Career update

I've left Intergen and began contracting with Ferrit.

Intergen are a great company and I learned alot from my time there. I'm proud of the work I did while in the Auckland office and rate them as the best medium to large Microsoft development shop in NZ.

However, Life goes on...

By their own admission, the Ferrit website has plenty of room for improvement and I'm looking forward to the challenge over the coming months. They have a vision, a great team and resources which is a good start towards a successful project.

My SMS information service business YouTXT continues of course. Use of the free service continues to build slowly and we have had some success. Check out some case studies of how people are using it on the YouTXT blog. We have also had some serious interest in customised solutions. Hopefully I'll be able to announce something soon...

Web 2.0 Twilight and Challenge

I just got back from Intergen's Twilight seminar on Web 2.0 and I've got to say I was impressed. John Lewis was an excellent presenter and made some interesting points and especially liked his 4 part "web 2.0 challenge" to all the attendees...

1. Users front and centre
2. Re-imagine your UI
3. Free your data
4. Getting better, the more people who use it

John works for Intergen as a whiz-bang producer in our creative team. Check out more of his wize words on his blog umamiblog

Check out the presentation

Or download the presentation as a PDF - You can also find presentation material from other Intergen Twilights here.

Lastly - if you're interested in taking up John's challenge - Intergen is prepared to help you for free. Contact me at work on haydn.thomsen@intergen.co.nz

Usability Twilight - Part Two

The Intergen User Experience & Usability Twilight was great, and the most successful in terms of attendees that Intergen has ever hosted. Approximately 100 attendees came to the Grande Plaza in Auckland and feedback collected on the night was excellent.

Thanks to all the speakers who did a fantastic job...

• Natasha Hall – TradeMe User Experience: Speaking on the importance of creating a good user experience
• Shailesh Manga – Optimal Usability: What is Usability and why should it be employed in projects
• Henry Poppelwell - AMP: How AMP engaged usability in their last project, and perspectives on the benefits of doing so.
• Miriam Walker - Usability Professional Association (UPA): Introduction and summary of what they do.

Intergen have started a blog to continue the discussion - I'll let you know when the presentation materials are available.