Q. Do I have to be a professional designer to participate?

A. Not at all. Anyone can participate - whether you’re a design guru or just a person who wants to make the world a better place. In fact, you don’t even have to be a person…you could be a business, a university or a government agency. As long as you can come up with a great idea to make something - anything - more usable, we want you to join in!

Q. Does everything have to be done ON 1 August? 

A. No. While it would be nice to do a go-to-woah redesign on 1 August, we realise that more amibitious designs take time, collaboration and iteration. But, if you could have your Usability Challenge design report ready to post by 1 August, that’d be awesome!

Q. I want to run a Usability Challenge event. Can I?

A. Absolutely. We don’t control any events - we just came up with the concept. That said, we are happy to help you advertise a Usability Challenge event you have decided to run through our website. Also, if you do have an event planned, please let us know - and send us a link to any pictures you take too!

Q. Ok, I’ve done my Usability Challenge. How do I post a report?

A. We suggest you post it somewhere like on your blog, or maybe on a document sharing site (eg Slideshare.com, Scribd.com etc). Just be sure to let us and others know by linking to it from our forum.

Q. Ok, I’ve posted my report. When do you announce the winner?

A. Um, we’ve got Good News and Bad News. The Bad News is that the Usability Challenge is not a competition. The Good News is that everybody wins when you take the challenge - after all, a more usable world is a better world, right?

Q. Do you make any profit from this?

A. Nope. In fact, it costs us a moderate amount to put this on - all of which is self-funded.

Q. Ok, so why are you doing this?

A. We’re doing this for a few reasons. Firstly, it’s a great way of raising awareness about the importance of design. Secondly, there’s so much unusability out there - and we *hate* things that aren’t usable - that the job of making the world more usable/safer/less frustrating is a biggie, and one that needs many hands. Hence, the Usability Challenge.

Q. I’m the CEO of a big corporation. I’d love to donate lots of money to this cause. Can I?

A. Sadly, no - we don’t accept donations, as this truly is non-profit. However, here are two things you can do…Firstly, we are encouraging people to donate to the amazing charity Architecture for Humanity (http://www.architectureforhumanity.org/donate). To quote Wikipedia:

Architecture for Humanity is a charitable organization that seeks  architectural solutions to humanitarian crises and brings professional design services to communities in need. They believe that where resources and expertise are scarce, innovative, sustainable and collaborative design can make a difference.

Secondly, you can use your resources to spread the word about Usability Challenge, and help make the world more usable/safer/less annoying.