We’re excited to be sponsoring MESH for the fifth year in a row! We love MESH because it brings together great people and all things digital. The speaker line-up is stellar this year. Instead of having one or two keynotes (like a typical conference) there are four “Keynote Conversations”. Ryan Carson kicks things off talking about ‘The Evolution of Education..and what that means”. It will be interesting to learn
Malcolm Gladwell says ‘blink’ is about “[w]hen you meet someone for the first time… your mind takes about two seconds to jump to a series of conclusions.” BlinkedIn is what happens when you see someone’s LinkedIn pic for the first time and your mind takes about two seconds to jump to a series of conclusions…
Maybe you have kids, or maybe you’re a kid at heart… There’s no denying the plethora of fun games to be played on the iPad. Here are a few favourites from the young UMers! Toca Doctor – for the budding physicians out there Plants vs. Zombies – epic battles can rage for hours Angry Birds Space – boldly goes where no birds have gone before Robbery Bob – let’s keep home invasion fun and digital, kiddos Wher
Are you coming to the UM 10th anniversary party? We hope so! As you know we’ll be giving away an iPad, loaded up with some of our favourite apps. Here’s a teaser for Scrabble, from our intrepid office manager Julie… I am not a competitive gal. I get bored to pieces during marathon games of Monopoly. I cringe whenever the words “I brought Cranium!” are spoken. And if one more person tells me how
Hello friends of Usability Matters! We’re looking forward to seeing you at our 10th anniversary party on June 14th at the Drake Hotel (we’ve got the Sky Yard from 5 – 8, but many of us will party on into the evening for sure…) Bring your business cards for our iPad draw – we’re giving away an iPad loaded up with some of our favourite apps! The UM team will be blogging their app choices in the days ahead. where: the
The Toronto Daily Bread Food Bank held its fifth annual Food Sort Challenge last week, and the staff at Usability Matters was excited to take part! One of the daily tasks around here is the sorting of data and information – applying these skills to the sorting of 3 skids of donations seemed a good fit for us. As newbies to this Challenge, we were unsure of what the process or environment would be, and since I was ele
Since 2005, the Usability Professionals Association has designated the second Thursday of November of the year as World Usability Day, a day to raise awareness of and to train professionals in good usability practice. Last week, the team at Usability Matters decided to find out just what makes our lives easier. So we bundled up, wheeled out our mobile whiteboard, grabbed some candy and took WUD to the streets of Toro
I am not ashamed, but I don’t feel proud to say this either: I listen to the “TRON: Legacy” soundtrack. It’s been a long time since I’ve had an album in regular rotation that features the Disney logo on the cover art. And it’s not an album I’d listen to while walking to work or doing the dishes—these days I’d opt for Bon Iver or The Black Keys. Daft Punk’s techno soundtrack is, for me, task-specific: I listen to it o
Too often I have observed visitors struggle with the elevator panel in our building. After a few seconds of watching them push a button, the light not staying on, pushing it again, them looking around confused and flustered I jump in and say: “You have to push 2R to get to the 2nd floor”. The confusion continues… They freeze and stare in dismay… I push the button for them… The elevator t