GDC Presentation Abstract

Image copyright © 2007 David Coates & Matthew Warburton

[UPDATE] Attendees are encouraged to download the presentation below for future reference. The presentation is password protected, so just drop me a line for access.

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This presentation by Issa Breibish + Grant Hutchinson is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Title

Usability: Why is it so hard to make things easy?

Introduction

As designers, we hear the term ‘usability’ uttered frequently when discussing the web. But usability applies to everything we interact with … software programs, door handles, iPods, kitchen utensils, automatic hand dryers in airport washrooms, and pretty much anything else that requires a push, pull, squeeze, shake, twist or click. Believe it or not, many the things we learn while interacting with our physical environment can be applied to web design … providing you know what questions to ask and where the answers are lurking.

Issa Breibish and Grant Hutchinson will discuss why it’s so hard to make things easier to use. They’ll share best practices and qualitative examples compiled from their combined experience in web design and user interface development. All delivered with a mighty smack of the reality hammer.

Biography: Issa Breibish

Issa Breibish is a founding partner and the ‘guiding hand’ behind feature development at Veer. For the past 14 years, he’s been passionately pre-occupied with understanding how people interact with technology at a variety of companies including Adobe Systems, Verity, and Image Club Graphics. Issa spends much of his time focused on simplifying the user experience – and more importantly – getting ideas off of paper and into the real world.

Biography: Grant Hutchinson

On the way to his current web development gig at Veer, Grant Hutchinson designed typefaces, finessed the user experience, defined the product mix, and helped keep the storefronts tidy at visual content purveyors such as Image Club Graphics, Adobe, EyeWire, and Getty Images. Grant resides in Calgary, Alberta – along with a basement full of vintage computers and typographic paraphernalia that his wonderful wife wishes he would store elsewhere.

About Veer

Veer sources and delivers visual elements with imagination and style to help creatives diverge from the norm and generate fresh solutions. Their discerning, design-driven photography, illustration, type, motion, and merchandise products are used throughout the advertising, print, web design, corporate communications and publishing industries. Veer has offices in Calgary, New York and Berlin.