Newsletter (May 2006) at upanz

Newsletter (May 2006)

AUTUMN EDITION (SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE) | May 2006

IN THIS NEWSLETTER…

* President Goss
* Upcoming Events
* Usability in the NZ Media
* UPA Salary Survey
* UPA Conference
* World Usability Day 2006
* Become a UPA NZ Member
* How to Join or Leave the Mailing List

UPA NZ PRESIDENT GOSS
KIWI USABILITY PROFESSIONALS RAKING IN THE DOSH?

Based on figures from the latest UPA survey of over 1300 usability professionals worldwide (including 21 responses from NZ), local usability professionals are doing quite well, earning on average of $55,850 USD. Based on the Aug/Sept 2005 exchange rate this equates to about $80,000 NZD. The survey does not show a breakdown of NZ salary ranges - so unless one or two people out there are doing spectacularly well (and have skewed the results), then this indicates that the profession is generally recognised as high-value by employers.

USABILITY BLOGS POPPING UP EVERYWHERE

Usability in New Zealand is increasingly pervasive in the blogsphere - with regular usability-related commentary from usability professionals, developers and interaction designers. Visit ‘Usability in the NZ Media’ section below for some interesting and recent web blog entries.

USABILITY PEOPLE GATHERING FOR WEBSTOCK

Webstock takes place in Wellington in just two weeks and it’ll be a melting-pot for the IT industry - attracting a wide range of industry professionals, including many familiar faces from the UPA NZ cluster meetings. I’ve been in close contact with the organisers, and have secured Kathy Sierra for a special UPA (members-only) event on May 22nd. If Webstock does well this time then it’s likely it’ll become a bi-annual event and the organisers are keen to bring over more usability gurus - exciting news for our industry!

Zef Fugaz
UPA NZ President

EVENTS

CHRISTCHURCH
GUI Blooper Shootout - Wednesday, 7 June in Christchurch.
Everyone’s seen a dodgy interface right? Attendees can bring along screen grabs, photocopies, photos or physical devices (e.g. remotes) and discuss what’s bad, why and what could have been better. Awards given for the worst GUI’s.

More User Experience Events (New Zealand and Australia)

* http://www.webstock.org.nz
* http://www.userfaction.com/events/index.html

USABILITY IN THE KIWI MEDIA & BLOGSPHERE

Speaking the Language of the Machine
[PRODESiGN, April/May 2006]
…Amanda Mander and product development expert Richard Mander take us into the world of interaction design, where people and devices commune…
Article available in print only (April/May 2006 edition, pg 42)

Govt web compliance deadline; for January, read about June
[ComputerWorld, 19 February 2006]
…government website managers will not be unduly pressured to achieve compliance with accessibility and usability standards…
http://tinyurl.com/oktxh

PDF ‘creature’ still haunts government sites
[ComputerWorld, 14 February 2006]
…sites using PDF documents exempt from compliance with accessibility guidelines…
http://tinyurl.com/rkbo8

Creative HQ businesses proven winners
[Scoop.co.nz (press release) - 11 Apr 2006]
…the Emerging Gold section for businesses with 10 employees or fewer contains two of these companies – Optimal Usability and Spikefin. …
http://tinyurl.com/oh7ll

Usability & Taxes
[Flog (blog), Monday, 20 March 2006]
…today’s incarnation of bad usability (and web development, I might add) comes from my attempt to set up an account with the online bank RaboBank. They’ve got a great interest rate of 7.35%, so I was keen to get my pathetically small savings with them…
http://tinyurl.com/lld9q

user testing and agile methods
[Modules and Wholes (blog), 2 May 2006]
…One key question that needs a good discussion is how much user testing is needed in an agile development. How much testing is enough? Is testing always necessary?…
http://tinyurl.com/o9uut

Pulling the Plug on my iPod
[Thinking Aloud (blog), 5 February 2006]
…If I’m walking around with the iPod in my pocket, and quickly need to pause to talk with someone or deal with something in the environment, the simplest and most rapid way to do this is simply to “pull the plug”…
http://tinyurl.com/nsbgc

Environmentally Friendlier Pop-ups
[zefamedia (blog), 13 April 2006]
…Old fossil Web1.0 technologies (such as pop-ups) continue to pollute our browsing environment and are hampering progressive and sustainable navigation…
http://tinyurl.com/s97th

The Vendor’s Role
[The Morning-ish Post (blog), 28 March 2006]
…we, as a software vendor, can NOT provide government agencies with a fully 100% compliant website…
http://tinyurl.com/lbrbk

USABILITY SALARY SURVEY PUBLISHED
The report on the 2005 survey of over 1300 usability professionals includes salary details, educational background, and details on what we do in our work.

The survey attracted 21 responses from New Zealand.

Salary across countries differed widely. Usability professionals in the US earned the highest average salary in 2005 ($86,680). Practitioners in the UK were next-highest ($72,435), followed by Germany ($64,119), Canada ($59,729), New Zealand ($55,850), and France ($40,968). Israel-based usability professionals earned an average of $34,386 (All non-US salaries were converted to US dollars at the prevailing exchange rate published on September 2, 2005.)

http://tinyurl.com/othso (PDF, 212k)

UPA CONFERENCE
UPA 2006: Usability Through Storytelling

Denver/Broomfield, Colorado, USA from June 12-16, 2006As usability professionals, we weave stories that have been harvested from user communities. While using products we help to develop, they tell us stories of frustrations and joyous discoveries. Observing and analyzing users and their tasks creates stories that will bring the user community alive in the minds of others. Even older stories, told in the ancient tradition of Native American tribes, can teach us how to communicate with and educate our peers.

http://tinyurl.com/o7dj5

WORLD USABILITY DAY 2006
“Why doesn’t this work better? Why can’t they make this easier?”

World Usability Day is for all the people who’ve ever asked questions like these. This annual worldwide series of events, organized by the Usability Professionals’ Association, promotes awareness of the benefits of usability engineering and user-centered design, Earth Day style. The next World Usability Day will be held on Tuesday, 14 November 2006

http://www.usabilityprofessionals.org/worldusabilityday

UPANZ COUNCIL (2005-2006 Term)

President: Zef Fugaz (Provoke)

Immediate Past President: Kirsten Thomson (Usability Lab)

Vice President: Trent Mankelow (Optimal Usability)

Secretary: Stefen Cook (CWA)

Treasurer: Mark McLay (BNZ)

The next council elections will be conducted in June/July 2006.

BECOME A UPA NZ MEMBER

UPA NZ Chapter Membership Benefits
* Be part of a community that aims to promote and advance the development of usable products, reaching out to people who act as advocates for usability and the user experience. UPA members come from across the broad family of disciplines that create the user experience.
* Access to NZ UPA Chapter and regional clusters that provide forums, business meetings and round tables, as well as networking opportunities.
* Access to the Chapter’s quarterly e-newsletter with a focus on the New Zealand usability industry.
* Online resources, including a usability consultants directory, membership directory and usability jobs in New Zealand.

Newsletter (May 2006)

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