Meet the team

What we now know as Usability Mapping began in 1976.

A young Klaus Hofer experienced a life-changing event as a nurse in Australia. That led to a lifetime of research to find the answer to one question:

How can highly trained and motivated professionals still make mistakes that can kill people?

CAT-i was born in 1990. It was renamed to Usability Mapping Inc. in 2019. Today we are proud of our team and the work we do to engineer usability and safety into user documents.

The Usability Mapping team, June 2023 in Calgary. From left to right are: Mike, Leslie, Verena, Neville, Klaus, Brett, Jeff, Carol, and Kimberley. Isa was travelling the globe,  Hannes is busy in Graz coordinating the annual World Usability Congress. Christa is based in Europe,  while Margo kept warm in South Africa.

Our values

Together we are better. We have zero tolerance for prejudice or discrimination of any kind, be that cultural, spiritual or sexual. We know that together we are better, and together we are making a positive difference.

Klaus Hofer

Founder and CEO

A corporate psychologist by training, Klaus’s passion for Usability Mapping was triggered by a serious incident that endangered the life of an unsuspecting hospital patient. In search of the cause, he found only opinions, judgmental answers and countless rules. This led him to the question:

How can well trained, focused and dedicated professionals make mistakes that could kill someone?

The question led him to a lifetime of research, development and now promoting the scientific principles that underpin the development of safer, more usable documentation. He founded CAT-i in 2003 and has personally trained over 6,000 professionals in 38 organizations world-wide.

Born in Austria, Klaus now lives in Canada and spends his spare time on his second passion – music.

Neville Chamberlain

Calgary, ALberta, Canada

Chief Operating Officer; Usability Mapping Document Engineer & Certified Usability Mapping Trainer and UMAP IT development

Neville ensures that the CAT-i operations run smoothly and is one of the UMAP IT team. He is a certified U-Map Document Engineer and Trainer. In another life he helps solopreneurs build better businesses faster.

Mike Hanna

Houston, TX, USA
Director for Document Engineering Services; Usability Mapping Document Engineer & certified Usability Mapping Trainer

20+ years as an Operator, Training Foreman, Project Manager and Procedure Analyst in the oil and gas industry gives Mike a vast amount of knowledge and experience to apply to Usability Engineering and documentation. He’s kept on his toes by his three active kids.

Verena Seibert-Giller

Based in Austria, serving Industries all over Europe
Verena is CSO (Chief Science Officer) for Usability Mapping. She is also a Usability Mapping Ambassador, Certified Usability Mapping Document Engineer & Certified Usability Mapping Trainer.

Based in beautiful Vienna, Austria, Verena' is a UX Psychologist with a 30 year background in researching, teaching, and consulting  on UX solutions for industries world wide.  To energise her soul, Verena loves to spend time with her family and to go biking or travelling.

Brett Shields

Based in Australia, serving Industries in the Australasian Region
General Manager and director for CAT-i Australia Pty. Ltd.. Brett is a Usability Mapping Ambassador, Certified Usability Mapping Document Engineer & Certified Usability Mapping Trainer.

Based in Perth, Australia, Brett is a passionate safety leader with over 20 years’ experience in oil and gas and construction. Previously he served as a Mine Clearance Diver in the Royal Australian Navy. Brett is a keen traveller, diver and photographer. He likes to spend as much time as possible in, on, or under the water.

Carol Balogh

Usability Mapping Document Engineer, U-Map Auditor

Carol specialises in usability mapping technical manuals, standards and procedures. Apart from usability engineering technical documents Carol is also a knitting specialist of the finest, as her Ravelry site shows.

Rucha Mehta

Usability Mapping Document Engineer

Rucha is an engineer by training and holds a Masters of Management from the University of Warwick in England. Her experience ranges from Retail Banking to Oil and Gas with the last 10 years in contract formation & management in Supply Chain. She is co-founder of a graphic design & boutique printing studio and loves travelling with her two little kids in her spare time.

Kimberley McRae

Usability Mapping Ambassador

A member of the CAT-I team since 2012, Kim is also an active member of the Canadian luge team. In the Sochi Olympics she placed 5th in the world, and competing for Canada during the World Championships in 2017 in Innsbruck Austria, Kimberley won a stellar Bronze Medal, making her the third fastest luger in the world.

Jeff Boyer

UMAP IT development, Usability Mapping Document Engineer

Jeff is IT/IM professional with over 20 years’ experience. His experiences range from Health Care to Oil and Gas with the last 8 years in IT Governance, Risk and Compliance. In his spare time he loves cooking and traveling with his wife and kids.

Lisa West

Australia
Usability Mapping Ambassador and Usability Mapping Document Engineer

Lisa has an 11 year professional background as an advisor in health and safety and as management system specialist. Lisa has experience in the oil and gas industry, water treatment, and air-gas production,

In her spare time she likes to knit, run and spend time with family.

Margo Bansda

Africa
Usability Mapping Ambassador

Margo, an International Strategic Communication Consultant and Corporate Mediator based in South Africa, has applied her communication and anthropological credentials across many industries on different continents. She is the founder of Smart Chaos Media (Pty) Ltd., a Digital Health Education and social entrepreneurship initiative, through which she will be representing Usability Mapping in sub-Saharan Africa.

Leslie Street

Usability Mapping Document Engineer

Leslie is a technical writer by training. Her experience ranges from municipal government to private industry. Leslie specializes in Usability Mapping technical manuals, standards, and procedures. In her spare time, she likes to read, travel, and spend time with family and friends.

Isa Stahl

Usability Mapping Document Engineer

A registered psychologist, Isa consults with the Furth Law Firm P.A. in Las Cruces where she specializes in workers’ rights and labour relations. When she has free time she works on improving her Spanish, promoting fine arts and working with Dharmahorse.

Hannes Robier

CEO of the World Usability Congress and Usability Mapping Ambassador

Hannes is the founder and chair of the World Usability Congress. Hannes and his team are global leaders in engineering UX solutions for industries worldwide. Hannes represents Usability Mapping Inc. in Austria and worldwide through his consultancy youspi.com.

Christa Spengler-Rast

Germany - Usability Mapping Ambassador

Christa is a professional trainer with specialization in soft skills. She is also a management consultant for companies and public administrations. In that role she also served many Chinese clients and authorities. Her spare time is spent between maintaining her garden and watching world class soccer matches.

Christa is the Usability Mapping Inc. representative in Germany. You can contact her via CSR Consulting.

Contact us at:
safety@usabilitymapping.com
Usability Mapping Inc
17 Tuscany Court NW
Calgary AB T3L 2Y7
Canada
CAT-i Australia Pty Ltd
401/26 Charles Street
South Perth, WA
6151
Australia
Copyright Communications and Training international (CAT-i)
Usability Mapping, PQA and UMAP IT are copyrighted and registered trademarks