Hello Blogosphere and Welcome to my User Lens blog.

I admit it. Although I am a professional in the tech industry, I am the most reluctant Blogger in the known universe.

As a professional User Researcher andavid conversation starter about all things Human Factors, Design, Art, Research, Social, and the Scientific Method of Inquiry, I was made aware by my loved ones that it was totally past time I stop repeating myself to them and start sharing my thoughts and observations with the broader world. In sum: I discovered the opportunity of blogging as a way to connect with and find people with similar (and ideally dissimilar!) opinions about technology, share my knowledge about users, create a discourse, build new ideas, and hopefully deploy a little humor along the way.

You may be asking yourself: What is a ‘User Researcher’? , and most importantly, Should I read this blog? What’s in it for me? As a User Researcher,I basically consider myself a professional advocate for people who use - and especially don’t use -technology. I think this work is important. I observe and measure users’ needs, frustrations, obstacles, delights, behaviors and attitudes towards any and all technology. Through sharing this information I basically become a voice for people whose thoughts and opinions are otherwise unheard or misunderstood, and I identify where and how technology can be a tool for good - a tool for knowledge, empowerment, connection, comfort, and pleasure. I think of my work as a social responsibility as well as a privilege, and I have been doing it for the past 10 years.

As a User Researcher, I have the ability to see the world through the eyes of users. And so do you, you just have to be willing to look. That’s what User Lens is all about. I hope you’ll join me.