On Thursday, November 11, 2021, World Usability Day (WUD) returns for the 17th year.
The annual worldwide event held the second Thursday of November brings together people from all walks of life to focus on a single objective:
Ensure that the services and products important to life are easier to access and simpler to use.
This year’s theme is Design of our Online World: Trust, Ethics, and Integrity.
Events will be held around the world as people discuss, celebrate, and learn about usability and how it impacts our daily lives through the products and services we use.
My Own Experience
I first learned about World Usability Day at my college user experience class in the mid-2000’s.
The head of the department was my instructor, and recommended every student interested in usability attend our local Michigan event in East Lansing, Michigan.
I acted on his recommendation, attending WUD at Michigan State University in 2006.
Which led me to join Michigan User Experience Professionals Association (formerly known as Michigan Usability Professionals Association) to plan events and promote usability in our state.
As a Michigan User Experience Professionals Association board member in 2009, I helped conduct alarm clock usability testing at World Usability Day 2009 at Michigan State University in East Lansing.
I launched World Usability Day Detroit in 2013 and organized four annual WUD Detroit events.
While I’m no longer involved in planning WUD events, every year I attend WUD in person or at a virtual event.
How You Can Participate
The WUD events page highlights the almost three dozen events happening worldwide on November 11, 2021.
You’ll find
- All-day conferences
- Interactive workshops
- Panel discussions
- Lightning talks
- Presentations
featuring user experience professionals and practitioners discussing how to address today’s biggest ethical challenges in usability.
As you might expect, given the COVID pandemic, the majority of events have moved online.
Which means, depending on your time zone and schedule, you have a wide range of events to choose from.
Here are a few of the events that caught my attention:
- Design of Our Online World, hosted by UXPA Cleveland (all-day virtual conference)
- World Usability Day 2021, hosted by Philly Chi (lightning talks)
- STHLM Xperience Conference 2021, hosted by Zington Xperience a UX and Visual design consultant agency in Stockholm, Sweden
What I liked about this year’s WUD event page, the event description includes:
- What languages will be used during the event
- Whether live captions are available
- If the event is virtual, in-person, or a combination of both
Summary
World Usability Day event is a great opportunity to learn about the ethics and challenges of designing for our online world as well as meet and network with people in the user experience field.
With a range of virtual events being held throughout the day, you’re bound to find one that allows you to learn more about usability and how it can be applied to your work and studies.
Which event do you plan to attend? Let me know in the comments.
