Luminanze Consulting — Elizabeth Buie's Résumé

Highlights

A three-decade career in human-computer interaction, user-centered design, and the user experience, with a keen eye for visual design, honed by photographic training and experience
Published author with expertise in a multitude of products and systems
Clients spanning diverse organizations, including businesses, nonprofits, and government agencies

Summary

Elizabeth has over 33 years of experience in information systems, focusing on human-computer interaction (HCI) and user experience in Web sites, Web applications, desktop applications, and complex systems. She also has several years in system engineering, defining and analyzing system requirements and integrating the HCI process into the system life cycle. Elizabeth has master's degrees in mathematics and human development and is fluent in Italian. She served on the editorial board of ACM's <interactions> magazine for six years, and currently serves on the editorial board of the UPA's online Journal of Usability Studies.

Key Achievements
Qualifications Summary
Professional Experience
Education, Skills, and Affiliations
Important Past Projects
Publications

Key Achievements

Designed user interaction/interface for U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's Patent File Wrapper (PFW), a system for managing patent application examination. USPTO praised the design as well as the speed in gaining an understanding of their tasks and issues.
Led team that redesigned American Library Association's web site (www.ala.org). Designed and coordinated full range of activities across redesign life cycle: stakeholder interviews, user focus groups, usability testing, web planning workshop, information architecture, graphic design, member opinion surveys. Made numerous presentations to various ALA stakeholder groups. (Detailed information is on the ALA wiki, at wikis.ala.org/webplanning/.) Redesign received positive feedback from ALA and its members.
Conducted as-needed usability evaluation of enterprise applications for Plateau Systems, Inc. Won first project through competitive bid, then was selected as sole-source provider because of exceptional work delivered.
Conducted usability study of US Citizenship and Immigration Services' E‑Verify system, through which employers verify new employees' eligibility to work in the United States and which was receiving major complaints about usability. Conducted expert review, designed/conducted usability tests, interviewed users, analyzed results, wrote report. Implementation of findings could lead to greater use of E-Verify.
Designed interaction/interface of Federal Aviation Administration's touchscreen-based En-Route Information Display System (ERIDS) for air traffic controllers. Strong understanding of the technology and its constraints enabled effective communication and collaboration with developers. Controllers love the system, and those who viewed it at beta sites urged adoption in their own facilities.
Conducted usability assessment of FedTraveler.gov, part of a project to assess the three Federal e-Travel services both independently and in parallel. Worked with other teams to define common assessment methods and report structure/format without allowing the evaluations to bias one another.
Directed the conduct of research designed by National Library of Medicine to study readability of health information for low-literacy consumers. Advised NLM on study design, instrument validity, statistical significance. Study validated NLM's "Term Difficulty Test" concept as a measure of comprehension.
For recommendations from clients, managers, and coworkers, see Elizabeth's LinkedIn Profile.

Qualifications Summary

Deep and broad skills in diverse user experience techniques:
- Client research — stakeholder interviews, design/facilitation of workshops and focus groups
- User research — user focus groups, interviews, card sorting, information prioritization
- Requirements specification — elicitation, definition, analysis, allocation
- Information architecture — category/hierarchy development, naming, conceptual modeling, task analysis, site maps/indexes, layout, navigation design
- Interaction design — concept generation, cognitive models, personas/profiles/scenarios, task matrices and flow diagrams, construction of mockups and prototypes
- Interface design — selection of fonts/colors/widgets; selection/tailoring/application of guidelines
- Experimental research — experiment design/conduct; quantitative/qualitative data analysis
- Usability inspection — heuristic evaluation, guidelines-based review
- Usability testing — test design, test administration, data analysis, recommendations
- Accessibility review — site inspection, exercise with JAWS screen reader, Section 508 guidance
Outstanding written communication skills: editor of a column in <interactions> for six years, with two articles published there; published in The Washington Post and in System Development; member of the editorial boards of <interactions> and Journal of Usability Studies
Familiarity with standards, guidelines, best practices, and the human factors principles behind them: member since 1992 of the HFES 200 Standards Committee and contributor to the ANSI/HFES-200 standard, "Human Factors Engineering of Software User Interfaces"

View Elizabeth's profile on LinkedIn

See the PDF version of this résumé

Professional Experience

Luminanze Consulting, LLC

2007 -
present

Principal Consultant (Silver Spring MD)

Independent consultant in the area of user experience, user-centered interaction design, human factors, and usability.

Key Projects at Luminanze

Interaction/interface design for the USPTO's PFW. Prime contractor: Info|Reliance.
Web site redesign for the American Library Association (ALA). Prime Contractor: UserWorks. (Continued work begun as a UserWorks employee.)
Usability evaluation of various enterprise applications for Plateau Systems, Inc.
Human factors study of USCIS's E-Verify system. Client: eNTEGRITÍ; prime contractor, Computer Sciences Corporation.

Key Past Achievements

Conducted usability evaluation of the training workshop "Fundamentals of Title IV Administration" for the Office of Federal Student Aid, of the US Department of Education. Client: UserWorks; prime contractor: Low+Associates. (Continued work begun as a UserWorks employee.)
Provided human factors expertise to the study of the US Citizenship and Immigration Services' E-Verify system, which enables employers to verify their new employees' eligibility to work in the United States Client: eNTEGRITÍ; prime contractor: Computer Sciences Corporation.
Led the redesign of the ALA web site. Coordinated the development and evaluation of the IA and the graphic design; wrote a style guide. Created visual and interaction designs for ALAConnect, ALA’s online communities. Prime contractor: UserWorks.

www.userworks.com

UserWorks, Inc.

2005 –
2007

Principal Usability Specialist and Director of Interaction Design (Silver Spring MD)

Project management and technical leadership of a variety of projects in human factors research, usability assessment, and interaction design. Mentoring of colleagues in human factors principles and practices, interaction and interface design, and statistical issues affecting research projects. Writing of proposals for new business. Staff photography.

Key Projects at UserWorks

Led usability assessment of the American Library Association's web site. Was asked to design and facilitate ALA's web planning retreat on redesign goals, process, next steps. Obtained a follow-up contract to redesign ALA's site, and led the development of the information architecture and wireframes for that site.
Directed and conducted usability assessment (testing and expert review) of FedTraveler.gov, part of a project to assess the U.S. Government's three e-Travel services independently. Worked with other teams to define common assessment methods and report structure/format without comparing the services or allowing the evaluations to bias one another.
Conducted usability assessment of U.S. Department of Education's "Fundamentals of Title IV Administration" workshop. Reviewed materials, facilitated discussions, created/analyzed online surveys.
Directed the conduct of a research project designed by the National Library of Medicine, to investigate the readability of health information by consumers with low literacy.

www.csc.com

Computer Sciences Corporation

1977 -
2005

Senior Principal Engineer (Rockville and other locations in suburban Maryland)

System engineering and interaction/interface design on dozens of projects. Analysis, specification, design, development, and evaluation of web sites, web applications, desktop applications, and complex command-and-control systems. Specification and analysis of system and software requirements; definition of HCI engineering role in system life cycle. Founder and cochair of CSC's User Experience Community.

Key Projects at CSC

Interaction/interface design of ERIDS for FAA. Designed new color scheme and layout; designed and produced on-screen buttons. Wrote style guide. Analyzed, designed, and prototyped new and revised screens; participated in software design reviews and build/release testing.
Helped redesign U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission's web site. Conducted user interviews, focus groups, usability testing, expert review for analysis of the existing design. Contributed substantiallyl to redesign of information architecture, navigation, and look. Analyzed user feedback on prototype and supported development of Phase I site.
Technical lead, system engineering support for the Flight Operations Segment (FOS) of the Earth Observing System (EOS). Worked with NASA to review, guide, and assist the work of FOS development and testing contractors. Contributed to development of operations concept, provided expert review of HCI, and designed/conducted usability testing.
Supported NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center on numerous projects, primarily involving spacecraft control centers.
Supported AERITALIA and Space Software Italia (Italy) on human factors / HCI for the Crew Work Station of the International Space Station's Columbus (European) laboratory.

www.aesthetic-images.com

Æsthetic Images

1996 -
present

Photographer and Web Designer (Silver Spring MD)

Personal business in photography and Web design

Early professional work

1974 -
1977

Mathematics instruction and business-applications programming:

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill: Computer programming in COBOL
City of Durham, NC: Computer programming in COBOL
North Carolina State University: Teaching freshman algebra/trigonometry and calculus

Education, Skills, and Affiliations

Education

Master of Science and Bachelor of Science with honors, Mathematics, North Carolina State University (www.ncsu.edu)
Master of Arts, Human Development, University of Maryland (www.umd.edu)
Certificate in professional photography, Washington School of Photography (www.wsp-photo.com)

Technical Skills

Software: MS Office, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Dreamweaver, OmniGraffle, Visio, SPSS, SurveyMonkey
Languages: HTML/XHTML, CSS, JavaScript, FORTRAN
Foreign languages: Fluent in Italian, limited knowledge of Spanish

Professional Affiliations

Publications

Editorial board, <interactions>; editorial board, Journal of Usability Studies.
Editor of "The Whiteboard," a column in <interactions> for designers who are not specialists in HCI or usability, Jan/Feb 2000 – Jan/Feb 2006.
Allen, B. G., & Buie, E. (2002). What's in a word? The semantics of usability. <interactions>, 9, 2, 17-21.
Buie, E. (1999). HCI standards: A mixed blessing. <interactions>, 6, 2, pp. 36-42. (For the unbowdlerized version — with wisecracks about Microsoft left in — see the original article elsewhere in this webspace.)
Buie, E. A. (1990). Jungian psychological type and subjective satisfaction with using a computer for educational statistics. Unpublished master's thesis, University of Maryland.
Buie, E., & Vallone, A. (1995). Human-system interaction development: An integral part of the systems engineering process. In Proceedings of the Fifth Annual International Symposium of the National Council on Systems Engineering, St. Louis, Missouri, July 22-26, 1995.
Buie, E., & Vallone, A. (1997). Integrating HCI engineering with software engineering: A call to a larger vision. In Smith, M. J., Salvendy, G., & Koubek, R. J. (Eds.), Design of Computing Systems: Social and Ergonomic Considerations (Proceedings of the Seventh International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction), Volume 2. Amsterdam, the Netherlands: Elsevier Science Publishers, 1997, pp. 525-530. (Available on this web site.)
Winkler, I., & Buie, E. (1995). CHI'95 Workshop report: HCI challenges in government contracting. SIGCHI Bulletin, 27, 4, pp. 35-37.
Hefley, W., Lynch, E., Buie, E., Muller, M., Hoecker, D., Carter, J., & Roth, J. T. (1994). "Integrating Human Factors with Software Engineering Practices". In Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society 38th Annual Meeting, 1994, pp. 315-319. Republished in G. Perlman, G. K. Green, & M. S. Wogalter (Eds.) Human Factors Perspectives on Human-Computer Interaction: Selections from Proceedings of Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meetings, 1983-1994. Santa Monica, CA: HFES, 1995, pp. 359-363.
Buie, E. A. (1988, January). Personality and system development: What's the connection? System Development, pp. 1-4.
Buie, E. A. (1988). Psychological type and job satisfaction in scientific computer professionals. Journal of Psychological Type, 15, pp. 50-53.
Buie, E., Gaia, E., Pensavalle, E., & Vallone, A. (1988). Use of HCI design guidelines in workstation development. In Proceedings of the International Symposium on Space Software Engineering: Columbus and Space Infrastructures. Torino, Italy: AERITALIA Space Systems Group.
Buie, E., Pensavalle, E., Vallone, A., & Sarlo, L. (1988). The role of usability testing in the design and development of interactive software. In Proceedings of the International Symposium on Space Software Engineering: Columbus and Space Infrastructures. Torino, Italy: AERITALIA Space Systems Group.
Buie, E., & Vallone, A. (1988). Structured approach to human-computer interface design. In Proceedings of the International Symposium on Space Software Engineering: Columbus and Space Infrastructures. Torino, Italy: AERITALIA Space Systems Group.
Buie, E. A. (1985). Jungian psychological type and programmer team building. In T. Chow (Ed.), Proceedings of COMPSAC85. Chicago, IL: IEEE Computer Society
Buie, E. A. (1986). Software quality and Jungian psychological type. In J. North (Ed.), Proceedings of COMPSAC86. Chicago, IL: IEEE Computer Society
Vallone, A., Buie, E., & Sarlo, L. (1988). Human-computer interface structure and system operations architecture. In Proceedings of the International Symposium on Space Software Engineering: Columbus and Space Infrastructures. Torino, Italy: AERITALIA Space Systems Group.

Résumé of Elizabeth Buie (see PDF version)