A very interesting technology related event organised by the University of Athens and the Media Lab headed by professor Michalis Meimaris. A lot of website usability insight and techniques in the labs.

Sadly I had to miss the first seminar day (went at the opening ceremony), but all days that I was there had always something very interesting and pioneering to showcase from a web developer's point of view.

Professor Avouris along with Dr Tselios and Mr Christos Katsanos gave insight on the latest techniques for evaluating the navigation aspect of major retailer websites with the question prevailing on whether the user can find the product/info he requires with the least possible number of clicks. A nice experiment with using the Card Sorting method.

Doctor Nathanail showcased some research into current eye-tracking technologies for evaluating the usability of websites, particularly the Athens International Airport website which required for some of the users that took part in the experiment up to 8 minutes to find how much the car part would cost for 2 days. Amazing stuff!

Professor Kollias with his team of phd students presented a behavioural analysys technology by analysing the user's face morphs as they were browsing the site in order to determine which aspects of a site need enhancing.

The evening ended with some case studies, particularly a use case on the usability and interoperability of the new Office 2007 platform from Microsoft, a use case on the new website of the Athenian and Makedonian news agency on both new features and usability.

Finally a very interesting urban project at the Trikala city of Northern Greece, where there is free Wi-Fi access for all citizens and a number of very interesting applications providing numerous benefits to the city of Trikala.

Machines taking heart beat rate graphs and connecting to the system to get them forwarded to the patient's doctor straight from the patient's home, a system which provided a warning system which residents can notify the council about problems on a particular street (such as a burned lamp, etc.) enabling the council to act and correct the problem within 24 hours. Loads more applications on one of the pioneering urban technology projects.

More info on the Usability Days 08 website.