Tuesday, May 21, 2013
Parsons The New School for Design, New York NY
Lis Hubert, Chris Jaffe, Cindy Jeffers, Cory Lebson, John Payne, Anders Ramsay, Tomer Sharon
Grand Prize: Google
Gold: Cava Interactive, Schema Design
Silver: Virginia Tech, Belkin, Digitas, ZocDoc
Bronze: EffectiveUI, Cerner Corporation, Amplify
Honorable: Fi, KBS+Spies & Assassins, Huge, R/Ga, SAP
GRAND PRIZE
Best Everyday Utility: Google Now by Google
GOLD
Best Social Learning Platform: Actively Learn by Schema Design, LLC for Actively Learn, Inc.
SILVER
Best Accessibility Innovation: Activ by students at Virginia Tech
Best Consumer Device: WeMo by Belkin
Best UX Research Process: Cessna- We Have Your Jet by Digitas for Cessna
Most Useful Consumer Health Care Service: ZocDoc by ZocDoc
BRONZE
Most Persuasive Use of Data: Water For People by EffectiveUI for Water for People
Best Clinical Health Care Experience: PowerChart Touch by Cerner Corporation
Best Classroom Learning Experience: Amplify Tablet by Amplify
HONORABLE MENTION
USAToday.com Site Redesign by Fi for Gannett
PUMA Joypad Wall by kbs+ Spies & Assassins for PUMA
BMW ActiveE by kbs+ Spies & Assassins for BMW North America
American Express Consumer Digital Acquisition Journey by Huge for American Express
Google Now in Action
Google Now is a proactive and contextually aware assistant for modern smartphones. Google Now delivers just the right information at just the right time. There’s no digging required. Cards appear when they’re needed most, freeing you to focus on what’s important to you. Now brings smartphones to a new era of context aware computing and augmented reality. You see when the next train will arrive as you’re standing on the platform, and reviews of restaurants as you walk down the street. Performance is evaluated on how relevant and contextual the information being provided is, how quickly it is delivered, and how much time it saves you relative to traditional phone interactions. Users experience serendipitous discovery while also relying on Now to delivery particular pieces of information throughout their day. It feels like an extension of yourself, and always has what you need.
Matias Duarte, Hector Ouilhet Olmos, Daniel Shiplacoff, Alex Faaborg, Peter Ng, Ede Schweizer, Andy Stewart, Tom Jenkins, Simon Tickner, Peter Hodgson
Helsingin Sanomat Digital Transformation
Our mission was to transform Helsingin Sanomat (HS), the largest subscription newspaper in Finland and the Nordic countries head-first into digital. The project was carried out user-centric from the start. We started by creating a UX strategy that provided a sustainable way for monetising the experience from an prestigious journalism brand. The transformation was carried out through a multi-channel UX architecture which unified all of the brand’s properties. Transformation brought the end to the ‘must not be too good’, free online news produced by a small online desk. The best-of-class content is now created by the full editorial staff of more than 350, in all channels: online, radio, print – and from Nov 2012 onwards also TV, as HS staff started to creating TV news.
www.cavainteractive.com/cases/hs
Juha Rouvinen, Mikko Kiviniemi, Kerkko Ulmanen
Actively Learn
Reading is the bedrock of education, but two-thirds of eighth graders cannot understand what they read. Actively Learn is an e-reading application that improves students’ reading comprehension and retention by enabling teachers to reach students inside books through personalized instruction, timely feedback, and peer collaboration. Students are motivated by getting information to fill gaps in background knowledge and interacting with peers. Teachers are provided with a robust data dashboard to monitor student progress along Common Core standards. They can scaffold the reading experience to meet the needs of struggling readers or provide rich questions to inspire advanced readers. Actively Learn worked with Schema on the design of the e-reading application. We started by creating a minimum viable product that was deployed to students at a partner school. The test was positive, showing a 23% increase in comprehension, and provided valuable feedback for the design of the beta software. Working with a small team of educators and developers, Schema helped Actively Learn create the user experience for the product following a user-centered methodology by eliciting continued feedback from teachers and students using the software in the classroom. The product recently left private beta and is currently being used by 250 registered teachers, 2000 students and 150 schools. The design challenge was to meet the needs of both teachers and students in an area that has very little precedent—providing a scaffolded, teacher-authored reading experience to improve learning and effectively turning any book into a textbook. The Actively Learn user experience demonstrates how a product can be both highly specialized and functional, while providing an open framework for teacher- and student-authored content as well as a pleasing and effective reading experience that rivals even the most widely used e-book platforms.
www.activelylearn.com *Product is still in development at the time of submission.
Jay Goyal (CEO and Co-Founder of Actively Learn, Inc.), Deep Sran (Chief Academic Officer and Co-Founder of Actively Learn, Inc.), Anish Mehta (Director of Engineering of Actively Learn, Inc.), Christian Marc Schmidt (Founder and Principal of Schema Design, LLC).
Activ
Activ is the product of group of students at Virginia Tech, as a part of their annual sophomore wireless project. We were given a prompt: Create a universal design solution for a person with one arm, to help her to better use her wireless devices. Activ allows a user to interact with their phone without using their hand, while reducing the intrusiveness of current voice-activated technologies. Using electromyography technology, commonly used in prosthetics, the bluetooth headset detects intentional muscle movements in the jaw and uses these signals to interact with their phone without even having to remove it from their pocket.
www.industrialdesign.arch.vt.edu
WeMo
WeMo is a simple but sophisticated plug-and-play approach to home automation. The WeMo app allows you to remotely control and automate your lamps, TVs, stereos, and more using your iPhone or iPad, the WeMo Switch or Sensor and your wireless home network. You can set schedules for your devices, have them react to motion or control them from anywhere you have a mobile internet connection. More switches and sensors can be added at any time, allowing you to control as much or as little of your home as you like. The WeMo app steps you through the quick hardware setup and immediately offers an intuitive control interface. It provides examples and simple steps for creating automation rules. The WeMo app is also integrated with IFTTT.com allowing you to have devices react to outside events – for example, WeMo can turn on the space heater when the temperature outside drops below 60o.
www.belkin.com/us/wemo – This page connects you to the apps and where to buy product for your home.
Sarah Gallivan Mitchell, Doug McLaughlin, Ernesto Quinteros, Oliver Duncan Seil, Jamie Elgie, John Adlai, Jon Plummer, Joshua Seal, Ohad Zeira, Ryan Kim
Cessna – We Have Your Jet
Cessna was already bringing a modern, high-end feel to their aircraft, but their website was lagging behind. They wanted to sell more private jet aircraft by making it easy for prospects to find the right jet online for their needs and by empowering them so they are ready to interact with the Cessna sales team once they’ve found it. To achieve their goals, we took on a multi-phase project to transform their digital presence, replacing their site’s outdated content and confusing navigation with a highly intuitive, sophisticated experience. A series of 60-day quick wins brought initial cosmetic and usability improvements, while thorough research and analysis were used to develop a set of customer personas and user journeys that shaped Cessna’s long-term digital strategy. We interviewed customers and business stakeholders, evaluated site metrics and conducted competitive and heuristic analyses to deliver an aircraft shopping experience that maps to how potential buyers actually behave throughout the complex aircraft purchase process. These insights were then applied to fully redesign and rebuild the Cessna website from the ground up. We designed a fully functional wireframe prototype to show initial layout and actual click-through paths, which allowed us to quickly iterate to create an intuitive and engaging user experience. The finalized site brought striking visuals that offered a highly immersive and branded experience, which features such Innovative enhancements such as tablet-friendly animations, push-down navigation, persistent sub-navigation and parallax scrolling.
bostonworkshowcase.com/2013/uxawards/cessna
Morgan Curran, Michael Histen, Deborah Goff
ZocDoc
ZocDoc is one of New York’s fastest growing startups, but by far our most important impact is on patients and on the healthcare system overall. Patients who use ZocDoc see the doctor more often, and more quickly, than they would without ZocDoc. We’ve seen deaf patients use ZocDoc to make appointments they could not have previously made over the phone. We’ve seen severely ill patients get diagnosed and treated months in advance of what the old phone system would have permitted. Shy and reluctant patients can seek healthcare discreetly using ZocDoc’s easy web-based tools. Booking an appointment is ZocDoc’s core functionality. Our interaction model is as simple as can be: showing patients only doctors who take their insurance, letting patients read verified reviews of those doctors and only exposing those doctors’ time slots that are available. Behind the scenes, this is immensely complex. There are over 100 practice management (scheduling) software systems in use. A key challenge ZocDoc has overcome is providing both software- and service-based systems for medical practices to quickly and accurately synchronize their schedules with ZocDoc. ZocDoc’s iPhone and Android mobile apps have earned 5-star ratings in their respective app stores. Over 130,000 people have downloaded our apps. Our new Check-in feature, which allows patients to fill out all their registration and medical information forms online before going to the office, has a nearly 90% completion rate for patients who begin the process. These are very complex forms, but patients are finding our process quick and easy to complete. As a result, patients are seeing doctors with less hassle and more accurate information.
Chris Hlavaty, Daniel Yang, James Novy, Chris Fahey, Alex Evans, Marisa Homer, Min Song, Judith Park
Water for People
Water For People is an international nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting improved access to water and sanitation systems and services in developing countries. The organization enlisted user experience agency EffectiveUI to create a reporting platform as part of its Re-Imagine Reporting initiative. The resulting platform is a completely new and transparent way for Water For People to manage data, improve its outcomes and prove its efficacy to their stakeholders.
Dustin Chambers (Lead Experience Architect), Eddie Breidenbach (Visual Design Lead), Scott Craig (Visual Design Lead & Prototype Developer), Jason Bowers (Interaction Designer), Christian Whitney (Visual Designer), Mike Scarano (Visual Design Support), Steve Clement (LifeRay Development Lead), Kevin Stoelb (HTML Development Lead), Patrick Hansen (HTML Developer), Michelle Olmsted (Project Manager) Amanda Gagliardi (UX Designer).
PowerChart TouchTM solution suite
WHAT The PowerChart TouchTM solution suite is a native iOS experience created to change the delivery of health care. The design strategy enables Electronic Medical Record (EMR) mobile workflows to present the right information to physicians at the right time, increasing productivity. The aesthetic simplicity of the mobility-centered design encourages patients and providers alike to engage in health care. PowerChart TouchTM is a collection of multi-specialty workflow solutions that leverages a secure cloud-based architecture to allow access from anywhere in the connected world. WHY Typical EMR systems in healthcare facilities today are perceived as an obstacle in delivering patient care due to outdated interfaces which lack focus on usability and aesthetics. In recent years consumers have come to expect software to be easy for them to use and physicians in critical situations are no exception. HOW The main objective of the UX team in designing the user experience for PowerChart TouchTM was to create efficient and delightful experiences. By observing physicians during patient care and repeated user testing, the UX team was able to build an understanding of the users’ needs, creating a solution that is tailored to them. In order to fully commit to an excellent user experience, we developed an architecture around the overall design. This includes building out a cloud architecture to process, store and retrieve healthcare data in milliseconds, allowing the design to be uncompromising.
https://vimeo.com/66433795 – https://cpoe.vccerner.com/ux/public/video/Cerner_Video.mp4
Seth Claybrook (UX Lead), Todd Reynolds (UX Lead), Rebecca Green PhD (Sr. User Researcher), Kevin Shekleton (UX Architect), Doug Dickey MD (Physician Executive), Megan Barbre (Director of Clinical Strategy), Matt Anderson (IxD), Derick Berry (IxD), Amanda Buckely (UX Manager).
Amplify Tablet
Amplify Tablet – The only tablet designed for K–12 education. Unique student-centered interface: With the Amplify Tablet, students gain a mobile learning device that is organized around their in-school courses and out-of-school interests. The tablet becomes their digital backpack, filled with all of the content, assignments and activities of their classes, as well as tools to individualize their learning and explore their interests. Powerful teacher tools: We’ve created exclusive, easy-to-use Classroom Tools that help a teacher plan lessons, prepare quizzes, send assignments, share multimedia resources and easily manage all of her students’ tablets during class. They allow a teacher to get real-time feedback on students’ learning and differentiate her instruction accordingly. All-in-one solution for districts: Our tablet solution allows schools to scale 1:1 initiatives and manage thousands of tablets remotely and securely. Districts can easily provision and configure each device down to an individual user basis. Devices can be tracked, locked and wiped with the click of a button.
www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=uT8s66oXP_A
Sean Farrell, Joe McLean, Natalie Hollier, Ritwik Dey, Ronnie Ting, Kent Rahman, Jamie Lin, Andy Clark
USA Today
Timed to its 30 year anniversary, USA Today launched a radically redesigned website and boldly reimagined the way users interact with news online. The innovative page-turning site allows users to easily scroll left and right while reading articles, streaming videos or viewing photo galleries, transforming the experience of reading news online to that of reading a digital magazine. The experience of moving through the section fronts is smooth and uninterrupted, creating a delightful reading experience. The new design also integrates large and immersive ads effectively, modernizing the canvas for digital advertising.
Irene Pereyra (Global Director of UX & Strategy), Fi Anton Repponen (Global Creative Director), Fi Stephen Carpi (Global Director of Production), Fi Julia Prior (Senior Producer), Fi Chris Sainsbury (UX Designer), Fi Adam Diehl (UX Designer), Fi Dennys Hess (Designer), Fi Anatoliy Gromov (Jr. Designer), Fi Stephen Burgess (Intermediate Developer), Fi Erik Kallevig (Developer).
PUMA Joypad Wall
PUMA is a unique sports apparel brand that sets out to show consumers you can be the best and still have fun while doing it. But PUMA needed help bringing joy to the one consumer touch point where it was missing — at retail. Believing in social interfaces that encourage play, we developed a wall of iPads that let customers interact not only with each other, but to literally play with the PUMA brand in store. Thirty-two iPads work together through custom hardware and software that we designed, developed and licensed to PUMA. Comprised of a variety of games, the interface tests the limits of player’s abilities while taking into account user recall and special awareness/relationships. The result is a challenging series of interactions that repeatedly engage the player and encourage social collaboration.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9nh_Oc5W0E
Matt Powell (Chief Information Officer), Vikram Tank (Director, Product Development), Samantha Smeach (Account Director), Diego Rioja (Interaction Designer), Matt Richard (Product Architect), Patrick Figueroa (Associate Creative Director), Doug Strittmatter (Developer), Marc Brown (Developer), Ithai Benjamin (Product Architect).
BMW ActiveE – A Social Experiment Shaping The Future Of Mobility
There are three components to this project, an iPhone app, an iPad app and website. The integration of the three components, which served different purposes at different times throughout the lifetime of the campaign, makes for a seamless and compelling user experience across multiple platforms. Since Electric Vehicles (EVs) are at the beginning of their product life cycle, the iPad app had to effectively educate and engage consumers of all knowledge levels. The iPad app accomplished this with sections educating consumers about the general benefits of EV driving including time, money and carbon dioxide emissions saved. These numbers were personalized based upon the entrant’s input of average miles driven annually. It also included an option to begin the lease process right from the app. The iPhone app was targeted to consumers who didn’t think an electric vehicle would work for them. The app specifically worked to reduce their “range anxiety,” providing feedback on how far they travel in a day and how much a charged battery would last. The website had three phases, an initial consumer engagement version with interactive videos, a sign up phase where interested parties could sign up to participate and the final version that visually displays the data collected from the cars. Within nine hours of launching the ActiveE, there were two times as many applicants as cars. Within two months, all the ActiveEs were sold.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XyFv3Aec5XI
Jed McClure (Director, Interaction Design), Marc Hartzman (Group Creative Director), Ken Kobel (Technical Producer), Mustafa Bagdatli (Interaction Designer), Doug Strittmatter (Mobile Developer), Marc Brown (Mobile Developer), Katie Klumper (Group Account Director), David Solomito (Account Director), Jason Flynn (Account Executive)
Amex
Huge partnered with American Express to help transform the company’s approach to acquiring new Cardmembers through the digital channel. We developed a strategy to take American Express’ heritage and expertise as a direct and brand marketer and transform it in digital. The new approach creates an emotional connection to prospective Cardmembers, telling the stories of “Member Because,” simplifying the overall prospect journey to make it as easy as possible to complete and introducing best practices from e-commerce to make the Card shopping experience feel inherently digital. American Express has long been more than a credit card company, recognized year after year as a world-class service brand. Rather than talk about great service abstractly or describe it in terms of industry awards won, we sought a way to create an emotional connection between prospects and Cardmembers. “Member Because” lets prospects understand the specific rewards and benefits available from the Card through the stories of existing Cardmembers that explain why they love their American Express Card. This approach lets the richness of American Express products shine through the voices of Cardmembers.
downloads.hugeinc.com/share.php?q=c14c4f991999832b7135b6da99a9655e
Michal Pasternak (Head of User Experience), Evan Dody (Experience Lead), Amanda Forte (Associate Experience Director), Jess L’Esperance (User Experience Director).
Nike Fuel
Two years ago, Nike came to us to realize an idea: a device that tracks your daily activity and a common, universal metric called Fuel for every active body out there. They asked us to design the entire user experience. We ensured ease of use: set your goal and get from red to green. If you meet your goal, animations celebrate your performance. Hit a streak and Fuelie shows up to cheer you on. Data visualizations show where you were most active daily, weekly, monthly and beyond. We created Bluetooth synch technology, so when you finish your day, your Fuel is wireless synced to the platform. NikeFuel levels the playing field and fits into your life. #Counts
judgeseyesonly.com/nike-fuelband
Alan Donnelly, Mike Klimkewicz, Avery Holden (Producers). Ayca Akin, Gaurabhe Mathure (Interaction Design). Brian Addison, Karen Molye, Leslie Chong (Quality Assurance). Cesar Marchetti (Creative Director). Daniel Katz, Chris Thorwarth, Elad Katz (Technical Team Leads). Ellen Pai, Noelle Newbold, Melissa Frost (Visual Design). Ian Spalter (VP Product Design), Jennifer Allen (VP Managing Director). Keith Byrne, Evan Maranca (Copy). Kirill Yeretsky, Guy Helson, Can Misirlioglu, Mark Voelpel (Digital Studio). Niall McCormack, Fernando Mazzon (Sr. Software Engineers). Nick Coronges (VP Technology Strategy), Noel Billig (Executive Creative Director, Technology). Pablo Bergez, Justin Blinder (Software Engineers). Ray Sison (Art Director), Robert Carlsen (Sr. Software Engineer/Solutions Architect), Sune Kaae (Sr. Technical Director), Tara Greer (Executive Creative Director ID), Wade Convay (Executive Creative Director, Visual).
RealSpend
The biggest challenge was how to allow the user to view data on both an aggregated level and the most granular level across the three dimensions and navigate within the dimension or across different dimensions. All while keeping the application simple and intuitive. In short, we needed to find a way to allow the users to see the forest for the trees and the trees for the forest. We’d succeeded in designing real-time solutions for company leaders to: • Manage their budget more effectively • Spend strategically • Identify expense issues quickly • Do it all on the go – anytime, anywhere.
Siva Sabaretnam, Anna Blumovitz, Ruchi Kumar Chand
Robyn is the chief technology officer and head of product for Mashable where he led the creation and development of the new Mashable.com site, which launched in December 2012, and established Mashable as a leader in the media/tech company hybrid model for new media. Prior to Mashable, he was the head of product at Next Issue Media, the magazine and newspaper consortium (funded by News Corp, Conde Nast, Time Inc, Meredith and Hearst), where he led the development of a digital newsstand. And, before that, he headed up product strategy and technology for the Local Media division of NBC.
Twitter: @robynpeterson
Facebook: facebook.com/robyn.peterson
Anders Ramsay is a veteran UX Designer and an Agile UX Coach, with clients including AT&T, CBS, Deutsche Bank, FOX , JP Morgan, McGraw-Hill, Lonely Planet, Sony Pictures, Turner Broadcasting, Viacom, and the City of New York. He is highly active in the UX Design Community, including leading the NYC IA Meetup since 2003 and founding the Agile Experience Design Meetup, as well as the Agile Experience Design social network. Anders is also a regular speaker and panelist, particularly on the topic of Agile and User Experience Design, with recent talks and workshops at UX London, Agile 2012, and the Rosenfeld Media Workshop series. He is also a member of the Rosenfeld Media UX Experts and has a book in progress, Designing with Agile, to be published by Rosenfeld Media.
Twitter: @andersramsay
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/andersramsay/
Chris Jaffe leads Netflix’s product innovation on game consoles, mobile phones, multi-screen experiences, as well as product experience for Netflix’s Original Series. His recent work includes the new Netflix multi-screen experience on the WiiU, design of the unified control interface for voice, gesture, and controller for Netflix on Xbox 360 described as “Minority Report-worthy” by TechCrunch, and the recent award-winning redesign of the Netflix mobile experience. Prior to joining Netflix, Chris was Senior Director of User Experience Design at Yahoo! where he founded and led AdUX, the web giant’s user experience innovation team focused on new advertising experiences for video, rich media, mobile, and social. In addition, he drove Yahoo’s quantitative and qualitative user research program on advertising experience. That followed nearly 10 years in user experience consulting with clients in industry, non-profit, and government. A frequent speaker at conferences, his interests lie at the intersection of user experience + design + business strategy. He holds degrees from Cornell University and the University of Arizona and lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Twitter: @chrisjaffe
Company: netflix.com
LinkedIn: Chris Jaffe
Cindy Jeffers is the CEO and CTO of Salon.com, the leading progressive news site. Prior to Salon she served as Technical Director at The Huffington Post through a period of substantial growth and an acquisition by AOL. In the preceding decade she designed interactive experiences for museums installations, retail environments, touchscreens, games, websites, digital signage, mobile phones, and kiosks. Cindy holds a masters degree from the Interactive Telecommunications Program at New York University where she focused on physical computing. She holds a Bachelors degree in Women’s Studies from Barnard College.
Twitter: @cindy_jeffers
Company: salon.com
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/cindyjeffers/
Cory is Principal User Experience Consultant at DC-based Lebsontech LLC. With a staff of three, his core client base includes a number of Federal government, commercial, non-profit, and educational organizations. Lebsontech is focused primarily on UX strategy, user research and associated training. Cory also greatly enjoys teaching topics related to user experience and technology and conducts monthly seminars. He has been featured on the radio, has published several recent articles on user experience, and is a frequent speaker at local area events and national conferences. Cory has an MBA, as well as an MA in sociology and a BS in psychology. Cory is a current board member and former president of the Washington DC chapter of the User Experience Professionals Association (UXPA) and is on the Board of Directors of UXPA International, as the Director of Strategic Partnerships.
Twitter: @corylebson
Company: lebsontech.com
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/lebson
John Payne is a principal at Moment, a digital product design firm he co-founded in New York City in 2002. His current work explores the positive contribution that mobile technologies and experience design can make to healthcare and education, with a focus on empowerment of patients and learners. Educated in Design at Auburn University and Institute of Design at IIT (the New Bauhaus), John has lectured and taught graduate and undergraduate courses in design methodology at Pratt, Parsons, and NYU, most recently teaching a course on Designing Sustainable Business Models in Parsons’ Masters of Strategic Design Management program. John has also participated in a variety of industry and corporate events as speaker and organizer. Recent activities have included running a series of workshops for IxDA NY and co-chairing the EPIC (The Ethnographic Praxis in Industry Conference), an international conference devoted to the theory and practice of ethnography in the business world.
Twitter: @JeanPhony and @MomentDesign
Company: momentdesign.com
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/jeanphony
As an independent consultant based in New York City, Lis helps to bring understanding to businesses of all sizes in order to ensure their products and services meet both business and user needs, and are successful and enjoyable to use. If you’re unable to find Lis busily maintaining her consulting business (where she has worked with clients such as ESPN Mobile, espnW and ViacomMedia Networks to improve brand and product experiences), you can find her contributing to the knowledge of the UX community by serving on the advisory board for Future Insights, a role which enables her to help bring new ideas and topics to the design community. But Lis doesn’t just work behind the scenes, you can also find her speaking and writing about her experiences in the field in cities from New York to Prague!
Twitter: @lishubert
Website: elisabethhubert.com
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/elisabethhubert
Tomer Sharon is a Senior User Experience Researcher at Google Search in New York City and author of the book, It’s Our Research: Getting stakeholder buy-in for user experience research projects (2012). He founded and led The Israeli chapter of UXPA and is a mentor at Google’s Campus TLV, a UX learning, collaboration, and mentorship program for Israeli startups. He speaks at conferences and professional events, is a published author of articles and papers, and a past editorial board member for UXPA’s UX Magazine. Tomer holds a master’s degree in Human Factors in Information Design from Bentley University in Waltham, MA.
Twitter: @tsharon
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/tomersharon
Beverly has over 16 years’ experience in technology and the Internet and core expertise in user experience and usability. She is the founder of Oxford Technology Ventures, LLC, a boutique user experience and product strategy consultancy. She is also the current President of NYC-CHI, NYC’s largest and oldest UX and usability organization, and the organizer of the User Experience Awards. Beverly began her career at age 20 by founding her own successful music entertainment company and independent music magazine in Toronto, Canada before transitioning into the Web in the mid-late 1990s. She has worked on helping conceive, upgrade or launch well over 100 digital products and services through varied experience at internet incubators, digital agencies, startups, software companies, publishing companies and the United Nations before starting Oxford Technology Ventures, LLC in 2008. Beverly has an Executive MBA from the University of Oxford, a technology Master’s degree in systems design and new media from New York University.
Twitter: @OxfordTech, @UXAwards and @MiniDates
Company: oxfordtechnologyventures.com and MiniDates.com
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/beverlymay
NYC chapter of SIG-CHI, (Special Interest Group – Computer Human Interaction) part of the ACM. We hold regular events and have an active mailing list to service the NYC region. We have over 1000 active members in all aspects of HCI, including information architects, interaction designers, user experience designers, service designers, product and museum experience designers, usability practitioners, digital librarians, user interface designers and UI developers.
We seek to bring together professionals from the marketing, design, technology and research communities so that we may share our collective experiences and create a forum for learning and professional growth. We encourage you to join us at our monthly events, which are open to members and non-members.
With over 10,000 members and more than 80 local groups around the world, the IxDA network actively focuses on interaction design issues for the practitioner no matter his or her level of experience. IxDA is a novel kind of “un-organization” and relies on its passionate members to help serve the needs of the international Interaction Design community. The IxDA New York City local group is a vibrant community of people interested in interaction design who meet monthly at face-to-face events. Programming is created by a volunteer group of local leaders and realized through the generosity of speakers, sponsors, and host partners.
The Design and Technology BFA program focuses on new media storytelling and interaction technologies. Students explore how media drives social, political, and cultural change and solve real-world problems as well as propose new possibilities. Building on contemporary design disciplines, the program exposes students to emerging design and art practices such as data programming, computer graphics, animation, game design, motion graphics, physical computing, and interactive technologies.
AnswerLab delivers trusted customer insights that help the world’s leading brands build engaging experiences across digital platforms. The company focuses exclusively on user experience research to understand what people see, do, think and feel when using websites, mobile applications, and other digital products and services.
Pow Interactive is a boutique design studio specializing in web, mobile and emerging technologies. Whatever the platform, we seek to engage users and improve their experiences.
Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful. Since the beginning, we’ve focused on providing the best user experience possible. Whether we’re designing a new Internet browser or a new tweak to the look of the homepage, we take great care to ensure that they will ultimately serve you, rather than our own internal goal or bottom line.
Modus Associates is a digital innovation consultancy founded to help global brands and visionary start-ups more fully realize the business potential of the digital age, where customers rule, connectivity is everywhere, and creating value for profit and social impact is the name of the game.
ExperisTM is the global leader in professional resourcing and project-based workforce solutions. We accelerate organizations’ growth by intensely attracting, assessing and placing specialized expertise in IT, Finance and Engineering to precisely deliver in-demand talent for mission critical positions, enhancing the competitiveness of the organizations and people we serve. Experis offers a suite of services around user experience consulting, website design, redesign and creation, usability or accessibility improvement, section 508 accessibility audits and testing. User experience is loosely defined as all of the necessary disciplines to ensure that your applications and/or website adhere to industry best practices in usability and design. Core activities include website design, information architecture creation, and general web strategy creation.
Loop11 is the only way to get quantitative usability metrics…affordably. It’s the SurveyMonkey of usability testing. A self-serve, browser-based solution for usability professionals, web managers and web designers to create their own online, usability testing projects to get the metrics needed to optimize website usability.
Rosenfeld Media is the premier provider of books, training, consulting, and other expertise-based services to the growing community of user experience design professionals.
Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey offers both a Masters Degree and a certificate in User Experience Design. Courses are either intense one week boot camps, online, in the evening or spread over a set of weekends for those who want to pursue their UXD training while working. Both programs are taught by a combination of well-known senior faculty who have been working in the UXD area for over 30 years and high level professionals with years of experience in multiple state-of-the-art companies or consulting firms. Expect to learn where the field is going, where it is now, how it fits within the corporate world, how to use the latest support software and how to strategically market your skills..
TriNet delivers HR outsourcing services that allow growing companies to do what they do best. Small to medium-sized businesses in technology, financial services, non-profits, and professional services use TriNet’s all-in-one solution for human resources, benefits, payroll, workers’ compensation, and strategic human capital services.
We are problem solvers with a passion for our clients and what we do. Our services include software development, engaging front end designs, data integration, web based applications and information security. We believe people drive success; they are our greatest asset. While systems create efficiency, our people create value. We build solutions that drive business for our clients and have successfully delivered on more than 500 projects.
GarysGuide is a global resource and community of folks that are interested in startups, entrepreneurship, social media and technology. It is one of the best resources for discovering technology and startup related events, classes and jobs in New York City, San Francisco Bay Area, London, Boston, Los Angeles, Austin, Boulder and other cities. The community is a highly targeted mix of influencers and connectors including Startup Founders & Entrepreneurs, Technology and Media Executives, Venture Capitalists, Angel Investors, Marketers, Product Managers, Analysts, Technologists, Developers, Bloggers and more.
Women Developers and Programmers! Want to learn how to code? Have a great idea? Don’t be shy. Develop it. It can be intimidating for women to learn and ask questions when they are in an extreme minority. While open and welcoming, today’s budding developer community is up to 91% male. There isn’t a comfortable place where women can learn at their own pace and not be afraid to ask “stupid questions.” We decided it was time to provide a place where all questions are OK and everyone can learn in a supportive environment. Our courses focus on coding, leveraging existing technology, and having something to show for it (aka building sweet websites). The community is a highly targeted mix of influencers and connectors including Startup Founders & Entrepreneurs, Technology and Media Executives, Venture Capitalists, Angel Investors, Marketers, Product Managers, Analysts, Technologists, Developers, Bloggers and more.
The IA Summit is the premier destination for those who practice, research and are interested in the structural design of shared information environments. Some call themselves information architects (and many don’t) but all share a common desire to help people live better lives through meaningful experiences with information. The Summit is, above all, a community gathering. It is organized, planned and realized by volunteers across the information architecture and related communities of practice, with the kind support and backing from ASIS&T, and attended by people of all backgrounds with an interest to learn and share the lessons, challenges and opportunities presented in today’s digital landscape.
Since 2008, Internet Week has taken place all over the city, thanks to our many partners hosting diverse events in different locations.The result is a critical mass of web-focused events that raises the profile of NYC’s industry as a whole, as well as the partners who participate.
Since 1987, Sachs Insights has partnered with clients and agencies to bring the voice of the consumer into the development of brands, communications, and interactive products and services. With a team of over 30 researchers, strategists, ethnographers, filmmakers and field staff, we address marketing and usability objectives to shape websites and interactive communications that are appealing, intuitive, and deliver on business and marketing goals.
We’ve built The Hired Guns to help the digital creative class expand their potential far beyond the 9-to-5, bringing their expertise to companies in unexpected and exciting ways and guiding their careers through transitions from freelance gigs to fulltime jobs and back again. The Hired Guns was founded in early 2000: an unsettled time for Corporate America, but for the creative class, the start of a new era of entrepreneurship and individualism. It was a scary trend for many, but for us it was just the motivation we needed. Borrowing from the only model that made sense, we started our talent agency in the mold of Hollywood-style representation, hand-picking our talent, growing with them over time and helping them to manage their evolving careers.
“Beverly May: Founder of The UX Awards, Advocate for Exceptional Experiences”
Ultra Light Startups is an online and in-person community for technology entrepreneurs. Events feature startup pitches, networking and interactive, moderated panel discussions with leading industry experts. Topics cover: design, technology, marketing and finance. Attend and participate in-person in New York, Boston and Toronto, or view the live video stream from anywhere.
NYC UX Acrobatics is a community based UX Meetup. NYC UX Acrobatics primary focus is the varied facets of UX design, research and usability. Our aim is to create monthly ‘UX themed’ workshop style meetings where members work with each other learning, discovering and networking on all things UX.
UX Mastery is an online resource for user experience designers.Based in Melbourne, Australia, our aim is to inspire and educate the next generation of UX designers on how to design websites and apps that are both usable and delightful. Our content is full of personality and covers the entire UX spectrum. Whether it’s blog posts, ebooks, email newsletters or even animated videos, if it’s anything to do with user experience, you’ll find it at UX Mastery
Oxford Technology Ventures, LLC specializes in expert technology product strategy, management and planning, User Experience, Information Architecture and Usability for software, mobile, tablets and the Internet. Our team has been conceptualizing, planning and delivering results-focused new technology and web initiatives since 1996. We work closely with our clients in an immersive partner relationship to help understand the business and product needs and ensure we deliver. Our clients include large companies, startups, and digital agencies. Our goal is to ensure our clients produce targeted, high-quality products that achieve user, product and business goals by focusing on our three principles: making products that are Effective, Useful and Engaging.