Usability is the key to making future technology useful to the world, yet it is often ignored. This workshop will introduce Usability, and brainstorm ways to incorporate it into UN SDGs. One example is our effort to add World Usability Day (WUD) to the UN calendar. We will explore implications for technology design for the Global South. We will also identify concrete next steps that we all can take to advance Usability worldwide.

Recent advances in mobile technology have had many positive effects on the ways in which people can combine work and home life. For example, having remote access enables people to work from home, or work flexible hours that fit around caring responsibilities. They also support communication with colleagues and family members, and enable digital hobbies. However, the resulting 'always-online' culture can undermine work-home boundaries and cause stress to those who feel under pressure to respond immediately to digital notifications. This workshop will explore how a socio-technical perspective, which views boundaries as being constituted by everyday socio-technical practices, can inform the design of technologies that help maintain boundaries between work and home life.

In the mid 1980s, a cluster of HF professionals described a new paradigm in which technology would be designed for a better fit not just with individual users but also with organizational systems and dynamics. The term 'Macroergonomics' took hold to describe this broadening of perspective. This concept was a manifestation of the holistic design philosophy and values of the user-centred design (UCD) paradigm, but tended to place more emphasis on how technology fit into organizational systems than on either design or on individual use of technology. While the benefits in the quality of work life that were expected to result from paying more attention to how organizations managed technology and technological change were many, the track record has been disappointing. The promotion of a focus on the organizational context of technology did not lead directly to practical application or make companies more humane for either their workers or for external customers. Today, however, with the maturation and broadening application of user-centred design approaches, the time is ripe to apply them to the design of information systems within companies as vigorously as they are being applied to products and systems intended for consumers.

At a time when more and different people are using more and different computer systems, there is growing awareness that if technology is to give companies the “competitive edge” they are seeking, it must be used to support business goals. This means that systems must work within the existing organization to improve and extend its functioning. This also means that the design of these systems must enhance the organization, not disrupt it. Yet technology is, by its very nature, a stimulus for change. The question then becomes: How can this intrinsically de-stabilizing technology be designed and implemented in a way which supports the organization, without destroying it? It is the purpose of this panel to explore this basic question.