User Research
Adina Klein
Over several years working in the field of user experience, Adina has worked on a variety of projects, involving the design and redesign of dashboards, complete business systems, Web sites, intranets, and business processes. Her clients have included Mercer, Sun Life Financial, Ford Direct, Radian Guaranty, the City of Philadelphia, Astra Zeneca, Michael C. Fina, American Express, and Wolters Kluwer. Adina holds a Bachelor of Science and Arts in chemistry and architecture and a Master of Product Development, both from Carnegie Mellon University.
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Specialties: Consulting | Usability | User Research
Ahmed Riaz
Ahmed is an interaction and industrial designer with a background in design research, expertise in visual thinking, and a passion for making objects that dissolve into behavior. His past design experiences include time spent as a design researcher for Gulfstream Aerospace, honing his skills as a professional napkin sketcher for the visual thinking company XPLANE, and reinventing ecommerce for the Internet pioneer eBay. He is currently studying for an MBA in Design Strategy at California College of the Arts.
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Specialties: Consulting | Industrial Design | Information Design | Interaction Design | UX Strategy | User Research
Antonia Anni
A budding UX professional, Antonia began her journey as an artist who discovered that she was interested in the behavior of people. She earned a degree in the field of Engineering, then a Masters Degree in Multidisciplinary Design Innovation. At the moment, she is focusing on exploring what lies i the future of user experience, gamification, and value-based applications.
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Specialties: UX Design | User Research | Visual Design
Arun Joseph Martin
Arun is passionate about applying user research and information architecture techniques to the creation of technical communication deliverables. He has worked on a variety of projects in the telecom and virtualization domains. Arun has written articles for Usability Interface, a quarterly newsletter of the STC Usability SIG, for which he is a volunteer.
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Specialties: Brand Strategy | Information Architecture | User Assistance | User Research
Ben Crothers
Ben has deep experience working with clients in the telecommunications and finance industries, as well as government departments and not-for-profits, enabling them to maximize the value of their online presence and creating digital experiences worth sharing. He enjoys being the communication bridge between management, designers, developers, and business decision makers, helping them to refine their digital strategy, listening to the people for whom we create digital presences, and coming up with deep insights and compelling designs. Ben is passionate about participatory design practices, fostering behavior change through digital media, and the power of design to change lives rather than just the decor. When not dreaming up ways of using his kids’ toys as prototyping tools, he gets into sketchnoting, drawing, and oil painting.
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Specialties: Information Architecture | UX Design | UX Strategy | User Research
Ben Werner
As part of the Usability Engineering group, Ben is responsible for conducting user research, providing human factors guidance, and leading a transition to user-centered design at RightNow Technologies—a leading Customer Relationship Management (CRM) vendor handling over 1 billion customer interactions in 2007. He holds an MS in Human-Computer Interaction and is a board-certified Associate Human Factors Professional.
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Specialties: Human Factors | UX Strategy | User Research
Bryan McClain
Principal Researcher and Co-Founder at Metric Lab
Redwood City CA USA
Bryan is passionate about connecting with people and understanding their experiences and perspectives. Bryan co-founded Metric Lab with Demetrius Madrigal after doing research at NASA Ames Research Center for five years. While at NASA, Bryan worked on a variety of research studies, encompassing communication and human factors and interacting with hundreds of participants. As a part of his background in communication research, he received extensive training in communication methods, including certification-level training in police hostage negotiation. Bryan uses his extensive training in advanced communication methods in UX research to help ensure maximum accuracy and detail in user feedback. Bryan enjoys innovating user research methods that integrate communication skills, working with such companies as eBay, Kodak, Microsoft, and BAE Systems.
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Specialties: Consulting | Human Factors | UX Strategy | User Research
Catalina Naranjo-Bock
A UX designer and researcher, Catalina specializes in the development of ideal experiences for children and young audiences for both tangible products and interactive applications. She has collaborated on children’s media and toy design with creative departments in numerous firms, in the US, Europe, and South America. In a variety of design-related contexts. Catalina has served as adjunct faculty, guest speaker, invited author, and international juror. Catalina holds a BFA in Industrial and Digital Design and an MFA in User Experience Design and Research from The Ohio State University.
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Specialties: UX Design | User Interface Design | User Research | Visual Design
Christian Rohrer
Founder of Experience Design Strategy, Pacific Grove CA USA
A veteran of Web user experience design and research, Christian has participated directly in the development of some of the world’s most popular Web destinations, including Yahoo!, eBay, and Realtor.com. In his most recent role as Senior Director of User Experience Design at Move, Inc., he led a talented team of designers and researchers in developing top real estate Web sites and applications, including the #1 consumer real estate Web site and the top-rated real estate iPhone app, both under the Realtor.com brand. Christian previously served as Director of Customer Intelligence for Products at eBay and was a founding member of the eBay Research Council, an executive-sponsored body that advises the company on best research practices and synthesizes insights from market research, community outreach, international research, Web analytics, and user experience research. Prior to that, he was Director of User Experience Research at Yahoo!, where he was also a founding member of the Yahoo! Research Council. Both at Yahoo! and eBay, he served on the User Experience Design leadership team, reporting directly to the VP of the department. Before joining Yahoo!, Christian conducted design research and ethnographies for NCI—now Liberate—focusing on the strategies people employ in learning to use TV-based, Internet appliance user interfaces. Christian has a PhD in symbolic systems in education—a branch of cognitive science—from Stanford University and a BA, with honors, in computer and information sciences from the University of California, Santa Cruz. He is an active member of various industry organizations.
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Specialties: UX Management | UX Strategy | User Research
Corrie Kwan
As a user experience analyst at the IBM Toronto software laboratory, Corrie often works with users from different continents, doing all kinds of user research from requirements gathering to design validation. Her work also involves defining usage scenarios and designs for modeling tools and Web applications. She graduated from the University of Waterloo with a Bachelor’s in Mathematics, majoring in Computer Science.
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Specialties: Interaction Design | User Research
David Kozatch
Principal at DIG, New York NY USA
David Kozatch brings over 20 years experience in marketing research and customer user experience to his work as an interviewer and strategic consultant. As principal of DIG, which he founded in 1989, he has conducted literally thousands of focus groups and in-depth interviews in the areas of financial/business services, software, hardware, Web/interactive services, and telecommunications. Since 1996, David has been a leading thinker in helping companies gain a deeper understanding of the ways people use the Web and mobile communications. His company’s user experience research was integral to successful launches on the Web for Google, HBO, Verizon, and Absolut Vodka. And, more recently, his work for clients like Register.com, FedEx, and Cablevision has helped these companies build better brands online.
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Specialties: Brand Strategy | Consulting | UX Strategy | Usability | User Research
Davis Neable
Davis has a passion for designing engaging products. Applying her research and design expertise, she helps to ensure that Business Process Management (BPM) products are easy to use and improve customers’ and users’ productivity. Prior to joining IBM Canada, Davis worked on other products and applications for IBM, in both the UK and the US. She has contributed to the field of technology by speaking and authoring.
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Specialties: Usability | User Research
Demetrius Madrigal
Principal Researcher and Co-Founder at Metric Lab
Redwood City CA USA
Demetrius truly believes in the power of user research—when it is done well. With a background in experimental psychology, Demetrius performed research within a university setting, as well as at NASA Ames Research Center before co-founding Metric Lab with long-time collaborator, Bryan McClain. At Metric Lab, Demetrius enjoys innovating powerful user research methods and working on exciting projects—ranging from consumer electronics with companies like Microsoft and Kodak to modernization efforts with the U.S. Army. Demetrius is constantly thinking of new methods and tools to make user research faster, less costly, and more accurate. His training in advanced communication helps him to understand and connect with users, tapping into the experience that lies beneath the surface.
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Specialties: Consulting | Human Factors | Usability | User Research
Eric Schaffer
Eric Schaffer founded HFI in 1988 and, over the last quarter century, has become known as the visionary who identified usability as the driving force in the Third Wave of the Information Age—following hardware, then software as the previous key differentiators. Eric recognized that the most profound impact on corporate computing would be the result of a positive online user experience—the ability for a user to get a job done efficiently, easily, and without frustration. His book Institutionalization of Usability: A Step-by-Step Guide provides a roadmap companies can follow to make usability a systematic, routine practice throughout an organization. Eric co-developed HFI’s Schaffer-Weinschenk Method™, the only ISO-certifiable process for user-centered design, which builds on principles from human-computer interaction, ergonomics, psychology, computer science, and marketing. He has completed projects for more than 100 Fortune 500 clients, providing user experience design consulting and training. Recently, Eric has been traveling the world teaching HFI’s newest course, “How to Design for Persuasion, Emotion, and Trust.” He is a member of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society and a Certified Professional Ergonomist. Eric earned his PhD in “Applied Psychology specializing in Human Performance”—aka usability—from Stevens Institute of Technology.
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Specialties: Consulting | UX Design | UX Management | UX Strategy | Usability | User Research
Frank Guo
Frank wears two hats professionally—user researcher and UX design consultant. At Barclays, he established and manages user research and helped develop the user interface design process for their investment management business. Previously, working for Oracle and eBay, he championed user research; performed eyetracking studies; provided design consulting for ecommerce, online advertising, and Web applications; and developed design guidelines. Prior to becoming a UX professional, Frank earned a doctorate in cognitive psychology from UCLA, conducting research in consumer behavior and economic decision making.
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Specialties: UX Management | UX Strategy | User Research
Greg Nudelman
Principal at DesignCaffeine Inc.
Pleasanton CA USA
Founder of the San Francisco Bay Area UX design consultancy DesignCaffeine, Greg is widely recognized as an experience design and user research expert, specializing in search, social networking, business dashboards, and process redesign for mobile and Web platforms. Greg has published over 30 articles and speaks regularly to audiences around the world about how to design intuitive and elegant systems that improve the quality of people’s lives while creating abundant ROI. He has led design projects for Fortune 500 companies and creative startups.
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Specialties: Consulting | Interaction Design | UX Design | UX Strategy | User Interface Design | User Research
Heather Nam
Since the early 1990s, Heather has been testing Web sites and software for children throughout her career. She has a special ability to look at a situation through the eyes of her target audience, and her in-depth interviews and ability to skillfully ask the right questions help to uncover insights that otherwise might go unnoticed. Heather is passionate about understanding why users make decisions and has traveled nationally and internationally to moderate over 3,000 research interviews, focus groups, and ideation sessions, with groups that have included parents, teachers, teens, tweens, and young children.
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Specialties: Usability | User Interface Design | User Research
Isabelle Peyrichoux
With a passion for exploring users’ mental models and more than seven years working in user experience in the United States, Canada, France, and the United Kingdom, Isabelle specializes in user research. Isabelle works for Yahoo!, in Silicon Valley, where she conducts all kinds of lab and field studies to inform product strategy and design. With two certificates in psychotherapy, she has endeavored to integrate her knowledge of psychotherapy and psychology into her practice as a user researcher and thereby contribute new approaches to the field of user research. Isabelle has a Masters degree in Information Science from the Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers, in Paris, France. An engaging speaker, Isabelle has given presentations and workshops for professional associations and conferences. At the IA Summit, in 2006, she spoke about her experience conducting an international needs analysis across North America, Europe, and Africa.
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Specialties: Information Architecture | Interaction Design | Usability | User Research
Jim Nieters
Leading UX Design for online advertiser products at Yahoo!, including search marketing and the open ad-management platform, APT from Yahoo!, Jim works to ensure user experience is a strategic differentiator for the business. Before joining Yahoo!, Jim built and led the central UED group at Cisco and turned it into an internal consultancy with over $200 million in revenue increases each year, resulting from his group’s achievements in design and innovation. He has worked in UX design and research for more than 16 years and has been a UX leader for 10 of those years. Jim specializes in UX process enhancement and organizational leadership and transformation. He teaches a course about leading innovation workshops and speaks frequently on innovation and leading UX organizations at conferences and universities.
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Specialties: UX Design | UX Management | UX Strategy | User Research
Jim Ross
Jim has spent most of the 21st Century researching and designing intuitive and
satisfying user experiences. As a design research consultant, he has helped
such companies as Bank of America, Bloomberg, Comcast, Ford Motor Company,
NBC Universal, Oppenheimer Funds, Novartis, Rite Aid, Vanguard, and Wyeth
Pharmaceuticals. As a User-Centered Designer at JPMorgan Chase, he led the
design of large intranet sites, Web sites, and Web applications. Jim has
a Masters of Science degree in Human-Computer Interaction from DePaul University.
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Specialties: Consulting | UX Design | Usability | User Research
Jin Li
At the IBM Toronto software laboratory, Jin’s work as a user experience lead encompasses the full software design lifecycle from user requirements gathering to beta testing. In particular, he gathers, analyzes, and translates user requirements and usage scenarios into software and user interaction designs for application development tools and Web applications. Jin holds a Masters of Science in Computer Science, with a Human-Computer Interaction option, from the University of Toronto. He is a member of ACM and UPA.
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Specialties: Interaction Design | UX Strategy | User Research
Joe Lamantia
A veteran architect, consultant, and designer, Joe has been an active member and leader in the UX community since 1996. He has crafted innovative, successful user experience strategies and solutions for clients ranging from Fortune 100 enterprises to local non-profit organizations, digital product companies, and social media startups, in a wide variety of industries. Joe is the creator of EZSort, the leading, freely available tool for card sorting, as well as the Building Blocks for Portals design framework. He is also a frequent writer and speaker on topics including future directions in user experience; the intersection of business, culture, and design; and systems thinking. Joe is currently based in New York, working as a UX strategy consultant for the enterprise architecture group of a global IT services firm.
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Specialties: Consulting | Information Architecture | UX Design | UX Strategy | User Research
Joe Sokohl
Joe has more than 15 years of experience in user experience-related fields. He has concentrated on crafting excellent user experiences, using information architecture, interaction design, writing, and user research. At Keane, Joe acts as an advocate for user experience consulting: information architecture, user research, interaction design, and usability evaluation, along with visual design and Web design. He manages the careers and education of 35, mostly offshore, information architects, visual designers, technical writers, and Web developers, mentoring them in skills competency, along with general business consulting practices. He also evangelizes best practices in UX among both internal and external clients. Previously, Joe held UX positions in Hamburg, Germany; Richmond, VA; Chicago, IL; and Durham, NC. Once upon a time, he’s also been a soldier, a cook, a radio DJ, a road manager, a teacher, and a reporter.
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Specialties: Consulting | Information Architecture | Interaction Design | UX Design | UX Management | User Research
Joel Flom
With more than 14 years of experience in the Web industry, Joel helps develop and execute experience strategy for clients at EffectiveUI. Through his passion for untangling the web of technology and trends, he works to create useful, engaging, and meaningful interactions for clients such as Boeing and Microsoft. Joel’s experience spans the globe and includes research, analysis, usability testing, and design. He has served as Managing Director of Elavision, a UX agency based in Australia, as well as at Best Buy. He plays an active role in the UX community, including founding the Brisbane chapter of the Interaction Design Association (IxDA). Joel holds Bachelor of Arts degrees in Sociology and Psychology from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities.
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Specialties: UX Design | UX Strategy | Usability | User Research
Jon Innes
Founder and President of UX Innovation LLC, San Francisco CA USA
As a UX consultant, Jon helps companies set up and improve their user-centered design and research processes. Jon has led UX projects for several Fortune 1000 companies—both as a consultant and as a member of in-house teams. His experience spans a wide variety of domains, including consumer and enterprise software, consumer hardware, IT projects, and ecommerce Web site design. Jon is a Certified Scrum Product Owner, with extensive experience integrating Agile and user experience for both large, globally distributed teams and early-stage startups. Before becoming a consultant, Jon was Director of User Experience for the Quicken Division at Intuit. In that role, he helped the company launch new products for the health care and online banking markets. Previously, Jon was the first Innovation Architect at SAP, where he helped the company build a team in California. Jon has held management and leadership positions at Vitria Technologies and Siebel Systems and has held UX roles at Cisco, Oracle, Symantec, and IBM.
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Specialties: Consulting | UX Design | UX Management | UX Strategy | User Research
Jordan Julien
Operating as an independent consultant, Jordan focuses on UX strategy, digital planning, social-media strategy, and SEO (Search Engine Optimization). His recent clients include VISA, RBC, P&G, GE, Telus, Toyota, Coke, Nike, Critical Mass, Proximity, and many others.
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Specialties: Consulting | Human Factors | Information Architecture | UX Strategy | User Research
Joshua Kaufman
As a consultant, Joshua focuses on cross-platform interaction design and UX strategy for Web and mobile applications. Previously at Tiny Pictures, Joshua created user-centered designs for Radar, a social media service that lets people engage in visual conversations using camera phone pictures and videos. He holds an M.S. in Human Computer Interaction from University College London, University of London, and has over 8 years of experience in both the United States and Europe. An active member of the UX design community, Joshua is the IxDA SF Community Manager, is a member of BayCHI, and was formerly the London Local Ambassador for UXnet.
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Specialties: Consulting | Interaction Design | UX Design | UX Management | UX Strategy | User Interface Design | User Research
Kate Walser
Principal Consultant and Senior User Experience Designer at CX Insights, Fairfax VA USA
Based outside Washington, DC, Kate is Principal Consultant for CX Insights, a division of Tritus Technologies, Inc. For the past 12 years, she has envisioned and designed products that make sense and engage customers—all while promoting accessibility. Kate has worked across industry, government, and non-profit organizations, including AXA/Equitable, T. Rowe Price, U.S. Department of Defense, U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, and Veterans Affairs, as well as for some international organizations. Kate was a member of the U.S. federal advisory committee that updated the Section 508 and Section 255 accessibility standards. She has a degree in biomedical engineering and an MBA in strategy and international business. She is VP of the Washington, DC-area UPA chapter, and a member of the UPA-Knowbility Web Accessibility Certificate advisory board.
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Specialties: Accessibility | Consulting | UX Design | UX Management | UX Strategy | Usability | User Research
Kevin Brooks
At Motorola, Kevin researches new user interface technologies and expresses them as connected user-centered experiences, using various media. Always interested in both computer science and filmmaking, he hungered for them to become more integrated. While researching how to use both to tell stories, he found the oral storytelling community in the Boston area. As Kevin developed and performed as a professional oral storyteller, then began coaching other storytellers, he learned a lot about storytelling as a pivotal part of the creative, performance, and design process. As a storyteller, Kevin tells humorous and poignant tales from his life for both adults and families, as you can hear on his CD Kiss of Summer. He has been a featured performer at storytelling festivals and conferences and has given numerous storytelling workshops to engineers, designers, and other storytellers. As an undergraduate, Kevin studied engineering, computer science, creative writing, and film production, receiving a BS in Communications from Drexel University. He earned an MA in Documentary Film from Stanford University. Kevin received his PhD in Media Arts and Sciences from the MIT Media Lab, where his area of research was computational narrative and interactive cinema. Kevin has published several papers on storytelling and interactive story design. He is the coauthor, with Whitney Quesenbery, of the Rosenfeld Media book Storytelling in User Experience Design.
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Specialties: Interaction Design | UX Design | User Research
Kevin Silver
Kevin is an empathetic champion of users and a strong proponent of user-centered design. He strives to design digital products that are simple, elegant, and easy to use. Involved in desktop application design and development since 1995, he started tinkering with HTML in the late 90s—just in time for the flurry of growth on the Web before the big .com bust. Kevin has worked on a diverse range of projects, including designing applications for Indian Health Services (a federal agency), Envision Utility Software, University of New Mexico, Anchor Computer, the United States Air Force, and Web sites for Norwegian Cruise Lines, Dr. Martens, Buck Knives, Museum of the African Diaspora, and Adobe, to name a few. One thing Kevin has learned through all of these engagements is that satisfying the needs and goals of users is central to a successful experience. He is a member of IXDA, IAI, and ASIS&T and has presented at the IA Summit.
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Specialties: Interaction Design | UX Design | User Interface Design | User Research
Kim Oslob
Kim has worked in the field of user experience research for over 10 years and has extensive experience with both qualitative and quantitative UX research, for Web sites, software, and mobile devices and applications. She is skilled at developing and managing usability research plans from concept through rollout. Since joining UserZoom four years ago, Kim has worked closely with high-profile clients, helping them to design and implement top-notch UX research and ensuring their success using UserZoom. She has also helped define UserZoom product strategy.
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Specialties: Consulting | UX Strategy | User Research
Kristi Olson
Kristi has been doing UX research for ecommerce Web sites since 2001 and information architecture since 2006. After specializing in qualitative research methods for Target and Evantage Consulting, she moved to her current employer, Deluxe, and transformed UX research by blending qualitative and quantitative insights in a new approach called UX analysis. Kristi is an expert in research methodology, designing and blending methods of research, and discovering creative approaches to gathering data that meet business objectives. Kristi has synthesized her long-time, right-brain approach to user research with the left-brain approach of Web analytics to more powerfully communicate with Ebusiness. She has been Deluxe’s Tealeaf owner, administrator, and primary business user since 2009 and is on the road to becoming an Omniture Discover power user. Kristi is currently completing her Master of Liberal Studies in Innovation Studies.
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Specialties: UX Design | Usability | User Research
Kyle Soucy
Founding Principal at Usable Interface, Rochester NH USA
As the founding principal of Usable Interface, a consulting company specializing in product usability and user-centered design, Kyle Soucy has created intuitive user interfaces for a variety of products and Web sites. Her clients range from pharmaceutical giants like Pfizer to publishing powerhouses like McGraw-Hill. Kyle is the Founder and Past President of the New Hampshire Chapter of the Usability Professionals’ Association (NH UPA); has served as the Chair of PhillyCHI, the Philadelphia Chapter of the Association for Computing Machinery’s Special Interest Group on Computer-Human Interaction (ACM SIGCHI), and is the local UXnet Ambassador for New Hampshire. She is passionate about the continued growth of the usability and user experience design community.
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Specialties: Consulting | Human Factors | Usability | User Interface Design | User Research
Laura Keller
For over 10 years, Laura has focused on representing the human element in any interaction with a brand, through actionable, business-impacting gathering of insights. At MISI Company, she has led multiple cross-channel experience design strategy engagements for clients. Clients include AstraZeneca, Hachette Book Group, Prostate Cancer Foundation, the NBA, Pfizer, and Glaceau. Laura’s passion lies at intersections between experience design and the physical, wayfinding, and service design spaces. She is a member of the Citizen Designer group, in New York.
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Specialties: Service Design | UX Strategy | User Research
Lauren Shupp
Lauren applies her human factors research and design expertise to creating usable and intuitive Business Process Management (BPM) products. She greatly enjoys engaging with clients and testing early interaction designs. Prior to joining the BPM team, Lauren worked on other WebSphere® products and applications. She has published her research on visualization on large displays and applies it to the design of applications. Her skills have evolved from designing highly interactive Web applications for cloud products to integrated, stand-alone technologies. Because of her research background in information visualization, she dreams of the day her office walls will be made of a solid, interactive display.
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Specialties: Usability | User Research
Laurene McCafferty
An experienced usability consultant at the London-based firm System Concepts, Laurene has worked with a range of clients in the financial services, media and publishing, retail, and government sectors to deliver user-centered solutions. Clients have implemented her recommendations to help streamline their online processes and ensure excellent customer experiences based on proven results. Laurene has a strong interest in social media and working to help develop social media strategies within organizations. She has a PhD in Usability Engineering from the University of Edinburgh and an MA in Sociology from the University of Glasgow.
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Specialties: Accessibility | Consulting | UX Design | UX Strategy | Usability | User Research
Leslie Johnson
Leslie is a UX generalist with experience in all the disciplines of user-centered design (UCD), which positions her to lead UX teams both large and small. Her past experience includes consulting, as well as providing design, research, and usability solutions to Microsoft, Intuit, and other smaller organizations. Leslie’s two passions are creating outstanding design solutions that satisfy and delight users and teaching and training non-UX professionals in UCD principles. She’s currently consulting in Canada, delivering great user experiences to large and small clients.
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Specialties: Consulting | UX Design | Usability | User Research
Lucinio Santos
For the last eighteen years, Lucinio has been a user experience architect, working on IBM software offerings. During his tenure, he has led, managed, and contributed to usability and design initiatives for systems management, application development, middleware, and portfolio management software. He holds a Ph.D. in Cognitive and Experimental Psychology from the University of New Mexico.
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Specialties: Interaction Design | UX Design | Usability | User Interface Design | User Research
May Wong
As a user experience analyst at the IBM Toronto software laboratory, May’s work involves defining usage scenarios and designs for software quality tools and Web applications. She has a Bachelor’s of Science in Computer Science and is currently pursuing an MBA at the University of Toronto.
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Specialties: Interaction Design | User Research
Mia Northrop
Mia has over 10 years of experience designing digital user experiences and marketing Web sites. At Symplicit, she applies her passion for finding the sweet spot between user needs and business objectives, working for clients as diverse as eBay, Telstra, Ford, Merrill Lynch, Coles Group, EMC, and ANZ. Prior to joining Symplicit, Mia worked for a who’s who of Australian Internet companies, including Fairfax Digital, Sensis, and SEEK, as well as the US interactive agency Razorfish. Her favorite part of UX projects is conducting design research to illuminate the ideas that will make the biggest impact on design.
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Specialties: Consulting | UX Design | UX Strategy | User Research
Michael Hawley
As Chief Design Officer at Mad*Pow, Mike brings deep expertise in user experience research, usability, and design to Mad*Pow clients, providing tremendous customer value. Prior to joining Mad*Pow, Mike served as Usability Project Manager for Staples, Inc., in Framingham, Massachusetts. He led their design projects for customer-facing materials, including e-commerce and Web sites, marketing communications, and print materials. Previously, Mike worked at the Bentley College Design and Usability Center as a Usability Research Consultant. He was responsible for planning, executing, and analyzing the user experience for corporate clients. At Avitage, he served as the lead designer and developer for an online Webcast application. Mike received an M.S. in Human Factors in Information Design from Bentley College McCallum Graduate School of Business in Waltham, Massachusetts, and has more than 13 years of usability experience.
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Specialties: Consulting | UX Design | UX Management | Usability | User Research
Michael Zuschlag
Working in transportation human factors for modes of transport spanning land, sea, and air, Michael’s projects range from airliner flight decks to public transit Web sites. His work encompasses applied experimental research, usability testing and evaluation, statistical analysis, computational modeling of human performance, user interface design, human-computer interface and human factors standards development, and program evaluation. Michael has a doctorate in psychology and a masters in industrial engineering from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
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Specialties: Human Factors | User Interface Design | User Research
Mike Myles
Working as a software designer since the mid-90s, Mike has designed a wide
range of Web and rich-client applications. Before joining Autodesk in 2007,
he led design efforts for several companies, including Bowstreet—since
acquired by IBM—Chordiant, and Unica. Mike studied electrical engineering
at Fairfield University before transitioning to computer science and software
design. He is an active member of IxDA, ACM, and the local New Hampshire
chapter of UPA. Mike is also an avid performing musician and songwriter.
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Specialties: Information Architecture | Interaction Design | UX Strategy | Usability | User Interface Design | User Research
Patrick Kennedy
Patrick has over 10 years of experience in the digital media and Web industries, and his expertise covers many areas, including information architecture, ethnographic and design research techniques, and best practice Web design and development. Over the years, Patrick has advised a wide range of clients, across private and public sectors, both in Australia and the United Kingdom. Patrick is a member of the Sydney chapter of the Usability Professionals’ Association (UPA), the Computer-Human Interaction Special Interest Group of Australia (CHISIG), the Web Standards Group (WSG), the Australian Interactive Media Industry Association (AIMIA), the Web Industry Professionals Association (WIPA), and the Information Architecture Institute (IAI), as well as several smaller special interest groups. Patrick holds a degree in Computer Systems Engineering from the University of Technology, Sydney.
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Specialties: Consulting | Information Architecture | UX Strategy | Usability | User Research
Paul Bryan
User Experience Consultant at Usography, Atlanta GA USA
Paul is a UX strategist and researcher who began designing ecommerce Web sites in 1995, in Barcelona, Spain. Since founding Usography in 2002, Paul’s consulting clients have included some of the most successful corporations in the world—such as The Home Depot, Coca-Cola, SAP, Delta Air Lines, Philips, Macy’s, Bloomingdale’s, Cox, and GE. Paul manages the UX Strategy and Planning group on LinkedIn.
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Specialties: Consulting | Interaction Design | UX Strategy | User Research
Paul J. Sherman
Founder and Principal Consultant at ShermanUX, Youngstown OH USA
ShermanUX provides a range of services, including research, design, evaluation, UX strategy, training, and rapid contextual innovation. Paul has worked in the
field of usability and user-centered design for the past 13 years. He was
most recently Senior Director of User-Centered Design at Sage Software in
Atlanta, Georgia, where he led efforts to redesign the user interface and
improve the overall customer experience of Peachtree Accounting and several
other business management applications. While at Sage, Paul designed and implemented a customer-centric contextual innovation program that sought to identify new product and service opportunities by
observing small businesses in the wild. Paul also led his team’s effort to modernize and bring consistency to
Sage North America product user interfaces on both the desktop and the Web.
In the 1990s, Paul was a Member of Technical Staff at Lucent Technologies
in New Jersey, where he led the development of cross-product user interface
standards for telecommunications management applications. As a consultant,
Paul has conducted usability testing and user interface design for banking,
accounting, and tax preparation applications, Web applications for financial
planning and portfolio management, and ecommerce Web sites. In 1997,
Paul received his PhD from the University of Texas at Austin. His
research focused on how pilots’ use of computers and automated systems
on the flight deck affects their individual and team performance. Paul is
Past President of the Usability Professionals’ Association, was the founding
President of the UPA Dallas/Fort Worth chapter, and currently serves on the
UPA Board of Directors and Executive Committee. Paul was Editor and contributed
several chapters for the book Usability
Success Stories: How Organizations Improve by Making Easier-to-Use Software
and Web Sites, which Gower published in October 2006. He has presented at conferences in North America, Asia,
Europe, and South America.
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Specialties: Consulting | UX Design | UX Strategy | Usability | User Research
Paul McInerney
With over 15 years of industry experience in usability and user experience, Paul has developed broad expertise in diverse product domains, as well as across the full gamut of UX roles and methods. Demonstrating thought leadership, he has shared his experiences and insights with the international UX community at conferences and through the publications of ACM SIGCHI and UPA. Over several years, Paul has exercised his organizational leadership skills through his volunteer executive roles for the Toronto chapter of ACM SIGCHI.
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Specialties: UX Design | Usability | User Research
Pedro ‘Adler’ Jorge
Adler is an interaction designer with a background in design, technology, and user research. He has designed Web-based collaboration tools and led international workshops on interaction design and participatory design. Currently, at Philips Design, he is working on multimedia devices and desktop applications. In his role as an interaction designer, Adler also questions current design processes and the integration of design, business, and engineering to improve the company’s UX strategy. Time permitting, he would like to continue his research work on design processes for collaboration as well as learn the piano.
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Specialties: Interaction Design | UX Strategy | User Research
Peter Bogaards
Founder at Bogieland, Amsterdam Netherlands
With almost 20 years of experience in information design, information architecture, and user-centered design, Peter is a recognized leader in the international information design community. Prior to founding BogieLand, he worked for the InfoDesign & Usability Group of Razorfish Europe and was information and user interface designer at Informaat. He was responsible for the design of intentional user experiences, including user interfaces, site architectures, navigation, and usability for clients such as eBay, Elsevier Science, IBM, Nissan, and Vodafone.
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Specialties: Consulting | Information Architecture | Information Design | UX Design | User Research
Peter Hornsby
Peter has been actively involved in Web design and development since 1993, working in the defense and telecommunications industries; designing a number of interactive, Web-based systems; and advising on usability. He has also worked in education, in both industry and academia, designing and delivering both classroom-based and online training. In his role as Senior Information Architect at Friends Provident, Peter works with a multidisciplinary team, including information architects, analysts, and accessibility specialists, setting standards for user experience and promoting a user-centered design process within the business. Peter has a PhD in software component reuse and a Bachelors degree in human factors, both from Loughborough University, in Leicestershire, UK. He has presented at international conferences and written about reuse, eLearning, and organizational design.
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Specialties: Human Factors | Information Architecture | Interaction Design | UX Education & Training | Usability | User Interface Design | User Research
Richard A. Muscat
Part of the UX team at Red Gate, Richard specializes in Web user experience. At Red Gate, UX designers and usability testers take a central role in product development, trying to ensure the company lives up to its motto: Ingeniously Simple Tools. In his spare time, Richard researches how startup companies can successfully apply user-centered design principles to early-stage business modeling. He has previously worked with several mobile and technology startups and was a Senior Web Specialist at Uniblue Systems. Richard completed an MA in Creativity and Innovation at the Edward de Bono Institute in Malta.
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Specialties: UX Design | User Research
Shanshan Ma
Shanshan has extensive research experience in understanding how human beings organize and find information on the Web and in their own personal computing environment. Her expertise includes designing and conducting user research, handheld device and Web site usability, and user experience consulting. Shanshan received her PhD degree in the area of Human-Computer Interaction from Drexel University.
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Specialties: Consulting | UX Design | Usability | User Research
Shazeeye Kirmani
Shazeeye translates customer needs into delightful online experiences, addressing changing market dynamics while maximizing profit. She thrives at the intersection of technology and marketing. Shazeeye received her M.S. in Human Factors from the State University of New York at Buffalo in 2004. She recently earned her MBA at The Paul Merage School of Business at UC Irvine. Prior to starting her latest course of study, she was a Senior Usability Engineer at Infosys Technologies, Limited, India. Some of the clients she has worked for include Fidelity Investments, CVS Pharmacy, Walmart, and Wells Fargo.
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Specialties: Consulting | Human Factors | Information Architecture | Information Design | UX Management | UX Strategy | Usability | User Research
Shira Gutgold
Shira is a UX designer with a passion for creating innovative and inspiring interactive experiences. She works as a freelance UX design consultant and spends her free time tinkering with new technologies and new usability testing methods for testing different types of interactive experiences. Shira received her MA in Interactive Media from London College of Communications.
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Specialties: Consulting | UX Design | User Research
Steve Baty
Principal at Meld Studios, Sydney Australia
Focusing on the business side of the user experience equation, Steve has over 14 years of experience as a UX design and strategy practitioner, working on Web sites and Web applications. Leading teams of user experience designers, information architects, interaction designers, and usability specialists, Steve integrates user and business imperatives into balanced user experience strategies for corporate, not-for-profit, and government clients. He holds Masters degrees in Electronic Commerce and Business Administration from Australia’s Macquarie University (MGSM), and a strong focus on defining and meeting business objectives carries through all his work. He also holds a Bachelor of Science in Applied Statistics, which provides a strong analytical foundation that he further developed through his studies in archaeology. Steve is VP of the Interaction Design Association (IxDA), a member of IA Institute and UPA, founder of the UX Book Club initiative, Co-Chair of of UX Australia, and an editor and contributor for Johnny Holland.
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Specialties: Consulting | UX Strategy | User Research
Todd Warfel
Founding Partner at Messagefirst, Philadelphia PA USA
At Messagefirst, Todd focuses on research and design of consumer and b2b products. A recognized leader in the design research and usability fields, Todd speaks regularly at universities and industry conferences and contributes to industry publications. With over 14 years of industry experience and a background in English, cognitive psychology, and product design, he has worked on over a dozen industry-first products. Todd has done work with a variety of clients, including Albertsons, AT&T Wireless, Bankrate, Bank of America, Comcast, Cornell University, Dell, GSK, IntraLinks, Palm, Sallie Mae, Splenda, SBC, SUNY, and Tufts University.
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Specialties: Consulting | Interaction Design | Usability | User Research
Tomer Sharon
A user experience researcher at Google New York since 2008, Tomer is currently doing user research for Google Search. Previously, he led the UX research effort for Google’s online advertising management platform, DFP (Doubleclick for Publishers). Prior to working for Google, he was a user researcher at Check Point Software Technologies in Israel, where he led the research effort for dozens of networking and Internet security products on various platforms. As founder and president of UPA Israel, Tomer led the chapter to many achievements, including raising awareness of the need for easy-to-use, efficient, and fun technology products, as well as growing and nurturing a professional community of 1,000 practitioners. He speaks at conferences and professional events, is a published author of articles and papers, and a past editorial board member for UX Magazine. Tomer is the author of the forthcoming Morgan Kaufmann book, It’s Our Research: Getting Stakeholder Buy-in for User Experience Research Projects, which will be out in 2012. He holds a master’s degree in human factors in information design from Bentley University.
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Specialties: Human Factors | Usability | User Research
Tricia Clement
Founder at jUXtworks Inc., San Francisco Bay Area CA USA
Tricia specializes in translating consumer needs and cultural differences into delightful online experiences. Capturing data through various qualitative and quantitative research methods and combining it with advanced behavioral modeling techniques, she creates a holistic visualization of a consumer’s mental model, cognitive process, and behavioral patterns. Her insights and visualizations help companies align their corporate priorities, develop their product strategies, and align their organizational structures with those of their customers. Prior to entering industry, Tricia was a National Research Service Award (NRSA) Neuroscience Postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University, examining social regulation of the brain. She has extensively studied and written about the commonalities and differences in learning and memory strategies between humans and other animals, focusing on social learning, concept learning, memory strategies, and symbolic representation. For her work in the area of cognition, she has received awards and competitive grants from the National Science Foundation (NSF), National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), and Howard Hughes. Tricia has published over 30 journal articles and book chapters. American Scientist and The Economist covered her innovative research demonstrating work ethic in pigeons, which challenged human-centered theories explaining the phenomenon. Her latest page turner, “Steering Clear of Trouble: Fish Can Infer Social Rank by Observation Alone,” garnered the cover of Nature.
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Specialties: Brand Strategy | Consulting | Information Design | UX Strategy | User Research
Whitney Hess
Based in New York City, Whitney is an independent UX design consultant. She helps make stuff easy and pleasurable to use. Whitney is a strategic partner with Happy Cog and UX consultant for boxee, among other startups, agencies, and major corporations. Prior to going independent, she was on the design team at Liquidnet. Previously, she was an interaction designer at the marketing agencies Digitas and Tribal DDB, where her clients included American Express, The New York Times, Allstate, Claritin, Tropicana, and EarthLink. Though she began her higher education in computer science, Whitney received a Bachelor of Arts in Professional Writing and a Master’s degree in Human-Computer Interaction from Carnegie Mellon University.
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Specialties: Consulting | Interaction Design | UX Design | UX Strategy | Usability | User Interface Design | User Research
Whitney Quesenbery
Principal Consultant at Whitney Interactive Design, LLC
New York NY USA
Whitney is an expert in user research, user experience, and usability, with a passion for clear communication. As Principal Consultant at Whitney Interactive Design, she works with large and small companies to develop usable Web sites and applications. She enjoys learning about people around the world and using those insights to design products where people matter. She also works on projects with the National Cancer Institute / National Institutes of Health, IEEE, The Open University, and others. Whitney has served as President of the Usability Professionals’ Association (UPA), on the Executive Council for UXnet, on the board of the Center for Plain Language, and as Director of the UPA Usability in Civic Life project. She has also served on two U.S. government advisory committees: Advisory Committee to the U.S. Access Board (TEITAC), updating the Section 508 regulations, and as Chair for Human Factors and Privacy on the Elections Assistance Commission Advisory Committee (TGDC), creating requirements for voting systems for US elections. Whitney is proud that one of her articles has won an STC Outstanding Journal Article award and that her chapter in Content and Complexity, “Dimensions of Usability,” appears on many course reading lists. She wrote about the use of stories in personas in the chapter “Storytelling and Narrative,” in The Personas Lifecycle, by Pruitt and Adlin. Recently, Rosenfeld Media published her book Storytelling in User Experience Design, which she coauthored with Kevin Brooks.
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Specialties: Accessibility | Consulting | Usability | User Research
