Evangelizing Usability: Training Those Who Create Disaster-Related Web sites.

Back in 2009, a government client asked Eye Street for a series of “lunch and learn” sessions for those who create disaster-related Web sites for survivors, disaster managers and the general public. She proposed that we come up with a number of short usability-oriented topics, and perhaps offer one per month. This smaller idea snowballed into a total of eight topics centered around usability that were soon woven into a two-day usability workshop.

After about a year and a half of offering this course monthly, Eye Street has trained a total of approximately 350 attendees, including both government employees and contractors. The workshop was so successful that we was asked this year to create a “road show” – to take this course on the road and offer it to those who create similar sites all over the United States. By August 2011, we will have offered this course in seven cities around the United States.

The workshop provides an overview of how to create sites that are both usable & accessible to disaster managers, disaster survivors and the general public. It includes discussion of how sites can be designed to cater to user needs, how content can be developed to be more easily comprehensible, and how an understanding of user research can help in web site development. Also included is an introduction to web accessibility for disabled web users, a discussion on search engine optimization and how that leads to better web site usability, and a review of information architecture, specifically how web sites should be structured for optimal findability.

Teaching this course has been an incredible experience for Eye Street, as we feel we have had an impact on getting web teams to develop more usable sites. We’ve had the opportunity to open attendees’ eyes to issues that they may never have considered, and we have received emails and phone calls that expressed a lot

Ultimately, these courses will help fix usability problems before they happen by giving teams the knowledge they need to create Web sites that are both usable and accessible. It is an incredible opportunity to help those who have experienced a disaster, those who manage disasters and those who prepare for disasters. We are able to provide knowledge that makes a difference.