World Usability Day 2008, November 13th

The Usability Professional Association (UPA) is sponsoring a World Usability Day (WUD) on November 13, 2008 in New Jersey at Rutgers University. The focus will be on Transportation.
How do humans interact with the following aspects of transportation:

• Modes – automobiles, planes, trains and subways, boats, trucks, busses, bikes, animals, and more.
• Infrastructure – roads, highways, bridges, tunnels, and more.
• Technologies and resources supporting transportation – online travel advisory and ticketing, maps and more.
• Security
• Signage

If you have been to New Jersey, you know that signage is really important!
The only way you would know where to make a left turn is to really pay attention to those signs telling you which lane should be used in order to make a turn. (Those jug handles are inconsistent and a nightmare for those unfamiliar with the area)

There should be a contest regarding the best and worse signs.
The past WUDs focused on Innovations in Healthcare in 2007 in Princeton, NJ.

Interviews of User Experience Pioneers

This past weekend, I learned about Tamara Adlin's website focuses on User Experience Pioneers, including an interview of people like, Arnie Lund. The are fascinating recounts of their life experiences and how they got interested in User Experience. I took my first Human Factors course as an elective during my Senior year in college. At that point, I was already interested in Psychology and computers. That's why I joined the Human-Computer Interaction at the University of Maryland to work with the likes of Ben Shneiderman (who is also featured on this website). What about your life? How did you get interested in this field?