Aarron Walter
Aarron Walter is the user experience design lead for MailChimp. Aarron writes about web design for industry publications, and has written a few books, the latest of which is Designing for Emotion to be published in the summer of 2011 by A Book Apart. He's also 50% of the magic behind the UX Sketchbook, an essential tool for capturing interface design ideas. Follow his ramblings on Twitter: @aarron.
Frank Garofalo
Frank Garofalo is a user experience architect living in Kansas City. Currently, he has two roles, one running his own company Cyber View, an online media and interactive solutions agency, and second as a User Experience Developer for Garmin International. He started designing and building web sites in 1999. Frank has a Master of Science in Computer Graphics Technology with a specialization in qualitative research for interactive multimedia from Purdue University. His passion lies in producing quality experiences for users by combining creative designs and functional development to achieve a balance of information architecture. You can follow him on Twitter @fgarofalo.
Harry Vertelney
Harry Vertelney is currently Director of R&D of User Experience at VMware. He has 30 years of continuous experience working for such industry leaders as VMware, Apple, Intuit, Sun Microsystems and Pacific Bell as an individual contributor and manager. He has received several domestic and international patents. Harry has degrees from the University of Southern California and California State University. He is passionate about building high performing teams and relentlessly pursues design excellence.
Jonathan Anderson | UX Magazine
I am a tech-focused jack of all trades and the editor-in-chief of UX Magazine. I'm also the author of Effective UI: The Art of Building Great User Experience in Software, published by O'Reilly Media. Through its partnership with UX Magazine, I am also a senior advisor to Didus, a recruiting and career development company focused on user-centered professionals. As well, I'm engaged as the Managing Director, Product Strategy & Design for Dapperly, a fashion-oriented software product startup, and am the Principal of First Day, a small private equity and consulting company. From 2005 to 2009, I helped found EffectiveUI, a leading UX strategy, design, and development agency focused on web, desktop, and mobile systems.
I’ve been fortunate to participate in work that’s on the leading edge of user-centered strategy and design, customer experience, and software development. Everything is converging around an increased attention to the quality of user experiences, around web-enabled or web-like software, and around technologies that can create unified experiences across multiple platforms, devices, and applications. I’ve built on my experience at UX Magazine, EffectiveUI, and in writing my book to undertake a major project to find ways to make dramatic improvements to the user-centered field and to increase the perception of user-centered design, research, and technology as being core strategic values.
My work can be very hard to explain because what I do day-to-day is extremely varied since my role is usually to be a jack-of-all-trades. If I’m performing any one job function this week or month, it’s always in the broader context of fulfilling the needs of that business (whatever they might be) and in the even broader context of the private equity holding and management activities of First Day.
My primary value has been to be an adaptable, fearless, fast-learning manager of and versatile resource to a large number of small businesses, where I hold the line in diverse functions while the companies are too small to hire specialized professionals for any given part of their business. This means I’ve had my hands in almost every aspect of starting, growing, and managing a small business, including finance, accounting, legal, management, HR, marketing/brand, PR, IT, resource management, facilities, general operations, corporate governance, project management, product development, change management, and many others.
Hunter Whitney
Hunter Whitney is a consultant, author, and instructor who brings a distinct UX design perspective to data visualization. He has advised corporations, start-ups, government agencies, and NGOs to achieve their goals through a thoughtful, strategic design approach to digital products and services. Hunter is the author of "Data Insights: New Ways to Visualize and Make Sense of Data”. He was also asked to contribute a chapter in the book, “Designing for Emerging Technologies: UX for Genomics, Robotics, and the Internet of Things”. Additionally, Hunter has written numerous articles covering a range of subjects for various online and print publications including UX Magazine.
Ryan Betts
Ryan Betts (@hitsmachines) is an interaction designer at Nitobi Software, creators of PhoneGap. He holds a BSc in Interaction Design from Simon Fraser University. Presently focused on designing and developing for mobile phones and tablets, he is very excited about the future of urban computing.
Kim Bartowski
Kim is a creative director with 12 years of experience working for entertainment, travel and luxury brands. She arrived at Digitas in 2007 and is currently a group creative director overseeing an integrated team on American Express and heads up all mobile projects for DTAS North America. Since joining Digitas, she's directed worldwide campaigns and productions for Delta and American Express, and pitched and won the Comcast business. Prior to joining Digitas she was in Miami working on the many niche and luxury brands in the region. She launched campaigns for the opening of the W Hotels in South Beach and Ft. Lauderdale, and created brand campaigns and imagery for clients like the Ritz-Carlton among others. Before Miami, she was an art director at top Philadelphia agency—Red Tettemer, where she created campaigns for vast amounts of cable TV networks including: the launch of Rainbow Network’s WE tv (Women’s Entertainment Channel), AMC, and Comcast just to name a few. During those five years she worked heavily on Comcast as they quickly became the biggest cable network in the US. In addition, Kim has won a number of awards for the work she’s done including One Show, Communication Arts, FWA and a feature in Contagious Magazine. Kim graduated from Rochester Institute of Technology and lives in New York City with her husband Michael Ferrare.
Andrew Carlson
Andrew Carlson is a VP/Creative Director focusing on UX and design for the Digitas Mobile team. Throughout his career, Andrew has focused on interactive design, product and service development, creating experiences meant to maximize customer enjoyment and client benefit while pushing the medium to its limits. Andrew blogs about mobile and digital design at https://tempodesign.tumblr.com/
Jay Eskenazi
Jay Eskenazi (@jayeskenazi) is a seasoned user researcher and manager of user research teams, and has personally conducted or supervised 500+ usability studies in the U.S. and internationally since 1999. His research career spans 20 years, with the last 12+ years focused on user interface issues. Prior to co-founding Customer Experience Labs, a boutique usability firm, he worked as a user researcher on Microsoft’s e commerce properties and then created and served as Director of the User Experience Research team at Expedia for 7+ years. Jay earned his B.A. in Psychology from University of California at Santa Cruz, an M.A. in Communication (Social Psychology) from University of California at Santa Barbara, and an M.A. in Psychology and a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Alliant International University in San Diego.
Tyler Tate
Tyler Tate is a user experience designer focused on making the complex feel simple. He's also the founder of Crema.co, empowering you to discover single-origin coffees, get to know the people who grew them, and have the beans delivered to your door. Tyler lives in London with his wife Ruth and son Galileo. You can keep up with him on Twitter.
Eric Fisher
Eric Fisher is a product designer and social design evangelist at Facebook. With a background in layout and architecture, he's obsessed with creating things that conceptually make sense. Eric previously worked on the search design team at Google and the evangelism team at Apple, where he contributed to the Human Interface Guidelines and devised design concepts for building iPhone applications. In conjunction with his work at Facebook, he independently advises a cluster of smaller startups in the Bay area on product strategy and user experience design. Eric holds a bachelors of engineering in Digital Media Design from the University of Pennsylvania where he explored web development, human-computer interaction and minored in psychology. He writes about design at FishoftheBay.com and maintains the daily wordplay game OneUpMe.com, a personal project, on the side. Follow Eric on Twitter: @fishofthebay
UX Magazine Staff
UX Magazine was created to be a central, one-stop resource for everything related to user experience. Our primary goal is to provide a steady stream of current, informative, and credible information about UX and related fields to enhance the professional and creative lives of UX practitioners and those exploring the field. Our content is driven and created by an impressive roster of experienced professionals who work in all areas of UX and cover the field from diverse angles and perspectives.
Susan Weinschenk, Ph.D.
Susan Weinschenk first used a computer in the mid-1970’s, in graduate school. "I wrote and ran my first computer program, and the printer spit out a piece of paper that said 'JOB ABORTED.' Rather than being discouraged I was fascinated! What would happen when 'normal people,' not computer scientists, interacted with these things called computers?" She thus started a 30-year career in applying psychology to the design of technology. Susan has a Ph.D. in Psychology and is the author of How to Get People To Do Stuff, 100 Things Every Designer Needs To Know About People, 100 Things Every Presenter Needs to Know About People, and Neuro Web Design: What makes them click. She is a presenter, speaker, and consulting, writes a popular popular blog at her website, and also writes the Brain Wise blog at Psychology Today.
Stephanie Arnold
Stephanie Arnold is the Executive Director of User Experience Design at AT&T Interactive, the cross-platform local advertising branch of AT&T. She leads a team of information architects, usability researchers, and visual designers that support AT&T Interactive's consumer and advertiser products. Stephanie has worked in the UX industry for 8 years, having previously worked at Kelley Blue Book, Perot Systems and Travelocity. She has a strong background in Human-Computer-Interaction (HCI), with a B.A. in Psychology and an M.A. in Human Factors, and is a strong believer in the saying "Keep It Simple." Besides being a UX fanatic, she is also an Apple gadget geek, a die-hard UCLA fan, and someone who gets the breaking news from her Facebook news feed.
Donna Maurer Spencer
Donna (Maurer) Spencer is a freelance information architect, mentor, writer and trainer. She has eight years’ experience working in-house and as a consultant doing strategic and tactical design. She has designed large intranets and Web sites, ecommerce and search systems, business applications, design patterns and a CMS. Donna is an experienced speaker who has taught workshops and presented sessions at local and international conferences, on information architecture, interaction design and whatever else crosses her mind. She spends her (little) remaining time on the board of IAI and writing a book on card sorting. Sometimes she even gets time to weave and sew.
Matt Miller
Matt Miller currently resides in Bountiful, Utah with his wife and three children. He has over twelve years of experience in web design and development. He has an undergraduate degree and completed graduate coursework in Exercise Physiology from the University of Utah which led him to his first career as a Kinesiologist. Along the way he worked part-time in the IT world and developed his first web site using HTML 2.0 in 1996. In 1998 he transitioned from software development as a secondary job responsibility to his full-time gig. Now he has over twelve years of enterprise web application design and development experience from his employment at Intermountain Healthcare and the LDS Church where he is currently employed as an interaction designer. While his degree is atypical for a design career the academic and years of real-world research methodology and statistics experience has proven valuable in the design and creation of metrics and dashboards. In addition to having a passion for creating enterprise software for real people and developing metrics that actually mean something he enjoys photography, running, cycling, hiking and most outdoor activities that don’t involve freezing temperatures. As a personal project to keep his development skills up to date and fund his obsession with outdoor gear he has created GearCodes.com. Home remodeling projects fill any remaining time in his life and inspired his newest blog The Plywood Floor Experiment. Other Websites & Blogs
John Dilworth
John Dilworth currently resides in Ogden, Utah with his wife and two children. He has been working in the field of interactive media and design for over 15 years. Through his career, John has been involved in numerous media projects for both local and international business. He has a passion for art, design, and how technology influences the lives of people. He holds a BFA in visual communications from Weber State University and an MFA in Computer Arts from the Academy of Fine Arts in San Francisco, California. John is currently Sr. Director of User Experience at Ancestry and maintains his own fine art studio to develop his personal artwork. He also enjoys getting away from computers and is active in trail running, mountaineering, rock climbing and mountain biking. More information can be found on his personal website: https://.johndilworth.com Other Websites & Blogs https://store.johndilworth.com https://.northtemple.com Twitter: @johndilworth
Brian Genisio
Brian Genisio is a passionate software consultant at SRT Solutions in Ann Arbor, MI and an active member of the Midwest software community. For over 10 years, Brian has worked with many languages and technologies. Currently, he is focusing on RIA technologies in Silverlight and Flex while exploring dynamic concepts in his static world. He also loves to talk about testing philosophies and methodologies. He can talk your ear off. Just humor him. In his spare time, he enjoys being a cooking nerd which includes traditional barbecue, baking bread, brewing beer and making as much as he can from scratch. https://HouseOfBilz.com https://ActionLinq.org @BrianGenisio
Called an interface guru by publications like Wired and Fast Company, Aza is the co-founder of Massive Health, and was until recently Creative Lead for Firefox. Previously, he was a founding member of Mozilla Labs. Aza gave his first talk on user interface at age 10 and got hooked. At 17, he was talking and consulting internationally. Aza has founded and sold two companies, including Songza.com, a minimalist music search engine that had over a million song plays in its first week. He also creates modular cardboard furniture called Bloxes. In another life, Aza has done Dark Matter research at both Tokyo University and the University of Chicago, from where he graduated with honors in math and physics.
With strong roots in user interface, interaction, and experience design, Kevin approaches usability from a holistic, 'big-picture' perspective. Ranging anywhere from information architecture, to performance optimization, to hand-crafting UIs for mobile and TV, Kevin's deep fascination with the way people communicate with technology is what drives him to make things "the way they should be."
In the past few years, Kevin has been a part of developing engaging content and contextual applications for brands like Pepsi, Honda, Procter & Gamble, and several major medical and higher-learning communities.
An accomplished author, Kevin served as a Technical Reviewer for the Flex 4 Cookbook, was a reviewer for Learning ActionScript 3.0 (2nd ed), was a featured author for O'Reilly Media's InsideRIA, and is currently a contributor here at UX Magazine.
Kevin is an Adobe Community Professional, and speaks at a number of the top conferences in the industry including Flash and the City, FITC, 360Flex, and OSCON. He’s received numerous accolades, including being listed among the "Top Presentations of the Day" and having the "Most discussed presentation on Twitter" by Slideshare.
Follow Kevin on Twitter (@kevinSuttle), on Quora, and KevinSuttle.com for more.
John Yunker (@johnyunker) is a leading expert on web and content globalization and author of the book The Art of the Global Gateway: Strategies for Successful Multilingual Navigation. He writes the popular blog Global by Design and is co-founder of Byte Level Research.
Brett Sandusky is Product Manager at Macmillan New Ventures where he oversees user experience design, agile development of new digital products, eCommerce, research and data analysis, and mobile applications. Formerly Director of Product Innovation for Kaplan Publishing, Brett’s expertise also includes digital strategy, product usability, content integration cross-platforms, and digital marketing. He lives in Brooklyn, NY and can be found at various locations online.
Richard Dalton
Richard Dalton (@mauvyrusset) manages a User Experience team at Vanguard where he passionately advocates designing user experiences within the context of user and business goals. In 2008 he had the honor of being the conference chair for the IA Summit in Miami and is still recovering. He has been a practitioner and manager in the UX field since 1994 in both the US and the UK. Richard has been in the United States with Vanguard since 1999, before that he lived in Newcastle upon Tyne in the North of England where he was a co-owner of a leading UK Web Consultancy. When he’s not working he enjoys hanging out with his wife and three children, playing table tennis at a local club, reading, playing guitar and juggling.
Jonathan Anderson | UX Magazine
I am a tech-focused jack of all trades and the editor-in-chief of UX Magazine. I'm also the author of Effective UI: The Art of Building Great User Experience in Software, published by O'Reilly Media. Through its partnership with UX Magazine, I am also a senior advisor to Didus, a recruiting and career development company focused on user-centered professionals. As well, I'm engaged as the Managing Director, Product Strategy & Design for Dapperly, a fashion-oriented software product startup, and am the Principal of First Day, a small private equity and consulting company. From 2005 to 2009, I helped found EffectiveUI, a leading UX strategy, design, and development agency focused on web, desktop, and mobile systems.
I’ve been fortunate to participate in work that’s on the leading edge of user-centered strategy and design, customer experience, and software development. Everything is converging around an increased attention to the quality of user experiences, around web-enabled or web-like software, and around technologies that can create unified experiences across multiple platforms, devices, and applications. I’ve built on my experience at UX Magazine, EffectiveUI, and in writing my book to undertake a major project to find ways to make dramatic improvements to the user-centered field and to increase the perception of user-centered design, research, and technology as being core strategic values.
My work can be very hard to explain because what I do day-to-day is extremely varied since my role is usually to be a jack-of-all-trades. If I’m performing any one job function this week or month, it’s always in the broader context of fulfilling the needs of that business (whatever they might be) and in the even broader context of the private equity holding and management activities of First Day.
My primary value has been to be an adaptable, fearless, fast-learning manager of and versatile resource to a large number of small businesses, where I hold the line in diverse functions while the companies are too small to hire specialized professionals for any given part of their business. This means I’ve had my hands in almost every aspect of starting, growing, and managing a small business, including finance, accounting, legal, management, HR, marketing/brand, PR, IT, resource management, facilities, general operations, corporate governance, project management, product development, change management, and many others.
Bruce Temkin
Bruce Temkin, Customer Experience Transformist, is the managing partner of Temkin Group and is widely viewed as a leading expert in how large organizations build differentiation with customer experience. Prior to founding Temkin Group, Bruce spent 12 years at Forrester Research where he led many parts of the research organization and was the most-read analyst in the company for 13 consecutive quarters.
Matt Galligan
Matt Galligan is the Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer for SimpleGeo, where he oversees the strategic direction of the company. He founded SimpleGeo in 2009 with Joe Stump. Prior to SimpleGeo, Matt founded Socialthing, a service that made it easy to keep up with friends' activity from multiple social networks. Socialthing was acquired by AOL in 2008 and is currently branded as AIM Lifestream. After the acquisition, Matt worked with AOL to further develop and define their social strategy. With a background in graphic design and user experience, Matt has also worked for MonsterCommerce, which was acquired by Network Solutions. He has long been heavily involved in the internet, starting as a graphic designer at age 15.
Sarah Doody is an NYC based user experience designer and product strategist. She works with startups to help them launch their initial product as well helping companies already in market optimize their user experiences.
Sarah publishes a popular UX newsletter, The UX Notebook. Sign up for free at: www.theuxnotebook.com
Sarah also teaching about user experience, she co-developed and taught General Assembly's first 12 week UX course. Sarah writes about user experience, design, and technology on her website, www.sarahdoody.com and can be reached on Twitter @sarahdoody.
UX Magazine Staff
UX Magazine was created to be a central, one-stop resource for everything related to user experience. Our primary goal is to provide a steady stream of current, informative, and credible information about UX and related fields to enhance the professional and creative lives of UX practitioners and those exploring the field. Our content is driven and created by an impressive roster of experienced professionals who work in all areas of UX and cover the field from diverse angles and perspectives.
Dennis Wixon
Daniel Wigdor is UX Architect and Platform Architect at Microsoft and an Assistant Professor of computer science at the University of Toronto. Before joining U of T, he worked at Microsoft in nearly a dozen different roles, among them serving as the User Experience Architect of the Microsoft Surface product, and as a cross company expert in the creation of Natural User Interfaces. Before joining Microsoft, he previously conducted research in advanced user interfaces and devices at Mitsubishi Electric Research Labs, and at the Initiative in Innovative Computing at Harvard University. He is also co-founder of Iota Wireless, a company dedicated to the commercialization of NUI technologies for mobile phones. Daniel’s work has been described in dozens of publications in leading international conferences, journals, and books. His is the recipient of a Wolfond Fellowship and an ACM Best Paper Award.
Dennis Wixon
Dennis Wixon is currently Discipline Lead for Microsoft US BPD. Prior to this role he was the head of research for Microsoft Surface, and has also managed research teams at Microsoft Game Studies, and MSN/Home Products. Before joining Microsoft, Dennis managed the usability team at Digital Equipment Corporation, where a number of important usability methods such as Usability Engineering and Contextual Inquiry were developed. Dennis has been an active member of the user-research community for over 25 years. He co-chaired CHI 2002 served as Vice President for Conferences for ACM SIGCHI. Dennis has co-authored over sixty articles, book chapters and presentations on research methods and theory. He is an adjunct Full Professor in the Human Centered Design and Engineering Department at University of Washington and co-edited with Dr. Judy Ramey the book Field Methods Case Book for Software Design. Dennis holds a Ph.D. in Social Psychology from Clark University.
Diego Pulido is an Interaction Designer at Dell in Austin, TX. Prior to moving to Texas, Diego worked as an Interaction Designer at Pearson Education in Indianapolis and as a User Experience Designer at Roundarch in New York. He is passionate about Mobile UX, prototyping and sustainable design. While his background is in humanities, Diego always had a keen interest in technology and web design. It was through the field of Human-Computer Interaction that he was able to bridge the gap between his BA degree in Psychology and French from the University of Nevada, Reno and the world of User Experience Design. He earned a Masters degree in Human-Computer Interaction from Indiana University. You can find him on Twitter: @ixDiego and his website: https://diegopulido.com
Luke Wroblewski
LukeW is an internationally recognized product design leader who has designed or contributed to software used by more than 700 million people worldwide. He is currently Chief Design Architect at Yahoo! Inc. where he works on forward-looking integrated customer experiences on the Web, mobile, TV, and beyond. Luke is the author of two popular Web design books: Web Form Design (2008) and Site-Seeing: A Visual Approach to Web Usability (2002). He also publishes Functioning Form, a leading online publication for interaction designers. Luke is consistently a top-rated speaker at conferences and companies around the world, and is a co-founder and former Board member of the Interaction Design Association (IxDA). Previously, Luke was the Lead User Interface Designer of eBay Inc.'s platform team, where he led the strategic design of new consumer products (such as eBay Express and Kijiji) and internal tools and processes. He also founded LukeW Interface Designs, a product strategy and design consultancy, taught interface design courses at the University of Illinois and worked as a Senior Interface Designer at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA), the birthplace of the first popular graphical Web browser, NCSA Mosaic. Visit Luke's website: https://.lukew.com/ Or his writings at Functioning Form: https://.lukew.com/ff/ And follow Luke on Twitter: https://.twitter.com/lukewdesign
Alex Schleifer
Alex is CEO of Sideshow , an award winning creative agency. You can read his blog here.
John Ferrara
John Ferrara has worked in in user experience design since 1999, designing interfaces for websites, desktop applications, and video games. Since 2006 he's been with Vanguard, and before that did significant work for Unisys and General Electric. He's been a forceful advocate for closer connections between UX and game design at the IA Summit, EuroIA, and Games for Health. He’s the author of the new book Playful Design: Creating Game Experiences in Everyday Interfaces, published by Rosenfeld Media. His nutrition education game Fitter Critters was a top prizewinner in the Apps For Healthy Kids contest, sponsored by Michelle Obama's Let's Move! campaign. Before entering the professional world, he earned bachelor's and master's degrees in communications. Feel free to follow John on Twitter at @PlayfulDesign.
Steve Workman
Steve Workman is a consultant for PA Consulting Group in London. His job is to design and create applications and web sites using the latest standards-compliant and accessible technology. Steve is the lead mobile developer within PA, making Android and iPhone apps for the enterprise. He is also an organiser of the London Web Standards group who set up educational talks on web standards for people in the London area. Follow him on Twitter @steveworkman or read his personal blog on steveworkman.com
Frances Felske
Frances Felske is an Associate Experience Architect at MISI Company in New York City. Since joining MISI’s Experience Design department (XD) in 2009, she has worked on a variety of long and short-term engagements involving core usability methodologies, contextual inquiries, and strategic planning initiatives. Through her work at MISI, Frances has learned how user-centered design can apply to every aspect of a company’s interactions with both its customers and employees. Frances has been fortunate to have had the opportunity to work on global projects, and she has conducted research for a variety of industries, including the pharmaceutical, financial, and legal sectors. She strives to expand her knowledge of experience design and usability, and enjoys learning how to apply these methodologies to new and diverse business situations. Frances has a Bachelors in Urban Design and Architecture Studies from New York University, where she learned her first lessons about designing with people in mind.
Megan Geyer
Megan Geyer is an experience design professional dedicated to ensuring that all audiences of any experience or engagement are represented throughout the conception, design, and implementation of that service, product, or model. As a Lead Experience Architect at NTT DATA, Megan has worked on a variety of projects including cross-channel audience research and strategy projects, global iPad research initiatives, enterprise iPad design standards projects, and employee communication strategies for internal grassroots political activism programs. Previous to joining NTT DATA, Megan managed end-to-end user experience design projects for a number of online experiences including consumer-facing websites. Her career experience spans industries including non-profit, pharmaceutical/ health and wellness, financial, nutrition, education, and music & entertainment. Megan is a member of the NYC Usability Professionals Association. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Rutgers University. Megan also enjoys playing a variety of games in her free time including console games, MMORPGs, and card games.
Richard Anderson is a 'user experience' practice, management, and organizational strategy consultant with international management, cross-organizational development, and more than 20 years of experience. He started and directed the Experience Center at Viant, as well as the User Research & Experience Strategy discipline at Studio Archetype and Sapient, and has held and supported other management roles in an assortment of companies. Via various consulting, advisory, and employment roles, and his workshops, courses, conference programs, and more, he has helped move 'user/customer experience' into a position of greater influence in numerous companies. At CHI 2007, Richard received SIGCHI's Lifetime Service Award for extensively facilitating and spreading the development of the field via his leadership contributions to BayCHI and to other chapters of SIGCHI around the world. He was Co-Editor-in-Chief of interactions magazine from 2008 through 2010.
Richard can be followed via Twitter @riander and Riander Blog.
UX Magazine Staff
UX Magazine was created to be a central, one-stop resource for everything related to user experience. Our primary goal is to provide a steady stream of current, informative, and credible information about UX and related fields to enhance the professional and creative lives of UX practitioners and those exploring the field. Our content is driven and created by an impressive roster of experienced professionals who work in all areas of UX and cover the field from diverse angles and perspectives.
Cyd Harrell is UX Evangelist at Code for America, where she gets to spend all day helping create better experiences for citizens. She encourages like-minded UXers to apply for the 2014 CfA Fellowship. Before its acquisition in June 2012, she was VP of UX Research at Bolt Peters in San Francisco.
Tom Bran
Tom Bran is an Interface Developer based in London, England. He has 6 years experience under his belt in crafting usable, dynamic interfaces, working on projects for clients such as WWF UK, Skoda UK, and Danone Activia. During the last three years he has worked within digital agencies, and recently joined Agency Republic. With a keen interest in diverse fields across the digital spectrum, from UX to Web Standards to typography, Tom enjoys discussing and writing about the many issues that affect web development today from a front-end perspective, and shares his thoughts on his blog. Follow Tom now on Twitter @tommy_b, or connect with him on LinkedIn.
Jonathan Anderson | UX Magazine
I am a tech-focused jack of all trades and the editor-in-chief of UX Magazine. I'm also the author of Effective UI: The Art of Building Great User Experience in Software, published by O'Reilly Media. Through its partnership with UX Magazine, I am also a senior advisor to Didus, a recruiting and career development company focused on user-centered professionals. As well, I'm engaged as the Managing Director, Product Strategy & Design for Dapperly, a fashion-oriented software product startup, and am the Principal of First Day, a small private equity and consulting company. From 2005 to 2009, I helped found EffectiveUI, a leading UX strategy, design, and development agency focused on web, desktop, and mobile systems.
I’ve been fortunate to participate in work that’s on the leading edge of user-centered strategy and design, customer experience, and software development. Everything is converging around an increased attention to the quality of user experiences, around web-enabled or web-like software, and around technologies that can create unified experiences across multiple platforms, devices, and applications. I’ve built on my experience at UX Magazine, EffectiveUI, and in writing my book to undertake a major project to find ways to make dramatic improvements to the user-centered field and to increase the perception of user-centered design, research, and technology as being core strategic values.
My work can be very hard to explain because what I do day-to-day is extremely varied since my role is usually to be a jack-of-all-trades. If I’m performing any one job function this week or month, it’s always in the broader context of fulfilling the needs of that business (whatever they might be) and in the even broader context of the private equity holding and management activities of First Day.
My primary value has been to be an adaptable, fearless, fast-learning manager of and versatile resource to a large number of small businesses, where I hold the line in diverse functions while the companies are too small to hire specialized professionals for any given part of their business. This means I’ve had my hands in almost every aspect of starting, growing, and managing a small business, including finance, accounting, legal, management, HR, marketing/brand, PR, IT, resource management, facilities, general operations, corporate governance, project management, product development, change management, and many others.
Lis is an independent consultant in Strategy & User Experience with extensive experience in website strategy design, interaction design and information architecture. She works with clients on many different levels ranging from Fortune 500 businesses to startups. Most recently she's had the amazing opportunity to work as a part of the 8coupons team as their Chief Experience Officer. In this role, Lis is not only responsible for the user experience design of the product, but also works to integrate user experience design methodologies and thinking into our product development and strategy. While partnering with 8coupons, she has also had the pleasure of working with Naviscent on the user testing and analysis of 3 high profile entertainment mobile sites. Before these opportunities she had the chance to work as part of the LBi team, doing taxonomy work for their well known search engine client, and has also recently worked with Moment Design, Inc on the creation of a high profile sports and entertainment iPad application, the redesign of their sports & entertainment client, as well as additional site redesigns and updates. With each client Lis works to make user experiences more pleasant and enjoyable.
Before going independent, Lis worked with industry leader Weight Watchers International to create and enhance their online product. Prior to moving to New York, she spent time in San Antonio, where she worked as a User Experience strategist for the United Services Automobile Association (USAA), a Fortune 200 financial services company focused on serving the United States Military and their families. There Lis lead a team of information architects and graphic designers in a 4500 page redesign and was also responsible for defining 18 – 24 month strategic visions for the website. Before working in the user experience industry, she was a web programmer at national insurance leader The Hartford Financial Services Group based in Hartford, CT. In order to stay active and contribute to the user experience community, Lis volunteers as a local leader for the Interaction Design Association New York City chapter.
Lis' undergraduate degree from the University of Connecticut is in business; more specifically Management Information Systems.
UX Magazine Staff
UX Magazine was created to be a central, one-stop resource for everything related to user experience. Our primary goal is to provide a steady stream of current, informative, and credible information about UX and related fields to enhance the professional and creative lives of UX practitioners and those exploring the field. Our content is driven and created by an impressive roster of experienced professionals who work in all areas of UX and cover the field from diverse angles and perspectives.
David Nickelson
As Director of Digital Engagement at Siteworx, David’s team integrates and applies extensive digital, marketing, communications, and behavioral learning and expertise to all aspects of Web design and development, including mobile applications, social media strategies, CMS, enterprise search, e-commerce and analytics. Prior to Siteworx, David served as the Director of Internet Strategy & Operations at the American Diabetes Association, a $200 million voluntary health association. David transformed the way online visitors connected and engaged with the organization, and the way the organization stewarded its constituents into deeper, multivariate and multichannel relationships. He was responsible for all aspects of national eCRM, online content management, ecommerce, email/electronic marketing and online success measurement metrics. Trained as a behavioral scientist and attorney, David provides a unique, multichannel digital marketing approach that draws on social science and web usability research to create powerful electronic experiences that engage customers and forge long-term relationships. David’s team of skilled interactive marketing specialists systematically determines where digital customer experiences lack critical alignment and provides thoughtful, detailed recommendations that significantly improve awareness, acquisition, retention, and overall lifetime engagement per customer. Drawing on the interplay between technological and human systems, David and the Siteworx team can provide a road-map and support for driving critically needed digital change, growth and cross-channel alignment.
Kevin O’Connor is the President of User Insight, where he is responsible for all aspects of the company’s marketing and client relations. With a focus on creating new and innovative services, Kevin helped grow User Insight to a firm that provides user experience research and strategy for more than 300 clients in 25 industries. Since 2004, Kevin has expanded User Insight’s international capabilities with the establishment of various international partnerships and projects that span 15 countries.
Jeremiah Lee Cohick is a software developer with a design and product background. He currently works at Fitbit helping developers make the world a healthier, happier place. He can be reached on Twitter @JeremiahLee.
David Gillis
David Gillis is an Interaction Designer at Teehan+Lax, a Toronto-based
company that helps clients define and design great user experiences in
the digital channel. There, he's done award-winning information
architecture and design work for clients like AOL, AIR MILES, John
Hancock and Virgin Mobile. David's passion for interaction design has been informed by a wide
range of interests and experiences, both academic and professional. In
school, he took a multi-disciplinary approach, combining studies in
communication, cognitive science and systems design. He holds Bachelor
Degrees in Math and English, and a Masters Degree in Information
Systems and Knowledge Media Design. Areas of ongoing interest and investigation for David are
evidence-based design (how can designers strike a better balance
between intuition and formal inquiry), participatory design (how can
designers better engage their clients and end-users in collaborative
processes), and holistic design (how can we better design experiences
that span across multiple modes, touch points and platforms). David is a regular contributor on the Teehan+Lax blog and you can follow him on Twitter @davegillis.
Bryan Rieger
Bryan (@bryanrieger) is a designer, writer and reluctant developer with a background in theatre design and classical animation. Bryan has worked across various media including print, broadcast, web and mobile, and with clients such as Apple, Microsoft, Nokia and the Symbian Foundation. Most days, Bryan can be found designing and prototyping a diverse range of experiences, and every once in a while, he can also be found organising a Mobile Design UK event in London.
Stephanie Rieger
Stephanie (@stephanierieger) is a designer and closet anthropologist with a passion for the many ways people interact with technology. With a diverse background, Stephanie's expertise lies in marrying design, technology and business goals to craft simple, elegant experiences. A compulsive researcher, Stephanie is always keen to discover and share insights on the mobile web and mobility trends in emerging economies.
Shaun Smith
Over the last decade, Shaun has been a key catalyst in expanding management focus from the tactical issues of customer service to the much wider and strategic issue of customer experience. He has developed some of the latest thinking and practice around this subject, helping organisations world-wide create compelling customer experiences that achieve brand differentiation and long-term customer loyalty. He has featured a number of times on the ‘Ask the Expert’ programme on CNBC and is co-author of three critically-acclaimed business books. His first book ‘Uncommon Practice- people who deliver a great brand experience’ examines those companies that create exceptional customer experiences. His second book ‘Managing the Customer Experience – turning customers into advocates’, reveals how leaders can build this kind of competitive advantage for their own organisations. His last book, ‘See, Feel, Think, Do – the power of instinct in business’ also co-authored with Andy Milligan, explores how highly successful business leaders and entrepreneurs use the power of instinct to achieve results. Shaun is founder and partner in the customer experience consultancy smith+co which works with leading brands around the world. Shaun is a Fellow of the Professional Speakers Association and rated as one the top business speakers; he doesn’t talk about complex methodologies or seven magic bullets; instead his approach is refreshingly straightforward, engaging, always pragmatic and at times, controversial. Visit https://.smithcoconsultancy.com/ for more information.
Andrew Turrell lives in Los Angeles and is Director of User Experience at RED Interactive Agency. He is also an adjunct professor of Interaction Design at the University of Baltimore M.S. in Interaction Design and Information Architecture program. Andrew has also earned his M.S. from that program.
Previously, he was the Director of User Experience at Trippy.com, and has worked at several design companies, leading web and mobile projects for clients such as PayPal, AOL, Sprint, US News and World Report, Sears, USA Today, and others.
Follow Andrew on Twitter: @andrewturrell, or check out his LinkedIn profile.
Lawrence Kitson
Lawrence is an interaction designer with 5 years solid experience. Currently at ustwo studio based in London and Malmö, Sweden, working on products ranging from complex trading systems for financial markets to creative mobile applications. Passionate about people, design and psychology, he applies his skills and knowledge to trying to improve people’s lives when they interact with digital products. Lawrence believes that interaction design is a key link between business, software and users, and that user experience is everyone’s responsibility achieved through collaboration. Previously as a designer for Sony Ericsson, Lawrence worked on interaction paradigms and core apps for smart mobile devices and feature phones. At the University of Lancaster, UK, he gained a masters degree in HCI & also holds Bachelors degree in Design Studies. Twitter: @lawkitson LinkedIn: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/lawrencekitson Blog: seasonandtaste.com
Patrick Malecek
Patrick Malecek lives and works in St. Louis, MO. He worked in the user experience field for over ten years as a frontline resource and team lead for A.G. Edwards (now Wells Fargo Advisors), MasterCard, and Monsanto. Very recently, he left the UX field and is now Global Account Manager for Dell, bringing technology solutions and services to his clients MasterCard and State Farm. He contributed to the book Institutionalization of Usability: A Step-by-Step Guide (Schaffer, 2004), and authored the white paper From Inspiration to Action at A.G. Edwards: the Prescription and Practice for Institutionalizing Usability. He is an HFI-certified usability analyst and occasional freelance writer. You can find him on LinkedIn and Twitter (@pmalecek).
Sean Scott
Sean Scott is an active and passionate UX practitioner in the world of digital marketing. Proven experience managing multiple technically complex and large-scale projects. He is a highly regarded problem solver in both the technical and creative arena. His previous work roles have included director, technical lead, product manager and business analyst. Sean's first passion however is creativity. On a daily basis, he seeks to find creative ways to translate insights into relevant, usable and useful engagements. He writes at sothisisthefuture.posterous.com about those engagements and other musings. Clients serviced include Microsoft Game Studios, Microsoft Entertainment & Devices Division, Rover (by Clear), CISCO, Nike, NVIDIA, Adobe, Subaru, Harley-Davidson and Porsche, E-Trade, Jack Links, Genuity, SFX, the World Bank, Phillip Morris, SunTrust Bank and AG Edwards.