Conference Speakers
We have 16 great presenters for you this year:
Speaker Profiles
- Alexander Johannesen
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Alexander Johannesen who wrangles and deals with all things web-related, from large metadata collections, information modelling and Topic Maps, to information architecture, user-centred design and natural philosophy.
Johannesen has more than 18 years experience in the IT industry, ranging from AI (yes, not everything is IA) in the security industry to user interface design big and small to development of enterprise management systems of various sizes. He’s a Topic Maps evangelist, a preacher of KISS and UCD, and a usurper of good mocha coffees everywhere. He blogs, writes articles, hold presentations and generally waffle on about semantic modelling, philosophy, the human side of technology design, and design processes.
He lives in a quiet sea-side town with two kids, a wife and a dog; plays drums and percussion at the neighbours mercy, and loves Monteverdi and baroque music.
You can find him blogging at shelter.nu, and on twitter as @shelterit.
Alexander will be presenting Apparently IA – how deep is your thinking?
- David Sless
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David Sless is Director of the Communication Research Institute, Visiting Professor of Information design in the Design Institute at Coventry University, Vice President of the International Institute for Information Design, and an adjunct professor at the Australian National University, and the University of Technology in Sydney.
In 1985 he was invited to set up the organisation that became the Communication Research Institute, a not-for-profit group that undertakes research and provides information design services and advice to over 200 government and industry organizations around the world.
David is an advocate of evidence-based information design. His main research has been in information design methods.
David is a frequently invited keynote speaker at international conferences, and is the author of over 200 publications.
You can find David on twitter as @davidsless.
David will be presenting The politics of information design.
- Jodie Moule
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Jodie is a passionate user experience advocate. She is Co-founder & Director at Symplicit, a User Experience Design Consultancy that focuses on assisting clients to create great experiences for their customers. Her background as a Psychologist means understanding human behaviour is a core philosophy.
However, she is really interested in how to combine this understanding of human behaviour with good design thinking, to help change business models and create innovative products for Symplicit’s clients.
Jodie always gets excited to talk at a more practical level about conducting user experience research in the corporate environment, and share some of the novel approaches she has developed to try to uncover a little more about what goes on in the users day-to-day life.
You can find Jodie on Twitter as @jodiemoule or follow the Symplicit team @symplicit.
Jodie will be presenting The A,B,C of Behaviour ….
- Judd Garratt
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Judd works as an Experience Architect in the UX team at Profero Sydney, where he has recently worked on projects for NRMA, AstraZeneca, Pizza Hut and Clean Up Australia. Prior to falling into UX, Judd specialised in search engine marketing. He is now an advocate of integrating search engine optimisation principles into information architecture.
Judd will be co-presenting A rose by any other name would smell as sweet... wouldn’t it? What SEO means for User-Centred Design with Justin Tauber.
- Justin Tauber
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Justin comes to UX from a background in philosophy and educational design. He has taught on phenomenology and media studies at Sydney University and has published on existential phenomenology and cognitive science. Justin has worked on projects large and small for Macquarie Bank, Optus, NRMA Motoring & Services and Pizza Hut. He works as an Experience Architect at Profero Sydney, where his ping pong form is irrepressible.
You can find Justin on twitter as @brtrx.
Justin will be co-presenting A rose by any other name would smell as sweet... wouldn’t it? What SEO means for User-Centred Design with Judd Garratt.
- Matt Balara
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Matt Balara is a freelance user experience and web designer living in Sydney Australia, who’s worked for Volkswagen, Microsoft and Deutsche Bank. Despite 15 years experience, he still can’t understand why so many websites are so ugly & hard to use.
You can find Matt on twitter as @mattbalara.
Matt will be presenting Ebooks – More Than Print in Pixels.
- Matt Moore
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Matt Moore has worked for PwC, IBM, Oracle and ASIC doing knowledge management, community development and corporate communications. He is now a director of Innotecture , chairs the New South Wales Knowledge Management Forum and sometimes teaches at UTS. He has just completed his first book which is called “Performance Enhancing"”. Many years ago he trained to be a librarian.
Matt blogs at Innotecture and you can find him on twitter as @engin_eer.
Matt will be presenting Welcome to the Jungle: Information ecology, cyborg metadata and the Social Experience challenge.
- Matthew Hodgson
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Matthew Hodgson is an Agile IA, Web Strategist, User-Experience Architect, and connoisseur of anything chocolate. With some 15 years experience in the web industry, Matthew is highly regarded by peers and colleagues alike for his ability to think “outside the box” and deliver innovative solutions to complex business, user and system problems. Matthew’s passion is user-centred design — something he regularly infects in others from a philosophical “way of working” to the strategic underpinning of agile project management techniques.
Matthew blogs at Matt’s Musings and ZenAgile.
You can find Matthew on twitter as @magia3e.
Matthew will be presenting Beyond information: IA and Enterprise User Interaction Strategy and The Social Psychology of IA: Designing for the One or the Many?.
- Mia Northrop
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Mia has over 10 years experience marketing websites and designing digital user experiences. She applies her passion for finding the sweet spot between user-centered design principles and business objectives to clients as diverse as REA Group, Ford, State Library of Victoria, Merrill Lynch, Coles Group, EMC and NAB. Prior to joining Symplicit, Mia worked for a who’s who of Australian internet companies including Fairfax Digital, Sensis, CitySearch Australia and SEEK, as well as the US interactive agency Razorfish.
You can find the Symplicit team on twitter as @symplicit.
Mia will be presenting Cross-examining your interview skills.
- Oliver Weidlich
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Oliver draws on a background in psychology, experience in usability, and understanding of mobile technology to identify key issues for client business strategy, and customers, and to recommend & design solutions. He has a wide range of experience evaluating and improving the end-to-end customer experience with mobile devices, portals, applications and content.
Rod Farmer and Oliver Weidlich recently co-founded Mobile Experience, a Sydney-based user experience consultancy specialising in mobile research, strategy and design. Rod and Oliver have consulted to many of Australia’s best known brands.
You can find Oliver on twitter as @oliverw.
Oliver will be co-presenting Designing for mobile convergence with Rod Farmer.
- Patrick Kennedy
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Patrick Kennedy is Design Research Lead at News Digital Media, where he specialises in understanding audiences and their needs through user research, and using that knowledge to inform strategy and the design of online experiences.
Patrick has over ten years experience in web design, information architecture and user experience design, and has worked with many different types of organisations in a variety of industries, both in Australia and the UK, assisting them with enhancing their websites and other information systems.
Patrick runs public workshops and speaks regularly at industry conferences, including Oz-IA, OZCHI and UX Australia, and has published many articles on user centred design and related topics.
You can find Patrick on twitter as @PatrickKennedy.
Patrick will be presenting Five user research methods you have probably never seen.
Patrick is also facilitating the workshop User Research Methods on Wednesday 6th October.
- Rod Farmer
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Rod possesses significant expertise in user research, customer-centric methodologies and design practice. Blending his understanding of business, design and technology, Rod helps businesses employ a research and design-led approach that generates real customer insight and drives innovative, relevant, and valued solutions for businesses and their customers.
Rod Farmer and Oliver Weidlich recently co-founded Mobile Experience, a Sydney-based user experience consultancy specialising in mobile research, strategy and design. Rod and Oliver have consulted to many of Australia’s best known brands.
You can find Rod on twitter as @rodfarmer.
Rod will be co-presenting Designing for mobile convergence with Oliver Weidlich.
- Samantha Starmer
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Over the last 12 years, Samantha Starmer has worked on a wide variety of user experience and information architecture projects and strategy while at Amazon.com, SchemaLogic and Microsoft. She is currently a senior manager at REI.com, where she is creating and leading new teams for user experience and information management, and incubating work around multi-channel customer experience. Samantha also teaches information architecture at the University of Washington’s Information School.
You can find Samantha on twitter as @samanthastarmer.
Samantha will be presenting Ubiquitous IA and Information Architecture Analytics.
- Shoaib Burq
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Shoaib has worked in Marine Geoscience and Petroleum sector over the last 3 years. He has over 5 years experience working in the marine and spatial information science industry. He has an honors degree in Computer Science and Geomatic Engineering from the University of Melbourne. He is also a founding board member of the Open Source Geospatial Foundation (OSGeo) Aus-NZ Chapter.
Currently he serves as a coordinator on the Canberra based GIS volunteer core called Mapping and Planning Support (MAPS) which provides mapping assistance to State and Federal emergency agencies during natural disasters. He loves his work which combines his passion for technology and the great out-doors.
You can find him blogging at his company blog, and on twitter as @sabman.
Shoaib will be presenting Community Data Models for Humanitarian & Development Work.
- Simon Reid
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Simon’s experience in the industry started in 1993 with one of Perth’s first interactive media agencies, Interactive Logic. He went on to work in London with Amaze Limited as their Lead Creative, Icon Medialab as the ASEAN Creative Director for their startup team in Singapore, and Adobe Systems in their emerging User Experience consultancy team in Sydney.
He has worked with quality brands such as Volkswagen, Ferrari, The Bank of Scotland, ANZ Bank, Commbank, and BSKYB.
Simon has developed touch screen user interfaces, PDA based “Augmented Reality” systems, Desktop-Based (Adobe AIR) finance tools and ‘gadgets’ and is preparing for the gesture based interaction revolution.
Most recently Simon has joined Sydney User Experience consultancy Bienalto.
You can find Simon on twitter as @SimoReid.
Simon will be presenting Visualising your data.
- Susan Martin
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With a background in visual communication, live entertainment production and multimedia Susan has been working in the ICT field since late last century, designing and managing the development of some elegant on and offline user experiences.
She is currently at CSIRO, working variously as lead analyst, solution designer or project manager on traditional projects and many of the new eResearch initiatives supporting science collaboration and data management. Passionate about helping to make more science data available for everyone to explore and use, Susan champions user centred design, agile techniques and innovative ways to share information.
You can follow the news from CSIRO on Twitter by following @CSIROnews.
Susan will be presenting Surfing the Deluge.