Today is World Usability Day

I'll be participating in events here in the Twin Cities along with representatives from many local companies.

"On November 3rd, 2005, World Usability Day, a worldwide series of events will promote the benefits of user-centered design, with the theme "Making It Easy." Local events are being held in over 100 locations in 35 different countries."

World Usability Day is getting quite a lot of attention from major media and press (and this is just the first one). For example, a Usability Professionals' Association spokesperson will be on CNN Headline News at 7:15 (Eastern time?) in the morning to talk about the event. Other representatives have been interviewed for radio and various publications. Here are links to a few early articles talking about the Day along with usability, and user-centered design:

USA TODAY: Why are tech gizmos so hard to figure out?
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/products/2005-11-01-usability-cover_x.htm

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: “World Usability Day” aims to make technology
more user-friendly
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/business/columnists.nsf/techtalk/story/2A55335C4AB1E067862570A7006AFC1A?OpenDocument

Sydney Morning Herald: Pushing the right buttons requires a human touch
http://www.smh.com.au/news/technology/pushing-the-right-buttons-requires-a-human-touch/2005/10/31/1130720481954.html
(Talks about how even urinals have been improved using UCD.)

BBC: The secret of making things work
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4393468.stm