to do is take a picture of something that annoys the fire out of you--or something that you works so well it puts most other products to shame--and post it to flickr under the tag "uticket". And make sure you attach the ticket after you've posted it to flickr!

The deadline to be considered for the contest is Wednesday at 6pm Thursday at noon. We'll announce the winners during the ticket review on Thursday. The only catch is that you must attend the event in order to receive the cash. If you don't show, you don't get the dough. (Yeah, definitely not one of my better attempts at a rhyme.)

Do you have co-workers or a boss who just doesn't understand why usability matters? Consider having that person post ticket a usability violation. That'll get them thinking about how usability affects their lives--and who knows, maybe you'll get that testing budget you've been vying for all these years, and then you'll get promoted because of all the amazing product improvements you initiated due to the testing...a guy can dream, can't he?

This shouldn't take more than 15-30 minutes to execute, and it should be a lot of fun! And besides, I'm sure you could actually list several products that are completely unusable that you use every day--admit it, you're always thinking about usability no matter what product you're using. (Surely *I'm* not the only one!) This is just an opportunity to share your frustration and/or joy.