UsabilityNJ World Usability Day - Speaker Information

Below is a brief bio of Mark Altom and an abstract of his talk to be given at the UsabilityNJ World Usability Day Celebration on November 14, 2006.

Mark Altom Biography

Mark Altom is a Technical Manager in the Chief Technical Officer's Organization at Avaya Inc. Mark's current work focuses on cross-product issues in creating a world-class user experience for users of Avaya's communication applications, devices, and services. Mark is responsible for common look and feel and for Avaya's usability architecture. Mark joined AT&T in 1983. Prior to that, he taught Cognitive Psychology and Statistics at Rutgers University.

Throughout his career, Mark has helped to design products ranging from multimedia collaboration systems to network management systems to graphic design tools to hand-held communication devices. Mark has a PhD in Cognitive Psychology from the Rockefeller University.

Talk Abstract

Creating a Usability Architecture for the Communication Experience

Work is no longer a 9 to 5 job. Advances in communication technology make it possible to be reached anytime and anywhere. We work on remote teams that require virtual meetings, where everyone is multitasking. We each need to manage multiple contacts on multiple devices. It is easy to be overwhelmed by too much information, too much email, a constant barrage of instant messages, and too many voice messages to answer. We need a communication experience where we can transition seamlessly among different applications and devices. We also want to control our communication experience, so that we are contacted when we want, by who we want, and by the device we want. Mark Altom will discuss ongoing work at Avaya to create a usability architecture to enable a satisfying and intuitive end-to-end communication experience.