But can I use it?

Today is World Usability Day. This year's theme is communication. According to Elizabeth Rosenzweig, founder of World Usability Day, the day will 'serve as an impetus to creating greater awareness for designs, products and services that improve and facilitate communication around the world'.

Usability most often applies to websites. When we're not talking about websites, usability is generally called universal design.

Plain English and usability go hand-in-hand. For people to understand your website, form, manual, email, presentation, or report, you need to communicate clearly. And you need to make sure that your whole audience finds your communication easy to use.

Some usability experts are Whitney Quesenbery, Jakob Nielsen, and Gerry McGovern. New Zealand companies that specialise in usability are AccEase and Optimal Usability.

For information about World Usability Day, see http://worldusabilityday.org/

For information about universal design, see http://www.accease.com/pmwiki.php?n=Publications.UniversalDesign

For information about Whitney Quesenbery, see http://wqusability.com/

For information about Jakob Nielsen, see http://useit.com/

For information about Gerry McGovern, see http://giraffeforum.com/wordpress

For information about AccEase, see http://accease.com/

For information about Optimal Usability, see http://optimalusability.com/

Travel with a sharpie

If you spot typos everywhere you go, here's the story of a roadtrip with a difference.

Engaging legal help just got easier

We jumped at the chance to be part of an international team working on a document rewrite project for Clarity 2010, the plain language legal conference held in October.

Several months of work later, here are the results of our project published on the Clarity website. Watch for more projects from around the world to be published soon.

http://blog.clarity2010.com/engaging-legal-help-just-got-easier/

Foreign words that express a sentiment better than English words

Have you ever discovered a particular word in another language that expresses something more perfectly than any English words ever could?

Check out this entertaining article posted on the Matador Network with words from many different languages.

http://matadornetwork.com/abroad/20-awesomely-untranslatable-words-from-around-the-world/

Obama signs Plain Writing Act of 2010

On 13 October, the US President signed into law the Plain Writing Act of 2010, which requires federal agencies to use plain writing in government documents for the public.

‘This is a triumphant moment for all those who support plain language use,’ said Dr Annetta Cheek, Chair of the Center for Plain Language, long-time advocate for plain writing. ‘The Act defines plain writing as writing that the audience can understand and use because it is clear, concise, well-organized, and follows other best practices of plain writing.’

• You can see:
  the official statement by the White House Press Secretary at http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2010/10/13/statement-press-secretary
  
• the full text of the Act at http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgibin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=111_cong_bills&docid=f:h946enr.txt.pdf.

Clarity Conference 2010 - Portugal

Here is a little blog from Anne-Marie about day two at the Clarity Conference.

Clarity 2010 – Day two

The second day of the Clarity conference continued with themes linking government, web writing, and training developments happening around the world. A recurring theme was how to show the $ benefits of using plain language.

The plenary session got a taste of some of the studies Joe Kimble’s updated book with cite when it comes out next year.

Topping off a very successful conference was the gala dinner held at a palace just out of central Lisbon. We were able to sample typical Portugese food in a stately setting with our new friends.
As night went on, plain language specialists showed what a multi-talented bunch they are with impromptu singing, guitar playing, and even a performance of a Victor Borge classic—‘Inflationary Language’, before we danced the night away!

A natural follow-up for the participants at this conference will be the next PLAIN conference, to be held in Stockholm in June 2011. Organisation is well under way, and the call for papers will be out soon.

Clarity Conference 2010 - Portugal

While Anne-Marie is in Portugal, I'll be posting the blogs she sends.

Clarity 2010 - Day one

The first day of the Clarity 2010 conference has gone very well. We have seen some fascinating presentations on everything from explanations of world water footprints using information design to resources on disaster preparedness.

Other highlights were the latest report from the international plain language working group, updates on what's happening in places as diverse as Sweden, Brazil, and South Africa, and commentary on language used during the global financial crisis.

Our small New Zealand delegation is making the most of the opportunity to talk to people from around the world, sharing our experience and learning from others.

And our hosts from Portugues Claro are doing a fabulous job of providing translations for all sessions, catering with delicious food and coffee, and greeting every request with a smile.

The conference venue is the Universidade Nova de Lisboa with its award winning backdrop of Lisbon and wonderfully mild weather and you have the perfect setting for an international conference!