Yes, it was yesterday, 13 November: World Usability day 2008. This year’s theme was transportation. The Portuguese Usability Professional’s Association made it’s contribution by launching a thematic site where people can submit their impressions and experiences regarding the Portuguese Public Transport usability (or lack thereof).
One (bad) example that comes to mind are the Lisbon Subway ticket vending machines. I always get confused each time I have to recharge my travel card.
Jeremy Keith has made the keynote he delivered at the Accessibility 2.0 conference available in audio format. It’s worth listening to. (via andr3)
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Here are some details on the recent launch.
Congratulations André!
Já repararam como a Ticketline, com o redesign, conseguiu ficar com um site pior do que tinha? E, sinceramente, não penso que o original fosse particularmente bom. Algumas notas:
Devo dizer que penso que um mau site muitas vezes é melhor que nenhum site. Estou certo de que as as pessoas que trabalham no site da Ticketline fazem o seu melhor. A boa notícia é que, tendo um mau site, há imenso potencial para o melhorar 
E, com um site mais usável e mais navegável, não tenho qualquer dúvida que os lucros de ticketline crescerão a olhos vistos. Não é assim tão difícil, mas é preciso saber o que fazer.
Deixo-vos com uma citação de Benjamin Disraeli: “The fool wonders, the wise man asks“.
Jakob Nielsen has recently published his yearly “Top Ten Web Design Mistakes of 2005”
He goes into each one in detail, so read them and have an opinion. Here is the 10 topic list:
This is the most interesting experiment. Throughout life, we have been taught to “click” or “press”, in order to get things to work. Obvious examples are door bells, phones, and of course, Web sites.
Now, imagine if someone eliminated the click. You can only point your mouse and do nothing else. No clicking on buttons or links. The mouse cursor, and where you point it to, does the work. Using this site is quite a challenge, and not easy at all.
Don’t Click It is part of a university project by Alex Frank, of Germany. The site records the mouse movement, and studies user’s behaviour. This is a great innovative example, and an excellent topic to be discussed. Does this shed a new light into the subject of Usability? Does it hurt it? I’d love to know your opinion.
Anyone care to join me over tea one of these days?
My last week of vacation this year went by. Loads of rest, and some problem solving. It was nice.
Around:
. I am so sad I won’t make it.
After @media, comes Fundamentos Web2005 – Accessibility, Usability and Web Standards International Meeting. This is great news. Finally, we’re starting to see real change. There are more and more professionals developing with Web Standards, having real care with Usability and Accessibility matters, and doing things “the right way”. And this creates the need for this kind of conferences, where a lot happens. I find these occasions great motivators, both for speakers and attendees. Things really change afterwards.
Another fact that makes me very happy is that conferences are getting closer to Portugal. I’m betting next year they’ll get here. Let’s keep going!
Finally, the W3C discovers Portugal! There is a great need for trainings such as this one. I hope the language isn’t too techie to scare away many web professionals, not acquainted with accessibility and Web Standards issues. Keep it simple and make the benefits clear. Make it also clear that accessibility is much much more than a AAA seal of approval on a Web site. I’ll be there, and will share my thoughts here. Please let me know if you’ll be there, so we can meet and share some ideas.
“Registration is now open for the Web Accessibility Best Practices Training on 5 July 2005 in Lisbon, Portugal as part of the WAI-TIES Project (WAI – Training, Implementation, Education, Support). This training is hosted by Programa Acesso da UMIC (ACESSO Program of the Knowledge Society Agency in the Ministry of Science, Technology & High Education).
The Web accessibility training will be in English and will cover the following topics:
There is no registration fee for the training; however, pre-registration is required. There are a limited number of spaces, which are available on a first-come, first-served basis. Registration will close when spaces are filled.”