Requirements Interface Usability	2215 NE 45th Ave, Portland, Oregon +1.503.284.0164 Map

I provide consultation, training, and collaborative work in three areas:

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Gathering detailed end-user product requirements with primary focus on workplace tasks, usability metrics, and feature and function set details
Transforming requirements into concepts, user interface designs, and specifications
Evaluating product usability and impact on the workplace

Areas of Usability Engineering Practice

Gathering end-user requirements: Ethnographic-style field interviews, process mapping, feature/function trade-off exercises, questionnaire design, analysis of qualitative data, competitive product evaluations, use-case development, UML; practical usability goals. Follow-up studies using the same methods.

Transforming requirements to design: Quality Function Deployment's (QFD) structured framework to guide work including: proper classification of benefits, wants, needs, measures, features, implementation alternatives and criteria, competitive analysis, and risk assessment.

Designing the user interface: Interaction design applying cognitive principles to learnability, utility, efficiency, memorability, errors, and satisfaction; interface function partitioning; minimal-control-types approach; design for localization; paper prototype function and usability exploration; heuristic reviews and walk-throughs. Prefer iterative design cycle with at least two rounds of usability testing. Neither a graphic artist nor a UI implementer.

Evaluating usability: Professional assessment and scripted exercises with end-users performed in-house or on-site. Analysis of performance, satisfaction levels, areas of frustration, and miscues in navigation and nomenclature; on-site beta testing of product

Employment

1999 to Present – Usability Architects, Inc., Vice President

I currently represent Usability Architects, Inc. (UAI), of Kirkland, Washington, as Vice President for Oregon and Southern Washington. In this capacity, I provide both direct consultation and specialized user interface and usability staff to UAI industrial and commercial clients in the western United States.

Freight Matching Fieldwork – Conducted and reported observations and interviews with freight brokers in northwest Arkansas for TransCore. - March 2008. Beaverton, OR.
Instrument UI Design – Prototyped and designed appearance and behavior of transaction-level QPI serial data display for Tektronix Logic Analyzer Product Line. Tested and refined general-purpose logic analyzer user interface specification and interpreted to Bangalore implementation team. Designed appearance and UI behavior for 7Sxx PCI Express serial analyzer modules. September 2005 - March 2008. Beaverton, OR.
Freight Matching Software – Performed heuristic review on freight matching software (likened to "dating service" software for truckers and shippers) for TransCore. July 2005. Beaverton, OR.
HP Consumer Innovation & Design – 24-month assignment providing general human-factors support to a variety of clients throughout the Imaging & Printing Group as a member of the Vancouver Consumer Innovation & Design Center. July 2003 to June 2005. Vancouver, WA.
Patent Consulting - Providing expert assessment of competing instrument user interface patents for Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner, LLP, Washington, DC, (private contract). March 2004 to present.
Patent Consulting - Providing expert assessment of competing instrument control software user interface patents for Meyertons, Hood, Kivlin, Kowert & Goetzel, Austin, TX, (private contract). Fall 2003 to present.
HP Mobile Printing SDK & Applications – Provided consultation and usability evaluation for new versions of Hewlett-Packard's wireless "mobile printing for Pocket PC" product and software development kit (SDK). March to June 2003. Vancouver, WA.
Printer unpack and installation – Conducted tests of prototype printer unpack, software installation, printing and front panel control usability (out-of-box experience or OOBE) for Hewlett-Packard Singapore. February 2003, San Francisco and London.
HP Mobile Printing Application – Conducted two rounds of usability tests and heuristic reviews of Hewlett-Packard's mobile printing for Pocket PC product. August 2002 to July 2003.
Commercial Printing Web Application – Conducted usability tests and heuristic reviews of an on-line print ordering system with print service providers and print buyers in Portland, New York, and Chicago. February 2002 to April 2002.
On-Line School Web Portal – Conducted heuristic reviews, usability tests, and focus group for web-based classroom management software for NCS Pearson. November 2001 to February 2002, Portland, OR, and Idaho Falls, ID.
PetWhere Animal Shelter Software – Served as interim software engineering manager and lead user interface designer for new version of PetWhere animal shelter software used in over 900 shelters across North America. Currently providing usability consultation to the executive director of the Bosack and Kruger Charitable Foundation regarding further design and implementation of the software by the ASPCA. Spring 2000 to Spring 2002, Redmond, WA, and Urbana, IL. ( www.petnet.org)
USB PlugFest Usability Suite – Reviewed usability of USB peripherals at USB-IF certification event on behalf of the Ease of Use/PC Quality Roundtable, suite sponsored by Intel and Microsoft. October 2001.
Heuristic Reviews & Web Site Redesign – Provided heuristic review of and recommended design changes for Zairmail consumer web site. Summer 2000, Portland, OR.
Heuristic Reviews – Reviewed installation and applications screens for Intel hardware support application. Reviewed Intel’s internal Authorized Solution Provider web site during its 1999 redesign. Various times between 1999 and 2002.
Heuristic Reviews and Usability Testing – Reviewed and tested Hewlett Packard's international certification mark management web site. Spring 2000, Vancouver, WA.

1997 to 1999 – Consultant

I left Tektronix, Inc., in 1997 after 21 years for the opportunity to work on projects beyond the narrow scope of high tech test and measurement instruments. My projects included:

Computer Office and Entertainment Peripherals – Contracted through Usability Architects, Inc., to provide control panel user interface specification for line of PC peripherals being developed by at Intel. Winter 1999, Hillsboro, Oregon.
PC Utility Software – Contracted through Usability Architects, Inc., to provide heuristic reviews of and design recommendations for early version of Intel’s AnswerExpress web site. Fall 1998.
Office Printer Interface – Consulted with Hewlett-Packard Vancouver Division for design and Visual Basic 5.0 simulation of a small user interface (SUI) for new office printers. Summer 1998 to Fall 1999, Vancouver, WA.
Commercial Sprinkler Control System – Contracted with a major irrigation controls manufacturer to design a Windows-based commercial sprinkler control system family consisting of both hardware and software.

Conducted user interviews for task analysis and feature/function trade-offs, prototyped the software, developed and conducted usability tests. Delivered user interface specification in support of implementation bidding process. Summer 1996 to Fall 1998.
AD007 GPIB-LAN Adapter – Contracted with Tektronix for detailed usability critique and beta testing of an embedded web site and a firmware update utility of their instrument connectivity adapter.

Synthesized recently published web design and usability guidelines into framework for critique; performed an intense heuristic evaluation of page layouts, navigation mechanisms, terminology, and overall consistency; wrote new HTML pages to illustrate recommendations. Located and recruited participants for Beta test; developed and executed background interviews; conducted video-taped "think aloud" interviews of product unpack and installation. Spring 1998.
Instrument Front-Panel Simulation – Contracted with a struggling electronics manufacturer to create a user interface simulation of a never-released industrial test instrument.

Working in Visual Basic, developed parameter classes for automatic propagation of value and range constraints among the approximately 50 parameters of the product. Integrated industrial design drawings and VB interface objects to produce a life-like appearance and realistic response-time behaviors. Winter 1998.

1993 to 1997 - Tektronix, Central Engineering

Manager of the Tektronix Customer-Centered Design group in Tek's Central Engineering organization. Located projects for and supervised assignments of four engineers across Tek's Measurement Business (test and measurement instruments). Prepared budget, staffing, and equipment plans.

Created "Engineer in the Wild," a support system and brief ethnography training program for engineers visiting customers to work on their projects for extended periods (1-8 weeks).

Developed and refined many of the end-user interview methods the group uses to elicit deep work background, detailed product requirements, design and usability issues, and product impact on the workplace. Worked as full member of product development teams from earliest concept development stages through the first several weeks of product shipment. My projects included:

RFA300 8VSB Measurement Set – Planned and conducted early requirements interviews toward development of a product to measure the new US Digital Television Standard.

Developed, conducted, and analyzed interviews with members of the Society of Cable Television Engineers (SCTE), and Chief Engineers of Pacific Northwest television stations fielding high-definition TV sites. Led QFD analysis of requirements to develop potential product feature sets. Performed heuristic reviews of proposed user interface and consulted on development and analysis of usability tests of product simulations.
Purchase Order Automation Software – Planned and conducted usability tests of Oracle-based software for PC, UNIX/Solaris, and Macintosh-based creation of electronic purchase orders.

Worked with Oracle Forms-based development team to partition content, discover effective nomenclature, and design a navigation scheme that reduced backtracking and errors. Trained team to conduct, and coached them through, usability tests with department secretaries, "power users," and people who had never written purchase orders. Advised on roll-out issues including level of support required to overcome lack of installation testing. Reviewed support logs with development team to capture "lessons learned."
TDS 210/220 Digital Real-Time Oscilloscopes – Assisted colleagues in training, execution, and analysis of development team's Panel-of-Experts nation-wide interviewing effort. Developed Visual Basic 3.0 user interface simulation; reviewed usability testing methods, results, and recommendations.
Pay-for-Performance Automation Software – Planned and conducted usability tests of Oracle-based software for direct management input of subordinates' yearly performance and pay recommendations.

Worked extensively with Oracle Forms-based development team to reorganize screen content, nomenclature, and navigation across PC, UNIX/Solaris, and Macintosh platforms. Advised team on capture of support information and long-term need for localization to Tek's international field offices and plants.
TFS-3031 Mini Optical Time Domain Reflectometer – Contributed to early requirements gather and user interface design of a fiber-optic cable testing instrument used by cable technicians and installers.

Trained development team for, and guided execution and analysis of, a nation-wide series of Panel-of-Experts interviews; developed Visual Basic 2.0 user interface simulation; reviewed and consulted on usability testing methods, results, and recommendations.

1991 to 1993 – Tektronix, Measurement Division

TWD-120 Digital Oscilloscope – Designed and implemented Tektronix TWD-120 digital oscilloscope user interface.

Created specifically for General Electric Medical service technicians, this product presented its display and controls as a direct-manipulation MS Windows 3.1 application (C/C++). Designed, conducted, and analyzed in-hospital field tests with GE technicians across the US.

Tektronix no longer supports this instrument and I have neither documentation, knowledge of the SCSI subsystem, nor much memory of the project. Limited information about this discontinued product may be available in a Tektronix TWD-120 FAQ at the Tek web site.

1985 to 1991 - Tektronix, TekLabs

Visual Programming Techniques – While a principal engineer/scientist in the Electronic Systems Laboratory, secured five patents for visual instrumentation programming techniques (Smalltalk 80 and C/C++), including technique used in later TWD-120 user interface.
Internal Consultant – Provided background talks on artificial intelligence technologies. Advised product groups on user interface design and usability issues, and instrument control strategies for manufacturing test.

1976 to 1985 – Tektronix, Measurement Systems Division

Manufacturing Test Development Study – Performed a etailed study of manufacturing test software development processes that led to redesign of Tek's 11000-series oscilloscope computer-aided test software (C, PDP-11).
Tek SPS Basic – Developer on team that created one of the earliest IEEE-488 (GPIB) instrument control and digital signal processing Basic programming languages, Tek SPS Basic. Wrote OS-level string management, instrument communications, and graphics routines (Macro-11 assembly language, PDP-11); developed class and taught customer classes in "non-resident (now called .dlls) command programming."

1974 to 1976 – Key Data, Portland, Oregon

Inventory Control System – Wrote multi-user inventory control system, including bill-of-materials, for Dependable-Fordath, a manufacturer of foundry equipment (Data General Eclipse, Fortran II).
Coupon Clearing-House Application – Designed and wrote multi-user grocery store coupon counting application for a clearing house (Data General Eclipse, assembly language/Fortran II).
Accounts Payable System – Wrote accounts payable application for a steel foundry (early IBM desk-sized computer, RPG II).
Fleet Maintenance System – Member of development team for a fleet maintenance system for the Convoy Company, a cross-country new-car trucking firm (DataPoint computers, BASIC).

Professional Activities

I have been a member of the international Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and worked for its Special Interest Group on Computer-Human Interaction ( SIGCHI) since 1986. I served as audio-visual chairman for three of the SIG's major conferences, CHI'90 (Seattle), CHI'91 (New Orleans), and INTERCHI'93 (Amsterdam, The Netherlands), supporting the 200+ technical presenters and conference staff with presentation equipment and professional personnel.

I am currently chairman of CHIFOO, the Computer-Human Interaction Forum Of Oregon (a local chapter of SIGCHI) and a member of the Usability Professionals Association.

Presented half-day tutorial, "Customer-Centered Design at Tektronix," at the 1996 Society for Technical Communication (STC) Willamette Value Chapter Conference.

Presented full-day tutorial, "Customer-Centered Design Methods," a the 1994 Pacific Northwest Software Quality Conference.

Education

BS in History from Portland State University (1974) and have a number of post-graduate computer science, AI, and software management courses through the Oregon Graduate Institute.

Solid references available on request.