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.
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.
Rachel Sengers is an interaction designer and information architect with over 10 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 is completing a graduate certificate program in Information Design at University of Baltimore, and is an active volunteer with the Washington, DC Chapter of the Usability Professionals’ Association.
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 Masters 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.
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.
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.
Kelly Green has constructed and maintained taxonomy and ontology structures for a range of organizations and applications in the health, policy, and public services sectors. Her taxonomies are used for search, automatic index display, and user interface personalization. She has facilitated subject expert meetings to design categorization structures, and has also taught authors and editors how to develop and use keywords and add metadata to Web page information. Along with her taxonomy work, Kelly has created information architectures for a range of internal and public-facing Web sites. Ms. Green holds a Masters of Library Science from the University of Maryland, with a focus on Information Technology & Reference.
Olga Howard has worked in the Web industry including public sites, Intranets, Extranets, interactive television, online communities, and applications for over 10 years. Her focus is on providing information architecture, usability consulting, interaction design, and community network strategy to create great web experience design. She has a wide breadth of skills including user data analysis, user task analysis, content mapping, mind mapping, and persona creation. As a community strategist, Ms. Howard helps clients create organic, healthy, and successful environments for external social networks or internal communities. She helps clients effectively use Web 2.0 techniques to find a healthy balance between corporate brand, customer interaction, employee knowledge sharing, and the connections that bind us together.
Cory Lebson has fourteen years of experience with the management of people, projects, and systems in cross-disciplinary settings. His passion for usability, market research, and information architecture creates a desire to understand both end users and the marketplace. He also sustains an enjoyment of learning, with advanced degrees in business management (MBA), sociology (MA), and psychology (BS) along with creating related publications and conference presentations. Mr. Lebson is principal consultant at Lebsontech.
Laura Chessman is an expert in the design of user experiences for interactive products. She leads redesign initiatives, from initial concept through requirements definition, wireframes, page layouts, and interaction design documentation. She also helps clients define and implement design and development processes that integrate innovative user-centered design methodologies as a strategy to enhance competitiveness and meet business objectives. Ms. Chessman holds a M.S. in Information Science from the University of North Carolina. -->
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