James R. Lewis

Biography

James R. (Jim) Lewis is currently a senior human factors engineer (at IBM since 1981), with a primary focus on the design and evaluation of user interfaces (graphical, spoken, mobile).  He is a Certified Human Factors Professional with a Ph.D. in Experimental Psychology (Psycholinguistics).  Jim is an internationally recognized expert in usability testing and measurement.  He was the technical team lead for the human factors/usability group working in IBM speech product development from 1999 through 2005, and has experience in all areas of speech system usability (including desktop systems, embedded systems, text-to-speech systems, speech interactive voice response applications, and natural language understanding technologies).  Before that, he was the lead user experience designer for a number of mobile products, including the product now widely regarded as the first smart phone, the Simon.  He is the author of the book Practical Speech User Interface Design (2011) and co-author of Quantifying the User Experience: Practical Statistics for User Research (2012).

He has worked on speech and touchtone projects in the United States and internationally for major customers in diverse areas such as consumer electronics, 401K plan management, insurance, reservations, telecom, banking, emergency road service, entertainment, state benefits, HR, and telematics.  Jim is an IBM Master Inventor with over 80 patents issued by the US Patent Office.  He has published numerous scientific journal articles, book chapters, professional conference papers, and IBM technical reports (see http://drjim.0catch.com).  He currently serves on the editorial boards of the International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction and the Journal of Usability Studies, and on the scientific advisory boards of the Center for Research and Education on Aging and Technology Enhancement (CREATE) and the Human-Computer Interaction International conferences.  He is a member of the Usability Professionals Association (UPA), the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society (HFES), the ACM Special Interest Group on Computer-Human Interaction (SIGCHI), and is on the board of the Association for Voice Interaction Design (AVIxD).

Education

Ph.D. in Experimental Psychology (Psycholinguistics), Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, FL, 1996
M.A. in Experimental Psychology (Engineering Psychology), New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM, 1982
B.A. in Psychology (General Psychology), New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM, 1978
M.M. (Music Theory and Composition), New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM, 1978
B.M. (Music Theory and Composition), New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM, 1975

Areas of Research / Professional Expertise

My primary areas of research are:

1. Voice user interface (VUI) design and evaluation

2. Usability testing and measurement

Personal Interests

I continue to enjoy music as a hobby.  Also, I've practiced martial arts for over 40 years, and am currently the head instructor (5th degree black belt) at the ATA Taekwondo Club of Boca Raton (http://www.ataboca.com).

Books