Sara Bly Consulting

Sara Bly has been an active researcher and practitioner in qualitative user studies for more than 20 years. These user studies have focused on understanding the context of the activity as well as the specific user task. Since 1994, she has conducted numerous studies as an independent consultancy.

Sara has particular expertise in the understanding and technology support of collaborative activity. She has conducted user studies of collaborative work and play ranging from scientific use of big equipment to long-distance office work to teen-agers and instant messaging.

Her research contributions focused on the design and use of technology to support collaborative work. She was an early member of the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center Media Space to connect people working apart with video and computing connections. She worked closely with designers, social scientists and engineers to develop methods for using ethnographic methods for informing the design of technology.

Experience:

• Sara Bly Consulting   1994-present; Consulting on user studies for design and evaluation, distributed group technologies and practices
• Oregon Graduate Institute; Instructor, User-Centered Design (CSE 567)
• Xerox Palo Alto Research Center; Manager, Collaborative Systems Area; Rank Xerox EuroPARC liaison; Member of the Research Staff
• Xerox Information Systems Division; User Interface Designer
• Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL)

Professional Activities:  Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)

• Association Executive Committee Secretary, 1988-1990
• ACM Special Interest Group on Computer Human Interaction (SIGCHI)
  tutorials, program committees
• Computer-Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW)
  workshops, program committees
  

Sara Bly Consulting
sara at sarably.com
2455 NW Moreland Road
North Plains OR 97133
+1 (503) 647-1946