You’re invited to join Refresh Detroit and Michigan Usability Professionals Association (Michigan UXPA) as we host World Usability Day, Detroit the evening of Thursday, November 9, 2017.
World Usability Day, Detroit returns for a fourth year to ensure that the services and products important to life are easier to access and simpler to use. Events will be held around the world to raise awareness about usability.
This year’s theme is Inclusion through user experience and we’re excited to offer a hands-on activity for our attendees.
What Is World Usability Day?
World Usability Day (WUD) is an annual worldwide event, held the second Thursday in November.
It’s intended to bring people together from the local community to learn about and discuss how usability affects our daily lives through the services and products we use.
Events are held locally and are open to the public.
My first World Usability Day event was at Michigan State University over 10 years ago, while I was taking college classes in user experience.
I knew very few people at the event. And I admit, I was a bit in awe of all the usability professionals from large corporations and businesses.
But there was no reason to worry, everyone was very friendly and welcoming. The speakers were interesting and the sessions had me frantically scribbling notes about methods I hadn’t heard about.
I made a lot of friends and connected with many people that day, chatting about user experience and the college classes I was taking.
Who is the Event For?
If you’re creating products or services for others to use, World Usability Day, Detroit is for you!
Or if you want to learn how we can work together to make products and services usable to everyone, we’d love for you to attend.
Usable Usability: Inclusive Design for the Real World
Our featured speaker for World Usability Day, Detroit is Elle Waters, Director of Strategy from Simply Accessible, presenting Usable Usability: Inclusive Design for the Real World.
Many times, user research doesn’t account for the needs of people with disabilities.
We know that the user experience is more than a series of transactions, but all too often, we limit our understanding of what it means to design for everyone.
How can we move beyond rules and checklists to think about people more holistically?
With hands-on demonstrations and stories from inclusive usability studies, Waters will share best practices and practical recommendations for considering a range of people’s abilities and needs in your design process.
Our Speaker
Elle Waters is an inclusion activist, Taoist, gamer, xenophile, metaverse enthusiast, agile seeker, and social justice rabble-rouser.
In her work, she has seen amazing things happen, where inclusive design is the primary driver for change and innovation, all by putting people first.
In her life, she is learning how to embrace constant change and transformation as a path to participating in a kinder world.
Registration and Event Details
World Usability Day Detroit will be held November 9, 2017 from 6:30pm to 8:30pm at Grand Circus in downtown Detroit. Cost for the event is $5.00.
Pre-registration is required; attendance is limited to 50 people.
Register early; we expect this will be a popular event. Our thanks to Grand Circus for hosting the venue, we appreciate your support for our event.
Sponsorships Available
We’re looking for sponsors for World Usability Day, Detroit.
By sponsoring our event, you’ll reach an audience of business, government, and higher education professionals throughout southeast Michigan and northwest Ohio.
Our attendees include:
- User experience professionals
- Accessibility specialists
- Designers
- Content strategists
- Developers
- Programmers
- Digital strategists
- Business owners
- Project managers
- Government staff
- Higher education students
- Consultants, and more
It’s a great opportunity for businesses to connect with professionals looking to learn more about user experience.
We offer a variety of benefits to sponsors, including recognition in our event program, thank you during the event, table space to share info, job listings, business cards, swag, and social media posts about your sponsorship.
Contact me for more details about sponsorships and benefits.
History of World Usability Day, Detroit
For our inaugural World Usability Day Detroit event held in 2013, I was excited to host Jeff Greer (then Content Strategist at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan) and Steve Tengler (then User Experience Director at Altia, Inc.) who spoke on collaborating for better systems in healthcare.
For World Usability Day Detroit 2014, David Lingholm (then Director of Digital Media for the City of Detroit) and Cora Cowles (Senior User Experience Architect at Organic) were our guest presenters, speaking on usability and engagement.
In 2015, we held an interactive design thinking session with local Detroit designers Gaby Dorantes and Ezekiel Harris who led us through brainstorming sessions to generate ideas.
For 2016, there was no World Usability Day, Detroit event. But we’re excited to bring it back in 2017!
Looking forward to seeing you on November 9!
