Human Factors

Hurray, today bepacked.com was made public. The Flex and ColdFusion based application is the ultimate tool for people traveling through Australia. Ventego Creative is part of a large team of professionals (including the “inventors” of bepacked.com – Dirk Eisner and Leopold Humbel) who made this site one of the most essential websites for backpackers and other voyagers.

It’s a community-driven tool, featuring everything you need to plan, perform and evaluate your journey through Australia. Get all the information you need before you start, receive insider tips from fellow travelers, keep in touch with friends and family at home, share your happy moments or simply find someone to sell your equipment to before you return home – here you’ll find everything you need. In the first release the map, find interface, trip planner, contributor services and many more things are fully functional. Although there is currently still a lot of information missing, it’s stable and works very well, and the first load of content providers is getting on board. There will also be a list of new cool functionalities coming during the next few weeks and months (e.g. diary entries via txt, commenting etc.), so keep your eyes open for that. And the best thing is: everything is for free! So get out there, place your favourite destinations on the awesome map of Australia and be part of this from the very beginning!

Today I’ve been to my first meeting of the New Zealand chapter of UPA (Usability Professionals’ Association), which was quite exiting. It was a lunch time meeting and some 30 people were there.

First speaker was Philip Fierlinger from Xero.com, who described the interaction design process used to create Xero, an online accounting software company that listed on the NZX earlier this year. He shared his insights into the different design techniques used to build such a complex online application quickly yet effectively.

Second speaker was Trent Mankelow, who visited the UPA conference in Austin/Texas in early June this year and made us all a bit envious by telling how much fun it was. We also learnt about an obscure kind of sports called Roller Derby, a kind of violent rollerskating rugby without ball (or is there a ball involved?). And yes, he learned some new stuff about usability and met all the cool people, too. I like Trent’s style of presenting, I recently watched one of his presentations online and find him very informative and entertaining at the same time, so I don’t get bored listening to him.

Unfortunately I didn’t talk to many people. Most knew each other and were in the middle of intensive talks that I didn’t want to interrupt. After the session there was not much time left to mingle, as my park-and-display time had run out and I didn’t have any more coins to feed the machine again. But I’ll be back for the next meetings, and hopefulle meet more nice people. It’s really cool to meet the guys in real life you usually know from reading their blogs, following their twitter feeds or watching them in old presentations… ;-)

The German Chapter of the UPA (Usability Professional’s Association) has published the first results of their sector report 2007. They did a survey amongst Usability Professionals to show the development of the sector, examine vita of people working in the field of usability, and review salaries.

The first conclusion (results are for Germany only, but I reckon that a similar survey in other parts of the world would deliver similar findings):
- The majority of Usability Professionals (64%) is male, the average ages lies at 35 years
- Psychology is the subject most Usability Professionals studied at university, and it was widely agreed that it is the most helpful background for this kind of work
- For professional development most Usability Professionals use conferences, workshops, regular meetings with other Usability Professionals and reading specialist literature
- The typical Usability Professional is employed by a company with more than 100 employees; freelancer ofter work by themselves or in small teams with up to five people
- The biggest challenge in founding a company in the fields of Usability is, that potential clients don’t see the relevance for it and therefore are not willing to invest into the sector
- Salaries vary in accordance to experience, area/fields of operation and location of the company.

The complete overview can be found on the website of the UPA German Chapter.