Nancy Frishberg

Nancy Frishberg

User Experience Strategist

San Francisco Bay Area

Current
Past
  • Guest Editor for Volume 8.1 at UX Magazine
  • Senior User Experience Strategist at Vinq
  • Evangelist, Software at Sun Microsystems
  • Manager, Human Computer Interaction team at Sun Microsystems
  • Executive Director at New Media Centers
  • Program Manager, Engineering at Apple Computer
  • Marketing & Research roles at IBM
Education
  • University of California, San Diego
  • University of California, Berkeley
  • Smith College
  • Continuing Professional Education
Connections
500+ connections
Industry
Information Technology and Services
Websites

Nancy Frishberg’s Summary

I promote the user-customer point of view.

My career spans management, marketing, research, training, and engineering roles with information technology industry, government, higher education, arts, and non-profit organizations.

I currently specialize in customer and user research that inform product development, with recent engagements in information technology, health and healthcare and higher education industries.

And, I create artifacts of lasting value. Ask me about them.

Nancy Frishberg’s Specialties:

* Creative uses of evaluation methods in the laboratory and the world
* Strategic product design consulting
* Usability engineering
* Branding and identity
* Qualitative (ethnographic) research
* Disability access, especially for deaf and hearing groups
* Technologies for learning and teaching, multimedia, distance learning
* Multilingual strategies, cross-cultural consulting


Nancy Frishberg’s Experience

  • Chair

    BayCHI

    (Non-Profit; Computer Software industry)

    July 2008Present (1 year 5 months)

    A long-time member of the ACM's Special Interest Group on Computer Human Interaction, I have been elected to serve as Chair for the 2008-09 term, and re-elected for 2009-2010.

  • Principal

    MSB Associates

    (Privately Held; Computer Software industry)

    September 2007Present (2 years 3 months)

    Design usable products and effective services.

    Collect and distill volumes of data - interviewing, observations, surveys, card sorting, structured laboratory evaluation or other interactions with users and customers - into successful product designs and business strategies.

    Motivate cross-functional teams to identify goals, and work together to achieve them. Stimulate customers to express ideas that influence product ideation, requirements definition, and prioritization of features, by using playful methods.

    Translate complex technical information for general audiences. Create targeted briefings or training for specialist groups:
    * Quality and process in product development (Voice of the Customer)
    * Product ideation (Innovation Games®)
    * Professional skills development for sign language interpreters

  • Guest Editor for Volume 8.1

    UX Magazine

    (Information Technology and Services industry)

    June 2008February 2009 (9 months)

    Volume 8.1 of User Experience (UX) magazine focuses on older adults - the growing proportion of the population over (say) age 50. Articles in this issue characterize this population by its capabilities and limitations, address techniques in Web 2.0 and field research, consider design of facilities for residents with dementia, and offer analysis of navigation in physical and information spaces for all ages.
    http://www.usabilityprofessionals.org/upa_publications/user_experience/past_issues/2009-1.html
    [Currently full articles are available only to subscribers/members of UPA. Contact me directly if you'd like the full text and are not yet a UPA member.]

  • Senior User Experience Strategist

    Vinq

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

    November 2005July 2007 (1 year 9 months)

    Using my experience (as above and below) for
    * Opening opportunities to hear customer desires and requests
    * Clarifying user needs and requirements
    * Developing designs that respond to those desire, needs, requests and requirements
    * Assuring the usability of designs for clients' websites

  • Evangelist, Software

    Sun Microsystems

    (Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; SUNW; Computer Software industry)

    February 2003July 2004 (1 year 6 months)

    Evangelized user centered design process and data driven decision making for Sun's software products. Created a scorecard for evaluating when and how well milestones in the product lifecycle process were met.

    Innovated within the structure of the 7+ year tradition of the internal seminar focused on Human Interface Technologies. Experimented with distance collaboration tools and webcasting using Sun's technology to benefit those present by phone, as well as those remote in time.

  • Manager, Human Computer Interaction team

    Sun Microsystems

    (Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; SUNW; Information Technology and Services industry)

    December 2000January 2003 (2 years 2 months)

    Engineering manager for geographically distributed team of human-computer interaction engineers and visual designers working on desktop and operating system products.

    We conducted the first large scale usability test of an open source project (GNOME desktop on Solaris) prior to its release as a Sun product.

  • Executive Director

    New Media Centers

    (Non-Profit; 1-10 employees; Non-Profit Organization Management industry)

    October 1996December 2000 (4 years 3 months)

    Chief executive officer of a small non-profit ($400K annual budget): focused on higher education efforts to improve teaching and learning through the use of new media technologies and methods.
    • Grew membership from 75 universities to over 100.
    • Extended organization to new activities (technical assistance, distance learning broadcasts) to share our collective expertise more widely.
    • Stimulated deep and broad discussions of technology, tools, and techniques through live presentations, written work, video-teleconferencing.

  • Program Manager, Engineering

    Apple Computer

    (Public Company; 5001-10,000 employees; AAPL; Computer Software industry)

    June 1993March 1996 (2 years 10 months)

    Program Manager for Newton OS licensees, assuring consistent access to new engineering tools, builds, technical documentation and system updates.

    System Software project manager for fonts for MacOS8.5

  • Marketing & Research roles

    IBM

    (Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; IBM; Computer Hardware industry)

    March 1985July 1992 (7 years 5 months)

    Held positions in marketing (as peer to decision makers in higher education institutions), applied research (as assistant to Director of US Scientific Centers), and Research Division (with User Interface Institute).

    Won awards (internal and external) for multimedia applications built out of our own authoring tool, from video footage our team shot of key contributors to IBM's research history from the 1960's.


Nancy Frishberg’s Education

  • University of California, San Diego

    M.A., Ph.D. , Linguistics , 19701973

  • University of California, Berkeley

    A.B. with honors , Linguistics , 19671970

  • Smith College

    19661967

  • Continuing Professional Education

    Innovation Games; Building Customers for Life; Observing Users in Corporate Settings; Change Acceptance Planning; Managing Technical Professionals; Visual Anthropology; Using Storyboards to Prototype Software; Fundraising for Non-profits; Film Techniques in Software


Additional Information

Nancy Frishberg’s Websites:

Nancy Frishberg’s Interests:

travel, food (cooking, eating, farmers markets), photography, performing arts Needlepoint: 1st place, in category "Thank Goodness It's Finished", San Mateo County Fair (2004) Photography: 2nd place, in category "Fair Theme", San Mateo County Fair (2002)

Nancy Frishberg’s Groups:

ACM SIGCHI member, CHI conference committee (1998, 2001, 2004)
ACM BayCHI (local chapter) member (1991-present)
DUX 2005 Program Committee (www.dux2005.org)
Usability Professionals Association
Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf; Conference of Interpreter Trainers, Graceworks, DIVcamp, LSA, San Francisco Superconnectors, sex::tech

  •    BayCHI
  •    Usability Professionals' Association International (UPA-I)
  •    Interaction Design Association
  •    Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology
  •    ACM SIGCHI
  •    User Experience
  •    Apple - Current and Former Employees
  •    Enthiosys P-CAMP 2009 @ Yahoo!
  •    Women in Photography
  •    Rio 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games – Support the Organizing Committee
  •    Innovation Games® in Action (an authorized forum)
  •    Go
  •    San Carlos Charter Learning Center
  •    Peninsula Smith Club
  •    Rio 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games + People with Disabilities

Nancy Frishberg’s Honors:

NY Festivals Finalist in Interactive Design category and IBM Group Technical Award for "John Cocke: A Retrospective by Friends" (an Interactive Scrapbook) (1991)

[undergraduate degree granted with honors]


Nancy Frishberg’s Contact Settings

Interested In:

  • consulting offers
  • new ventures
  • job inquiries
  • expertise requests
  • reference requests
  • getting back in touch

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