Sarah Bloomer has created user interface designs and customer experiences for over 20 years. She co-founded The Hiser Group in 1991, an interaction design company with a focus on usability. Through Hiser she helped establish the field of user-centered design in Australia.

Sarah’s interaction design draws on her experience designing GUIs for multiple platforms, from Motif to Windows and web applications, intranet and internet websites for both corporations and government. Sarah helps clients set up internal user centered design teams and establish strategies for bringing user centered design into their organizations.

Sarah led the conceptualization and development of The Hiser Element Toolkit, a user-centered design methodology created to help companies rapidly set up usability teams.

In 2002, Sarah returned to the USA and joined The MathWorks as a senior interaction designer. In 2006 Sarah established Boston based Sarah Bloomer & Co to focus on user centered design research and design facilitation.  In 2009, Sarah joined Constant Contact as Director of User Experience.

Sarah has delivered papers, tutorials and workshops at respected usability and user experience conferences in Australia, Asia and the USA. Her articles have appeared in international professional publications. She has taught user centered design and screen design to hundreds of practitioners.

Sarah holds an MS from New York University in interactive software design and a BA from Smith College. She served as a master’s supervisor at The Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology.

See Sarah's LinkedIn Profile

 

"Thus the task is not so much to see what no one yet has see, but to think what nobody yet has thought about that which everybody sees." - Schopenhauer
 

Recent talks

MiniUPA, June 2010. Waltham, MA. Presentation: Creating User Experiences Through Design Thinking
DotBlue, October, 2009. Topeka, Kansas. Guest Speaker: Designing your User Experience.
User Friendly, September, 2008. Shenzhen, China. Panel: Usability Research and Design Insights.
Usability Professionals Association , June 2008, Baltimore, MD. Workshop Facilitation: Usability Consultancy Workshop
MESDA/techMaine, November 2007. Portland, ME. Presentation: Experience Design: what can we learn from games?
Sydney UPA, August 2007. Sydney, Australia. Presentation: Expanding UCD in the 21st Century: Why Design Thinking is the Next Big Thing.
Melbourne CHISIG, August 2007. Melbourne, Australia. Presentation: Expanding UCD in the 21st Century: Why Design Thinking is the Next Big Thing.
Usability Professionals Association Conference 2007, Austin. Tutorial: The Business of Usability.
Mini-UPA 2007, Boston. Presentation: Experience Design—what can we learn from games design?
SxSW, Interactive, March 2007, Austin. Panel: Why We Should Ignore Users.
BostonCHI Professional Development Day, January 2007, Boston. Tutorial: Creating a UX Vision and Strategy.
Easy7, 2007, Bangalore, India. Presentations: Something Magic Happens: Transforming Analysis into Design and The Top 10 Techniques of Highly Effective UX Teams.
Business Process Innovation Summit 2006, San Diego. Presentation: User Centered Design and Process Innovation.
User Interface 11, Boston. Tutorial: Building and Managing a Successful User Experience Team and presention: The Top 10 Techniques of Highly Effective UX Teams.
IQPC IntranetWeek 2006, Boston. Presentation: User Centered Design and the Intranet
Mini-UPA 2006, Boston. Presentation: Expanding User Centered Design in the 21st Century: Where do we fit in the ‘Conceptual Economy’?

Blogged about

Shane Morris: UXB Gamer-influenced Design. July 2008
SxSW-Robert's Podcast! Why we should ignore users. March 2007
SxSW-Karsten Januszewski on Activity Scenarios 14 March 2007
SxSW - Angelique's Portfolio 12 March 2007
SxSW - Once Upon a Time in Austin 11 March 2007
Easy7 - Bangalore, India - Bill Scott 6 January 2007
Business & Innovation - San Diego - James Taylor October 2006

Selected Publications