Bailie.com

Tuesday, November 14, 2006

Margaret Dickenson as a usability professional

It’s World Usability Day, 2006. On my drive to the office this morning, I was anxious to get to my email - I have several hundred people participating in a global online card sort, and I want to be on hand in case of emergency.

On the radio, Sounds Like Canada is on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, and show host Shelagh Rogers is airing a segment with award-winning cookbook author, Margaret Dickenson, who is talking about how she made her cookbook more usable - simply without using industry jargon such as “usability” and “user-centered design.” Dickenson discusses how she asked representative audience members - notably, her daughter - for advice about how to structure the recipes, and got back lots of ideas and tips about what types of information to include about the recipes themselves and about things peripheral to the recipes, such as storage guidelines, make-ahead dishes, alternative ingredients, and icons that indicate “grillable” or “no time, no talent” status.

Imagine my delight at listening to a show about usability - a topic very much on my mind - on World Usability Day. It was serendipitous, I’m sure, as I doubt that anyone locally informed the CBC about World Usability Day - I know I didn’t think of it - and so all the more interesting this juncture. Given the circumstances, I think it only appropriate that I try some of the recipes.