---
title: "STC Conference: Whitney Quesenbery on the Five E’s of Usability"
date: 2007-05-19
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# STC Conference: Whitney Quesenbery on the Five E’s of Usability

{: .note} Unfortunately, I lost this audio file during a site migration.

Whitney is one of the authors of Content and Complexity: Information Design in Technical Communication. Whitney explains the five E's — a simple way to talk about product usability. The five E's are efficient, effective, engaging, error-tolerant, and easy to learn. She elaborates on what it means for a product to be engaging/satisfying. Whitney also explains the importance of personas, which she has written about in the Personas Lifecycle by Tamara Adline and John Pruit. Whitney says stories are essential to personas. Visit Whitney's site here for more info on herself and the 5 E's: [http://wqusability.com/](http://wqusability.com/)