Christopher G. Koch Email & Phone Number

Saint Joseph, Michigan

Founder and principal of User Experience Invention studio, supplying consulting services for user experience research, product design, and usability validation. Apply user-centered design methodology, working in collaborative partnership with the client, to bring products and services to market that people find engaging, productive, and safe, and are distinguished by user experience excellence for business competitive advantage. Areas of practice include customer ethnographic research and discovery, interaction architecture for hardware and software product design, and usability testing and heuristic usability evaluation. Goal is to spark the innovation that delivers solutions to customers' needs and wants - solutions that shine for compelling user experience and superior usability.

Michigan Area

Conducting ergonomic evaluations of the design of residences, focused on equal accessibility and safety for people with special needs, to deliver adaptive, universal design solutions. Managing procurement sourcing and sales for accessible products and fixtures for the home, marketed through Essential Luxuries, Ltd., that are both functional and beautiful. The home often becomes a hostile, unsafe environment for those with sudden catastrophic spinal cord or brain injuries, but it need not look like a hospital to accommodate special needs. Solutions are devoted to maintaining function, comfort, and quality of life at home and include house architectural design and construction, bathroom/kitchen/bedroom redesign and remodeling, wheelchair entrance ramps, and adaptive equipment.

Benton Harbor, Michigan

Responsible for establishing a new user experience research function to develop and deliver insights about consumer behavior and trends through applied user experience, sensorial, and usability research to influence Whirlpool product design. + Developed requirements and user interface design for the first phase of a global, shared collaborative knowledge management solution for access to data in knowledge domains of consumer behavior and lifestyle trends, competitive product intelligence, usability testing and evaluation results, sensorial quality measures and benchmarks, and emerging human-machine interface technology, + Managed user experience primary research studies for emerging product concepts in categories of refrigeration, dishwashing, cooking, fabric care, and countertop appliances, as well as design concepts for next-generation Whirlpool kitchen appliances expressing a progressive new experience brand language. + Managed a program of sensorial quality evaluation for "touchpoints" between users and appliances to specify engineering design and quality metrics for components such as doors, drawers, handles, shelves, racks, grates, knobs, and displays. + Planned how to collect, co-discover, evaluate, interpret, communicate, and evangelize customer insights in the home ecosystem user experience category stages of: grocery shopping, meal planning, food preparation, eating, meal cleanup, dishwashing, laundry preparation, clothes washing and drying, and clothes refreshing.

Benton Harbor, Michigan

Responsible for establishing core competency of interaction design in Whirlpool, with a focus on multi-sensorial applied research and off-appliance user experience for new value propositions of appliance connectivity. + Led exploration of connectivity value propositions and interaction design for next-generation appliances in the form of storyboards, prototypes, and movies. Developed use cases across internet-enabled display platforms for energy management, entertainment, security, communication, and diagnostics. Planned and managed ethnographic study of connected lifestyle user needs for social networking, cycle customization, consumables replacement, and diagnostics. Planned and organized study of home energy management lifestyle choices and user interaction preferences. + Established a program of multi-sensory design research to explore application of consumer electronics user interaction technologies, including novel format electronic displays, touch haptic and force feedback, gesture input, LED lighting effects, proximity detection, and polysymphonic sound. Conducted usability studies of haptic feedback, motion detection, cycle status lighting effects, and audio brand language. Evaluated technology component capabilities to qualify vendors and reduce procurement costs. + Designed and specified the user interaction for the new features of Whirlpool Gold Smart Grid appliances, architected design of the iOS Smart app, and championed consistency of the cross-category appliance and app behavior. Created copy for on-line and printed instructions and prepared training materials for call center operators. Designed alternative methods of appliance WiFi provisioning, including batch process provisioning for Maytag Connect 360 commercial laundry. Managed 3 usability tests for features of Smart appliances and the Smart app. These products were the first smart connected Whirlpool products to reach the market.

Benton Harbor, Michigan

Responsible for applied research, user interaction design, usability testing, and application of emerging consumer electronics technology for home appliances. + Designed the user interface for the most advanced dishwasher in the world, marketed by Sears under the Kenmore brand, containing an LCD touchscreen and novel cycle delay settings and context-sensitive operating and maintenance tips. This dishwasher won the Best of Innovations award from CES in 2011 in the major home appliances category. + Created user interface design solutions for delivering maintenance, diagnostics, warranty data, and fault tree analysis troubleshooting information to call center operators and field service technicians. This knowledge management system dramatically increased completion of service calls on the first customer home visit and reduced costs associated with unnecessary component replacement. + Created user interface design solutions and conducted a successful in-home field trial for a prototype refrigerator-mounted interactive WiFi tablet that offered apps for grocery shopping, meal planning, cooking tips, customized recipes, and family calendar, along with Facebook, traffic, and weather.

Rochester, New York

Responsible for business management, program planning, and liaison between Kodak product development business units, corporate marketing office, and multi-disciplinary design. + Planned and executed a multi-year program of strategic user experience design and usability for Kodak’s Graphic Communications Group. This drove consistency and excellence in design across the diverse portfolio of commercial printing and publishing equipment and workflow services assimilated from NexPress, Versamark, Polychrome Graphics, and Creo acquisitions, to achieve one face to the customer and foster measurable value differentiation through design and usability. + Authored product design guidelines for Kodak's Graphic Communications Group, serving as a best practices standard for equipment cabinetry color, product identity and branding, graphical user interface elements in software applications, user documentation, and consumables packaging design. + Championed a product harmonization strategy in Kodak’s Health Group, resulting in common user experience for equipment design, software product identity, and marketing communications for radiography equipment, x-ray printers, and health care information systems. Visible results of the strategy positively impacted valuation of Kodak's product portfolio and influenced Onex Corp. during negotiations with Kodak for acquisition of the medical imaging business.

Rochester, New York

Responsible for user interface design and usability for Kodak consumer and commercial imaging products, managing a diverse 22-person team. + Directed human factors design, usability engineering, and testing for Kodak consumer imaging products, including digital cameras, home printers, retail imaging kiosks, and desktop software. Focus on product design and usability resulted in market leadership for EasyShare digital cameras, EasyShare photo printers, Picture Maker kiosks, and EasyShare Gallery on-line photofinishing, and a reputation for best-in-class ease of use. Awards from J.D. Power & Associates, CES, PMA, CeBIT iF, redDot, PC World, Popular Mechanics, Esquire, and Government Computer News recognized product design and usability. + Led a portfolio of programs for applied user-centered research and advanced development, competitive benchmarking, and strategic systems architecture for consumer imaging businesses. This “pre-commercialization” work reduced design cycle time by 33% for schedule-intensive commercialization projects. + Conducted needs analysis research and prepared control panel user interface designs and specifications for Kodak EasyShare All-in-One inkjet home printers. Product ease of use was cited as a key product differentiator in helping reach Kodak’s sales target of 500,000 units in 2007. + Directed human factors design, graphic design, usability engineering, and product ergonomics for Kodak commercial imaging products, including digital printing presses, medical imaging software applications, and photofinishing systems. CeBIT iF Design award for DirectView DR 7500 radiography system recognized product ergonomics superiority.

Rochester, New York

Responsible for the visual interaction design, information architecture, and usability for the corporate web site www.kodak.com, managing a 20-person team of producers, user interface designers, graphics designers, usability engineers, and on-line copy editors. + Designed web content, marketing communications, and applications. Improved the innovative, user-centered design and development methodology: the Kodak Web Creation Process. Two major site redesigns and the production of compelling interactive imaging applications, editorial content, and product information and demonstrations helped increase viewership over 200% in this period. + Managed the user interaction design process for business-to-consumer and business-to-business eCommerce. Design and usability of the online store - Shop@Kodak - helped position it among the top 5 retailers in product sales volume. + Led the definition of common digital user experience strategy for retail imaging kiosks and network-centric software products. Designed user interfaces for web-based greeting cards and retail imaging kiosks. + Defined the user interface architecture for web-based imaging applications developed by third-party licensees. Successfully managed execution of a portfolio of contracts with more than 10 agency suppliers that achieved user interaction consistency and excellence.

Rochester, New York

Responsible for research, design, and development of user interface solutions for business imaging products, supervising a 10-person team of human factors engineers. + Designed user interfaces for retail imaging kiosks, distributing imaging services, business and office imaging equipment and systems, and client/server management systems. + Led common graphical user interface strategy for a Kodak digital architecture council, directing efforts for common corporate graphical user interface design and developing guidelines and endorsed product design solutions. This work set the strategic design direction for Kodak digital imaging product user interfaces. + Directed the graduate internship program for human/computer interaction students. From this start, internships were successful building relationships with universities for knowledge transfer and attracting top talent to the employee pool.

Rochester, New York

Led research and graphical user interface design for photo print production imaging workstations, desktop software products, distributed imaging services, and client/server management information systems. + Set graphical user interface design direction for products and systems, authoring styleguides for imaging workstations, desktop imaging software applications, and client/server applications. + Directed research, design, and usability evaluation for a software components library to promote common look and feel for digital imaging products. The success of the user interface guidelines was largely attributable to design elements available in the software components library that made compliance practical and easy. + Procured prototyping tools, devised a user interface design methodology, conducted training, and redesigned a state-of-the-art usability laboratory that established Kodak core competence in graphical user interface design. + Designed and prototyped user interfaces for a photofinishing quality management system, image fulfillment server order-entry client, all-media digital library manager, and other digital imaging products.

Rochester, New York

Responsible for human factors research, user interface design, and usability engineering for Kodak computer-based business imaging products. + Designed, prototyped, and tested graphical user interfaces for retail imaging kiosks, imaging workstations, film contacting station, desktop imaging software applications, printer drivers, and document management services. These innovative digital imaging software and hardware products served as a foundation for future product platforms and fueled Kodak’s transformation from silver halide to digital imaging leadership. + Conducted a longitudinal study of cellular telephone and laptop computer technology to improve customer service of business imaging equipment. + Conducted needs analysis, invented interaction and navigation schemes, prepared user interface designs, and tested usability of a prototype future-generation mixed media workstation under contract to the U.S. Internal Revenue Service. Results of the contract established feasibility for delivering computer-based tools for tax examiners under the comprehensive U.S. Tax Modernization Program.

Minneapolis, Minnesota

Program manager and technical lead for Honeywell's industrial/commercial computer graphics and video display systems research. + Project manager for $1.1M U.S. Postal Service contract to research, design, and demonstrate a remote video display system for high-speed mail piece encoding, delivering video image display quality requirements, image presentation techniques, and operator interaction requirements on-time, within-budget. + Designed colorgraphics operator interfaces for commercial building management and home control systems, including a manufacturing automation demonstration and master control panels for SMART HOUSE residential automation system. + Principal investigator of an Electric Power Research Institute program to design, specify, build, and test a multimedia, intelligent user interface for a gas turbine expert system for electronics controls maintenance and troubleshooting. + Posted a perfect track record of leading 11 proposal teams at Honeywell to 11 contract awards for R&D projects.

Greater Minneapolis-St. Paul Area

Responsible for user/system interface design, research, and development for complex control systems. + Managed a five-year program with Northern States Power Company to conduct human factors engineering design reviews and implement improvements in the control room at Prairie Island Nuclear Generating Plant, resulting in redesign and retrofit of main control boards, control operators' workstations, annunciator/alarm system, and the computer-based safety parameter display system. + Served as project manager for an Electric Power Research Institute project to evaluate the distributed process control and colorgraphics display system at the 10 MWe Solar Power Plant in Barstow, CA. + Designed user interfaces for Honeywell computer-based systems and products, including commercial building management and control systems, expert system for maintenance of building HVAC equipment, multi-channel commercial load management, personal computer-based integrated voice/data, prototype object recognition security system, and medical electronic patient monitor.

Minneapolis, Minnesota

Responsible for applying human factors engineering to training systems design and development for military command and control systems. + Principal investigator for U.S. Army Research Institute contract to implement computer-based embedded training and testing capability for field artillery fire direction. Programmed the operational hardware, conducted validation testing, explored computerized adaptive testing models, and consulted during deployment on field-based operational hardware. + Developed and demonstrated automated training and testing capability of a microprocessor-based simulator for the Army Air Defense Command and Control System. Prepared courseware for the U.S. Air Force Airborne Warning and Control System-Radar maintenance training system. + Designed and developed U.S. Army tank maintenance training materials for voice-interactive maintenance. Analyzed simulation fidelity requirements and system design for U.S. Navy electronic equipment maintenance training.

Cognitive Psychology

Graduate-level coursework in Advanced Cognitive Science.

Engineering Psychology / Human Factors

Studied under Peter Dorfman and William Howell in the Department of Psychology at Rice University in Houston, TX. This was a strong.

Bachelor'S Degree, Applied Psychology

Activities and Societies: Athletic varsity letter in crew (rowing 8-man shell).Degree in Psychology was supplemented by electives.