UsabilityNJ - Press Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Live Usability Evaluation of Corzine and Forrester
Gubernatorial Web Sites

Piscataway, NJ - October 1 (UsabilityNJ) The New Jersey chapter of the Usability Professionals' Association announces a live expert review of the New Jersey gubernatorial candidates' websites, to take place at the CoRE building on the Rutgers University Busch Campus, November 3, 2005, from 7 PM to 9 PM. Part of World Usability Day (www.worldusabilityday.net), this free event will demonstrate why usability of open information is a key to democracy.

Usability is the science of determining how products work for people. From recent failures of voting ballot and system designs to interface failures on medical devices that cost lives, to the failure of recent car dashboard innovations, usability and its lack have a huge impact. The Web is another venue where good intentions and snazzy presentation alone cannot ensure that humans can get the value out of information. The Usability Professionals' Association is organizing the first annual World Usability Day on November 3, 2005. This worldwide series of events in more than 70 cities in 35 countries will promote awareness of the benefits of usability engineering and user-centered design. Human Factors International, Inc. is the Title Sponsor of the worldwide initiative. This year's focus is e-government, while also including commercial applications. The theme is "Making It Easy."

"This event, like those in many other countries, is designed to help broaden peoples' understanding of the factors that affect user experience," says UPA president and New Jersey resident Whitney Quesenbery. "Only a truly usable and accessible government or political webpage can fulfill its purpose. If people cannot get to the information or find what they need once there, democracy is undermined."

UsabilityNJ, the New Jersey chapter of the UPA, maintains a local email list of over 200 members and hosts professional and educational events through the year. UPA is an international, non-profit, professional association with more than 2000 members in the US and 35 other countries. Members are specialists in evaluating and designing products that are easy to learn and use.

For more information, contact:

Chris Koster, independent usability consultant, Event Coordinator
Email: ckoster@usabilitynj.org

Alice Preston, Usability and User Interface Specialist, Ithaka, Princeton, NJ
President, UsabilityNJ
Email: apreston@usabilitynj.org

Web: http://usabilitynj.org, http://worldusabilityday.org

Directions: http://www.caip.rutgers.edu