WebWord

The Future of Usability is Mobile is an article I wrote for Apogee.

“People are very accustomed to getting the same information in multiple formats and devices: email, web, print, PDF, mobile phone, TV, radio. Yet this information is not the same in each of these contexts. You can’t click on a link in a radio advertisement. You can’t print out a TV commercial. The exact same information changes due to the context and technology.” (Note: Emphasis added.)

Don’t let the title of the article fool you. While I do make the point that mobile device usability is important and interesting, what’s more important is that we need to undertand the usability of information itself. This is subtle yet profound.

What tools and techniques do you have to test information for usability? Simple proofreading for quality is reasonable but what about usability? What’s the test for usable information? And, not just usable information from the point of view of users, but usable to other services and systems.

This is radical stuff if you start to dig into it. I’ll tell you now that it’s easy to dismiss the usability of information because it seems so simple. But it’s not. If you want to sniff around this idea I suggest you start with the observer effect. You might start to understand that the usability of information is not a single thing but instead it’s a process and a way of thinking.

Well, enough puffery about my ideas. Go read The Future of Usability is Mobile.

I’m very happy to say that on Tuesday, June 16th I’ll be at the 2008 Usability Professionals Association (UPA) Conference in Baltimore, Maryland. I’ll be presenting with Daniel Szuc and Paul Sherman. Here’s what we’re covering:

Make Yourself Heard! Selling User Experience in Your Organization

Here’s the abstract…

“When it comes to selling user experience(UX) processes, methods and techniques in our organizations, even experienced practitioners often don’t always know how to sell effectively. We advocate for taking a very basic approach, one that looks at business goals, aligns our usability work with their objectives, and demonstrates how usability tools, methods and techniques can help accomplish business goals. This experienced practitioner session provides practical examples, tools and stories that attendees can use to help sell UX more effectively in their organizations.”

Will you be at UPA 2008? If yes, please make it a point to look me up. I’ve like to meet YOU face to face.

Paul, Dano and I will be working through about 190 slides in 4 hours. It’s a lot to cover and I’m sure we’ll skip over stuff. That’s cool. The main point is to help the participants reach their goals. This is for them. We want to take their game to a new level.