World Usability Day or Make Things Easier Day promotes the value of usability

Usability

Usability is the ease of use and learnability of a human-made object. The object of use can be a software application, website, book, tool, machine, process, or anything a human interacts with. A usability study may be conducted as a primary job function by a usability analyst or as a secondary job...

, usability engineering

Usability engineering

Usability engineering is a field that is concerned generally with human-computer interaction and specifically with making human-computer interfaces that have high usability or user friendliness...

, user-centered design

User-centered design

In broad terms, user-centered design or pervasive usability is a design philosophy and a process in which the needs, wants, and limitations of end users of a product are given extensive attention at each stage of the design process...

, universal usability

Universal usability

Universal usability refers to the design of information and communications products and services that are usable for every citizen. The concept has been advocated by Professor Ben Shneiderman, a computer scientist at the University of Maryland, College Park...

, and every user's responsibility to ask for things that work better. It was initiated, and is still sponsored by, the Usability Professionals' Association

Usability Professionals' Association

The Usability Professionals’ Association is a professional association for people interested in usability.According to the UPA official web site, the Usability Professionals’ Association supports usability specialists, people from all aspects of human-centered design, and the broad family of...

, a group dedicated to "those who promote and advance the development of usable products, reaching out to people who act as advocates for usability and the user experience." In 2008, there were over 200 events in over 43 countries.

World Usability Day is held annually on the second Thursday of November. In 2009, this is November 12. Each year focuses on a different theme. For 2009 the theme is "Designing for a Sustainable World" using the "Cradle to Cradle Design" approach.

From the World Usability Day official website:

"World Usability Day 2009 is approaching design from Cradle to Cradle. Coming from a user-centric perspective and looking beyond form and function, we are exploring the impact design has on our World. The ‘Cradle to Cradle’ approach is to start the design with the premise of using materials that can fully enter a new life cycle by either going back to nature or going back into the design process as a new product. This holistic approach to sustainable design shows how usability can apply to all of what we do and build.

Designing for a Sustainable World focuses on how our products and services impact our world. We look at all products and services, whether they are buildings, roads, consumer products, business, services or healthcare systems; throughout their life cycle. The impact focuses on - our environment, energy, water, soil, and more. Have the materials and processes that have been used been recycled and are they re-usable? Are they user and environmentally friendly? These are questions we all must consider as we design, purchase, use and dispose of products each and every day."

Historic events highlights

Details on all historic events can be accessed and searched on the World Usability Day official website.

2005

• The first World Usability Day
• over 36 hours of content in 115 events around the world
• 35 countries
• Approximately 8,000 people attended events worldwide
• over 200 online participants from 16 countries

2006

• 39 countries

Additionally, World Usability Day New England 2006 focused on universal usability to enhance learning, effectiveness, and understanding for people of all abilities.

2007

• Theme: Healthcare
• 41 countries involved
• 10,000 volunteers
• approximately 40,000 participants

2008

• Theme: Transportation
• 43 countries
• over 50,000 participants and volunteers

2009

• Theme: Designing for a Sustainable World

2010

• Theme: designs, products and services that improve and facilitate communication