Abe Crystal

Co-founder of MoreBetterLabs (creators of ruzuku)

Location: Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina Area
Industry: Internet

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Abe Crystal's Overview

Current

User Experience Researcher at Bluespark Labs
Advisor at TriUPA
Principal Design Researcher at MoreBetterLabs, Inc.

Past

VP, Professional Development at TriUPA
Ph.D. candidate at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
User Experience Engineer (co-op) at IBM

President at TriUPA
President at TriUPA
Vice President at TriUPA
User Experience Engineer (co-op) at IBM

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Education

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Princeton University
SCGSSM

Connections

479 connections

Websites

What is UX 101?

UX 101 is a hands-on, intensive workshop, held over three evenings in the first week of October 2011, in Research Triangle Park, NC. In the workshop, we’ll help you learn about—and practice—essential skills that user experience designers use to create better products, services, and Web sites.

What are people saying about the UX 101 workshop?

Here’s some feedback we received from people who attended our 2010 UX 101 workshop…

*(It helped me think about usability differently. Instead of, ‘dang, that is weird,’ or, ‘that doesn’t work,’ I now see how usability derives out of design principles.

*It was great. I loved all the hands-on activities. They really gave everyone the opportunity to soak up the information and stay engaged throughout the workshop.

*I learned valuable tips to take back to the workplace.
*Exactly what I needed, and fun at the same time.

*It was a productive, enlightening experience. I now feel I am better at my job than I was before the workshop. You covered an ideal blend of issues in the UX domain from organizational culture to concrete example approaches from in the trenches.

*Awesome. It was a great mix of teaching and group activities. High level, but dived deep enough that you walk away with tools you can really use. Appropriate for people of all kinds of backgrounds. Well done!

*It was a superb experience. I am a happy user.

*I learned some great methods for using UX in my day-to-day workflow, gained confidence in being able to explain UX to clients, and gained a much greater appreciation for UX.

Specialties

user experience, usability, user research, information architecture, user-centered design, human-computer interaction, personal information management

User Experience Researcher

Bluespark Labs

Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Information Technology and Services industry

September 2010 – Present (1 year 5 months)

Advisor

TriUPA

January 2010 – Present (2 years 1 month)

Principal Design Researcher

MoreBetterLabs, Inc.

Privately Held; 1-10 employees; Internet industry

August 2008 – Present (3 years 6 months)

We're focused on building ruzuku. With ruzuku, we're trying to make it easy to set up premium online courses and learning communities.

VP, Professional Development

TriUPA

January 2009 – January 2010 (1 year 1 month)

Organizing workshops and virtual seminars to help local UX professionals stay educated and engaged.

Ph.D. candidate

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Educational Institution; 10,001+ employees; Higher Education industry

August 2002 – August 2008 (6 years 1 month)

For my dissertation, I conducted field research (interviews, participant observation) on how undergraduate students manage their personal educational information. I also examined students' use of Microsoft Research's MyLifeBits system.