Multiple-User Simultaneous Testing (MUST)

Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox for October 15 is now online at:
  > http://www.useit.com/alertbox/multiple-user-testing.html
		
Summary:
Testing 5-10 users at once lets you conduct large-scale usability testing
and still meet your deadlines.
			
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User Experience 2007 conference

  > Barcelona, November 4-9
  > Las Vegas, December 2-7

31 full-day tutorials
2 keynotes: e-commerce, the state of usability

Full program:
  > http://www.nngroup.com/events

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REGULATORS DEGRADING USABILITY OF FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

Sadly, government lawyers seem to be harming the very people they are
hired to help by making companies' financial statements harder to
understand.

Regulators are so far removed from reality that they don't realize that
the question is not what information is theoretically represented in a
document. What matters is what information an average individual investor
can understand when using the document.

The regulations for financial statements and other documents must be
changed to consider usability for the average reader. By insisting on
complicated documents, regulators are harming citizens instead of helping
them, because people won't understand what they're supposedly being told.

This is a lesson we know well from Web usability: when you simplify the
content on a website, you usually double the knowledge your customers
retain after their visit to your site.

New York Times report on clarity of financial statements
(registration required):
  > http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/13/business/13proxy.html

Regulatory usability:
  > http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20000903.html