About

World of Usability is a site about, well, usability.

What’s usability? It’s a measure of quality that describes the user’s experience when actually attempting to use the thing (whatever it be).

What will you find here? I write about user interfaces (UI), interesting stuff I find on the web that relates to UI, usability testing, or user experience. I write about prototyping tools and other tools sometimes, because tools make our lives easier and that’s what usability is all about. I write about return on investment because whatever you do in the business world has to make business sense. I write about conversion because in the e-commerce arena, that’s one of the most concrete measures of usability (and the one people take note of). Occasionally, I write about environmental issues because I’m worried about the health and sustainability of our earth, but I do try to stay on-topic.

Who am I? My name is Ann Krause. I’m a certified usability analyst, user advocate, technologist, systems engineer, and business analyst. All my life I’ve noticed that I look at things in a different way than most: I put myself in the user’s shoes. Things look differently from that angle–especially if the user is not like you (and the user is rarely very much like you). Currently, I work for Maas Global Solutions and spend most of my time on user experience design, and little bits of time on competitive and market analysis, usability testing, requirements definition, user documentation and help files, project management, and other various and sundry things. (No, I’m not responsible for the web site!) If you’re curious to learn more about me, here’s my work history on LinkedIn. I’m also on Twitter.

I’m married to Dawnne Gee (Mr. ShadowMoon Productions, aka Synthaetica).