Board of Directors
President, Louis Rosenfeld
LOUIS ROSENFELD is an independent information architecture consultant, and founder and publisher of Rosenfeld Media, a publishing house focused on user experience books. He has been instrumental in helping establish the fields of information architecture and user experience, and in articulating the role and value of librarianship within those fields.
Lou co-authored the best-selling book, Information Architecture for the World Wide Web (O’Reilly; third edition, 2006), which is considered the bible of the field. Lou has contributed regular columns for CIO, Internet World and Web Review magazines, and has written or edited numerous other books, chapters, and scholarly articles.
Lou co-founded Argus Associates, a pioneering consulting company, in 1991, co-founded UXnet and the Information Architecture Institute, the professional organization of information architects. He serves or has served on advisory boards for the Content Management Professionals group, the AIGA Experience Design Community, and the Interaction Design Association.
Secretary, Sean Van Tyne
SEAN VAN TYNE is the User Experience Director for Global Architecture at Fair Isaac. Fair Isaac is the global leader for Decision Management solutions. At Fair Isaac, Sean provides leaderships for teams across the US, UK, and India designing their next generation enterprise platform for over 80 countries.
Prior to Fair Isaac, Sean was the AVP of User Experience for Strategy & Technology at LPL Financial. LPL Financial is one of the nation’s leading diversified financial services companies and the largest independent broker/dealer. At LPL Financial, Sean help identify and define new market segments; develop the product management, iterative design, and agile development plan; and provided the vision and evangelized the user experience strategy.
Prior to LPL, Sean was the Director of User Experience and Technical Communications for Marketing and Product Management at Mitchell International, the leading provider of data, software and eBusiness solutions for the automotive insurance, collision repair, medical claims and glass replacement industries. As Director, Sean provided the vision, strategy, and direction of the common look and feel across the portfolio of Mitchell’s solutions. Prior to Mitchell, Sean was the Director of Product Design for Medibuy, a global B2B marketplace provider for healthcare buyers and sellers.
In addition to his involvement with UXnet, Sean is the current President of the User Experience Special Interest Group; the Founder and Chair of the User Experience Business Information Group for SDSIC; and advisor on a number of professional and corporate boards.
Treasurer, Keith Instone
KEITH INSTONE is the information architecture lead on the ibm.com User Experience Design team. He works on a wide range of projects including user interface standards, user experience strategy, dynamic navigation, interaction design and information architecture methodology.
Keith is known professionally for Usable Web, SIGCHI volunteer work (including CHI-WEB founder), and as one of the early employees of Argus Associates. Keith is currently a member of Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), SIGCHI, UPA, Information Architecture Institute, Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility (CPSR) and American Society for Information Science and Technology (ASIS&T). He regularly “rotates” into memberships with Society for Technical Communication (STC), AIGA, IIBA, American Marketing Association and other user experience related groups to learn how they contribute to the user experience profession.
Locales Chair, John Sheridan
JOHN SHERIDAN is an experienced business and technology consultant, and assists clients with the use of Social and New Media methods and technologies to help improve customer relations and increase internal and partner effectiveness. He acts as a Social Architect to assist organizations with strategies to create highly effective online interaction.
He began getting consistently involved in User Experience over a decade ago and from that point onwards, has approached the creation of any solution with the goals of simplicity, ease of use, and quick adoption.
John runs social media consulting and new media publishing companies.
Communications Director, Jeof Bean
JEOFREY BEAN is the Founder and Principal of Del Mar Research & Consulting, LLC. DMRC specializes in increasing client growth and margins, while decreasing the uncertainty and costs of development and marketing. Jeof’s experience spans strategic to tactical in technology marketing, product and service development at innovative small companies and successful corporations. These include AT&T Business / Bell Laboratories, Hayes Microcomputer and Sprint Business and Wireless PCS Services.
Jeof’s recent client industries include software, hardware, telecommunications, financial services, pharmaceutical and biotechnology for the development of products, services, customer experience, offers and strategic M&A.
Jeof holds an M.S., Business Management from Salve Regina University, Newport, RI and a B.S., Psychology / Marketing, from Eastern Michigan University, Ypsilanti, MI. From 2002-2004 he served as Adjunct Professor of Marketing at Centenary College, Parsippany, NJ. Jeof is a Board member of the San Diego Software Industry Council’s (SDSIC) User Experience Business Information Group and an advisor to several companies that depend on producing or using technology for their success.
Director at-large, Harry Max
HARRY MAX is a seasoned Web strategist who combines broad high-tech business experience with an unusual set of strengths. His expertise spans information architecture, on-line community dynamics, customer engagement models, systems design, strategic problem solving, and executive coaching.
On the forefront of Internet-based application design and development since 1994, Harry designed all of the user interaction concepts behind the first secure Web shopping cart as a co-founder of Virtual Vineyards.
In 1999, Harry co-founded Public Mind, an early Digg-like system for collecting and managing customer feedback featured at Esther Dyson’s PC Forum 2003, used by Pyra Labs (Blogger - acquired by Google), the Direct Marketing Association, Foveon (acquired by Sigma Corp), Handspring (acquired by Palm), and Skype (acquired by eBay).
Harry feels fortunate to have worked with some of the finest companies in Silicon Valley including Adobe, Apple Computer, DreamWorks Animation, Google, Hewlett-Packard, O’Reilly and Associates, SAP, Silicon Graphics, and Silicon Image. Now, as a consultant and trusted advisor to executives, technical visionaries, and entrepreneurs, Harry helps clients get to the heart of their problems, challenges, and opportunities, and identifies solutions that work.
He is co-author of two books “Skype: The Definitive Guide” and “Art-directed Technology: Anatomy of a Shrek 2 Sequence,” an introduction to the software development process behind the making of a feature-length, animated CG film in a fast-paced, creative environment. Currently Harry is working on a book on strategic decision making.
He lives with his family in Mountain View, California.
Director at-large, Whitney Hess
WHITNEY HESS is a user experience design consultant based in New York City. She helps make stuff easy and pleasurable to use.
Prior to going independent, Whitney was on the design team at Liquidnet, an international financial software company that runs the leading electronic marketplace for wholesale stock-trading. Previously, she was an interaction designer at two marketing agencies, Digitas and Tribal DDB, where her clients included American Express, The New York Times, Allstate, Claritin, Tropicana, and EarthLink. Most notably, she helped to conceive, design, and test an innovative card search tool for American Express, and is named as a co-inventor on its U.S. patent.
Though she began her higher education in computer science, Whitney received a Bachelor of Arts in Professional Writing and a Master’s degree in Human-Computer Interaction from Carnegie Mellon University. For the Master’s capstone project, she was one of five HCI students to develop Roadcasting, a system that allows drivers to create and share their music playlists with other cars on the road. The project has received press from Wired, MIT Tech Review, Slashdot, BoingBoing, and more.
Whitney is a strategic partner with Happy Cog and user experience consultant for boxee, among other startups and major corporations. She writes about technology and customer experience on her blog, Pleasure and Pain.