Philadelphia, PA
www.electronicink.com

About: My work spans academic research at RPI and industry experience at start-ups, consultancies, and Microsoft. I am currently the Director of Human Factors at a design consultancy specializing in business systems and web applications where I am putting into practice the research methodologies I developed in my dissertation work. I am in charge of two state-of-the-art usability labs equipped with eye tracking equipment and various high definition camera devices, an agenda to expand our ethnographic research methods, and a team of 12 usability engineers, anthropologists, and cognitive psychologists working cross-departmentally with a team of designers and software developers.

My PhD dissertation, Building an Interdisciplinary Framework for Experience Design: The Use of Social Software in the Aftermath of the London Bombings, examines how everyday people employed these tools to share eyewitness accounts, disperse information about missing persons, and coordinate critical details. In examining these situations, I constructed a new design methodology for examining these holistic online and offline experiences based primarily on the concepts of Actor Network Theory and User-Centered Design. By examining how people exchanged information by employing social software ecosystems - including Flickr, Wikipedia, and news sites such as the BBC - during the London bombings of 7/7/2005, I discovered a number of compelling scenarios that will help inform the design of new technologies for improving communication during disasters and everyday life.

Title Director of Human Factors

Organization Electronic Ink

Which design practices are most important to your organization Extending beyond traditional UCD practices for ethnographic research and usability testing

What organization challenges do you face when adopting better design practices None, really - we're very receptive to trying out new methodologies. Our greatest challenge is hiring.

What question would you most like others to ask you We're hiring - so any questions about EI would be great. I'm also wrapping up my dissertation on social software and disaster, so if anyone is interested in that, ask!