STC UUX Community Newsletter
Usability Interface

Editorial

By David Dick, Editor

Welcome to the October issue of Usability Interface. This issue is made possible by the following contributors:

• Geoff Hart
• Chauncey Wilson
• Graduate Students of the George Mason University Department of Psychology
• Timothy Keirnan
• Richard D. Herring and Cindy Lu

I attended a tour of the George Mason University Arch Lab organized by the Washington D.C. Chapter of the Usability Professionals Association (UPA). I was impressed by the enthusiasm of graduate students to discuss their research on human factors and cognitive behavior with members of the UPA. Before I left, I got permission to reprint an article from its newsletter “Designs We Love to Hate.”

November 14, 2006 is World Usability Day. World Usability Day promotes the values and benefits of creating usable products through user-centered design. Awareness of good engineering, good interfaces, good methodologies, and ultimately a good user experience for the customer is the goal of the awareness that arises from this series of events.

STC is participating in World Usability Day 2006 to help make the world a better place for product users, and we invite you to participate. The STC initiatives include holding the World's Largest Online Card Sort and working on a Usability Competition. Local Chapters of the STC and Chapters of the Usability Professionals Association are hosting events of their own. For more information about World Usability Day see www.stc.org/wud/.

We need your contributions for publication in future issues. The following topics are favorites of readers:

• Anecdotes about your efforts to champion usability and improve product design
• Case studies
• Book reviews
• Reviews of new tools and technologies
• News and events of local usability special interest groups

Please send your contributions to me at davidjdick2000@yahoo.com.