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About the Applicant
Although he is a fresh face among the UX community, Andrew Zusman has made a splash. A man of many hats, Andrew is a writer, speaker, and designer. After careers as an historian focused on social and intellectual history and an author of several educational books, Andrew discovered user experience design and describes his attachment to the field as an addiction. Andrew studied at Israel’s Netcraft Academy and has since worked as a user experience designer in Israel.
In 2013, Andrew published an article at UX Booth on accessibility and universal design focused on the typing obstacles for users who have dexterity related disabilities. The article was based on original research, and its success led to opportunities to speak at prestigious conferences across Europe including WebExpo Prague, UX Scotland, and UX Conference.
Andrew is the VP of Product at Skyrise (www.SkyriseApp.com).
In his free time, Andrew is an avid reader and enjoys playing board games. A native of Indiana in the United States, Andrew lives in Tel-Aviv with his wife Natasha and their dog Indy.
Andrew Zusman
Individual products and case studies might change minds, but I am seeking something bigger than that. I want to help facilitate and participate in a design revolution. That might sound over-the-top, but I believe in spreading the ideas of universal design far and wide. I did my own research and I did it on my own budget and in my spare time. I reached out to those that others looked past, and I think it’s important for others to throw caution to the wind and _do_ what they believe in, even if it is difficult or unpopular. I believe in universal design. Doing something with my belief means there is no failure.
I started with a question: How do people with one arm or one hand type? I couldn’t find anyone else who was really interested in this topic until UXBooth’s Andrew Maier encouraged me to write an article based on what I found in my research. I worked hard to build upon my research with an article and build upon my article with a highly praised presentation I took to five locations across Europe and the Middle East. I stayed true to an idea even when many people asked me “Who cares?” and now I am repeating this process with what will be the first ever serious project to look at how universal design can help dyslexic users get a better experience online.
Simple answer: I talked to them…and I still do!
Ideas are contagious. I did everything I could to make universal design a sexier topic and to make it practical. The response from the thousands of people who read my article or saw my presentation was really fantastic, and the response from one-handed/armed users and, more recently, dyslexic users has been highly encouraging.
Sir Tim Berners-Lee, who helped to create the WWW, said that “The power of the web is in its universality.” I think we all need to be reminded of this sometimes. After my presentation at WebExpo Prague, a one-armed audience member thanked me for my presentation. He knew that work like mine (and probably the work of all those who applied for this award) would lead to the kind of world that Berners-Lee sought to create. There is power in universality. We live in a time when people talk about B2B and B2C when really everything we make is H2H. Humans to Human. Humans come in all sorts of shapes and sizes, and we can reach them all through more inclusive and universal designs.
