November 7th, 2009, ST. LOUIS, MO – The science of Sustainable Design and its impact on our world is the focus of the local celebration of the fifth annual World Usability Day.

Created by the Usability Professionals’ Association, World Usability Day is an initiative that was founded to ensure the services and products important to life are easy to use and result in a positive experience. Last year, 40,000 people worldwide attended 200 events in 43 countries. And this year, like twice before, the Saint Louis Science Center will be the venue for what promises to be a unique learning experience right here in St. Louis.

This year's World Usability Day event in St Louis is free to the public, and is presented by GatewayCHI, an organization of St Louis area User Experience professionals, with the generous sponsorship of the Missouri University of Science and Technology, Express Scripts, and Perficient. On Saturday, November 7, volunteers will guide Science Center guests of all ages through various hands-on activities demonstrating the issues and science of Sustainable Design. Sustainable Design is a “Cradle to Cradle” approach to design that starts with the premise of using materials that can fully enter a new life cycle by either going back to nature or going back into the design process as a new product.

World Usability Day co-chair Nathan Shedroff explains: “Design makes a tremendous impact on the produced world in terms of usability, resources, understanding, sustainability, and priorities. Designers have an unprecedented opportunity to use their skills to make meaningful, sustainable change in the world.”

Demonstrations of sustainable design will include:

·  Recycle Rally. Visitors will race to see how quickly they can identify and sort recyclables.

·  Sustainable Pups. Mid-America Rottweiler Rescue organization will showcase well-designed products for dogs, test your knowledge and award you with prizes in a game of Build the Sustainable Pup, and, weather permitting, offer you a meet-and-greet opportunity with a warm, loving and friendly rescued Rotty.

·  Thermostat Challenge. Valuable energy and millions of dollars are wasted each year on unnecessary heating and cooling. Is your thermostat to blame?  Help us evaluate different models, and try to beat the buzzer when setting up a programmable thermostat.

The event will be held on Saturday November 7^th during the Science Center’s hours of 9:30am – 4:30pm. All ages are welcome. There is no charge for this special exhibit. For more information, see http://worldusabilityday.org.