Usability
Afshan Kirmani
A usability analyst with a background in psychology, Afshan analyzes and determines users’ real needs within specific contexts before designing Web sites and applications. Her user studies go beyond the cognitive approaches users take when using a user interface. Applying her knowledge across domains, she believes that, without an understanding of the human mind and interpretive insights, attempts at creativity and innovation fail to deliver what is essential to users. Afshan values opportunities to connect with other experts in the global UX industry and has presented at local HCI meetups. She values innovation and has faith that usability will emerge as a best practice in software design, globally.
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Specialties: Interaction Design | Usability
Bob Goodman
Product Designer at Microsoft
Principal at BobGoodman.Net, Inc.,
Boston MA USA
Bob Goodman is a Boston-based UX professional whose consulting business offers a unique integrated model of consulting and creative services, including interaction design, information architecture, usability consulting, copywriting, brand building, and business strategy. Before launching his own business, Bob served as creative director at several leading interactive agencies in New England. As a usability consultant, Bob has run hundreds of usability labs. From these intense and sustained interactions with real-world users, he has extracted a unique set of principles and practices surrounding the user experience. At the core is his understanding of the ways in which a successful user experience flows from and undergirds smart business strategy and lasting brand value. Bob is a member of the UPA, IAI, and SIGCHI, and serves as Boston’s Local Ambassador for UXnet. He is a frequent awards show judge and speaker on UX, design, usability, and IA.
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Specialties: Brand Strategy | Consulting | Information Architecture | UX Design | Usability
Daniel Szuc
Principal Usability Consultant at Apogee Usability Asia Ltd., Hong Kong
Daniel is based in Hong Kong and helps companies in Asia like PCCW, HSBC, CSL, China Light & Power, Sunday, Cathay Pacific, Marriott, ADB, and Yahoo! China make their products easier to use. He has also worked with Telstra Australia and IBM. Daniel has spoken on Usability in Hong Kong, China, Singapore, Malaysia, United States, and Australia, helping to develop new groups of interest in the region. He recently co-wrote and released the Usability Kit with Gerry Gaffney. Daniel is a founding member and President of the UPA China Hong Kong Branch, co-founder of the UPA China User Friendly conferences, and holds a BS in Information Management from Melbourne University Australia.
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Specialties: Consulting | UX Strategy | Usability
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
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
Hilary Coolidge
While at Molecular, Hilary has worked on projects for companies in the financial services, consumer products, Web services, and consulting industries. She was responsible for planning and conducting a usability study for a mobile Web site, produced site maps and annotated wireframes for a Web site redesign for a top-10 consulting company, and created a new home page for a well-known job search company, including new branding and campaign messaging. Other companies she has worked with include Coca-Cola, Boost, BCG, IBM, Monster.com, and Houghton Mifflin. Hilary enjoys bringing her business knowledge and experience to the experience design field.
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Specialties: Consulting | UX Design | Usability
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
John S. Rhodes
Strategic Usability Consultant at WebWord LLC, Owego NY USA
Based in Owego, NY, John has helped such organizations as IBM, Women.com, Cabelas, US WEST, Universal Instruments, Binghamton University, and Broome Community College. He earned a B.S. in Management Science, an M.A. in Philosophy, and an M.A. in Experimental and Cognitive Psychology at Binghamton University.
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Specialties: Consulting | UX Strategy | Usability
Josephine Wong
Principal Usability Consultant at Apogee Usability Asia Ltd., Hong Kong
Jo Wong has practiced as a usability consultant in Hong Kong for the past 10 years, working with companies such as PCCW and CSL. She specializes in conducting usability tests in both Cantonese and Mandarin. She is a member of the Usability Professionals’ Association (UPA) Hong Kong Chapter and promotes usability through her work with the Internet Professionals Association. Jo attended Melbourne University, completing a Bachelor of Social Science Information Management.
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Specialties: Consulting | Usability
Junaid Asad
Junaid’s UX design experience encompasses both the services and the manufacturing industries. He has worked on user interface design for Web applications and products, new technologies for both mature and emerging markets, business process analysis and re-engineering, and human performance assessment and improvement. Junaid has a graduate degree in Human Factors Psychology, and with a graduate degree in Electrical Engineering as well, he brings a multidisciplinary approach to his work. He is also a Certified Usability Analyst (CUA).
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Specialties: UX Design | Human Factors | Usability
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 Caprio
Laura has been active in Web site design since 1998—first as a Web designer, then as a content designer and editor. In 2001, Laura joined the new Information Architecture team at DNM—now Fullsix. Since then, she has been active in information architecture, user-centered design, and usability testing. Currently, Laura is working as a product manager at Matrix, a company in the Telecom Italia Group—the most important telco player in Italy. In her role at Matrix, she is responsible for UX design and information architecture and is the editor of www.alice.it, one of the best-known Web portals in Italy. Laura is co-founder of www.informationarchitecture.it, the first Italian Web site focusing on information architecture and user-centered design. She is also co-author of the book Information Architecture, the only book in Italian on this topic. For the last five years, Laura has been promoting information architecture and user-centered design through articles, courses, and panels at seminars and conferences, including the Italian IA Summit.
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Specialties: Information Architecture | UX Design | Usability
Laurie Lamar
Laurie Lamar was previously a consulting information architect and interaction
designer in Boulder, Colorado, USA. Her clients ranged from
Fortune 100 companies to nonprofits, government agencies, and
startups. Projects included large marketing and support-oriented
Web sites, intranet portals, search engines, custom content-management
user interfaces, and complex Web applications. Laurie serves
with Karyn Young as a UXnet Local Ambassador for the Denver
area. She is also chair of the Rocky Mountain CHI chapter.
Laurie’s interests include languages, world travel, and
the interstices between disciplines.
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Specialties: Consulting | Information Architecture | Interaction Design | Usability
Leandro Agrò
Leandro has more than 10 years of experience as an interaction designer and manager of IxD teams. He specializes in next generation user interfaces that provide human-like interaction with intelligent virtual assistants. At Key-One, in Milan, Italy, Leandro is providing detailed specifications for the behaviors of such virtual assistants, including gesture, language, and social skills; defining emotional models that let these assistants respond to the moods of users; and designing visual user interfaces and voice-recognition systems. Before joining Key-One, Leandro was Advanced Design Director at the innovative startup SrLabs, where he focused on eyetracking for the usability market. While there, he led a design team that created the first hands-free, multimodal GUI with voice and gaze input. Previously, he was co-founder and Vice President of a large eConsultancy with offices in Milan and Boston. Leandro studied interaction design at the Domus Academy, in Milan, Italy. He is actively involved with the Milano Bicocca University, TorVergata University, and others. Leandro is a prolific writer on topics from IxD, usability, and UX to natural, multimodal user interfaces. He was the founder of Idearium.org, the first Italian eZine/community for UX designers, and is co-producer of the Interaction Frontiers conference.
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Specialties: Interaction Design | UX Design | Usability
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
Matteo Penzo
At Consultechnology, an ITC company with offices in Milan and Lamezia Terme, Italy, Matteo conducted research projects that focused on natural interactions between people and computers, automotive applications, and universal design—specifically for the elderly and the disabled. Matteo began his career in information technology working for Anixter International at their Milan and London offices, managing their intranet design and programming team. Then he
worked as a project manager for a leading Italian Web agency
in Milan, where he managed Internet projects for international Fortune 500 companies. Matteo is a sought after speaker at national and international seminars—including CHI2005, Macromedia, and VNU to mention just a few—and is a professor
for the Interaction Design course in the Masters program in Humanistic Computer Studies at Bicocca University, Milan. He has written numerous articles on the subjects of natural interfaces, user experience, and technological innovation. He is also the UXnet Local Ambassador for Milan.
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Specialties: Consulting | Interaction Design | UX Strategy | Usability
Michael Hawley
As VP of Mad*Pow’s user experience department, 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
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 J. Sherman
Paul was previously Director of User-Centered Design, at Sage Software in Atlanta, Georgia. In the 1990s, he was a Member of Technical Staff at Lucent Technologies in New Jersey. As a consultant, he has conducted usability testing and interface design for accounting and tax preparation applications, Web-based financial planning and portfolio management applications, and eCommerce Web sites. Paul is Vice President of the Usability Professionals' Association, was the founding President of the UPA's Dallas/Fort Worth chapter, and is a Full Member of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society. He is also the editor of Usability Success Stories: How Organizations Improve by Making Easier-to-Use Software and Web Sites, published by Gower in October 2006. Paul received his Ph.D. in Human Factors Psychology in 1997 from the University of Texas at Austin.
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Specialties: Usability | User Interface Design
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 | Usability | User Interface Design | User Research
Russell Wilson
At NetQoS, Russ
reports directly to the CEO and is responsible for the
company’s R&D budget and interface
design for all NetQoS products. He redesigned
their flagship product, SuperAgent. Previously, Russ
was the VP of Engineering at HyPerformix, a simulation
and modeling company. Before joining HyPerformix, Russ
founded a successful startup that generated over $4 million
in revenue. As both CEO and CTO,
he prototyped all interfaces for the company’s
products and worked closely with clients to improve
usability. Russ has extensive experience
in interaction design, rapid prototyping, and usability
and holds a BS in Computer Science and an MS in Software
Engineering from The University of Texas at Austin. Russ
is the Austin Local Ambassador for UXnet and an Austin
representative for IxD, as well as a member of ACM,
IEEE, SIGCHI, UPA, ASIS&T, and AIGA.
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Specialties: Interaction Design | Usability
Sam Ng
Founder and Director at Optimal Usability and OptimalSort, Wellington New Zealand
As a co-founder and Director of the consultancy Optimal Usability and a passionate generalist, Sam has been involved with over 100 usability and design projects with clients in such diverse domains as government, ecommerce, education, finance, telecommunications, and not-for-profits. With a desire to practice what he preaches, Sam recently led a small team to design and develop the online card sorting tool, OptimalSort. Built on a modest budget and with limited resources, OptimalSort is now being used by hundreds of leading companies and Web professionals worldwide.
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Specialties: Consulting | Information Architecture | Interaction Design | UX Strategy | Usability
Tobias Komischke
Tobias has been working in the area of user experience for over 10 years. Currently, he is responsible for the user experience on the inside—development—and outside—training and consulting—at Infragistics. At Siemens, he held senior R&D positions at Corporate Technology, Corporate Research, and Medical Solutions, in both Germany and the U.S. Tobias earned a PhD in Economics and Social Sciences, from Universität Kassel, in Germany. He has reviewed papers for several international technical journals and conferences and has published more than 30 articles. He is a member of ACM, HFES, and UPA.
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Specialties: Consulting | Human Factors | Usability | User Interface Design
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
Whitney Quesenbery
Principal Consultant at Whitney Interactive Design LLC, New York NY USA
Whitney is a user interface designer and usability specialist with a passion for clear communication. As the principal consultant for Whitney Interactive Design, she works with companies around the world to develop usable Web sites and applications. Formerly a principal at Cognetics Corporation, she was the design leader for many design and usability projects. Her project credits include work with companies such as Novartis, Deloitte Consulting, Lucent, McGraw-Hill, Siemens, Hewlett-Packard, and Dow Jones. While at Cognetics, she was one of the developers of LUCID (Logical User-Centered Interaction Design), which promotes the importance of a user-centered approach and usability in design. Whitney is a frequent presenter at industry conferences, including UPA, ACM SIGCHI, STC, tekom, and the IA Summit Winwriters. She is the President of UPA (Usability Professionals' Association), Past-Manager and Web Manager for the STC Usability SIG, and a member of the Executive Committee for UXnet. Whitney is also the Director of the UPA Voting and Usability Project and is on the US Elections Assistance Commission's guidelines development committee, where she works to ensure the usability of voting systems.
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Specialties: Consulting | Usability | User Interface Design
