Happy New Year and welcome to the first issue of USEworthy for 2003.
At this festive time of year when we have spent a fortune and had fortunes spent on us, we turn our thoughts toward the less well off and consider the performance of charitable websites and the experience of donating online. We also provide an update on news and events at The Usability Company that this month includes a preview of the Technology For Marketing conference where we will be exhibiting.

 
We also take a look at SMS messaging and the evolution that took place through 2002. And we take a somewhat tongue in cheek look at Microsoft Updates for dial up users.

Finally Arlene Kline adds the third part to our four part series on accessibility, this month covering the technical issues.

Here is a round up of news and announcements within The Usability Company during the past month.

LG Electronics win

The Usability Company has signed a contract with Korean electronics group LG Electronics. The contract was won by Senior Account Manager Mark Blunden, following many months of discussions.

Technology For Marketing 2003

The Usability Company has signed up for a stand at the TFM conference and exhibition that will take place at Olympia 11th & 12th February 2003. We will be demonstrating the very latest in online research technologies that enable organisations to significantly enhance their online market and usability research capability.

We will be located on stand D95 and will have both Usability Specialists and Business Development people available throughout the show. Why not come and see us?

Recruitment

We have just completed recruitment for an additional Usability Specialist and our new recruit will be joining the team 1st February 2003. The identity of our new recruit will be revealed next month.

In the meantime we are also recruiting for an experienced Marketing Manager to join our team and add to the ongoing development and growth of our business. If you know someone who might be interested ask him or her to get in contact via careers@theusabilitycompany.com or call Paul Blunden on +44 (0)8450 546 500.

and Finally...

December 2002 was a record month for The Usability Company and we would like to thank all our clients for their contribution to our success and we hope to see you again in 2003!

This month our accessibility series continues with the technical issues surrounding the development of accessible products.

Read more about Accessibility

Looking back through 2002 it may well become referred to as the year that SMS grew up. At the start of the year there was much hype surrounding the UK Governments decision to test electronic voting via SMS. The announcement was made 5 February 2002, with the Government saying that it would test electronic voting in local elections in May 2002. The tests cost approximately £3.5 million and included voting by text messages from mobile phones using SMS. 

In December 2002 The Usability Company CEO Catriona Campbell carried out a Usability Evaluation on four charity websites. The company funded the research (including the donations that were actually made) and the findings will be made available to the charities in question. The research was necessarily high level as it involved comparing the donation experience across four different charitable websites. Our sample of Internet sites examined included; Oxfam, Barnardos, Save the Children and Cancer Research UK. 

Every year I buy myself a Christmas present and as this year I had been particularly good I put in my stocking a brand new HP external DVD re-writer drive. I unpacked it and followed the instructions for installation. Sadly all did not go well and two parts of the software supplied failed to install. The HP helpdesk suggested I download the software directly from their website and try again which I did but still with no success.