Speakers

The Big Design Conference has scheduled some amazing speakers for the event. Check the schedule to see when they will be presenting and on what topic.

Brandon Aaron

Brandon Aaron is a core contributor to the jQuery project and Principal Technologist at Nokia. Brandon is a developer driven by creativity. He loves beautiful code that creates beautiful experiences.

Mostly, you will find Brandon playing the role of a Front-End Engineer but he’s done his fair share of working with the other end as well. Brandon loves bringing experiences to life on the web with JavaScript, HTML, and CSS.
Keith Anderson

Keith Anderson is a 15-year veteran of the Technical Communication Wars. He has served with honor on many industrial fronts including healthcare, banking, telecommunication, retail, and IT consulting. He is also the first person his family calls when they have computer problems. Keith’s shady past forced him to take on many disguises to get the job done: trainer, technical writer, software developer, web developer, and business analyst.

After a life-changing epiphany of epic proportions, Keith decided self-employment was not like the brochures and is currently working for Sprint as an application developer in the retail software division. Like most adult children, he spends too many waking hours on Twitter (@suredoc) hoping somebody will notice him, but feels he’s forged many genuine friendships as a result. Keith is also the creator of the “Beerinar”, which is a social meeting experiment to get people to drink with a purpose.
Stephen Anderson

Stephen P. Anderson is a product strategy and design consultant who helps large companies create valuable customer experiences.

Prior to becoming an independent consultant, Stephen spent more than a decade growing and leading teams of information architects, interaction designers and UI developers in the creation of all types of interactive experiences, bringing value to clients such as Nokia, Frito-Lay, Sabre Travel Network, and Chesapeake Energy as well as smaller technology startups.

Stephen is passionate about elegant design, remarkable customer experiences and managing maverick teams– topics he loves to write and speak about. In addition to consulting, he is in the process of doing research for a book that will teach businesses how to attract and manage rockstars, superheroes, and other misfits.

As time permits, Stephen enjoys sharing his thoughts at poetpainter.com.
Burin Asavesna

Ever calm, cool and collected, this coding Ninja came to master web technology after growing disenchanted with law school preparation. Some country club’s loss became the interwebs gain. Always dapper and happy when churning out code in an editor but do not harsh his mellow with compiling, cap locks, or ugly design.

Burin specializes in application development in Ruby on Rails, PHP, and numerous front-end technologies, including jQuery, HTML, and CSS. He is a passionate technologist, who is well-versed in promoting web accessibility, progressive enhancement, and user experience.
Chris Bernard

Chris Bernard is a user experience evangelist for Microsoft, whose passion is working with the software design, development and business domains to communicate Microsoft’s position on the importance of user experience in software design.

Chris likes to focus mostly on motion graphic and interactive design but these days he find himself usually working on transactional Web-based applications and design specification artifacts.

As a design professional, Chris’s mission is to apply the principles of contextual research, cultural, human, physical and social factors to the products, services and systems that he develops.

Chris is passionate about linking the value of design to business and measurable objectives and does not like people that think designers are merely decorators or designers that act like decorators.
Jared Bienz

Jared Bienz is an ISV Architect Advisor with Microsoft, which means he helps companies who write software understand and leverage Microsoft technologies. Jared has been a professional in the software industry since 1995. He’s worked on a wide range of technologies including IP Telephony, Mobile, Web, Composite and Rich Clients. He’s particularly interested in client and UX technologies like WCF, WPF, Silverlight and Windows Phone.
Amy Buckner

Amy Buckner is Co-Founder of AnswerLab, a user experience research firm in San Francisco that helps clients improve websites, software, and mobile applications. For over 12 years, Amy has been providing insights to Fortune 500 companies who need to make critical product development decisions. By revealing what users see, think and do, Amy uncovers the a-ha moments leading to dramatic product improvements – better brand impression, usability, adoption, and loyalty.

Amy is an expert in quantitative user experience testing, remote usability testing, mobile and international research. In 2009, AnswerLab was the #1 user experience research firm on the INC 500 list of fastest growing companies in America. In 2008, Amy’s firm received the American Honda Motor Company’s Premier Partner Award (given to 15 of Honda’s national suppliers).
Amy loves positive change, efficient user design, innovative research, observing people, and small white dogs. Amy graduated Phi Beta Kappa and magna cum laude from Vanderbilt University with a degree in English and East Asian Studies. She is fluent in Japanese.

Twitter: #AnswerLab
Website: www.answerlab.com
Blog: http://answerlab.com/blog/
Facebook Fan Page: http://www.facebook.com/AnswerLab
Christian Caldwell

Christian Caldwell is the Web Interaction and Usability Specialist for the American Heart Association. He sets the digital strategies through online communities, learning, science and fundraising. His understanding of behavior, interaction and analysis has allowed the association to begin to incorporate user centered design methodologies into both online and offline programs and applications. Christian is currently working to incorporate social media and community development into new tools that will contribute to the Heart Association’s mission to build healthier lives free of cardiovascular disease and stroke. Prior to working for the American Heart Association, he worked with local, national and international clients as an independent consultant as well as with Brierley and Partners, Scient Corporation and focus2. His wide ranging tastes, love of travel and appreciation of culture provide him with endless sources of inspiration. His three boys provide an endless source of imagination.
Jim Carlsen-Landy

Jim Carlsen-Landy has focused his career in user experience as a developer, designer, evangelist, and manager for more than 20 years. He is a change junkie, inciting and nurturing user-centered evolution at every opportunity, and looking for new ways to unleash creativity and innovation in solving complex problems for real users.

Currently Director of User Experience for Sabre Airline Solutions, he is responsible for the standards and practice of user experience across the portfolio, as well as overseeing development of several GUI-centric products. If you’ve flown recently, chances are Jim’s team helped design the software the airline uses to run their business and get you on the plane.

Taylor Cowan

Taylor Cowan loves to propose new applications, research specific areas of emerging technology (ex. Semantic Web, OWL), work with development teams to solve strategic problems, assist with developer communities, and co-ordinate research with vendors. Taylor is a research scientist, architect guru, and former music student.
Brett Duncan

Brett Duncan is not a marketing expert; today’s marketing landscape is simply changing too quickly to keep up. He does, however, love to help people and small companies move forward with the online marketing tactics that will make a difference for them right now. He specializes in working on the corporate side of network marketing companies, and is currently the Sr. Director of Global Online Solutions for Mannatech, Inc., in Coppell, Texas. Brett writes regularly at his Marketing in Progress blog. You can follow him on Twitter at @bdunc1.
Joe Dyer

Joe Dyer is a Senior UX Architect with Sabre who specializes in being around the block enough times to have seen and done it all.

Perhaps jumping out of helicopters and survival training in the military was proper preparation for application design in the Fortune 200. The big guns in Joe’s arsenal are web strategy, information architecture, usability testing and research design, and the psychological motivations of end users. You can find him droning on endlessly about all things music, skiing, cartoons, and design at http://www.newtrality.com

Looking for a first-rate bass player in DFW? Drop him a line. You will love his on-stage antics.
Lynn Grillo

As the manager of the North American Solutions Engineering team for desktop products at Adobe Systems, Lynn’s work centers around Adobe’s products for creative professionals. Based in the New York metro area, Lynn is an Adobe Certified Expert in numerous Adobe applications including Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Acrobat and InCopy.

Lynn has workflow and technology experience in multiple verticals such as book, newspaper & magazine publishing, textile design, advertising and retail. To date, she has co-authored a number of books on Adobe software, and has acted as technical editor for A Designer’s Guide to Adobe InDesign and XML and most recently, the Adobe Dreamweaver CS5 Classroom in a Book. Lynn contributes regularly to Web sites and magazines for creative professionals and has recorded training for Total Training, Lynda.com, Terry White’s Creative Suite Podcast and Adobe TV.
Aaron Hursman

Aaron Hursman is a passionate user-advocate that is lucky enough to do what he loves for a living. As the lead User Experience Architect for Slalom Consulting in Dallas, he applies user-centered design principles and techniques for his clients to various enterprise solutions like Microsoft SharePoint, ASP.NET, and dashboard and business intelligence applications. Aaron has 12 years of consulting experience, has a background in web development and enterprise applications, and enjoys participating in the social web. Aaron holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration and management information systems from the University of Texas at Austin. You can follow Aaron at http://aaron.hursman.com.
Laura Humphreys

Laura Humphreys is a freelance art director and graphic designer, who has worked for the Boy Scouts of America as the art director of the 12 edition of the Boy Scout Handbook. Plus, she has worked on projects for non-profits such as American Institute of Architechs, American Cancer Society, Girls, Inc. of Dallas, International Interior Design Association, Irving Arts Center, Junior League of Dallas, Junior League of San Antonio, Ronald McDonald House, and the Texas Historical Society. Laura graduated from the University of Texas with a BFA in Visual Communication. Laura is actively involved with her children, hiking and camping with them in Texas.
Travis Issacs

Travis Isaacs is a Principal Consultant at Improving Enterprises in Dallas, Texas. You will always find Travis designing and building consumer application. Travis is very active in the local UX community with speaking, blogging, and other activities. When he’s not designing or developing, Travis enjoys spending time with his wife and 2 daughters. You can find more information about Travis at his professional site (http://travisisaacs.com).
Caleb Jenkins

Caleb Jenkins is a Senior Architect Team Lead at Six Flags Corporation. As a long time community leader and former Microsoft Developer Evangelist Caleb is well known for his engaging speaking style, depth of knowledge and creative energy.

As a Microsoft Certified Solution Developer, Certified Trainer and .Net Architect Caleb has helped to design and implement enterprise .Net solutions for some of the largest companies in the world; Six Flags, Countrywide Mortgage, American Airlines, CGI-AMS, Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group and Sunoco Inc.

You may also recognize Caleb from his previous work with Improving Enterprises, or from his work as an active national speaker for the International .NET Association (INETA), a Microsoft MVP for ASP.NET, a Certified Scrum Master. He’s worked as a technical editor for Wrox Press, and was recently a featured presenter on xTrain and Adobe.TV.

Caleb is also the host, cameraman and editor for CommunityCast.wordpress.com. He lives in the Dallas area where he continues to date his beautiful wife and busy himself playing Candy Land, Xbox 360 with his four incredible children. Occasionally he writes curriculum, speak at conferences, and write code for silly things like Twitter applications. Eventually he’ll post some of the gazillion interviews that he’s recorded on CommunityCast TV or blog more at http://developingUX.com

Jeremy Johnson

Jeremy Johnson is the User Experience Manager for Sabre. Jeremy loves all things visual—indie films, mobile applications, and web interactions. Jeremy just sees things differently. Jeremy is a “Designer’s Designer” with a rich knowledge of interaction design, user experience, information architecture, and anything else loosely related to those topics. He is, of course, an avid photographer, gamer, and Lego fanatic.
Adam Keys

Adam Keys is a software developer, entertainer and lover of animals. He’s written software in too many languages to name at startups, small businesses and Fortune 100 giants. His philosophy of coding is to write less code and have more fun writing it.

Outside of software development, Adam has studied double bass performance, performed standup comedy and written comedy sketches. He and his wife volunteer for Central Texas Dachshund Rescue and reside in Dallas, Texas, with 3 dachshunds and 2 tabby cats.
Chris Koenig

Chris Koenig is a Developer Evangelist with Microsoft, based in Dallas, TX. Prior to joining Microsoft in March of 2007, Chris worked as a Senior Architect for The Capital Group in San Antonio and as an Architect for the global solution provider Avanade. As a consultant, Chris worked with a variety of clients from many vertical markets, ISVs and other solution providers on enterprise-class Windows and web-based applications. Today, Chris focuses on building, growing, and enhancing the developer communities in Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Louisiana. You can contact Chris through his blog at http://chriskoenig.net, via email at chris.koenig@microsoft.com, or via Windows Live Messenger at chris@koenigweb.com.
Tom McCracken

Tom McCracken is the Director and President of LevelTen Interactive. Tom is a Drupal and agile development evangelist. LevelTen is a professional Internet strategy and Web design company based in Dallas, Texas. LevelTen specializes in Web 2.0 Drupal development, best-in-class website design, Internet marketing, search engine optimization (SEO), and training programs. LevelTen features an integrated team of web consultants, creative designers, writers, programmers, and marketing professionals that know how to get online results. Tom is passionate and active in the Dallas UX community.
Ryan Merket

Ryan Merket is an interactive creative specializing in social media and 3rd party social applications.

Ryan joined Facebook in February 2009 and left in January 2010. He was an Associate on the Facebook Developer Network team. Ryan was evangelizing and supporting major brands implement Facebook Connect.

Before Facebook, Ryan worked as a Senior Social Designer for CBS Interactive, where he built Facebook applications. Ryan helped launch the first ever public facing Facebook Connect implementation on CBS’s TheInsider.com.

Ryan co-founded Workstir.com in May 2008. Workstir connects local service providers with consumers that have needs. TechCrunch described the site as a “Craigslist/Yelp hybrid”.

Ryan also co-founded Ping.fm in December 2007 (acquired by Seesmic in 1/2010), a website application that allows users to blast a micro-blog to nearly all social networks and micro-blog services (such as Facebook, Myspace, and Twitter). Ryan no longer is involved in the day to day operations of Ping.fm.
Elisa Miller

Elisa K. Miller is a Sr. UX Engineer for GE Healthcare. She is actively involved in the Dallas creative community by splitting time with DFW-UPA and STC-Lone StarChapter. Elisa is passionate about making software easier to use as well as more efficient. For the last fifteen years, she is honed her skills in content strategy, information architecture and design, and multiple methods of user research to improve user experiences. When she and her husband aren’t training their dogs Xena and Lulu, she’s pursuing a graduate certificate in Applied Statitistics from Penn State.
Alfonso de la Nuez

Alfonso de la Nuez is co-founder at UserZoom, the leading online (or remote) user experience research software company. He has 14-years experience in the field of Digital Marketing, Web Design and User Experience, having worked for companies such as Dell Computers, Icon Medialab (now LBi) and Proxicom. He also co-founded Xperience Consulting, one of Europe’s most experienced usability consultancies. He teaches usability and web design courses at various universities and academic institutions, and is a frequent speaker at conferences. When he’s not working he enjoys playing basketball. Back in his younger days (when he was in way better shape) he was included in San Diego’s All-Time High School List Best all-time guards. He ended up playing NCAA Div I Baketball for San José State University, where he played on an athletic scholarship and shared the court with various NBA players. You can connect with Alfonso at: via Linked-in (see linkedin.com/in/adelanuez) or twitter (@userzoom).
Erica O’Grady

Erica O’Grady is the #1 Erica on Google - Most days. She is currently a Social Media Consultant based in Houston, Texas. Wearing many hats, which includes: Social Media Consultant, Award Winning Web Designer/Developer, Creativity Coach, Writer, Part-Time Tutor, Aspiring Film-Maker, BarCamp Enthusiast, World Traveler, and Grown-up Girl Scout. Erica specializes in Community Marketing and is considered to be one of the foremost experts on Social Media and Technology. She is currently the CXO of Peanut Butter Media, co-founder of SheConnects.Me, and sits on the Advisory board for Knowbility.org, The Creative Space, & Westwood College. She blogs at: http://reinventingerica.com and is the On-The-Road Correspondent for The Business Maker’s Radio Show heard on Talk Radio 950 KPRC.
Chris Pitre

Chris Pitre is the Social Marketing Strategist at IDEA (www.ideaii.com), a national digital agency headquartered in Houston. He oversees the social media initiatives for clients, as well as the agency, and serves as an in-house maven on social, mobile, and integrated strategies. Prior to joining IDEA, Chris worked in marketing roles at web development firms and a traditional ad agency. In addition to helping brands navigate the social web, Chris sits on the boards of the American Advertising Federation Houston as the Social Media chair and served as chair for Interactive Strategies, an interactive marketing conference hosted by the Houston Interactive Marketing Association. Chris, a Houston native, graduated with a BBA in Marketing from The George Washington University and sits on the GW Alumni Association Board of Directors.
Ryan Plesko

Ryan Plesko is a marketing strategist and web designer/developer hybrid with a concentration on user experience design, information architecture, and usability. He’s currently Vice President of the Dallas Chapter of the Usability Professionals’ Association and designed and developed the critically acclaimed chapter website (as well as this one).

He is a founding member of The Creative Space (a coworking space full of tech creatives, developers, and entrepreneurs), a founding member of RefreshBCS, and played host to BarCampTexas. He has been involved in the planning and production of the BIL Conference, an open analogous version of TED, since it was a just an idea rattling around The Creative Space.

He believes people should never ever stop learning and is an avid reader of a massive amount of blogs, magazines, and books. He studies people and how they interact–both with each other and with the products and services they use.
Adam Polansky

Adam Polansky is the Manager of the Information Architecture team at Travelocity where he concentrates on Internet applications and processes associated with the practice of IA.

He has been an Information Architect since 1997 and has over 20 years of experience in media development. He has lead or contributed to the development of Web-sites for such companies as Dr Pepper, Radio City Entertainment, American Express, AARP, Intel, Microsoft, Sabre, Corporate Express, and Texas Instruments.

He is a contributing author to Usability Success Stories – How Organizations Improve By Making Easier-To-Use Software and Web Sites - Gower Publishing, 2006.

A member of the IA Institute, he is also involved with the American Association of Information Science & Technology, where he served as an inaugural officer of SIG-IA. He is also a past president of the Dallas/Fort Worth chapter of the Usability Professionals Association.
Elizabeth Rosenzweig

Elizabeth Rosenzweig is Founder and Director of World Usability Day, which she started on 2004 after her term as President of Usability Professionals Association was completed. World Usability Day has grown to include 44 countries with over 180 events. Elizabeth frequently publishes in industry journals, has written chapters in 3 published books and presents lectures at conferences around the world.

Elizabeth has worked as a consultant and employee in several major corporations for 25 years. Her experience includes design and development, ranging from website and, applications, to hardware products and technology development. Elizabeth has completed projects for many major corporations as well as academic institutions. Elizabeth holds 4 patents in intelligent user interface design.
Kelsey Ruger

Kelsey Ruger is Vice President of Operations at chaione, Director at The Business Makers Radio Show, and Blogger at Themoleskin.com. Kelsey has been working in web engineering, user experience design, information architecture, and web marketing for more than a decade. His consulting, design and web roots provide him with a unique perspective that bridges the gaps between strategy, creativity and execution, creating useful digital solutions for his clients and their customers.

His personal mantra is “think, try, teach”. Kelsey likes “building things for people”. Simply put, Kelsey is a creative guy who helps design-focused solutions that fix problems while providing a useful, significant experience.
Sharron Rush

Sharron is the co-founder and Executive Director of Knowbility, a nonprofit organization that grew from the first Accessibility Internet Rally (AIR) in Austin in 1998. Sharron leads the effort to replicate the AIR program in cities throughout the country. Because of AIR, professional Web developers from hundreds of state agencies and technology companies have learned about the benefits, tools, and techniques of accessible Web design. In addition to improving the accessibility of their own work, AIR volunteers use their accessible Web design skills to create sites for more than 500 nonprofit groups, affecting the lives of hundreds of thousands of individuals. Sharron believes strongly in the power of technology to support the independence of people with disabilities – and in the value of dynamic, ongoing collaboration to strengthen communities. She has led Knowbility to national recognition, including appearances on the Oprah Winfrey TV show, “Best Practice” feature at the National Labor Skills Summit, and recognition for excellence and innovation by the Peter F. Drucker Foundation. In April of 2001, she was named one of the Top 25 Women of the Web and in March 2002, she received the Dewey Winburne Award for Community Service through Interactive Media. She is a ComputerWorld Laureate, an advisor to the SXSW Interactive Media Conference, was named Community Tech Champion by the Congressional Black Caucus and co-wrote the book, Maximum Accessibility which is recognized as one of the definitive accessibility resources. Sharron annually assembles the best minds in web accessibility to deliver training conferences that teach and define interactive accessibility from the basics to the bleeding edge.
Bill Scott

Bill Scott is co-author of Designing Web Interfaces and a frequent conference speaker. He is currently the VP of Product Engineering at Meebo; formerly the Director of UI Engineering at Netflix, Pattern Curator for the Yahoo! Design Pattern Library, Yahoo! Ajax Evangelist & co-creator of one of the first Ajax frameworks - Rico. Bill’s talk about design lenses explores how designers can learn from other crafts, such as furniture makers, building architects, and more.Bill’s contact information is below:Twitter username: @billwscott, @uxlenses
Website: http://looksgoodworkswell.com, www.designingwebinterfaces.com
LinkedIn profile page: linkedin.com/in/billwscott
Amazon author’s page (if applicable): http://www.amazon.com/Bill-Scott/e/B0021W9F6UHis ramblings and musings can be found at www.looksgoodworkswell.com.
Nathan Shedroff

Nathan Shedroff is the chair of the ground-breaking MBA in Design Strategy at California College of the Arts (CCA) in San Francisco, CA. This program melds the unique principles that design offers business strategy with a vision of the future of business as sustainable, meaningful, and truly innovative—as well as profitable.

Nathan is one of the pioneers in Experience Design, an approach to design that encompasses multiple senses and requirements and explores common characteristics in all media that make experiences successful, as well as related fields, Interaction Design and Information Design. He speaks and teaches internationally and has written extensively on design and business issues, including, Experience Design 1 and Making Meaning. He’s a serial entrepreneur, works in several media, and consults strategically for companies to build better, more meaningful experiences for their customers.

Lately, he’s spent a lot of time building strategies for start-ups and established firms using a variety of online technologies to deliver new solutions that enhance and evolve their online brand, develop new offerings, and enhance their customer relationships. He also consults on corporate strategies for sustainability since earning his MBA in Sustainable Management.
Dr. Paul Sherman

Paul Sherman is founder and principal consultant at ShermanUX. He has worked in the field of usability and user-centered design for the past 12 years. He was most recently Senior Director of User-Centered Design at Sage Software in Atlanta, Georgia, where he led efforts to redesign the UI and improve the overall customer experience of the Peachtree Accounting desktop application and ePeachtree web-based app.

While at Sage he also designed and implemented a customer-centric contextual innovation program that sought to identify new product and service opportunities by observing small businesses “in the wild”. He also led efforts to modernize and make consistent Sage North America’s product user interfaces.

In the 1990’s he was a Member of Technical Staff at Lucent Technologies in New Jersey, where he led efforts to develop cross-product user interface standards for several telecommunications management applications. As a consultant he has conducted usability testing and interface design for banking, accounting and tax preparation applications, Web-based financial planning and portfolio management applications, and ecommerce Web sites.

Paul received his Ph.D. in 1997 from the University of Texas at Austin. His research focused on how pilots’ use of computers and automated systems on the flight deck affects their individual and team performance. Paul is Past President of the Usability Professionals’ Association, was the founding President of the UPA Dallas/Fort Worth chapter, and serves on the UPA’s Board of Directors and Executive Committe. He is also contributor and editor of the Gower book Usability Success Stories: How Organizations Improve by Making Easier-to-Use Software and Web Sites, published in October 2006. He writes a regular column for the online user experience magazine UXmatters and has presented at conferences around North America as well as Asia, Europe, and South America. Email Paul at paul@shermanux.com.
Ben Smithee

Ben Smithee is a Market Researcher, who has worked with Fortune 500 in domestic and global markets. Recently, Ben has started his own company called Spych Market Analytics, which targets its Market Research into youth markets. The Spych team has young moderators trained in the latest technology and methods, including social media and viedographic research to uncover market trends in the social networks.

Ben’s team will be conducting market research and videography at SxSW Interactive. Plus, the Synch team will be conducting video interviews, in-session market research, posting videos to the Big (D)esign Blog page, tweeting, and asking loads of questions for attendees and speakers. If anyone will have the pulse of the conference, it will be Ben.
Jared Spool

Jared M. Spool is the founder of User Interface Engineering, the largest usability research organization of its kind in the world. If you’ve ever seen Jared speak about usability, you know that he’s probably the most effective and knowledgeable communicator on the subject today. Jared has been working in the field of usability and design since 1978, before the term “usability” was ever associated with computers.

Jared spends his time working with the research teams at the company, helps clients understand how to solve their design problems, explains to reporters and industry analysts what the current state of design is all about, and is a top-rated speaker at more than 20 conferences every year. He is also the conference chair and keynote speaker at the annual UI Conference and Web App Summit, is on the faculty of the Tufts University Gordon Institute, and manages to squeeze in a fair amount of writing time. He is author of the book, Web Usability: A Designer’s Guide.
Brian Sullivan

Brian Sullivan is Usability Principal at the Sabre Human Factors Center. He is the President of the DFW-UPA chapter, one of the organizers of the Big Design Conference, and for the past two years, Brian has been the chair of World Usability Day. He is a reviewer for the UPA Body of Knowledge project. Brian enjoys collaborating with designers. Brian’s mission is to prevent usability issues rather than to treat them.
Russ Unger

Russ Unger is the Director of Experience Planning for Draftfcb, an advertising/marketing agency in the Midwest and currently serves on the board of directors of the Information Architecture Institute as president. Russ has been working on websites since 1993—when there was only Notepad to code with and Mosaic was the only browser around. That was when he found his interest in User Experience Design and Information Architecture began to flourish.

Since then, he has worked with a number of major brands, including Sharpie, Kraft, Kmart, Gatorade, Propel, Quaker and Celebrity Cruise Lines, as well as on large scale Intranet and Extranet applications for such companies as Volkswagen Credit, Audi Financial Services, Information Resources, Inc. and Marsh.

In addition, Russ is co-author of the book A Project Guide to UX Design for Peachpit Press (Voices That Matter). Russ is also co-authoring a book on research methods due out in 2010.
Laura Verble

Laura Verble is a Senior Strategist at IDEA, a leading full-service interactive agency rated top 50 in the country by B2B and AdAge magazine. Specializing in user experience research, strategy, and design for seven years, Laura believes that rapid digital prototyping and interactive usability testing and analytics research are key to creating compelling experiences.

As a strategist, Laura knows that optimizing user experience means addressing the summation of all touchpoints a customer has with a brand, from email to search engine listings to the website and product packaging. Laura has improved the usability and performance of countless websites, intranets, extranets, web-based and desktop applications in her role. She has also facilitated and managed dozens of global usability studies, focus groups, and research initiatives.

Laura has designed experiences for such brands as HP, Sony, TPI, Litton Loan, Travelex, Memorial Hermann Hospital, Cooper Industries, and the State of South Carolina. Today, Laura speaks at events and workshops across the country covering topics on web usability, user experience, accessibility, search marketing, social marketing, web standards/trends, and more.
Dr. Susan Weinschenk

Dr. Susan Weinschenk has over 30 years of experience as a consultant worldwide and is Chief of Technical Staff and Services at Human Factors International. Her areas of expertise include persuasive interface design, neuropsychology, user centered design, and generational differences.

Dr. Weinschenk has a Ph.D. in Psychology from Pennsylvania State University. Susan has had 4 books on user experience published, and her most recent book is Neuro Web Design: What Makes Them Click? published by New Riders. She is a highly rated workshop and keynote presenter.