Level A: Usability Engineer

A university degree of

• a German scientific university
• a German state or state-recognized university of applied sciences, or
• a foreign university recognized as equivalent by the competent authority of the Land

or

• at least one year of work in connection with product development or testing as an IT specialist or designer

and

• at least six months of professional experience in connection with the development or testing of interactive products.

For the "Usability Engineer" (Basic Level) the applicant has the possibility to prove missing professional experience within one year after taking the examination.

The Certification can take place no later than one year after taking the last examination / re-examination.

The validity period for certificates of the certification profile "Usability Engineer (Basic Level)" is five years for persons who have taken their examination from March 1^st 2014 to May 31^st 2018.

The validity for certificates of the certification profile "Usability Engineer (Level A)" is 3 years for persons who have taken their examination as of June 1^st 2018. Recertification is required to extend the certificate.

For registration, please follow this link.

The registration for the examination includes information about yourself, the type of examination (first or re-examination) and the desired examination date as well as the agreement to the conditions of participation and the rights and obligations as a certificate holder. The conditions of participation and rights and obligations are part of the registration form. Further information can be found in the regulations.

For information about the examination, please contact Mrs. Dorothea Kugelmeier.

A detailed catalog of the competencies to be demonstrated can be viewed upon request after registering for the examination at the Fraunhofer Personnel Certification Authority.

For all certification profiles in the field of Usability Engineering, recertification is required after a certificate period of three years minus one day after the last partial examination. This must be applied for at the Fraunhofer Personal Certification Authority before the certificate expires.

Deadline for application for recertification

The application for recertification must be formally submitted to the Fraunhofer Personnel Certification Authority within the period of two years minus one day after the last partial examination to 2.5 years minus one day after the last partial examination.

The application for recertification must be accompanied by proof of professional experience and proof of attendance at a further education event.

For information about the application for registration, please contact Mrs. Dorothea Kugelmeier.

Required evidence

The following requirements are made as part of the recertification process:

• Evidence of at least 1.5 years of professional experience in the field of the profile to be recertified during the certification period

and

• Evidence of participation in a further training event to be accepted by the Fraunhofer Personnel Certification Authority during the certificate period. It must be proven that in the further training event current subject-specific information regarding the competence profile defined in the certification manual of Usability Engineering or current advanced topics in the context of User Centered Design are conveyed.

Proof of professional experience and participation in a further training event

Proof of professional experience can be provided, for example, by a certificate from the employer.

Proof of participation in the further training event is provided by a certificate of participation from the further education provider as well as the submission of an agenda showing the subject-specific topics that were covered.

Recognition of further training events

Minimum requirements for the further training event to be verified

• at least one-day event
• at least three usability-specific teaching units or teaching units from the extended subject area of User Centered Design (this can be three teaching units each dealing with the same subject or three teaching units addressing different subjects).

For a further training event to be accepted, the course must have addressed at least one of the usability-specific topics listed below or at least one topic from the context of User Centered Design in three teaching units:

Usability-specific topics:

• ISO 9241
• Development of user requirements
• (Prototypical) Design
• Usability Testing
• Usability Engineering Process

Topics from the extended context of User Centered Design

• User Centered Design in general
• user experience
• design thinking
• requirements engineering
• innovation engineering

With appropriate justification of the reference to the topic of Usability Engineering or the broader topic area of user-centered design, other topics can also be accepted. This recognition is made as a case-by-case decision by the Fraunhofer Personnel Certification Authority in agreement with the Usability Engineering expert committee.

Recognition of conferences as further training events in the context of recertification

Participation in conferences can be recognized as a further training event for the recertification, if

• the above mentioned requirements are fulfilled (at least 1 day, at least 3 usability specific teaching units or teaching units from the subject area User Centered Design),
• the certification of participation is proven by a personalized certificate of the organizer (no self-reporting),
• the participation in individual events (lectures, workshops, tutorials) is certified by the organizer or by self-declaration with reference to the program,
• a presentation proves how the attended events (lectures, workshops, tutorials) are related to the certification program.

In principle, participation in the following conferences can be accepted for recertification in the certification profile of Usability Engineer (Level A) under the specified conditions.

International Conferences:

• Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems CHI
• Nordic Conference on Human-Computer Interaction
• IFIP TC13 International conference on Human-Computer Interaction, the INTERACT
• Mobile HCI

German conferences:

• Humans & Computers
• World Usability Day
• Meeting of the User Group "Usability Engineering" (2x per year)

Recognition of other conferences as further training events for recertification is possible, but is generally made as a case-by-case decision by the Fraunhofer Personnel Certification Authority in agreement with the expert committee.

Recertification

If the recertification requirements are met, the respective certificate is extended for another three years minus one day.

If the recertification requirements are not met, the validity of the respective certificate expires.