World Usability Day 2009- India: Hyderabad

The theme for November 12, 2009 is
‘Designing for a Sustainable World’

So tweet the Earth

Most of us used to take delight in watching birds paying us a visit in our very own habitats during our childhood; however,
all such pleasures of nature are not welcome to our cities anymore. And the irony is, we seek solace in the virtual worlds
and tweet on the web mimicking nature. Its time we thought about how our products and services impact our world.
for more details : www.usabilitymatters.org

WUD – UMO2009
UsabilityMatters.Org, UMO herewith invites all those who are playing their part both actively and passively in 'Making it Easy'.
We are driven by belief that design is not a domain limited to few disciplines, but it is indeed prevalent in every discipline that enables
solutions of any kind, be it products or services, and therefore it’s our responsibility to 'make it easy' for consumers of technology. 
UMO organized a string of activities along the timeline to 12th November 2009 to mark the World Usability Day'09.

We thank the Designers -working and studying in their respective disciplines spanning across Architecture, Industrial Design,
Instructional Design, User Interface Design, Graphic Design, Technical writers, Engineering and design sensitive users for their
participation in the events

UMO Events
UsabilityMatters.Org strives to provoke thinking among our peers, to extend the limits of the accepted boundaries of the prevalent practices
and to challenge the mediocre by discussions and deliberations that translate into results for a better environment around us. 
We regularly organize events to raise awareness and discuss various issues that relate to the HCI, Usability, Interaction Design and
Graphic Design community of India.

We have been the primary contact in India to celebrate World Usability Day in Hyderabad, India since 2005.

UMO: World Usability Day 2009
We hosted a string of activities along the world timeline to mark World Usability Day. The event's focus was on making it easy with
'Designing for a Sustainable World'.

UMO: Bad Design Expo 2009

Entries received from worldwide for the 'Bad Design Competition' and for the 'International Cartoon Contest' were displayed during this event. These events in particular were received extremely well by the academia, industry, government representatives, NGOs and the society. Click here for more details.

 

UMO: Boycott Bad Designs Contest’09

UMO holds this competition for identifying Bad-Designs as part of our activities towards the World Usability Day. Participation is open to everybody from every country in the world, and from any background- designers and design sensitive consumers! Click here for more details Theme for the Competition: So tweet earth - rethink, refresh and recycle ideas for a sustainable world.

UMO: 5th International Cartoon Contest’09

The UMO – 5th International Cartoon Contests are organized by UMO towards the World Usability Day. Participation is open to all cartoonists from every country in the world. Click here for more details   Theme for the Competition: So tweet earth - So tweet earth - toon tweeting for sustainability

TechEase '09

A workshop on usability and user interface design exclusively for students has been successfully organized. This workshop called TeachEase'09 in collaboration with IIIT,Hyderabad is a first of its kind workshop in India with making technology easy being its theme. The objective of this workshop is bringing together the students of technology and design giving them a platform to interact with each other and enable them look through each other's perspective. www.techease.in

 

Usability Matters.Org (UMO)

UsabilityMatters.Org ( www. Usabilitymatters.org) is a non-profit organization working towards design awareness and exchange of design sensibilities
through interaction between designers and design sensitive consumers. It is a forum dedicated to discussing, improving and
promoting the work of Usability and Interaction design community in India. 

Team UMO 
UsabilityMatters.Org is founded by Kaladhar Bapu along with a group of Usability enthusiasts from India. However,
this was only the germ of an idea that was taken up and further worked upon by a group of volunteers who come together
to host various events. We call the group of these volunteers as "TeamUMO"

Be a part of UMO
And all those who are passionate about the design issues around us are invited to register you at UMO and join us in making
the World Usability Day event successful and generate awareness about 'Making it Easy'
LinkedIn
Yahoo groups
Twitter

 

TechEase'09 has been kick started with a good note. The crowd was very enthusiastic and hard working. My session was on ' Fundamentals of User Experience Design". Another workshop leader Shilpa Sharma from Nokia gave insights on user research in her workshop session ' Design for User. We have short listed 130 participants (Technology and Design students) from 75 colleges across India out of 620 registrations. We have also hosted a Bad Design Expo'09 at IIITH.

I captured this image in a remote hamlet called Odalarevu near a ferry. The imagination shown here is unbelievable. I like the thought and  the proportions. 

Hyderabad will get one of the four National Institutes of Design (NIDs) that the Central government planned to set up in the country, the Union minister for commerce and industry, Mr Anand Sharma announced.
http://tinyurl.com/y9799m7

Microsoft has launched a program that gives Web development professionals the chance to get free software and technical support to help them get new businesses off the ground.

Web development companies with less than 10 employees can apply for the new WebsiteSpark program, which was unveiled at the PICNIC conference in Amsterdam Thursday.

The program is similar to Microsoft's BizSpark program launched last year, which provides software and other resources to startups, and the DreamSpark program, which does the same for students.

More details: http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/172533/microsoft_aims_to_spark_new_business_for_web_developers.html

The Bad Design Expo presents a satirical view of design flaws in day-to-day life

 
Tweet the Earth The contest drew more than 600 illustrations

The UMO Bad Design Expo, in its fifth consecutive year, urges us to stop and ponder over all things ‘bad’ but considered acceptable in our lives. Art galleries are places to showcase paintings, sculptures and illustrations about all thing s beautiful or at the most, things that make you think, right? What are ‘bad’ things doing here? The expo features entries it received in two contests — Bad Designs and Tweet the Earth.

For more details:
http://www.hindu.com/mp/2009/09/21/stories/2009092150700400.htm

My design, 'Symbol for Indian Rupee' has been short-listed.

I feel this is a wonderful thought for 'sustainability'
http://www.usabilitymatters.org/entry/2719/ali_aghaeyiran/international_cartoon_contest_09#body