Usability Contest Winners!
First things first - I just want to thank everyone who entered the usability library contest. This is the part where I tell you I wish you all could be winners, but you can't, because then I'd be broke :) In all seriousness, though, it was great to hear your stories and see such a wide variety of people interested in learning more about usability. I take that as a good sign for the industry.There was apparently a little bit of confusion about the rules, with some people writing blog posts and some commenting on the original post, so I've opted to pick two winners: (1) A full library winner from the blog posts, and (2) A 1-book runner-up from the comments.
Without further ado, I'd like to announce the full library winner: Pek Pongpaet for his post The Importance of Usability. Here's an excerpt from the post:
"If only the user would do this." "The user is doing it wrong." "Why can't they just see the button." "It's right in front of them." These are the excuses we make to ourselves when first presented with the evidence that our product might not be all that user friendly. We write it off as the user's fault.
Congratulations, Pek - you've got a lot of reading to catch up on :)
Our runner-up award goes to the comment from Kevin Ushko. As a small business owner, I really related to his story of trying to start over and educate his team after losing his UX job a few years ago. Congratulations, Kevin!
There were some great, personal stories in the comments, and I hate to have to pick just two winners, but I wish everyone the best and hope you'll consider reading some of what's on the list as you have the chance. Thanks again to everyone who entered.
John Crusher
· Friday, November 27I read Pek Pongpaet's post on The Importance of Usability and I think you made the right decision. His post was very insightful. Hopefully he will be posting more in the future which will be at least half as good as that post.
Martin
· Thursday, January 7Yeah, John - I think, they really made the right decision. Gratulation for all the contest winners!
Dennis
· Thursday, January 21John Crusher ... I also read Pek Pongpaet's post on the importance of usability. It was a great read and has helped me as I always go back to it as a point of reference.
SEO Expert Philippines
· Thursday, February 25Usability is very important for websites. I have been a QA professional for almost four years and usability tests are part of my work.
Thomas
· Tuesday, March 2I also find is that usability testing for web sites is essential. Also from me congratulations to the winner.
arabic keyboard
· Monday, March 15John Crusher ... I also read Pek Pongpaet's post on the importance of usability. It was a great read and has helped me as I always go back to it as a point of reference..
SantaCruze
· Thursday, March 18Also Congrats to all winners of the Contest. I just found this post, so iam too late to join the Contest at all.
Geschenke
· Sunday, June 6Usability is one of the importatnt things of modern webdesign.
Don´t make me think!
Congratulations to all winners.
Alleinunterhalter Karlsruhe
· Saturday, June 26As the Alleinunterhalter Karlsruhe I'm depended on a good usability in my page, for there's a lot of competition with lots of well done sites. So I guess, the one with a good usability and esasy access has the advantage.
Windlicht
· Thursday, July 1Hi! I think that usability is one of the most important parts here in Germany atm. If i take a look at those realy nice "call to action"-sites in the US and compare them to those common pages here in Germany it is realy clear, that there is a lot of work to do - but today most people are just looking for raw traffic instead of optimizing the user experience and get better conversion.
Succeed Online
· Wednesday, July 14Any chance of running another contest in the future?
I did like his post and completely understand the look he got when he said "I pointed this out to the manager that the flow of this was all wrong and it was a major inconvenience to his patrons. He looked at me as if I was some sort of crackhead telling him how to do his job."
Too many people are scared of change or too proud to make the changes that are suggested. "But that is how we've always done it."
resume writer
· Tuesday, August 10Oh, my honest congratulations to the winners! it is really great achievement. And because nowadays the importance of usability has no doubts, it is even more valuable. Regards, Martina
Party Deko
· Monday, August 23In my opinion this is the right decision.
Congratulation for the contest winners from Germany.