Re: [HIG] My introduction

[Calum Benson <calum benson sun com>]

Adam Elman wrote:

> Anyway, that's my background.  Feel free not to be quite so verbose
> in your own introduction. :)

Well, I'll try, but I'm not making any promises...

I've been involved in HCI work for about eight years, after graduating
from the University of Strathclyde (www.strath.ac.uk) with a BSc Hons.
in Computer Science.

My first job was in Cambridge with Logica UK (www.logica.com), "the UK's
largest independent software consultancy".  Whilst there, amidst
dabbling with Apple Newtons and things, I spent a couple of years
working on-site in London for the now-defunct Reuters Usability Group
(http://www.gui-designers.co.uk/resources/chi_paper.htm), where I mostly
worked on UI guidelines for Reuters financial products.  

After that, whilst still in Logica's clutches, I spent another couple of
years on-site at the Air Traffic Management Development Centre in
Bournemouth on the south coast of England, where I worked mostly on
these three ATC research projects:
http://www.atmdc.nats.co.uk/b/prj/0028/0028%2D1.htm
http://www.atmdc.nats.co.uk/c/prj/0029/0029%2D1.htm
http://www.atmdc.nats.co.uk/b/prj/0002/0002%2D1.htm

Eventually I got bored with that (the place rather than the work) and
joined Division, a small company based in Bristol who wrote virtual
reality visualisation and prototyping software
((http://www.ptc.com/products/division/whatsnew.htm) used by the likes
of Ford, Toyota and Harley-Davidson.  They were then bought up by
dismally boring CAD-giants PTC, and most of us ex-Division folks lost
our jobs.

At which point, one year ago today, I joined Sun's desktop group here in
sunny Ireland, where I've been working mostly on GNOME usability and
accessibility stuff, and the occasional Mozilla-based project.  

What can I tell you about writing UI guidelines?  Only that it's a
complete pain in the ass, and you'll rue the day you ever signed up to
do it  :)

Cheeri,
Calum.

-- 
CALUM BENSON, Usability Engineer       Sun Microsystems Ireland
mailto:calum benson ireland sun com    Desktop Engineering Group
http://www.sun.ie                      +353 1 819 9771

Any opinions are personal and not necessarily those of Sun Microsystems