Design for Context is a small, woman-owned business located in the Washington, DC/Baltimore area.
Lisa Battle has 15 years of experience in eliciting user needs, designing to support user performance, and leading successful user-centered design projects. She has designed usable software, web-based applications, and web sites for clients in a variety of industries and in the federal government. She is also an expert on accessibility, which makes products and services easier to use for people with disabilities.
Ms. Battle is President of the DC Metro Chapter of the Usability Professionals’ Association (UPA) (www.upa-dc-metro.org), which hosts monthly events and a local conference on usability topics, and is a member of the international committee defining the Body of Knowledge for usability (www.usabilitybok.org). She has presented on accessibility, usability, requirements engineering, semantic web, and strategic design at numerous conferences, including UPA, HCI International, Society for Technical Communication (STC), ASSETS, Extreme Markup, and the Government Solutions Conference. She is the author of two book chapters as well as articles in Performance Improvement and the IBM Systems Journal. In her six years of consulting with the U.S. Social Security Administration, she was instrumental in institutionalizing usability and creating a center of excellence for user-centered design within that agency. Ms. Battle holds a master’s degree in Cognitive Psychology/Human Factors from George Mason University.
Duane has more than ten years of experience in Web usability and information architecture, and over 20 years of experience in knowledge management, systems design and business process analysis. He is a business strategist who has led interaction design and content management projects for commercial and government clients in the US and internationally. Duane has an extensive background designing interactive applications and managing content specifically to improve integration with transactional systems. Mr. Degler's past clients include Philips Electronics, Shell, United Distillers, Reuters, Schlumberger, UNUM Insurance, the Social Security Administration, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.
Along with his client consulting work, Duane co-organizes the Semantic Web User Interaction workshop series and is a participant in the UPA Usability Body of Knowledge project. He holds a BSc in Media Communications and an MSc in Organizational Communications, with a focus on the human change impacts arising from technology adoption.
Lynn Baumeister has over 20 years of experience in the computer science field and has been working for the past 8 years specifically in the area of usability. She is an expert in user research, user-centered design, and information architecture, as well as the federal requirements governing the accessibility of Web sites for people with disabilities. Her work draws on both analytic and quantitative methods all aimed at the creation of usable software and Web sites.
Ms. Baumeister has experience working with clients, large and small, from the government, health care, education, and non-profit sectors, as well as private sectors clients from fields including insurance, manufacturing, publishing, information technology, and human resources. She holds a Master’s Degree from the Human Computer Interaction Institute at Carnegie Mellon University and has taught in the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University. Ms. Baumeister is principal consultant at Cirque Interactive.
Laura Chessman is a user centered design and strategy professional with experience in both industry and government settings. While leading efforts to assess and improve the usability of systems ranging from complex software for researchers and engineers to informational systems for broad audiences, Ms. Chessman has also worked within organizations to integrate user centered design methodologies into software development processes for long term successes in improving system usability.
Ms. Chessman has led multiple design and usability projects for clients such as the National Cancer Institute and American Red Cross and has managed the design and usability efforts for multiple complex software products in private industry. Ms. Chessman has considerable experience designing for and assessing the usability of complex systems used in highly specialized fields such as science and engineering. She holds a M.S. in Information Science from the University of North Carolina.
Natasha Lesser specializes in designing easy-to-use information products. In addition to her expertise in organizing Web sites to improve usability, she facilitates working sessions with teams, conducts interviews and focus groups, gathers requirements, and produces wireframes, style guides, and specifications. Her strong writing and editing skills help to ensure readability and clear communication. She has worked with a variety of clients, including automobile, airline, fashion, and athletic apparel companies; universities; and the Federal Government.
Jasmin Phua is a user experience strategist and interaction designer with 10 years of experience translating business strategies and operational processes into tangible, easy-to-use products. She helps organizations reconcile the seeming disparate needs of customers/end-users, the business model, and technology. Ms. Phua has led cross-functional teams in the design of productive user interfaces for complex web applications, mobile/handheld devices, websites, and client-server applications. She has worked with clients in the federal government, health, insurance, financial, legal, telecommunications, education, automotive, and fashion industries.
Anita Salem is a human systems researcher who looks at the interaction between people, organizations and technology. With a goal of designing systems that are useful, desirable, and easy to use, she works with practitioners and organizations to improve the adoption of new processes and technologies. Ms. Salem consults with organizations on innovative ways to manage the design of new systems. Using qualitative research methods, business needs analysis, and participatory design techniques, she partners with organizations to help them manage change and develop a more effective and efficient workforce. She has an M.S. in Technical Communication and is a frequent presenter on topics related to human systems research. Ms. Salem is principal consultant at Salem Systems.
Rachel Sengers is an interaction designer and information architect with over 12 years of experience designing Web-based applications and sites for a variety of clients in the communications and financial industries, the federal government, and other sectors. She helps clients to clarify project goals, plans how users will move through a site and accomplish their tasks, specifies the details of the user interface, and then monitors development to ensure project requirements are implemented.
Ms. Sengers has experience with all stages of the user-centered design process, including gathering requirements, prototyping, visual design, user testing, section 508 compliance, and production. Her background includes many years as a Design Director, guiding a team of designers and developers at a Web design company. She holds a graduate certificate in Information Design from the University of Baltimore, and is an active volunteer with the Washington, DC Chapter of the Usability Professionals’ Association.
Carol Smith has 6 years of experience researching user needs and conducting usability studies. Ms. Smith has worked with clients in industries such as: automotive, education, federal government, financial, fine art, health care, insurance, manufacturing, non-profits, and real estate. She is comfortable facilitating a wide range of usability methods with both children and adults, in their homes, schools, factories, and offices.
Ms. Smith has used her methods to improve applications, Internet sites, Intranet portals, e-commerce sites and consumer products. She has project management expertise and has managed a User Experience department. Ms. Smith earned her Masters of Computer Science in Human-Computer Interaction from DePaul University in Chicago, IL. Ms. Smith is on the board of the international Usability Professionals' Association and is principal consultant at Midwest Research.
Kate Walser has created engaging, intuitive, and accessible Web sites, applications, and software for the past 12 years. She has worked with organizations including AXA/Equitable, T. Rowe Price, the US Department of Defense, and the US Department of Health & Human Services. Ms. Walser led the Usability Centers of Excellence at AMS and SRA International, where she guided and mentored teams on strategy, user and task analysis, information architecture, design, usability testing, and social media. Her work has received awards, including eHealthcare and Government Trailblazer awards.
Ms. Walser has presented at conferences including UPA International, Social Media for Government, and The Internet Security Conference. She serves as Vice President of the DC Metro Chapter of the Usability Professionals' Association (www.upa-dc-metro.org), and was part of the federal advisory committee for the Section 508 accessibility standards refresh. Ms. Walser has an MBA in strategy and international business, along with a background in biomedical engineering, and is principal consultant at CX Insights.
Lisa Battle led a workshop on design approaches to support client-specific configuration or customization to improve overall user experience, as part of the annual Usability Professionals’ Conference, held this year in Munich, Germany.
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