Introduction

The primary notion of usability is that an object designed with a generalized users' psychology and physiology in mind is, for example:

More efficient to usetakes less time to accomplish a particular task Easier to learnoperation can be learned by observing the object More satisfying to use

Complex computer systems find their way into everyday life, and at the same time the market is saturated with competing brands. This has made usability more popular and widely recognized in recent years, as companies see the benefits of researching and developing their products with user-oriented methods instead of technology-oriented methods. By understanding and researching the interaction between product and user, the usability expert can also provide insight that is unattainable by traditional companyoriented market research. For example, after observing and interviewing users, the usability expert may identify needed functionality or design flaws that were not anticipated. A method called contextual inquiry does this in the naturally occurring context of the users own environment. In the user-centered design paradigm, the product is designed with its intended users in mind at all times. In the user-driven or participatory design paradigm, some of the users become actual or de facto members of the design team.[2] The term user friendly is often used as a synonym for usable, though it may also refer to accessibility. Usability describes the quality of user experience across websites, software, products, and environments. There is no consensus about the relation of the terms ergonomics (or human factors) and usability. Some think of usability as the software specialization of the larger topic of ergonomics. Others view these topics as tangential, with ergonomics focusing on physiological matters (e.g., turning a door handle) and usability focusing on psychological matters (e.g., recognizing that a door can be opened by turning its handle). Usability is also important in website development (web usability). According to Jakob Nielsen, "Studies of user behavior on the Web find a low tolerance for difficult designs or slow sites. People don't want to wait. And they don't want to learn how to use a home page. There's no such thing as a training class or a manual for a Web site. People have to be able to grasp the functioning of the site immediately after scanning the home pagefor a few seconds at most."[3] Otherwise, most casual users simply leave the site and browse or shop elsewhere. [edit]Definition ISO defines usability as "The extent to which a product can be used by specified users to achieve specified goals with effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction in a specified context of use." The word "usability" also refers to methods for improving ease-of-use during the design process. Usability consultant Jakob Nielsen and computer science professor Ben Shneiderman have written (separately) about a framework of system acceptability, where usability is a part of "usefulness" and is composed of:[4]

Learnability: How easy is it for users to accomplish basic tasks the first time they encounter the design? Efficiency: Once users have learned the design, how quickly can they perform tasks? Memorability: When users return to the design after a period of not using it, how easily can they re establish proficiency? Errors: How many errors do users make, how severe are these errors, and how easily can they recover from the errors? Satisfaction: How pleasant is it to use the design?

Usability is often associated with the functionalities of the product (cf. ISO definition, below), in addition to being solely a characteristic of the user interface (cf. framework of system acceptability, also below, which separates usefulness into utility and usability). For example, in the context of mainstream consumer products, an automobile lacking a reverse gear could be considered unusable according to the former view, andlacking in utility according to the latter view. When evaluating user interfaces for usability, the definition can be as simple as "the perception of a target user of the effectiveness (fit for purpose) and efficiency (work or time required to use) of the Interface". Each component may be measured subjectively against criteria, e.g., Principles of User Interface Design, to provide a metric, often expressed as a percentage. It is important to distinguish between usability testing and usability engineering. Usability testing is the measurement of ease of use of a product or piece of software. In contrast, usability engineering (UE) is the research and design process that ensures a product with good usability. Usability is a non-functional requirement. As with other non-functional requirements, usability cannot be directly measured but must be quantified by means of indirect measures or attributes such as, for example, the number of reported problems with ease-of-use of a system. [edit]Intuitive

interfaces

The term intuitive is often listed as a desirable trait in usable interfaces, often used as a synonym for learnable. Some experts such as Jef Raskin have discouraged using this term in user interface design, claiming that easy to use interfaces are often easy because of the user's exposure to previous similar systems, thus the term 'familiar' should be preferred.[5] As an example: Two vertical lines "||" on media player buttons do not intuitively mean "pause"they do so by convention. Aiming for "intuitive" interfaces (based on reusing existing skills with interaction systems) could lead designers to discard a better design solution only because it would require a novel approach. This position is sometimes illustrated with the remark that "The only intuitive interface is the nipple; everything else is learned."[6] Bruce Tognazzini even denies the existence of "intuitive" interfaces, since such interfaces must be able to intuit, i.e., "perceive the patterns of the user's behavior and draw inferences."[7] Instead, he advocates the term "intuitable," i.e., "that users could intuit the workings of an application by seeing it and using it." He continues, however, "But even that is a less than useful goal since only 25 percent of the population depends on intuition to perceive anything."

Activities
To maintain its status as a charitable foundation, it must donate at least 5% of its assets each year. [17] Thus the donations from the foundation each year would amount to over US$1.5 billion at a minimum. The Foundation has been organized, as of April 2006, into four divisions, including core operations (public relations, finance and administration, human resources, etc.), under Chief Operating Officer Cheryl Scott, and three grant-making programs:

Global Health Program Global Development Program United States Program

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation will give hundreds of millions of dollars in the next few years to programs aimed at encouraging saving by the world's poor, the Wall Street Journal reported,[18] presumably under a new grant-making program. On December 18, 2008, the Clinton Foundation released a list of all contributors. It included the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which gave between US$1025 million.

Recognition

In 1987, Gates was officially declared a billionaire in the pages of Forbes' 400 Richest People in America issue, just days before his 32nd birthday. As the world's youngest selfmade billionaire, he was worth $1.25 billion, over $900 million more than he'd been worth the year before, when he'd debuted on the list. [86]

Bill Gates and Steve Jobs at the fifthD: All Things Digital conference (D5) in 2007

Time magazine named Gates one of the 100 people who most influenced the 20th century, as well as one of the 100 most influential people of 2004, 2005, and 2006. Timealso collectively named Gates, his wife Melinda and U2's lead singer Bono as the 2005 Persons of the Year for their humanitarian efforts.[87] In 2006, he was voted eighth in the list of "Heroes of our time".[88] Gates was listed in the Sunday Times power list in 1999, named CEO of the year by Chief Executive Officers magazine in 1994, ranked number one in the "Top 50 Cyber Elite" by Time in 1998, ranked number two in the Upside Elite 100 in 1999 and was included in The Guardian as one of the "Top 100 influential people in media" in 2001.[89] In 1994, he was honoured as the twentieth Distinguished Fellow of the British Computer Society. Gates has received honorary doctorates from Nyenrode Business Universiteit, Breukelen, The Netherlands, in 2000;[90] the Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden, in 2002; invited in 2003 to deliver the keynote address [91] of the Golden Jubilee of the Indian Institute of Technology,held in San Jose, California;[92] Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan, in 2005; Tsinghua University, Beijing, China, in April 2007;[93] Harvard University in June 2007;[94] the Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, in January 2008,[95] and Cambridge University in June 2009.[96] He was also made an honorary trustee of Peking University in 2007.[97] Gates was also made an honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE) by Queen Elizabeth IIin 2005,[98] in addition to having entomologists name the Bill Gates flower fly, Eristalis gatesi, in his honor.[99] In November 2006, he and his wife were awarded the Order of the Aztec Eagle for their philanthropic work around the world in the areas of health and education, particularly in Mexico, and specifically in the program "Un pas de lectores".[100] In October 2009, it was announced that Gates will be awarded the 2010 Bower Award for Business Leadership of The Franklin Institute for his achievements in business and for his philanthropic work. In 2010 he was honored with the Silver Buffalo Award by the Boy Scouts of America, its highest award for adults, for his service to youth. [101] In 2011, Bill Gates was ranked as the fifth most powerful person in the world, according to rankings by Forbes magazine