
What is World Usability Day?
World Usabiliy Day or Make Things Easier Day is an initiative celebrated worldwide annualy on the second Thursday of November, since 2005, this year on November 9. It aims to hilight the contribution of people who research, design, and evaluate the user experience of products and services.
This year’s theme is ” Inclusion through User Experience”.
“Inclusion is a complex condition, which in itself is not easy to harmonize, as individual and social diversity, for example in access to educational, health, work, and technology opportunities.Technology, nowadays is more, more powerful, and economically accessible, it is an undeniable factor of inclusion and growth, a carrier infrastructure of opportunities for participation and competence development in many areas. But if participation is a cultural property, what are the characteristics of the technologies that can best help it?” (Campus Luigi Einaudi – Italy)
In celebration of World Usability Day, many organizations hold events to mark the day. COLABORAR takes this opportunityto thank all the participants in usability studies of Fraunhofer Portugal AICOS, because users are essential to these studies. Additionaly, we would like to introduce you to the Fraunhofer Portugal AICOS’ Human-Computer Interaction research team members.

Ana Vasconcelos
Ana Vasconcelos is an Engineer in Informatics. She has worked in many projects related to User Interface Usability in the area of technology for Ambient Assisted Living for older adults. Her main focus has been mobile health and wellness solutions, adding contributions to successful mobile technology interventions.
Catarina Correia
Catarina Correia is a Communication Designer. She usually works in the visual identity, design of interaction or in projects’ communication. In the most cases, she works with mobile applications and wearable devices.
Eduardo Pereira
Eduardo Pereira is a User Experience and Interaction Designer. He works in projects related to serious games for therapeutic rehabilitation or technologies for Developing Countries.
Elsa Oliveira
Elsa Oliveira is a Communication Designer. She is involved in the creation of user interfaces in projects related to serious games for fall prevention and physical exercise for the elderly. She usually works in many projects’ aspects, since the initial concept to the final communication.
Francisco Nunes
Francisco Nunes is a an Engineer in Informatics. He is the responsible for the Human-Computer Interaction team and thus he supports researchers in many projects. His main research interest is especially in the field of Self-care technologies and Ambient Assisted Living for older adults. He is also a regular international conference speaker.
Jorge Ribeiro
Jorge Ribeiro is an Interaction Designer. He has been involved in studies about user research and experience design targeted older adults, being therefore in constant contact with older adults from the user network COLABORAR.
Paulo Silva
Paulo Silva is a Mechanical Engineer. He works in the development of a prototype for the automatic detection of Malaria, ensuring its mechanical viability, and focus on usability studies with the aim of ensuring a universal use of the prototype. In addition to the product development focus, his interest areas are: innovation, CAD modelation and 3D printing.
Ricardo Peixoto
Ricardo Peixoto is a Mechanical Engineer and an Industrial Designer. He works with 3D object prototyping for various contexts and has a special interest in products designed to solve usability problems in the fine motor skills and manual dexterity of the elderly.
Sílvia Rêgo
Sílvia Rêgo is a Nurse and she is the main responsible of the user network COLABORAR. She coordinates tests with users, organizing test sessions, recruiting participants and sheduling tests. She is also involved in issues related to organizational procedures of usabiliy and validation tests, ethics in research and submisson of studies to ethics committees.