About TestIstanbul 2011

Number of participants: 680

Number of expected Countries: 9

Presentations: 19

Panels: 2

Silvia Zimmermann 
The Usability Professionals Association ( UPA ) President
Silvia is lead experience designer, founder and chief executive at the Swiss based Institute of Software-Ergonomics and Usability in Zurich, a leading Swiss UX research and usability consultancy. She is also the current President of the Usability Professionals Association - an international organization present in the regions Asia, Europe, North America, Latin America and MEAOS - and was the founding President of the Swiss UPA chapter. She is a member of the AMC SIGCHI, STC and iXDA.

As a strategic experience designer Silvia helped drive many strategic projects  and areas like Automotive, B2B / B2C, E-Learning, Energy Services, ERP Systems, Financial Services, OCR Forms, Online Shops / E-Commerce, Pharmaceutics, Telecommunication & Tourism.Silvia originally graduated in psychology, and now works since 17 years in the field as a usability specialist and experience designer. She has done international usability and  UX ground work for clients like: BMW, Comparis.ch, Credit Suisse, Roche Disetronic, Novartis, Endress & Hauser, Eurotax Glass, Ex-Libris, Fujitsu Siemens, Julius Bär, Leica Geosystems, Mettler Toledo, Migrosbank, Phonak, Rega, Sunrise, Swiss Casinos, Techem, T-Mobile, UBS.
  
   
Patrick Hofmann 
Usability Leader, Google
From his start as a technical writer and illustrator in 1993 to travelling the world as a visual information specialist, Patrick Hofmann has been labelled the "man of few words".
This vibrant Canadian has helped clients worldwide overcome the usability challenges associated with internationalisation and localisation usually by eliminating the text in their online, printed, and interface information, and using graphics, symbols, and icons.
Patrick has lectured and helped develop programmes in Information Design at CPIT (New Zealand), University of Waterloo (Canada), and Université de Rennes (France).
With an extensive background in both international usability research and iconography, Patrick's award-winning work and passion for visualisation have landed him at Google in Sydney, Australia, where he currently works as a UX Designer on Google Maps.