Austin Usability research is featured by the IBM Ease of Use Web site. Jamie Rhodes shows how in the age of e-commerce, good interface design moves beyond the usable (can the user buy online?) to the influential (will the user buy online?).

AIR-Austin 2002 Chair Jamie Rhodes (CEO of Austin Usability), passed the
baton to Grande Communications CEO Bill Morrow, newly announced Chair of AIR-Austin 2003, and issued an open invitation for technology companies to participate and support the Accessibility Internet Rally for Austin (AIR-Austin). Austin City Mayor Will Wynn and other community leaders participated in the news conference at the Austin Technology Incubator building. Read the text of Rhodes' speech.

“Usability is critical throughout the design cycle,” says Jamie Rhodes, in the article “Austin Firm’s Define What is Friendly,” from the July 11, 2003 issue of the Austin Business Journal. “You may spend more in usability engineering, but you’ll spend a lot less overall.”

The daily business e-newsletter Austin XL published news on June 24, 2003, about the addition of Diebold and McCann-Erickson as new customers for Austin Usability, Inc. Austin XL said, “Diebold, Incorporated is a provider of integrated self-service delivery systems and services. McCann-Erickson Advertising is an advertising agency. Austin Usability helps companies create the best user interfaces.”

Jamie Rhodes spoke on Autonomics and Future Trends at the IBM Ease of Use Conference on May 20, 2003.

Art Markman demonstrated how Cognitive Science plays an important role in marketing and product development. Read the article in the December 2002 issue of Wired Magazine.

In May 2003, the Austin Business Journal and AustinXL reported that Jamie Rhodes, CEO, had appointed Steve Guengerich the company’s new President.

Several Austin Usability consultants and fellows were presenters for the SXSW Interactive Conference, in March 2003, including John Slatin and Steve Guengerich on the panel Can Stevie Wonder Read Your Website?

Senior Research fellow John Slatin and co-author Sharron Rush announced their book, Maximum Accessibility, published by John Wiley & Sons, September 20, 2002, to a 5-star review.

Austin Usability is highlighted in "It Still Pays to Know," and recognized as one of the top usability firms in the country in the September 25, 2002 PCMagazine.

Jamie Rhodes served as the Chair of AIR Austin Accessible 2002, a project that creates fully accessible websites for local nonprofit organizations that serve the communities across the country.

Steve Guengerich served as an organizer and speaker for the President’s Committee of Advisors on Science and Technology Distributed Energy Workshop, August 15, 2002, sponsored by the White House’s Office of Science and Technology Policy and UT-Austin’s Office of the President.

As a component of the 2002 IWIPS conference, Austin Usability hosted the following tutorials:

Designing and developing usable interfaces

Software and Web accessibility