Aapo Puskala
Aapo Puskala
Mikonkatu 25 B 28
00100 Helsinki
Finland
Mobile +358 40 722 0706

aapo@puskala.fi

www.lintukoto.net
www.askoracle.net

Aapo Puskala résumé

June 15th, 2010

Profile

I am a cognitive psychologist with a strong UI & IT background. In psychology I’ve concentrated on human information processing, information seeking, perception, usability and user interfaces. My peers know my optimism and my ability to view common things from new angles. I do not give up on a subject until it gets done or until further research reveals fundamental flaws in it. I’m creative in developing new approaches but analytical in evaluating them. My verbal talent comes to use when ideas and suggestions need to be conveyed to various audiences in an understandable way.

My primary professional goal is to utilize my psychology and usability skills to develop, test & evaluate easy, efficient & fun user interfaces suited for their purpose, fulfilling even those user needs which may be unrecognized by the users themselves. In short, my aim is to provide positive user experiences.

Skills

Usability & UI development
  • Expert evaluation (heuristic evaluation)
  • Usability testing
  • UI design
  • Card sorting
  • Rapid prototyping (paper and early protos)
  • Quantitative (statistical) analysis (logs, usage patterns)
  • Qualitative analysis (interviews, contextual inquiry, observation)
Tools
Languages
  • Finnish (native)
  • English (fluent)
  • Swedish (good)

Education

1994 - 2002 University of Helsinki, Finland, Department of Psychology
1997 - 2001 Helsinki University of Technology, Finland, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Usability Laboratory
  • Usability & user interfaces (minor subject)
1988 - 1989 Exchange student, Whitehall High School, Michigan, USA

Employment

2008 - current CEO, User Point Oy. User Point is a one-man usability consulting company.
  • Consulting for clients’ UI needs
  • User interface & user research training
  • Web-based service implementation
2008 - 2010 User Interface Designer, Mirasys Oy. Mirasys is a leading European provider of open platform IP and analog video surveillance solutions.
  • Research users’ and customers’ needs
  • Design, create and test application and WWW user interfaces
2003 - 2008 Usability Specialist, KONE Corporation, R&D, Finland. KONE is the 4th largest elevator and escalator company in the world with about 30,000 employees
  • Research users’ and customers’ needs
  • Design, create and test user interfaces
  • Granted patents (with colleagues)
    • Communication system (WO2007093665)
    • Tracking System (WO2008043878)
    • Hissijärjestelmä (Elevator system) (FI118533B)
    • Yhteysjärjestelmä (Method and Call System) (FI7844U, US2008217112)
    • Opastusjärjestelmä (Guidance System) (FI119134B)
    • Sign System (FI118963B)
    • Läpinäkyvä ovi ja menetelmä läpinäkyvän oven törmäyksen estoon (See-through door and a method for preventing collision) (FI118963B)
2002 - 2003 Senior Usability Specialist, Oujee Research Ltd, Finland. Oujee Resarch Ltd (later renamed Idean Research Ltd) is a usability consulting and testing company of about 40 employees.
  • Research users’ needs and expectations of new product concepts and ideas
  • Usability heuristic evaluations, field tests of mobile phone game usability
  • Developed usability guidelines for Nokia Series 40 mobile phone games
1999 - 2000 Usability Specialist, Nokia Ventures Organization, Nokia Wireless Software Solutions. Nokia is the world's leading mobile phone manufacturer
  • Developed new WAP product concepts and their user interfaces
  • Usability testing and interface evaluation for new mobile phone and WAP services
  • Usability testing mostly in Hungary, teamwork with locals
1999 Usability Developer & Product Concept Analyst, Helsinki University of Technology, Finland, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Usability Laboratory. Helsinki University of Technology is Finland’s leading technology-oriented educational institution.
  • 6-month practical work training, part of the Master of Psychology degree
  • Researched product concepts for real-time community interaction in collaboration with Nokia, IDEO, Vienna University (CURE), Netherlands Design Institute and Meru Research.
  • Developed concepts for mobile devices, their usability testing and evaluated user experience
1996 - 1999 User Interface Developer, Byte Enchanters, Inc. Byte Enchanters was a computer game company of 5 employees.
  • Developed the user interface for a on-line mafia game, Legal Crime.
  • Iterative, rapid prototyping and usability testing with screenshot mockups and later with functional software
  • Web page development and customer support

Personal details

Date of birth May 9th, 1972 Nationality Finnish
Marital status Married, one child Military service Completed
Interests History, psychology, bicycling, badminton, writing, ideation, PHP, net phenomena

References

Available upon request.