INTERNET USER EXPERIENCE 2008
March 31 - April 2
Morris Lawrence Building, Ann Arbor, MI
A conference spotlighting methods for dramatically improving today's web site user experience
Speakers (listed in alphabetical order)
Mike Beasley
Usability Analyst
Pure Visibility
Michael Beasley is a usability analyst at Pure Visibility, where he continues his work to make things work better for users. He has designed websites and software user interfaces and conducted usability testing and heuristic evaluations. He is the current president of the Michigan chapter of the Usability Professionals' Association as well as an associate content editor for UX Magazine. Mike got his masters' degree in Human-Computer Interaction from the School of Information at the University of Michigan.
Carl Collins
Information Architect
Enlighten
As an information architect Carl diagrams effective and engaging user experiences. His role is to define requirements for sites based on the intersection of user needs, strategic objectives, and well-organized content. He specializes in applying emerging web technologies to existing user experience needs and enjoys determining the optimal information set for a given presentation. Carl has previously worked on voice over IP interfaces with NOVA group in Osaka, Japan and as a project coordinator for the Sakai Foundation, an open source software group that develops content management solutions for universities. He has also worked as a freelance consultant on a diverse array of social web projects. He is committed to reducing assumptions by incorporating user research and testing into the design process. He holds a Masters of Science in Information from the University of Michigan.
Eva de Lera
Senior Strategist
Office of Learning Technologies
Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC)
Expertise:
- User experience evangelist.
- Strategic communications.
- Project management.
- International relations and outreach.
- Development of innovation and educational technology strategies and initiatives.
- User experience evaluation and design.
- Research and design of online engagement.
Current Activities:
Instructor, Human Computer Interaction, at Open University of Catalonia (2001 to present).
Advisory Board, The Horizon Report 2008 (a New Media Consortium-Educause initiative).
Advisory Board Participant, Curriki.org, the Global Education and Learning Community.
Founder and Board Member, UPA Spain, the local chapter of the Usability Professionals' Association.
Senior Strategist, Office of Learning Technologies, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya.
Senior Marketing Communications and User Experience Advisor, Lilacom Strategic Communications' Consulting firm.
Education:
M.A./Ph.D. in progress, in Information and Knowledge Society from Universitat Oberta de Catalunya
BA in Psychology (1998) - New York University, School of Arts and Sciences
Public Relations Certificate (1999) - New York University
Small Business Administration (1998) - New York University
Film and Video Certificate (1990) - New York University
Video Art Direction Diploma (1988) - IDEP, Spain
Chris Farnum
Senior Information Architect
Enlighten
Chris' role is to define site structure and navigation based on user needs, strategic objectives, and well-organized content. He also specializes in creating taxonomies and defining the metadata needed for searching, browsing and content management. An essential part of his methodology is to incorporate user research into the design process. Chris has been an Information Architect for over eight years. His experience prior to joining Enlighten includes working at ProQuest Information and Learning, where he was instrumental in redesigning the ProQuest search interface. He has also worked for a wide array of clients as a consultant with Argus Associates and Compuware. His preparation for being an Information Architect includes working as a professional librarian and earning a Masters in Information and Library Studies from the University of Michigan.
Linda Girard
Co-founder and Visionary
Pure Visibility, Inc.
Linda's energy and enthusiasm for all things search engine marketing are impossible to miss! She caught the bug in the late 90s working at Captec Financial Group, while working on the company web site to generate more leads. The magic of the web has been clear to Linda ever since; watching the industry grow and gain popular acceptance has been a heady rush for Linda!
Linda remembers the days before Google existed and when search engine optimization was so new that her spiel at networking events drew little more than blank stares. Finding a place to practice as such an early adopter was a challenge, so Linda founded sheshe.seo, whose clients became the original clientèle of Pure Visibility. She is intensely proud of these long term relationships with companies like Saline Lectronics (a national provider of printed circuit board assembly) and GreenPath Debt Solutions (a national not-for-profit debt consolidation service), and she is excited to see and participate in their growth for over five years.
Now highly sought after as a speaker, Linda has counseled west-coast venture capital groups, real estate boards, and businesses throughout Southeast Michigan through her monthly search engine optimization series. The SEO series attracts nationally acclaimed guests such as Peter Morville (author of Ambient Findability), and Andy King (founder of webreference.com and websiteoptimization.com). Linda is also a columnist for Create Magazine and Past President of the Ann Arbor Ad Club where she continues to serve as Education Chair. Linda is also pleased to have judged the 10th annual international WebAward competition for web site development.
Keith Instone
Information Architecture Lead
ibm.com User
Experience Design Team
IBM Corporation
Keith Instone is the information architecture lead on the ibm.com User Experience Design team. He works on UI standards, strategic IA projects (such as search, personalization and social navigation), and on the continuous improvement of ibm.com. He also participates in IBM design leadership activities such as Agile/User Experience Design community formation.
Outside of IBM, he serves on the board of the User Experience Network.
Janice James
Director, User Experience
Perficient, Inc.
Janice joined Perficient in 2006 with more than 18 years of experience in the field of human factors, usability and user-centered design and development for software, hardware, travel, Internet, financial services, education, health care and retail products and services. During the last eight years as principal of her own consulting firm, Simply Usable through Design, she has focused on providing usability engineering and interface design consulting services to companies ranging in size from start-ups to Fortune 500s, including CNet, AOL/Netscape, Hewlett Packard, Unisys, Intuit, Humana, BestBuy.com, eBay, AARP and McGraw-Hill, to name a few. Prior to forming her own consulting company in 1998, Janice introduced usability and user centered design to three major corporations: Netscape Communications, AMR's SABRE Travel Information Network and Electronic Forms Systems (EFS). Within all three corporations, she led the efforts in developing and then managing usability and UCD programs. She was instrumental in educating and raising the awareness of thousands of designers, developers, and managers about the benefits of and process of iteratively integrating UCD into the development lifecycle. Across each of the corporations, Janice actively promoted usability engineers as vital contributors to the development of usable products and services.
Janice has a broad range of experience in all types of usability and user-centered design processes. She has special expertise in establishing positive client relationships, providing team leadership and in analyzing client needs and proposing appropriate and cost-effective usability methods that are conducive to the various phases of development lifecycles and that meet specific business goals and usability requirements. Janice is experienced in effectively managing all phases of a project.
Janice's career is highlighted by her leadership in professional associations. In 1990, she recognized the need for a practical-oriented organization dedicated to enhancing the skills and professional success of usability professionals and became the principal founder of the Usability Professionals' Association. After serving as UPA's President for five years and and developing four association conferences, she continued playing an active role in the association's growth by serving on the Board of Directors through 1999. She co-authored and developed the guidelines for Chapters and directed other leaders in the development of many of the early UPA chapters. Janice also founded the Kentuckiana Chapter of STC and co-founded the Society for Technical Communications' Professional Interest Committee on Usability.
Janice holds undergraduate and graduate degrees in English and Technical Communications. She has completed graduate work in Human Factors and HCI and is a published author and frequent speaker at professional conferences. Janice was a contributing author of Usability in Practice, a book of case studies on starting and running usability programs in corporations. She is also the co-author of a forthcoming book on UCD case studies.
Laurie Kantner
Director of Client Services
Tec-Ed, Inc.
Laurie Kantner is a senior usability researcher for Tec-Ed, overseeing and conducting a wide range of client projects using both field and laboratory methods. Her recent research includes work for Ford Motor Company, the NIH, McGraw-Hill, Yahoo!, and eBay. Laurie has served on the Board of Directors of the Usability Professionals' Association. Her publications include UPA papers on "Field Research in Commercial Product Development" (2003) and "Balancing Rigor, Adaptation, and Mentoring: Field Study at Customer Sites to Initiate a Corporate Usability Program" (2004).
Gavin Lew
Managing Director
User Centric, Inc.
Gavin has over 15 years of experience in corporate and academic environments. He was formerly President of an Internet start-up, principal at a Web development company, a member of Ameritech's human factors group, and, prior to founding User Centric, a director at a human factors consultancy. He has a strong background and expertise in user experience and user-centered design. He is a frequent presenter at professional conferences and inventor of several patents. Gavin completed doctoral coursework in Experimental Psychology at Loyola University and holds masters degree. His recent clients in 2007 include Motorola, Verizon Wireless, Abbott, Microsoft and LG electronics.
Tonya McCarley
Information Architect
Enlighten
Tonya is an Information Architect at Enlighten where she works closely with team members and clients to deliver compelling, high quality interactive experiences to users. Her recent projects have included evaluating and understanding the interactive needs of several diverse age groups. Focusing on the needs of an aging user group was essential to the AARP-The Hartford insurance partnership project. At the other end of the spectrum, assessing the skills and abilities of young online users of MGA Entertainment products was critical.
Prior to her work at Enlighten, Tonya was an outside sales representative in college textbook publishing where she focused on helping professors and students achieve their educational objectives. With extensive experience in user-needs assessment, focus groups, and usability, Tonya contributes a client-centric focus to her projects. She holds a Masters of Science in Information from the University of Michigan.
Dave Mitropoulos-Rundus
Director, User Experience
Perficient
Dave Mitropoulos-Rundus (DaveMR) is a Director of User Experience at Perficient, Inc.
He has designed user interfaces for hand-helds and kiosks and web sites and production machines, and has conducted evaluations
in the lab, on the web, in the field, and in the homes of consumers.
Dave has held usability consulting, sales, and management positions in both company product development and in consulting groups.
He has led corporate initiatives to standardize user interfaces, improve usability, and achieve Section 508 compliance.
He has also focused on dramatically improving usability and conversion rates on Business-to-Consumer websites and on achieving usable and useful IT software. Dave may be best known for his "Live Web Site Evaluation" presentations.
Dave has a Masters degree in Human Factors Psychology from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
Dave has written papers and given presentations, tutorials, and consultations on usability, web site design, product design, and home product testing. He is a chapter author of, "Design by People for People: Essays in Usability".
Dave is a member of HFES, ACM SIG-CHI, and a former board member of UPA, and is a founder and officer of the Michigan UPA.
Chris Moritz
Senior Vice-President and Experience Planning Director
Campbell-Ewald
Chris leads a team of talented Experience Planners in the Digital group for one of the country's top full-service, integrated communications agencies, providing rich, relevant and influential digital advertising and interactive spaces for a variety of national brands, such as Chevrolet, Alltel Wireless, Michelin North America, the U.S. Navy, the United States Postal Service, and others.
Chris has 10 years of experience in digital marketing, with foundations in graphic design, web development, information architecture, and digital strategy.
Prior to Campbell-Ewald, Chris was the Senior Designer and Developer at Aptek Group, working with clients such as St. John Health, WISE Solutions, Optrex USA, Michigan Manufacturer's Association, and RS Electronics.
Annalisa Oswald
Design Lead
Allurent
Annalisa Oswald is a Design Lead at Allurent and develops Interaction and Visual Design for Allurent's retail clients, as well as the company's software products. Before joining Allurent, Annalisa designed Flex applications at Oracle Retail. Previously, she spent six years at Frictionless Commerce, designing interfaces for its sourcing and eProcurement applications. Annalisa has an extensive background in print and Web design and has worked with clients such as Anthropologie, Sephora, Borders, Lycos, The Limited, American Electric Power, Bristol Myers Squibb, Phillip Morris USA, and numerous non-profits. Annalisa is also a painter and multimedia artist. She holds a BFA in Painting and Drawing from The Ohio State University.
Mona Patel
Executive Director,
Human Factors International
Mona Patel is an Executive Director with Human Factors International. Mona manages the New York HFI office. Mona's passion and strength is investigating consumer thinking and behavior, and using that insight to drive a strategy that meets an organization's business goals. Mona is a frequent presenter of innovative topics in both local and national usability conferences and is one of HFI's highest rated instructors. Mona also developed HFI's new Persuasion, Emotion and Trust (PET)-focused methodologies and offerings, including PETscan. Mona holds a Master's degree in Mass Communication, with a focus in Advertising and Marketing from Boston University, and a Bachelor's degree in Human Factors and Ergonomics from Tufts University.
Charlotte Schwendeman
National Practice Director, User Experience
Perficient, Inc.
With more than 20 years of experience in human factors, usability, user-centered design and development, and human-computer interaction for hardware, software, Web solutions, handheld devices, and kiosks, Charlotte leads one of Perficient's three company-wide practices - the User Experience Practice. Charlotte defined and rolled out Perficient's user-centered approach to design and development in 2000. Since then, it has become a differentiator for the company. Charlotte currently provides thought leadership for this rapidly growing practice. She is responsible for directing all aspects of the user-centered design approach Perficient takes in designing and developing solutions, including such things as architecting and continually re-architecting its User-Centered Design (UCD) methodology and techniques; mentoring Business Consultants/Usability Specialists; and defining, specifying and leading the UCD approach and activities on major engagements and projects.
Charlotte helped with the development of the 3x3 technique with Carol Righi while on a project at Chrysler in the mid-90s. Charlotte recently contributed a chapter on managing project risks and client expectations with the 3x3 to the book, User-Centered Design Stories: Real-World UCD Case Studies by Carol Righi and Janice James.
Before joining Perficient in 2000, Charlotte was a human factors engineer at IBM Corp. and later in IBM Global Services' National Usability Engineering Leadership Practice. Charlotte began her career at IBM in the software development labs providing human factors and usability expertise on printer design/development and office products - such as the DisplayWriter - and software, such as PROFS, DisplayWrite, OS/2, Office for the PC, and similar once-hot-and-now-long-forgotten end user, back office, operating systems and device software, and client-server applications.
Recognized as a subject-matter expert (SME) at IBM, Charlotte was appointed to a Chair assignment as Curriculum Chair in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and Usability in IBM's corporate education group where she designed and developed IBM's Human-Computer Interaction and Usability curriculum, its user-interface style (Common User Access or CUA) curriculum, and later its User-Centered Design curriculum. Charlotte taught UCD and usability engineering to thousands of developers throughout Europe, Japan, and North America. Charlotte was a key member of the corporate team that developed and deployed UCD throughout IBM's software development labs and introduced it into IBM Global Services at the national level.
As a Principal in IBM Global Services, Charlotte led UCD efforts for tier 1 client engagements from Mercedes-Benz NA, Chrysler, Toyota, and Volvo; to the redesign of a football game for the IBM Consumer Products Division; to Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad; to MetLife. She was selected by the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games to lead a team tasked with designing and developing a kiosk used at the summer '96 Atlanta Olympic Games by athletes, the press, and volunteers.
Carol Smith
Principal Consultant
Midwest Research
Carol Smith has seven years of experience researching user needs and conducting usability studies. She is the Principal Consultant at Midwest Research (www.mw-research.com), a research and usability testing consultancy in Ohio.
Ms. Smith has researched people ranging from Kindergarten students to retirees in their homes, schools, factories, and offices. She has used her methods to improve web sites and applications, intranet portals, and consumer products. Ms. Smith has worked with government, non-profit, and private sector clients in industries such as: automotive; education (classroom and e-learning); financial; fine art; health care/medical; human resources; insurance; manufacturing; real-estate; and retail. She has project management expertise and has managed a User Experience department.
Ms. Smith is the Director of Global Outreach on the Board of Directors of the Usability Professionals' Association (UPA) and is also is a member of the international committee defining the Body of Knowledge for usability (www.usabilitybok.org). She has presented on accessibility and usability topics at the Usability Professionals' Association (UPA) International Conference.
Ms. Smith earned her Masters of Computer Science in Human-Computer Interaction from DePaul University in Chicago, IL in 2002. Ms. Smith also holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalistic Photography and Videography from Denison University in Granville, OH.
Susan Weinschenk
Chief of Technical Staff
Human Factors International
Dr. Susan Weinschenk is Chief of Technical Staff at Human Factors International. She manages and mentors the HFI USA consulting staff, and oversees all training and consulting services in the USA. She has been an industry leader in the field of usability engineering for over 25 years. Dr. Weinschenk has a Ph.D. in Psychology from Pennsylvania State University, with three books on usability published by John Wiley and Sons.
Jason Withrow
Professional Faculty
Internet Professional Program
Washtenaw Community College
Jason Withrow's background includes eight years of user experience practice, in roles such as information architect, usability engineer, and business analyst. Jason also has years of instructional experience in the Internet Professional department at Washtenaw Community College, teaching classes on user experience, web coding / programming, project management, and professional practices. He holds Master's degrees in both Psychology and Information.