Spencer Gerrol, MS, CUA Executive Director Human Factors International, Inc.

Spencer Gerrol, Executive Director at Human Factors International, guides organizations to design better user experiences. He works to bridge the gaps across the design field by integrating and innovating methods. Designing simple isn’t easy, but many years of teaching and designing for usability makes this a given part of Spencer’s process. Moving beyond usability, his real focus is on designing for persuasion. Research in decision making, motivation, and emotion establish a foundation for his approach, while hands-on data gathering to understand consumer perceptions, drives, and blocks adds power to his designs.

By nature of the field, Spencer is concentrated on user satisfaction and ease-ofuse, but because making users happy isn’t enough, he approaches every project with his sights set on achieving business objectives. Understanding the goals and defining a strategy comes first. While these objectives aim at successful designs, Spencer takes a higher level organizational approach. He works with companies and agencies to help them develop mature user experience programs that bring them to the forefront of the field.

A pragmatist, Spencer emphasizes the power of research and science. It is important to him to base decisions on evidence and then gather data that demonstrates effectiveness and success. In addition to informing design direction, this evidence-driven approach creates buy-in and excitement.

Spencer holds a degree in Human Factors from Tufts University, where he graduated summa cum laude, and also has degrees in Entrepreneurial Leadership and Spanish Language & Culture. He works with fortune 500 companies as well as government and non-profit agencies. He is a winner of the Best Solution Award. Fluent in Spanish and passionate about cross-cultural design, Spencer is an avid traveler who can often be found jotting ideas down on napkins around the world.