 Theo
Mandel's Background
Interface Design and Development
Theo founded Interface Design and Development (IDD) in 1994 to provide
comprehensive consulting, education, and seminars on software and
Web user interface design and usability. Theo's 20 years of experience
in user interface design, user interface architecture and usability
testing, has made IDD a well-know and well-respected consultancy.
IDD has helped startups, companies and software developers review,
design, and evaluate the user experience and usability of their
products. In 2003, the company name and the website were changed
to TheoMandel.com. Dr. Mandel's broad experience covers user interface
design, prototyping, and usability evaluation of PC and Web products.
The IBM Years
Human factors and product usability became critical to the computer
hardware and software industry in the early 1980's. After completing
his Ph.D. in Cognitive Psychology at the University of Colorado
at Boulder, Dr. Mandel joined IBM Austin in 1982 and worked for
11 years in the areas of software interface architecture, product
interface design, usability testing, consulting, and education.
Mandel pioneered research and design of GUIs (Graphical User Interfaces)
and OOUIs (Object-Oriented User Interfaces) as part of the IBM Common
User Access (CUA) group. This group designed the leading-edge object-oriented
IBM OS/2 operating system user interface. Dr. Mandel worked closely
with key industry vendors (Microsoft, Lotus, and other IBM partners)
to define and implement software interface architecture and guidelines
for Microsoft Windows and IBM's OS/2.
 User
Interface and Usability Education
Dr. Mandel develops and teaches courses on graphical- and object-oriented
user interface design, Web design, software and information usability.
He taught a short course for the University of Texas Computer Science
department. At IBM, he was part of the corporate technical education
division. He conducted onsite classroom education as well as TV
and satellite education courses. He presents tutorials and seminars
at major industry conferences such as Seybold Seminars and the Web
conference.
Author
Author of a number of publications and books, Dr. Mandel's newest
book is The Elements of User Interface Design (John
Wiley & Sons, 1997). This book is to be translated into Russian
and Chinese and Dr. Mandel is currently working on a second edition
of this popular practical guide and course textbook.
His first book was The GUI-OOUI War: The Designer's Guide
to Human-Computer Interfaces (John Wiley & Sons, 1994).
He was also part of the Architecture team that wrote Object-Oriented
Interface Design: IBM Common User Access Guidelines (QUE,
1992).
 Education
Dr. Mandel received his Master's degree and Ph.D. in Cognitive Psychology
from the University of Colorado, Boulder. There he conducted research
on how people learn, remember, and read. Both his Master's thesis
and Doctoral dissertation researched the role of eye movements in
reading comprehension. He worked under Dr. Walter Kintsch, an internationally
recognized leader in reading research. As Mandel was completing
his academic work, the computer industry began to realize it was
important to learn more about the humans who use computers. He was
awarded an internship in Human Factors and Usability at IBM Boulder
where he worked on IBM printer design and documentation.
"In many respects he led the pack in user interface research,
and we all owe a great deal to his groundbreaking research in eye
movements and reading comprehension in the 1980s," says Interface
Guru™ CEO Cia Romano.
Professional Associations
 Dr. Mandel is a member of the ACM and the Computer-Human Interaction
(CHI) Special Interest Group (SIG). He is an active member of the
Usability Professional's Association (UPA), where Theo is currently
working with local colleagues to create an Arizona UPA Chapter.
Mandel is a member of the Arizona Internet Professionals Association
(AZIPA) and the Rocky Mountain Internet Users’ Group (RMIUG).
The UPA is spearheading World Usability Day (November 3, 2005). The goal of World Usability Day is to promote the fields of usability engineering and user-centered design. UPA professionals aim to do this by encouraging, organizing, and sponsoring activities at the local level around the globe, all occurring on November 3, 2005. For more information, visit the UPA web page for this event.
 Tennis Anyone?
In addition, Theo Mandel is an accomplished tennis player and tennis
equipment consultant. He was the first tennis professional at the
Harvest House Sporting Association in Boulder, Colorado and taught
tennis at the Colony Beach & Tennis Resort in Sarasota,
Florida. As a playing and teaching tennis professional, he was a
member of the Head Racquet Sports Tennis Advisory Staff for 15 years,
working with tennis legends such as Arthur Ashe and Guillermo Vilas.
Theo is currently a top-ranked player in the Southwest and Intermountain
regions in his age group. He has coordinated tennis equipment testing
for Tennis Magazine, Prince Sports Group, and the sports research
firm, Tennis at Large.
Theo Mandel's resume is available on the Downloads
page
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