World Usability Day

What does it mean

World Usability Day is a global day of usability, which has been held on one day all over the world since 2005.

More info

World Usability Day (World Usability Day, or just the abbreviation "WUD") was founded by the Usability Professionals Association (now the User Experience Professionals Association).

It is held annually to support and educate in the field of usability, human-centered design, and the responsibility of every user for the requirements of better functioning things. Each year this day has a different theme.

World Usability Day began as an idea that emerged from a discussion in the fall of 2004 between two UPA board members, Elizabeth Rosenzweig and Nigel Bevan. They collaborated with the UPA board on the initiation of World Usability Day and over the years Elizabeth Rosenzweig has kept it running.

"World Usability Day was established with the goal of focusing people on the problems and subsequent solutions related to usability. We want to raise people's awareness of how much these problems affect us all. If we can get thousands of people on the planet to focus on one thing for one day, we can achieve something great. Just one day is enough to change someone's view of things or to ignite a fire that can burn for years." - Elizabeth Rosenzweig

Today, more than 140 countries have participated in WUD, involving more than 250,000 individuals and professionals and influencing their local communities. WUD has opened up the field of UX and usability in places where it did not exist before the event, such as in Eastern Europe (including Poland, Ukraine, Russia, and Turkey). World Usability Day is currently organized by the World Usability Initiative. WUD organizers have collaborated with renowned professional associations such as SIGCHI, HCII, PLAIN, and IFIP.

Together they founded the World Usability Initiative (WUI), a focused global organization. As a unified, dedicated entity, WUI works closely with the United Nations, particularly in relation to human factors integral to the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. Each year, World Usability Day is built around a theme that is relevant to the state of design and technology.

In Slovakia, the organization of the event for the global WUD is undertaken by SUXA (Slovak User Experience Association), with the first World Usability Day in Slovakia launched by Martin Krupa co-founder of ui42 and SUXA. 

World Usability Day 2024 - Designing for a Better World

We are pleased to announce that ui42 will be the enthusiastic general partner of WUD in Slovakia this year as well!

World Usability Day 2023 - Collaboration and Cooperation

In 2023, the entire UX community focused on the theme of Collaboration and Cooperation. For ui42, Barbora Blahušiaková took the stage. You can watch her lecture here: