User Interface Engineering

We are constantly discovering so many cool things as we conduct our research. Our conversations around the offices here at User Interface Engineering, are always interesting, but up until now, we’ve found it very hard to let everyone know about them.

For example, one recent conversation went something like this:

“Hey, did you see the new Staples.com homepage?”

“Yeah, I did. I noticed that they created a top-level tab labeled ‘Ink & Toner’.”

“Interesting, huh?”

“Yeah.”

We’re constantly researching the design topics and issues that excite us about the work we’re doing. So, we’ve created UIE’s Brain Sparks — our repository for everything cool and interesting that is happening in the world of designing usable web sites and systems.

UIE Brain Sparks is our place to share and continue these discussions with you, our readers. We’ll be sharing our latest ideas and observations in the hope of sparking the same in you.

Contributors

UIE Brainsparks is brought to you by User Interface Engineering. UIE’s Principal Consultants, Jared M. Spool. Joshua Porter, and Christine Perfetti will share their latest thoughts and perspectives on the world of design.

Jared M. Spool, Founding Principal

If you’ve ever seen Jared speak about usability, you know that he’s probably the most effective, knowledgeable communicator on the subject today. What you probably don’t know is that he has guided the research agenda and built User Interface Engineering into the largest research organization of its kind in the world. He’s 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 User Interface Conference, is on the faculty of the Tufts University Gordon Institute, and manages to squeeze in a fair amount of writing time.

Joshua Porter, Director of Web Development

Joshua is a leading member of the company’s research team and a researcher on such topics as Web 2.0, Ajax, web standards, and on-site search systems. Joshua also manages the development team responsible for User Interface Engineering’s web sites.

Joshua has strong experience and knowledge in the areas of human factors, usability testing, and web site design and development. He shares many of his design thoughts and commentaries on his personal blog: Bokardo.com.

Christine Perfetti, Director of Business Strategy & Planning

When you talk with Christine, it doesn’t take a long time to realize that you’re talking to someone who knows a whole lot about designing usable web sites. As one of the most requested instructors at User Interface Engineering, she has worked with dozens of companies on their toughest web design problems. It would be very difficult to find someone who knows more about task design, user recruitment, and usability testing practices than Christine. She’s regularly a top-rated presenter and keynote speaker at conferences all over the world.

Christine is also responsible for User Interface Engineering’s business strategy initiatives. She manages UIE’s events and training business development and helps to ensure coordination of affiliates. Christine previously worked at Fidelity Investments, where she was an influential member of their highly-talented instructional design team. She received her Master’s degree in Experimental Psychology from Brown University in 1998.