Michael Arent

Current

• Vice President, User Experience at SAP Business Objects

Past

• Vice President, User Interface Standards at SAP Labs
• Manager, Financials User Interface at Peoplesoft
• Sr User Interface Designer at Sun Microsystems

• Sr. User Interface Designer at Sun Microsystems - Java Software
• Sr User Interface Designer at Apple Computer
• Vice President at SoftAd

see less...

3 more...

Education

• School of Design Basel

Recommended

1 person has recommended Michael

Connections

252 connections

Industry

Computer Software

Michael Arent’s Summary

I'm currently Vice President of SAP Business Objects User Experience and am located in Palo Alto, California. I lead a worldwide group of 30+ user experience design professionals who plan, define, design and specify analytics and business intelligence software and solutions for enterprise (Fortune 500) and mid market (Fortune 1000) customers. Prior to that I was the Vice President of User Interface Standards worldwide for SAP.

Prior to SAP, I had a distinguished career as a manager and individual design contributor with such major companies as PeopleSoft, Adobe Systems, MetaDesign, Sun Microsystems, and Apple Computer. I've been involved in forward thinking projects including advanced computer technologies exploration, interactive multimedia, interactive TV, broadband connected home project, internet-based commerce in addition to enterprise business and analytics software solutions.

Also, I've been involved in projects collaborating with such major partners as Sony Corporation, News Media Corporation (Fox Sports), Oxygen Media, Chase Manhattan Bank, GTE, Bell Atlantic, NYNEX, Monterey Bay Aquarium, United Airlines among others.

I am a co-author of a major book (released DEC 2006) on effective software prototyping, entitled, Effective Protototyping for Software Makers (Morgan Kaufmann/Elsevier). I am currently co-authoring a second book on software prototyping, Effective Prototyping with Excel, due to be released later this year (2008). http://www.effectiveprototyping.com/

I'm the holder of six technology patents granted in the U.S. and internationally. The most prominent invention is a wireless network for implanted prosthetic devices in mammalian bodies. It allows these devices to communicate with each other as well as external computing devices and digital networks.

Michael Arent’s Experience

• Vice President, User Experience

  SAP Business Objects

  (Computer Software industry)

  April 2008 — Present (1 year 4 months)

  Manage a group of 30 globally located user interface design professionals to plan, conceptualize, define, design, and deploy user interfaces and user experience designs for analytics and business intelligence applications. The group is located in various geographic regions worldwide (California, Vancouver BC, Paris, Shanghai, Bangalore) and is primarily comprised of interaction designers. User-centered activities include user research, task analysis, usability requirements, prototyping, interaction conceptualization and design in addition to visual design, usability testing, satisfaction surveys, etc.

• Vice President, User Interface Standards

  SAP Labs

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

  February 2005 — April 2008 (3 years 3 months)

  My responsibilities in this position involved managing a team of 25 people, including designers, a project manager, a content editor, and design contractor. The charter of the team was to conceptualize, define, design and specify a large set of user interface building blocks, their hierarchical relationships, and associated interaction patterns in addition to the related user interface standards that guided their use throughout SAP worldwide. I also managed the performance of the team, including mentoring and career guidance.

• Manager, Financials User Interface

  Peoplesoft

  (Public Company; Computer Software industry)

  2002 — 2005 (3 years)

• Sr User Interface Designer

  Sun Microsystems

  (Public Company; Computer Software industry)

  1996 — 2000 (4 years)

• Sr. User Interface Designer

  Sun Microsystems - Java Software

  (Public Company; Computer Software industry)

  1997 — 1999 (2 years)

• Sr User Interface Designer

  Apple Computer

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

  September 1988 — February 1994 (5 years 6 months)

  I worked at first in the Apple User Interface product group on the System 7.0 concept team. After a short stint there I became a member of the Advanced Technologies User Interface Group under Joy Mountford. I was an original member of the Quicktime team. I also worked on audio annotation concepts that led to work on digital capture prototype concepts, including managing digital images in conjunction with digital audio. As a result of that I consulted with the Ansel product effort -- Apple's foray into the digital camera marketplace. I also was involved with teams on exploratory work for:
  - the manipulation of 3-D images using voice in conjunction with haptic input.
  - CD player device concept for field sales and automation
  - video capture utility for the Apple II

• Vice President

  SoftAd

  (Computer Software industry)

  1987 — 1988 (1 year)

Michael Arent’s Education

• School of Design Basel

  Masters equivalent , Design and Visual Semiotics , October 1974 — February 1978

Additional Information

Michael Arent’s Groups:

Book publishing

•    PeopleSoft Alumni Network (3,547 members)
•    Apple Alumni
•    Schule für Gestaltung Basel | Basel School of Design