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Background - Zanzara
Amanda is the founder and a principal of Zanzara,
Inc (www.zanzara.com), a consulting company that helps clients reduce
development time and increase product sales by tightly targeting their
product development efforts to meet core needs of specific user constituencies.
Zanzara's clients have included:
· IBM, Apple, and Sun in computers.
· Microsoft, Adobe, Symantec and Siebel in software.
· AT&T and Sprint in communications.
· Boeing, Motorola, Xerox, Kodak, Microsoft WebTV, Flashpoint,
Palm and Foveon in devices and manufacturing.
· AOL, Netscape, Yahoo, Charles Schwab, Magical Desk and Openwave
among online companies.
· George Lucas Educational Foundation, Group Health Cooperative,
Northwest Ecosystems Alliance among non-profits
· Startups have included Ask Jeeves, Driveway, Flashpoint, Foveon,
Magical Desk, Pivia, and Time Dance.
Projects have included:
PDAs, digital cameras, mobile phones, personal computers, websites,
web applications, application programs, medical devices, intelligent
agents, Internet search, hand writing recognition, and speech recognition.
Amanda Mander - Work History/ Experience
Founder/Principal
ZANZARA, INC. (1991 - present)
In 1991 I founded Zanzara, a consulting firm that designs interfaces
and conducts usability for technology-based products. In this role I
have helped companies at all stages of the product development process
from initial customer research to final engineering specification. I
have worked with large Fortune 100 companies, small start-ups, and education/non-profit
entities. My design work adheres to a core three principles:
- Highly usable interfaces need to be designed with a customer-centered
process.
- Successful interface design implementation is based on good
communication/collaboration between design, engineering and marketing
departments.
- The most desireable user interfaces make the technology invisible.
Following are a selection of projects/roles (please see www.zanzara.com
for more examples)
Director of Interface Design
FLASHPOINT TECHNOLOGIES, INC. - DIGITA OPERATING SYSTEM
Flashpoint
produced the first operating system for digital cameras. It allowed
for a multimedia interface with many features including slide show creation,
panoramic image capture, video and audio capture, categorizing of photos,
and program scripting. The operating system is used by Kodak, Minolta
and other camera manufacturers.
- Designed all aspects of interaction with the camera and the host
PC/Mac software
- Art directed the graphic design and sound design
- Wrote Human Interface Engineering Specification
- Designed and implemented usability testing program throughout development
- Developed interface schedules, managed interface group and interface
activities
- Created Human Interface Forum between marketing, engineering, and
design to better align agendas with successful customer experience
- Worked with camera company licensees (eg Kodak, Minolta) to ensure
the OS met their needs and to adapt OS interface to their unique feature
sets
GEORGE LUCAS EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION
Worked
directly with George Lucas at Skywalker Ranch in California to realize
his vision of a futuristic multimedia educational system for High School
students. I led the effort to develop a state-of-the-art multimedia
prototype of this vision to teach the history of the American Civil
War.
- Designed and developed curriculum, scripts, interactive activities
and interface
- Directed actors, produced accompanying videos
- Art directed graphic design and sound design
- Managed development, research, and design teams
- Developed and maintained production schedules
APPLE COMPUTER, INC - QUICKTAKE DIGITAL CAMERA
Apple
developed the first consumer-oriented digital camera.
- Designed all interactions for camera and host PC/Mac software
- Wrote Human Interface Engineering Specification
- Designed and implemented usability testing program throughout development
- Art directed graphic and sound design
BRODERBUND, INC. - 'MY DAY' EDUCATIONAL SOFTWARE
Commissioned
to develop an educational CD to teach about cultures around the world.
State of the art video compositing techniques were used to integrate
child actors and video footage into an immersive multimedia experience.
- Designed interface, curriculum, and interactive activities
- Coordinated talent and directed video shoot
- Art directed graphic design and sound design Senior Interaction Designer
MICROSOFT CORPORATION - ACTIMATE BARNEY
Designed educational activities for a computerized "Barney"
soft animal toy that responds to children's touch.
NETSCAPE COMMUNICATIONS, INC. - MY NETSCAPE
AND WEB MAIL
Designed iconic language, steamlined interface, and re-structured web-based
free email service for first consumer web portal.
SUN MICROSYSTEMS, INC -INTERNAL TOOLS/NETWORK
MANAGEMENT
Design and development of many large database systems to support company
workflow.
ADOBE SYSTEMS, INC. - PRINTGEAR
Design evaluation and interface restructuring of state-of-the-art color
printer driver.
CHARLES SCHWAB, INC.
Heuristic evaluations and design restructuring for web-based products.
OTHER CLIENTS INCLUDE:
Boeing, Motorola, Xerox, Kodak, WebTV, Yahoo!, AOL, Group Health, and
The Monterrey Bay Aquarium
Human Interface Design Researcher
SWEDISH RESEARCH ESTABLISHMENT (FOA) - HUMAN FACTORS LAB (1992)
Invited
to Sweden as a visiting researcher to design and develop future multimedia
collaborative work tools.
APPLE COMPUTER, INC - MULTIMEDIA LAB & ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY
GROUP (1990-1991)
Designed interfaces for emerging technologies including digital cameras,
multimedia kiosks, collaborative work tools, handheld devices, and educational
multimedia. Published interactive activities in Apple's award-winning
Visual Almanac.
IBM CORPORATION - HUMAN FACTORS LAB (1989-1990)
Implemented user studies and performed heuristic evaluations on products
including a graphical debugger, and work flow tools.
Education
- MILLS COLLEGE, M.A. Interdisciplinary Computer Science (1990).
Thesis: 'Computers as Communicators: designing a multimedia interface
that facilitates cultural understanding in a fifth grade classroom'.
Advisor: Batya Friedman Ph.D. Awarded grant from Apple Computer, Inc.
for thesis research.
- SMITH COLLEGE, B.A. English Literature, minor Graphic Design (1983).
Publications
Workshop on Human Interface Design at Magically, Inc. Headquarters,
Hong Kong (1999).
- Ropa, A., Ahlstrom, B. (1992). 'A Case Study of a Multimedia Co-working
Task and the Resulting Interface Design of a Collaborative Communication
Tool'. Computer HumanInteraction Conference Proceedings.
- Ropa, A. (1992). 'Designing a Collaborative Communication Tool'. St.
Petersburg Human
Computer Interaction Workshop, St. Petersburg, Russia.
- Ropa, A. (1991). 'Computers as Communicators: designing a multimedia
interface that
facilitates cultural understanding among fifth graders'. Conference
on Computer Human
Interaction, New Orleans, LA.
- Ropa, A. (1991). Computers in Education Conference, Aarhus, Denmark.
- Ropa, A. (1991). Designing a Multimedia Interface for Cultural Understanding.
Pergamon Press: Computers and Education issue.
- Invited Speaker, United Nations Department of Information (1991).
- Invited Speaker, Asia Society of New York (1991).
- Invited Speaker, NASA AMES Research Center (1992).
Patents
- 5,898,434 (1999) User interface system having programmable user interface
elements.
- 6,118,480 (2000) Method and apparatus for integrating a digital camera
user interface across multiple operating systems.
- 6,122,411 (2000) Method and apparatus for storing high and low resolution
images in an imaging device.
- D470,857 (2003) Display screen for a digital imaging device.
- 6,680,749 (2004) Method and system for integrating an application
user interface with a digital camera user interface.
Professional Affiliations
Archives & Museum Informatics.
Association for Computer Machinery SIG Computer Human Interaction.
Personal Interests
Family, Skiing, Architecture, Exhibition Design, Art, and Film.
Zanzara in the News
August/ September 2004: Prodesign: User Centred
Design - What exactly is it? (pg 52 -55)
By Richard Mander
May 2004: nz connection: Defining
the Fuzzy Front End: Putting the people into products
By Ann Kennedy-Perkins
April 2004: Prodesign: Featuring Richard Mander
as the guest at a DINZ gathering
April 2004: Auckland Today, Canterbury Today: Giving
it a go
By Terry Sefton
April 2004: Unlimited Magazine: User
Friendly Techo
By Rebecca Macfie
Thursday, 1 May, 2003: Unlimited: The
flight home
By Fiona Rotherham
4 March 2003: Scoop: Expat
To Put Product Design Expertise In Kiwi Hands
19 March, PC World: Why
we should lose the back button
By Stephen Bell
11 March 2003: New Zealand Herald: Get
to know your US clients: expert
By Richard Wood
March 2003: IT Kiwi: Mander
talks US tactics
By Richard Wood
Tuesday, 18 March, 2003: Computerworld: Kiwi
simplifies human-gadget interface
By Stephen Bell
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