Gavin Lew, Leslie McFarlin and Thomas Green to present at HFES 2008

Gavin Lew (User Centric), Leslie McFarlin (User Centric), and Thomas Green (User Centric) will give a presentation on text-entry user experience on the iPhone at the 52nd Annual Meeting of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society (HFES). Sixty volunteers participated in a within groups study aimed at evaluating the text entry system on the iPhone. All participants completed multiple structured text entry tasks on the iPhone's soft keyboard and two hard-key mobile phone keypads - QWERTY and numeric. Time to message completion and the number of errors per message were collected to identify potential differences in performance between the devices.

About Gavin Lew , Managing Director

As one of the company's founders, Gavin has been instrumental in shaping User Centric as the premier firm in the industry. Gavin's 15 years of experience in corporate and academic environments has given him a strong foundation in user-centered design and evaluation. In addition to managing the company, he holds particular interest in mobile technology, healthcare, and global research projects. Prior to co-founding User Centric, Gavin was president of an internet start-up, principal at a web development company, a member of Ameritech's Human Factors group, and Director at Human Factors International. He is a frequent presenter at national conferences and the inventor of several patents.

About Leslie McFarlin, User Experience Specialist

Leslie's main interest is the application of visual psychophysics and spatial vision research to interface design. She has worked as an intern for the United States Department of Agriculture where she developed a database and designed icons for the Alternative Dispute Resolution Program. At User Centric, Leslie has been involved in studies examining the usability of gaming consoles, parental controls on common electronic devices, and web-based applications. She has also conducted studies involving mobile and auto-injector devices. She is a member of HFES and CHI and a co-author of papers presented at the HFES conferences.

About Thomas Green, User Experience Specialist

Tom is interested in accessibility issues, international user research and how people experience music on the Internet. His primary area of expertise is in user-centered research of Enterprise Software. Tom has been involved in the telecommunications and banking industries where he specialized in application support and development and client management. While with User Centric, he has conducted usability testing in China and led and participated in global projects with other UXA partners. Tom has experience with different products and applications for industries such as technology, telecommunications, transportation, and finance. He is a member of UPA, AIGA, and IxDA.

About the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society

The Human Factors and Ergonomics Society was founded in 1957. Its mission is to promote the discovery and exchange of knowledge concerning the characteristics of human beings that are applicable to the design of systems and devices. The Society's 5,000+ members advocate systematic use of human factors knowledge to achieve compatibility in the design of interactive systems of people, machines, and environments to ensure their effectiveness, safety, and ease of performance. Through its 21 technical groups, 35 local chapters and 31 student chapters, the Society encourages education and training for those entering the human factors and ergonomics profession and for those who conceive, design, develop, manufacture, test, manage, and participate in systems.

About User Centric, Inc.

User Centric is a global consulting firm that focuses on improving user experience. We apply our expertise to projects involving handhelds, web sites, software, medical devices, print, packaging, and telephony services. Experience, quality, value, global reach and outstanding client services set us apart. Our services include user research, user interface design consulting, information architecture, usability testing, user interface evaluations, eye tracking, and online surveys. Learn more about us at www.UserCentric.com.