The usability profession

The UK Usability Professionals' Association yesterday published the largest (and possibly the first) survey of salaries in the UK usability sector. Some points of interest:
- Although the average salary for those in employment was £37,801, there was a considerable range, with a low of £18,500 and a high (for more than one employee) of £90,000.
- There wasn't a great difference between salaries for those with a first degree, a master's and a doctorate.
- UPA members earn on average around £4,000 a year more than non-UPA members, though whether this is because the more focussed and ambitious tend to get involved more in professional organisations, or whether members benefit from networking with others to gain better jobs, is a moot point. [You can find the full report on the UK UPA website.]

And what exactly is it that usability people do anyway? A discussion was launched some months ago by Tog on the issue of 'what do we call ourselves', which led into the other side of the coin, 'what do people who call themselves usability specialists do'. This provoked Janice James into writing an article in the latest edition of UPA Voice about the present and the future of the profession. And Steve Krug, Eugene Chen and Keith Instone put together a while ago this presentation for AIGA Experience Design on the multifarious aspects of the profession. Today's master's courses in human-computer interaction - so often associated with computer science or psychology departments of universities - seem inadequate preparation for a range of skills that spans so many traditional disciplines.