“The experience is the brand”.  So says UX — or User Experience Design for the uninitiated — specialist, LevelOne HQ-based Haunani Pao.

User experience design is the process of enhancing user satisfaction by improving the usability, accessibility, and pleasure provided in the interaction between the user and the product.

 

A passionate believer in building beautiful, simple experiences that help people get “stuff” done, Haunani stresses the importance of synchronisation between the user’s needs and the product’s business goals.   “UX is more than just a pretty face. It’s both an art and a science” in methods and techniques, she says.  She’s an advocate of UCD — or User Centric Design principles – where users form part of the design team and the focus is on their needs, goals and limitations.

She describes the difference between UX and Usability with supermarket metaphor : A store has a building and carpark where the user’s main task is to shops for groceries, while usability is the efficiencies that help the user complete their task — the store layout, the size of the trolley, the promotions – those things that create an efficient and pleasurable shopping experience.

 

She also welcomes agile methodology — namely Scrum — which she says has hugely refined the process of usability testing, along with the development of Personas to help map out the wants and needs of users, even if it is assumptive.  Something she recommends anyone to create especially if it helps to define user stories for the backlog.

 

As a self-styled “solution designer”, Haunani spends her time sometimes drawing, sometimes writing.  There are various mappings on white boards and sheets of paper; a rainbow collection of post-It notes and Vivid markers, but also the tidiest-looking Trello board I’ve ever seen.

When she’s not designing, writing and building, Haunani is a co-organiser for User Experience Auckland.  She’s part of the Rabid Technology Auckland team, based at LevelOne HQ. Check out Haunani’s presentations on UX.

Good curries, the great location and a boss who’s a “pretty loose unit” are just some of the plus points of interning at telephony company Conversant, according to the four Auckland University software engineering students who help swell staff numbers when they occupy the development driving seats on a weekly basis.

Interns Tate, Max, Jacob and Sam “bring quite a different energy to the office”, says boss Cameron Beattie, who admits that it would be more difficult to make the flexible dynamic work in a larger, more traditional organisation.  He says the group, with its unique mix of attributes and personalities is largely self-managing, but appreciates that the primary focus of the final-year students needs to be their studies.  They work one day a week during term time, take time off for exams and then come in full-time over the holidays.  

Larger employers may well boast well-developed internship programmes, but these are often focused on fixed, short-term projects that nobody else wants to do.  “These guys are doing real stuff”, says Cameron. They’re not working on training exercises or being put through their paces for the sake of it.

The shortage of good staff is an ongoing issue for many software businesses, but Cameron lays the blame for this squarely on the industry, who he says expects fully-formed software developers to magically appear out of educational institutions.  

Conversant’s internship programme represents a modern, seamless way of working which is more in sync with the aspirations and expectations of those starting out in the workforce, Cameron believes.  The interns are left to get on with it day-to-day, while full-time employment with the company is an attractive and realistic opportunity once they’ve done their time.  In return, the company gets commitment, loyalty and tangible, successful results.  A recently-launched, self-service portal for customers was largely developed by the interns, and they’ve also implemented a new CRM system.  
And the secret for success?  “I’m not a programmer, which helps”, says Cameron.  “We complement each other.  They do the code reviews and quality control amongst themselves, while I take care of the business end.  I trust them that they’ll make it work before it comes to me.”

Making science accessible is the catchphrase for four Devonport women who’ve set up The TestPod — the establishment of a link between the education sector and the STEM — and now STEAM (adding “arts” as a vital creative component to the mix) community to provide a space to promote, explore and rejuvenate science.  They have very focused short and long-term goals:  First up, to get students actively engaged and involved in science and then further down the track, to establish a science centre for Auckland, modelled on those in London, Amsterdam, San Francisco and Melbourne.

 

The local women — Rachel Rohloff, Kath McGhie, Bettina Sinclair and Sonia Dupuch — all come from science and business backgrounds, and their enthusiasm and passion for the project is infectious.  Everything is hands-on, interactive and full of energy.  “It’s all about sparking innovation early”, says Kath, who spent six years at London’s Science Museum in a hands-on role as visitor experience manager.  “A lot of people don’t realise what science is, so we’re aiming to link education and innovation and industry to make science more accessible.”

 

And their vision is already very strongly rooted within tertiary and primary groups in Auckland.  Currently, around 60 AUT Spatial Design students are working on designs and models for ‘Seed Pods’ which will be used as prototypes for the science centre, and will go on display to the public later in the year.  The TestPod has organised a very successful ‘trade fair’ style workshop, bringing students and suppliers together to further cement the collaboration.  And the AUT students have spread the “SEEDS” to the Rongomai Primary STEM class in Otara where Year 5 and 6 students critiqued the designs and even came up with some of their own. Watch the video here

It’s been a busy week so far, what with TechWeekAKL in full swing across the water at GridAKL and the Tripartite Economic Summit drawing to a close after a “hugely successful” (in Len Brown’s words) two days of intense talks and networking at the Viaduct.   

 

The People in Tech talk at TechWeek caught our eye.  Hosted by veteran publisher Vincent Heeringa (of Idealog mag fame, among other things), the panel boasted a stellar line-up, including Lillian Grace, founder of “data democratiser” Figure.NZ;  Shaun O’Donnell, rocket scientist from the Rocket Lab; Robert Amor, computer science guru from the University of Auckland; Che Tamahori, digital design guru and co-founder of Shift (now DAN); and Ruth McDavitt, champion of the Summer of Tech initiative and proponent of diversity in tech.  
The framework of the discussion was around the skill shortages and talent pipeline within the Auckland tech industry, and honed in on how we can equip the next generation people of tech for the future we need to build.  We heard that passion and tech is a powerful joint force — you can combine pretty much anything you like doing with tech — but that tech is a team sport.  Coders need to communicate with more than just their keyboards.  We heard about how remote friendly vs remote first works for some, but not others, and how Post-it notes are the new currency of paper-based offices.  And curiosity is king!  
Find out more about what’s going on the rest of the week here

Auckland has just played host to the annual Tripartite Economic Summit, with delegations from sister cities Los Angeles and Guangzhou converging on the Viaduct for the two-day talk fest titled “Making Connections”.  Attracting a sea of local and international entrepreneurs, the event aims to establish business and trade links, investment and jobs for the three cities.  

 

Our very own Conversant founder and MD Cameron Beattie was there.  

 

In the first of our Devonport Download series, he gives us his unabridged views on how he spent his time…..

DD: Why did you go along?

CB: To get an understanding of the opportunities in Guangzhou in particular and the relationships that Auckland Council has built

 

DD: Post-mortem Top Picks?

CB: Dr Erez Morag: A really engaging speaker who helped transform Nike Football from a $30million to a $2billion business by applying great design principles and cross pollination of ideas. He finished off with a live demonstration of the power of cognitive training.

NZ Consul General, Guangzhou, Rebecca Needham who spoke eloquently about the opportunities in Guangzhou which has historically been one of the most open areas in China, with an international port open continually for 1000 years.

Prof Yuan Xue-Feng , (CH), Guangzhou National Supercomputer Centre. They built the world’s fastest computer in 18 months. Cost $400m of which $200m paid for by Guangzhou City.

Gabriel Leydon (US) Machine Zone. Every single bus on the AT network is now tracked and can be viewed in real-time including when it goes off-route. Soon every Auckland citizen will be able to see where every bus, train and ferry is in real time. Who knew?

 

DD: Are there other cities you’d like to see included in future events?

CB: I think it’s important to focus on the current three-way initiative so it would be counter-productive to add too many.  Possibly a city in South America would be good.

 

DD: Worth your time out of the office?

CB: Definitely.  It’s important to get your head out of the detail of running a business and look outside the window every so often. The tripartite reinforced again the massive opportunities internationally that are available for NZ businesses. I’m looking forward to further building on the relationships through ATEED and into Guangzhou.

Rabid Technologies is a NZ-owned business technology company that works with a broad client base from start-ups to major enterprises to design and build a wide range of innovative technologies, from apps to websites and from software to hardware. With around 25 employees in NZ, they specialise in projects that require complex interactions, social behaviour, and exploring new technologies and business models, especially where long term strategic planning about the business purpose of technology is required.

James Harton, who has spent more than 20 years making the internet and doing cool things with code, established Rabid’s satellite office here at Level One earlier this year.  He’s an active member of the New Zealand Ruby community and is currently serving his second term on the committee of Ruby New Zealand. A busy business person and doting dad, he is always on the go; whether as organiser of the 2015 Rails Camp in Whangaparaoa or speaking at events like WDCNZ in Wellington.

With a degree in Comp Sci and over a decade of win on her Silicon valley CV, Haunani Pao came to NZ to join Rabid and lead an even more awesome life! A passionate believer in building beautiful, simple experiences that help people get “stuff” done, she is all about the user experience being at one with the business question. When she’s not using her UX superpowers for good, Haunani is a cat mom, co-organiser for User Experience Auckland, is an avid traveler, and takes great joy in experiencing films, art, and occasionally hoarding top-quality art supplies.

Passionate about innovation and socially beneficial uses of technology, Robert Carter brings to Rabid over a decade of partnering with scientists and researchers. Rob relishes the nuances of bringing leading edge research together with reliable, flexible technologies. While deft at working with scientists, he also has a Masters of Fine Arts, enjoys cycling and loves helping teach kids how to fix bikes. He is board member of the Aotearoa Digital Arts Trust.

We look forward to keeping you informed with what is going on at Level One and in the technology community and innovation space in Devonport. You can also follow us on twitter @LevelOneHQ.