Amy Li

Board of the Directors, Humanity+

UX Rocks: How to be a Citizen Scientist and Convert Research Technology to Awesome Usable Products

Advancement in mobile, ubiquitous, social, and tangible computing technologies have moved human computer interaction (HCI) into practically all areas of human activity. This has led to a shift away from usability engineering to a much richer scope of user experience, where user's feelings, motivations, and values are given as much, if not more, attention than efficiency, effectiveness and basic subjective satisfaction.

How to be a citizen scientist, and convert your research technology to awesome usable products? What are the human factors to consider? What makes a design seem intuitive? Whether you are designing a robot, an iPhone application, a novice medical device, or other wonderful technology innovations, with the right philosophy and methodology, your job will be much easier, and your users will be much happier.

Amy Li is a multidisciplinary creative director and designer, specializing in branding, creative marketing strategy, and user experience design for global brands such as Yahoo, AT&T, VW, Sony etc. She is also on the board of directors of Humanity+. Amy is passionate about combining design, technology, and human factors to create state of the art products that impact our daily lives. One example of this is the iPhone app Have2P. It is a fun and creative app that addresses a universal human need in a new high-tech fashion. It was showcased as "App of the Week" in the New York Times, and also featured in Gizmodo.

Amy also has years of experience specializing in designing visually engaging web sites with intuitive interfaces, flash animations, emails, and landing pages with a strong focus on branding and UX design. Her portfolio can be seen at meidesign.net and she is easy to connect with on LinkedIn and Twitter. One of her true passions in life is to use her skills to help members of the scientific community become better communicators, one typography at a time :).

Amy earned her BFA with honors at CSULB, one of the top eight graphic design programs in the country, and later continued her education in Advanced Web and Interactive Design at UCLA.