Puget Sound World Usability Day

Cheryl Platz

Principal UX Designer at Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Cheryl Platz is a world-renowned designer whose work on emerging technologies has reached millions of customers across multiple industries. Her professional passions include natural user interfaces, applied storytelling in design and research, and taming complexity in any manifestation. Her first book, Design Beyond Devices, will be published by Rosenfeld Media in late 2020.

Greg Parrott

Head of UX & CX Performance at IBM

Greg Parrott is an experience design executive focused on ROI of UX and CX. In 1996 he established “Hyperbranding” as world’s first service mark for interactive branding. Greg built digital brands for Fortune 500 and was the strategist behind numerous Internet startups, including first major online pharmacy – currently operating as CVS.com.

Ruth Kikin-Gil

Senior UX Designer at Microsoft

Ruth is a Responsible AI + design strategist that focuses on product innovation. Her career path at Microsoft took her from an innovation lab, to a strategy team, to designing future experiences in Office, and to developing and evangelizing Responsible AI practices across Microsoft. She currently drives Responsible AI practices in the Security and Compliance organization. She is a co-creator of the Guidelines for Human-AI interaction, and teaches design at the University of Washington.

Huatong Sun, PhD

Associate Professor at University of Washington Tacoma

Dr. Huatong Sun is an Associate Professor of Digital Media and Global Design at the University of Washington Tacoma. She is a SXSW speaker and an award-winning book author of “Cross-Cultural Technology Design” (2012) and “Global Social Media Design: Bridging Differences Across Cultures” (2020).

Kristie J. Fisher, PhD

Staff UX Researcher at Google

Kristie leads the UX Research team for Stadia Games & Entertainment, a new games development team at Google and is an author of Google's People + AI Guidebook, launched in May 2019. In addition to working on Stadia, in her five years at Google Kristie has also worked on G Suite and Ads, including AI-driven tools within those product areas. She holds a PhD in Cognitive Psychology from the University of Washington.

Cecilia Aragon

Director of the Human Centered Data Science Lab at University of Washington

Cecilia Aragon is Director of the Human Centered Data Science Lab, Professor in the Department of Human Centered Design & Engineering, Founding Co-Director of the University of Washington Data Science Master’s Program, and Senior Data Science Fellow at the eScience Institute at the University of Washington (UW) in Seattle.

Saiph Savage

Director HCI Lab at West Virginia University

Saiph has opened the area of Human-Computer Interaction in rural West Virginia, and has advised governments in Latin America to adopt Human-Centered Design to deliver better services to citizens. Her research helped push the creation of a Federal Advisory Committee in Mexico for exponential technology.

Jamika Burge,PhD

Head of AI Design Learning & Research Insights at Capital One

Dr. Jamika D. Burge leads AI Design Insights within Experience Design at Capital One. Her team uncovers learning & research insights across multiple platform experiences, including conversational AI. She drives Intersectional Design across Capital One and is a contributor to the company's Responsible AI Principles.