Chopsticker

Robert Barlow-Busch

I’m currently Director of Product Design at Primal Fusion, a semantic technology company in Waterloo, Ontario. My role is to champion the design and user experience of “thought networking” applications built on our proprietary technology for semantic analysis and synthesis.

I made this move in January 2007, after nearly 8 years as Practice Director of Interaction Design at Quarry Integrated Communications. This was a rewarding time, as I got to work with a great group of people (both Qmates and clients) while pushing at the traditional boundaries of design, usability, and marketing. Guess what? It turns out that marketing — and even brand itself! — has a lot to offer the other disciplines that intersect with product development. Mind you, this assumes that we’re talking about experiential marketing.

Short-list of companies with whom I’ve worked: FedEx, Sony, Research in Motion (RIM), Sprint, Nortel, Bell Canada, Agfa, AstraZeneca, Blue Coat Systems, MDS Sciex, PerkinElmer.

You’ll find I’m particularly interested in the topic of personas. I helped to pioneer their use at Quarry, work which resulted in Forrester Research recommending our team as one of North America’s top 20 sources of expertise on this design tool. I’ve since published two book chapters on personas:

• “Marketing vs. Design Personas” in The Persona Lifecycle by John Pruitt and Tamara Adlin
• “ClickDox: A Case Study in Personas” in User-Centered Design Stories by Carol Righi and Janice James

You’ll sometimes find me speaking at conferences and industry events, such as IA Summit, UPA, CHI, STC, and User Friendly in China. I also lecture occasionally at the University of Waterloo and run workshops for corporations.

Interested in user experience? Find yourself stranded <grin/> in the Waterloo area? Be sure to look up the UX Group of Waterloo Region. I co-founded this group in 2007 with Navid Sadikali of Agfa and we’re very excited by the response, with about 80 200 people on our mailing list. We typically meet on the third Thursday of each month for discussions or presentations. Visit our website for info about upcoming events.

And yes, design isn’t just a job: it’s fun too! Check out the Bouncefly, a concept I created with a couple of friends — and which was published in Popular Science magazine as a runner-up in their human-powered design competition.

Looking for more info? Head over to LinkedIn: