Description

The theme of the World Usability Day (www.worldusabilityday.org ) for 2009 is designing for a sustainable world, for sustainable development, and for the improvement of structures and services in our everyday life.

In this era which is characterized by constant acceleration in every aspect of our lives, by an oversupply of competing products and services, and access to ample amounts of content, Usability appears to be a necessary condition for survival.

Usability, inseparable from Accessibility, are two elements that can determine whether a project, a product or a service is successful, thus laying the grounds for added value and massive diffusion.

“Let’s make life easier”, concerning facilitation of our own life as consumers as well as of the lives of others as producers and service providers, is the motto in a sustainable world that wishes and ought to leave behind the awe caused by the complexity of new technologies and their applications and move forward to the freshness of friendliness, simplicity, effectiveness and user-consumer satisfaction.

The University Research Institute of Applied Communication and the Laboratory of New Technologies in Communication, Education and the Mass Media of the University of Athens will organize for the third time in a row the Usability and Accessibility Days, which this year will be celebrated in a two-day event at the Apollo Multicentre of the Piraeus Prefecture on the 11th and 12th of November 2009.

The afternoon of the first day (Wednesday, 11 November 2009, 17:00-21:00) will be dedicated to an open discussion between experts of the academia with the public –students, professionals, researchers, active citizens in general– on the need for a wider application of the principles of usability and accessibility, as well as an analysis of particular aspects and uses of these two concepts on adaptability, mobile services and civic media issues. The presentation of the first official report on Website Usability Requirements will follow. Finally, case studies and examples of usability good practices in Greece will be presented and discussed.

The next day (Thursday, 12 November 2009, 9:00-13:00) will comprise an approach, through focus groups, of the notions, interests, objections, expectations and needs of Greek senior citizens in their interaction with Information and Communication Technologies, and also an attempt to introduce and familiarize them with ICT uses and the potential added value represented by these technologies.