World Usability Day Philadelphia was a great success — over 100 people battled through a SEPTA strike and a several block power outage (including trains into 30th st. station and traffic lights in the area) to attend a great keynote speech by Tom Tullis of Fidelity and to participate in site reviews, usability tests and more.

Interestingly, Tullis’ speech was titled “Usability and the Evolution of Technology, or You Shouldn’t Have to Read a User Manual to Ride an Elevator!” and he spent a good few minutes at the beginning of the presentation discussing these so-called “destination elevators” which I described in a recent post about the Marriott Marquis in NYC.

Personally, I worked at the “5-minute website reviews” table, taking a few minutes to review and suggest site improvements for anyone who stopped by. The table was consistently busy, as I was talking to someone pretty much the entire time.

Overall, this was a fun event, and a good chance to meet people who work in the UX industry. I look forward to next year!