UX Design
Leandro Agro
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.
Read Leandro’s blog, in Italian, at www.leeander.com.
Specialties: Interaction Design | UX Design | Usability
Elizabeth Bacon
Liz discovered her calling in 1999, when she joined Cooper as an interaction designer. As a Cooper consultant, she performed ethnographic research, developed personas, and delivered innovative interaction design solutions. She worked on projects in a wide range of domains, from consumer-oriented Web sites to enterprise resource planning systems to blue-sky designs for office telephones. As a supervising/principal designer with a theoretical bent, she also helped advance Cooper’s methodology and practice. From 2002–2006, Liz worked in technology product planning at St. Jude Medical—a Fortune 100 company that develops implantable medical devices for cardiac rhythm management—where she led UX design for complex software systems. Her elegant yet friendly user experiences improved clinicians’ ability to provide good patient care. A resident of Portland, Oregon, Liz is the IxDA Local Coordinator and is active in CHIFOO (ACM SIGCHI). She is also on the IxDA Board of Directors.
Specialties: Interaction Design | UX Design
Practice Director of Interaction Design, at Quarry Integrated
Communications
Robert leads projects for clients who want to distinguish
themselves through products that are well designed, usable,
and deliver an outstanding customer experience. As Practice
Director of Interaction Design, he also works with teammates
to develop Quarry’s design methods. For instance, Robert introduced
the use of personas to Quarry and has
since then employed personas for projects in a variety of industries.
He has also helped develop methods for better aligning usability
with the goals and practices of marketing and branding. Some
of this expertise is captured in Robert’s invited chapter
about “Marketing Versus Design Personas,” in
The
Persona Lifecycle,
a book Morgan Kaufmann will publish in 2006. With over 14 years of experience designing software
and Web applications, Robert has worked throughout North America
and Europe, at companies with familiar names such as Sony and FedEx.
Specialties: Brand Strategy | Consulting | Interaction Design | UX Design | UX Strategy
Peter Bogaards
Founder, at Bogieland
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.
Specialties: Consulting | Information Architecture | Information Design | UX Design | User Research
Dan Brown
Dan has practiced information architecture and user experience design since 1994. Through his consulting work in both the public and private sectors, Dan has improved enterprise communications for both Federal and Fortune 500 clients, including The Federal Communications Commission, The Postal Service, US Airways, Fannie Mae, First USA, British Telecom, Special Olympics, AOL, and the World Bank. Dan has taught classes at Duke, Georgetown, and American Universities. He is a popular speaker and writer on topics relating to information architecture. Most recently, Dan taught a pre-conference tutorial at the 2005 IA Summit on using Microsoft Visio. He is very active in the local Washington, DC, information architecture community and organizes regular workshops there. In 2002, Dan collaborated with information architects around the world to establish the Information Architecture Institute, the first professional organization dedicated to the craft.
Read Dan’s blog at www.greenonions.com.
Specialties: Information Architecture | UX Design
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.
Specialties: Information Architecture | UX Design | Usability
Richard F. Cecil
Rick has nearly a decade of experience envisioning and designing innovative solutions for a variety of companies, including startups, non-profits, universities, and Fortune 100 companies. During his tenure at Motricity, he has worked with Cingular, BET, Ask, Alltel, and other clients and has been the Design Lead for their core product offering. Rick was a co-founder of both the Interaction Design Group—now the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)—and the Triangle Usability Professionals Association (UPA). Active in the UPA, he also serves on the organizing committee for World Usability Day. Rick is also the UXnet Local Ambassador for Research Triangle Park.
Specialties: Interaction Design | UX Design | UX Strategy | User Interface Design
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.
Specialties: Consulting | UX Design | Usability
Garett Dworman
Tec-Ed specializes in knowledge-management analysis and design. Garett has over ten years of experience in product and user interface design for firms ranging from established financial institutions to high-tech startups. Garett has published extensively on how people and organizations disseminate, access, and consume information. He holds a Ph.D. in Decision Sciences from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
Specialties: Consulting | Information Architecture | Interaction Design | UX Design
Jessyca Frederick
Principal, at Monarch Productions
Currently Senior User Experience Designer at comparison-shopping giant Shopzilla, Jessyca is also Principal of the all-things-Web consulting firm, Monarch Productions, which she founded in 2001. Always looking for new ways to stay involved in the UX community, Jessyca is a member of UPA, CHI, and STC and is the UXnet Local Ambassador for Los Angeles. She has recently published articles with STC. Jessyca has a Bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts from the University of California at San Diego and also completed a minor course of study in Mathematics.
Specialties: Brand Strategy | Consulting | UX Design
Leo Frishberg
Since graduating with a Masters in Architecture in 1984, Leo has offered user experience design, technical communications, and product development services both through his consultancy Phase II and within several technology companies. A strong proponent of user-centered design, he is currently designing logic analyzers at Tektronix. Leo has served the Portland, Oregon, UX community as Program Chair for the local ACM SIGCHI chapter, CHIFOO (Computer Human Interface Forum Of Oregon), since 2000. He also co-organized and facilitated workshops on the relationship of industrial design and interaction design at the CHI2004|ICSID Forum and at the Sun 2005 Engineering Conference.
Find out more about Leo at Phase II.
Specialties: Information Architecture | UX Design
Pabini Gabriel-Petit
Principal User Experience Architect, at Spirit Softworks LLC
At scanR, Pabini is leading user experience strategy and design for Web and mobile applications that let users scan digital photos of whiteboards and documents. Founder of Spirit Softworks, a Silicon Valley user experience strategy and design consultancy, Pabini has over 15 years of experience designing digital products. She is highly skilled in interaction design, information architecture, and visual interface design and has designed innovative desktop and Web applications in product domains that encompass authoring, hypertext, collaboration, and networking and communications. Past clients include Google, Cisco Systems, Tellme Networks, WebEx Communications, Chemdex, Whistle Communications, Kaleida Labs, Apple Computer, and Ashton-Tate. Formerly User Experience Manager at WebEx, Pabini designed Web applications for online meetings, training sessions, seminars, and remote collaboration, including the award-winning Meeting Center and Training Center. Pabini is an Emeritus Member of the Board of Directors of the Interaction Design Association (IxDA) and IxDA Local Coordinator for Silicon Valley, Co-Chair of BayDUX, UXnet Local Ambassador for Silicon Valley, BayCHI IxD BOF (Birds of a Feather) Leader, and a former Interactions Editorial Board Member.
Specialties: Consulting | Interaction Design | UX Design | UX Management | UX Strategy | Visual Design
Bob Goodman
Principal, at BobGoodman.Net, Inc.
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.
Bob writes about technology and culture on his blog, UXculture.
Specialties: Brand Strategy | Consulting | Information Architecture | UX Design | Usability
Joel Grossman
Founder and Managing Principal, at Pivotal Click
Joel Grossman is the Founder and Managing Principal of Pivotal Click, a user experience research, design, and innovation firm that focuses on helping clients identify the moments of truth for their digital products and services. Prior to forming Pivotal Click, Joel built the Interactive Branding practice for LAGA, a nationally recognized brand design agency. He has held senior UX management positions with Playboy Enterprises and Encyclopedia Britannica. He also led product development for Edventions, a start-up that Edison Schools since acquired. Joel began his career as an independent technology consultant, working on application development and networking projects in the US and Japan. Joel has a master’s degree in political economy from the University of Minnesota and serves as Chicago’s Local Ambassador for UXnet.
Specialties: Brand Strategy | Consulting | Information Architecture | UX Design | UX Strategy
Michael Hawley
As director 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.
Specialties: Consulting | UX Design | UX Management | Usability | User Research
Mike Hughes
In his role as User Assistance Architect at IBM Internet Security Systems, Mike identifies tools, methods, and standards for integrating the content and delivery of user assistance, including documentation, Help, e-learning, and training. He was formerly the lead UX designer for CheckFree Corporation, where he instituted their User Experience Research and Design Center. Mike has a PhD in Instructional Technology from the University of Georgia and a Masters in Technical and Professional Communication from Southern Polytechnic State University. He is an Associate Fellow with the Society for Technical Communication and a Certified Performance Technologist through the International Society for Performance Improvement. His professional focus is designing user interfaces that accommodate the user as learner.
Column on UXmatters: “User Assistance—Putting Help in context”
Specialties: Information Design | UX Design
Colleen Jones
For a decade, Colleen has created successful interactive experiences and communications in industries such as health, telecommunications, and retail as well as for brands such as The Home Depot, CDC, Cingular Wireless, AutoTrader, Boston Scientific, and more. Colleen enjoys distilling complex considerations into a simple interactive experience for Web sites, IVRs (Interactive Voice Response systems), kiosks, and other channels. As a consultant, she draws on a wealth of academic knowledge and real-world experience to deliver results. With an M.A. in technical communication, she has made several presentations and contributed articles to the Society for Technical Communication and ACM SIGCHI. She also writes articles for industry publications such as iMedia Connection.
Column on UXmatters: “More Than Words—Content that communicates”
Specialties: Information Architecture | Information Design | UX Design | UX Strategy
Joshua Kaufman
At Tiny Pictures, Joshua is creating user-centered designs for Radar, a social media service that lets people engage in visual conversations using camera phone pictures and videos. He has over 7 years of experience working as an interaction designer and user experience consultant, in both the United States and Europe. He earned an M.S. in Human Computer Interaction from University College London, University of London. Joshua is an active member of the user experience design community, is a member of IxDA and BayCHI, and was previously the London Local Ambassador for UXnet and a columnist for Digital Web Magazine.
Read Joshua’s writings about design, technology, and products on his blog unraveled.
Specialties: Consulting | Interaction Design | UX Design
Joe Lamantia
A veteran architect, consultant, and designer, Joe Lamantia has been an active member and leader in the UX community since 1996. Joe 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.
Joe blogs regularly at JoeLamantia.com
Specialties: Consulting | Information Architecture | UX Design | UX Strategy | User Research
Michele Marut
Michele is currently a Human Factors Specialist with the medical manufacturing company Respironics. Since 1999, Michele has been applying Human Factors principles to the design and evaluation of a range of products. Her experience includes usability testing kitchen and bath products at Kohler and making Navy ships more user friendly at General Dynamics: Bath Iron Works. She currently serves as the UXnet Local Ambassador and IxDA Local Coordinator for Pittsburgh and chairs the Environmental Design Technical Group of HFES. Michele holds an M.S. in Human Environment Relations from Cornell University.
Specialties: Human Factors | Information Design | UX Design
Luca Mascaro
Owner and Lead User Experience Architect, at SketchIn
Luca has more than 10 years of experience in information design, user interface design, interaction design, and accessibility for Web sites and Web applications. He is founder of SketchIn—a user experience design and strategy consultancy located in Lugano, Switzerland—and co-founder and UX manager at Phiware Engineering—a Swiss firm specializing in enterprise applications. Luca’s work focuses on agile UX design, applying user-centered design principles to projects for clients such as Generali Assurance, Swiss-Italian Television, the Swiss Post, and Italy’s Innovation Department. Luca is president of IOSHI (International Organization for Standards in Human/Computer Interfaces)—an association that promotes standards in Human/Computer interfaces—is a member of many international organizations—such as IWA/HWG (International Webmasters Association/HTML Writers Guild) and UPA (Usability Professionals’ Association)—and participates in the W3C HTML, Web Content Accessibility, and Web Application working groups as well as that for ISO software ergonomics.
Read Luca’s blog, in Italian, at www.lucamascaro.info.
Specialties: Brand Strategy | Consulting | Information Design | Interaction Design | UX Design | User Interface Design
Jim Nieters
Jim has been a usability and user experience design practitioner for more than 15 years—and a leader and management consultant for eight of those years. He built and managed the Cisco User Experience Design Group. Each year, over $200 million in increased revenues resulted from their work. Jim specializes in UX organizational leadership and transformation and in driving big ideas that significantly increase revenue.
Column on UXmatters: “Management Matters—Leading user experience teams”
Specialties: UX Design | UX Management | UX Strategy | User Research
Greg Nudelman
Greg has worked on improving software usability for over 10 years, designing, researching, and developing multi-tier distributed applications for ecommerce, biotechnology, real estate, and banking companies. He specializes in triangulating field studies, using a participatory design methodology to understand people’s pain points and design intuitive, holistic experiences. Greg is the originator of the experience partners concept. He loves using storyboarding to promote his partner experience design vision and has participated in several successful eBay projects that used a storyboarding methodology. Greg taught a workshop on participatory design at IA Summit 2008, in Miami, Florida, and has published articles in JavaWorld, ASP.NETPro, and more recently, in UXmatters. He works in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Greg’s Web site is GregNudelman.com.
Specialties: UX Design | User Research
George Olsen
Principal, Interaction by Design, LLC
George has more than 10 years of experience doing award-winning design work for a variety of companies—from dotcom startups to Hollywood studios such as Disney to Fortune 500 companies, including Nestle Transamerica and The Capital Group, and to Internet giants such as Yahoo!, where he was the interaction designer for Yahoo! Search. For the past two years, George has headed his own user experience consultancy. He has also taught at UCLA Extension, spoken at numerous conferences, and written articles about user experience design. Back when George had a hands-on role in crafting Web sites, he co-founded The Web Standards Project, a grassroots coalition of Web developers who sought to ensure browser-makers fully supported HTML, CSS, and other Web standards that help make the Web accessible to all. He was also a co-founder of both Boxes and Arrows, a peer-written online journal about user experience issues, and UXnet, a group seeking to make connections between people, resources, and UX organizations. Recently, DevSource™ featured George in its series of video interviews with experts in the field of software and Web development, “Great Minds in Development.”
Specialties: Consulting | Interaction Design | UX Design
Steve Psomas
Steve has specialized in Web application design and development, with six years of experience as a user experience designer and four years in UI component engineering, working at Responsys, Neoforma, Intuit, Clear Ink, and Maus Haus. Steve is currently responsible for all user experience design for the Responsys Interact® application. Steve has developed and presented an audioconference on How to Succeed as an Interactive Designer in a Rich Internet Application World. In his work as a designer, he also draws inspiration from his prior experience as a technical writer, teacher, and coach. Steve graduated from the University of San Diego with a B.A. in English. He is a member of UPA and SIGCHI.
Specialties: Human Factors | Information Architecture | Interaction Design | UX Design
Joi L. Roberts
During the past 13 years, Joi has worked in a variety of roles within the telecommunications industry, ranging from requirements gathering to software development/validation to user interface design—voice, telephony, and Web—to user-centered process development and institutionalization. Currently, as the Design Ambassador for the Motorola Consumer Experience Design (CXD) team, Joi is responsible for driving strategic initiatives internally and externally around design education, design culture, talent growth and development, and industry contribution. And, in her spare time, Joi is quite active in the UX design community—often organizing or presenting at local and international industry events and conferences. Joi firmly believes that, in order for the UX community to make a real difference in the world, industry and academia must work together to develop design leadership. In her current role and through her industry participation, she seeks to spread this message.
Specialties: UX Design | UX Strategy | User Interface Design
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.
Specialties: UX Design, Interaction Design, User Interface Design, Usability, User Research
Specialties: Interaction Design | UX Design | Usability | User Interface Design | User Research
Kevin Silver
User Experience Designer, at Clearwired
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.
Kevin blogs, infrequently, at www.kevintsilver.com and more frequently has something to say at The Loop.
Specialties: Consulting | Interaction Design | UX Design | User Interface Design | 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.
Read Joe’s blog, at facetime.blogspot.com.
Specialties: Consulting | Information Architecture | Interaction Design | UX Design | UX Management | User Research
Joost Willemsen
Joost has been an interaction designer since 2000. Working with Lost Boys, he designed successful solutions for clients like KLM, Postbank, and Nuon. His initial focus was on information architecture, with a preference for big, complex projects. Over the years, his expertise has expanded to encompass interaction design and user experience design. Joost joined Backbase—a leading provider of Ajax software, in Amsterdam—to be in the forefront of Rich Internet Application design. At Backbase, Joost is developing prototypes for RIAs. Clients include ABN AMRO, D-Reizen, and KPN. Joost loves his work as an interaction designer, because it combines analysis, creativity, and client contact.
Specialties: Information Architecture | Interaction Design | UX Design
