Sixteen years experience in applied research and consulting on medical, financial, and technology projects that "do good" for people. Design and conduct usability evaluations, focus groups, surveys and user studies; investigate people's interaction with technology, evaluate effectiveness of programs and projects. Write project, and grant proposals. Manage clients, projects, staff and budgets. Supportive and collaborative approach to problem solving of "real world" concerns that impact quality of life.

Professional/personal values: equality, opportunity, education, support of humanistic efforts

2001 - present

Principal, Vox Informa Research and Consulting

2003 - present

Instructor, Psychology of Language, Northeastern University

1995 - 2001

Research/Principal Research Scientist, Usability Engineering Group, New England Research Center, American Institutes for Research

Spring, 2000

Instructor, Engineering Psychology, Tufts University

1990 - 1995

Member/Senior Member of the Technical Staff, Service Concept Design, GTE Laboratories Inc.

1988 - 1990

Speech Consultant, Behavioral Sciences Department, GTE Laboratories Inc.

1990-1992

Research Associate, Northeastern University Department of Psychology

1986-1988

Research Assistant, MIT Research Laboratory of Electronics

Ph.D.

1990, Northeastern University

M.A.

1986, Northeastern University

B.A.

1984, Columbia University

• SBIR/STTR Training Workshop
  
  
• Management Development (GTE)
  
  
• Finance & Accounting for non-financial managers (GTE)
  
  
• Staff Effectiveness (GTE)
  
  
• Managing the Professional Services Firm (AIR)
  
  
• NYSE Floor Trading workshop

• Bose Corporation (Jan, 2005 - present). Consult on the design of a voice user interface to an audio system. Design and prototype conversation dialogs. Conduct usability studies using Wizard of Oz and other techniques.
  
  
• Coe Care.Com (2003 - present). Evaluate PC-based software application for diagnosing and treating patients with cardiac disease. Design user studies and interview protocols. Conduct one-on-one interviews with physicians and health-care providers in simulated provider-patient situation. Document findings and recommend software improvements. Contribute to Phase I, II, and Fast-track SBIR grants for development of this, and related, medical software products.
  
  
• Imagitas (2002 - present). Evaluate website applications (i.e., design studies, conduct interviews, document findings) to asses their conformance to principlesof good human factors, usability, and design.
  
  
• Reach Out and Read (2002 - present). Provide methods for assessing program mechanics, physician compliance, and for improving program efficiency.
  
  
• US Dept. of Transportation (2002- 2003). Evaluated Pilot Electronic Flight Bags (EFBs). Identified client needs (i.e., interviewed pilots, aviation experts, and FAA personnel). Developed testing procedures and interview protocols. Conducted usability interviews; consolidated results, documented findings and recommendations. Developed procedures by which EFBs can be evaluated by FAA certification personnel.
  
  
• Mt. Sinai Medical School Behavioral Cardiology Group. (2001- 2002). Coordinated proposal effort for $6.5 million NIH program project grant. Responsible for budget preparation and justification.
  
  
• Predictive Technologies, Inc. (2002). Identified SBIR (Phase I) funding for medical device for detecting sleep apnea. Authored grant, prepared budget, managed IRB issues, liaised with technical and marketing staff.
  
  
• Microsoft Corporation (2000 - 2001). Directed usability studies of Microsoft XP to previously released operating systems. Trained (11) junior staff on research design and data collection methods. Supervised testing, data collection and data analysis. Analyzed data and interpreted results. (Note: study was cited in Business Week, New York Times, Washington Post following October, 2001 release of Microsoft XP.)
  
  
• Project Bread (2000). Conducted focus groups to reverse negative profit trend for Project Bread's Walk for Hunger. Focus groups resulted in ideas that generated almost $1 million in unexpected revenue.
  
  
• New York Stock Exchange. (1999 - 2001). >Evaluated usability of software and devices used by floor brokers, clerks, Specialists and other personnel to improve trading efficiency (and to comply with changing SEC regulations) at the NYSE.
  
  
• FannieMae Corporation (1996 - 2001). Helped bring FannieMae's first website (Homepath.com) from service concept to implementation. (Homepath.com received a Smithsonian Award in 1998). Later responsible for overseeing all usability and feasibility studies of FannieMae's software.
  
  
• GMC (1999 - 2000). Designed speech dialogs for OnStar in-car navigation system. Delivered prototypes of voice and visual displays; specification document, and test report. (In 2001, OnStar received Speech Technology Magazine's Peak Performance Award for Best Speech Deployment).
  
  
• US WEST (1998). Directed user-centered design of user manuals, on-line help, and quick reference cards for a computer-based caller ID product. Co-authored user manual and conducted usability test of manual and software.
  
  
• Motorola (1998). Developed a product usability survey as part of Motorola's corporate quality effort.
  
  
• Hewlett-Packard (1997). Designed and conducted a comparative study of Hewlett-Packard's test & measurement software package against those of its two leading competitors.
  
  
• Motorola (1996-1997). Proposed, designed and conducted usability/ preference study of cell phones in London, Singapore, Boston, and DC. Managed project and budget; formulated experimental design and directed testing, supervised testing, oversaw statistical analyses, delivered results and recommendations to client.
  
  
• GTE Laboratories Inc. (1995). Compared user interfaces and performance of five speech recognition vendor systems and helped select a technology vendor for a GTE consumer application.
  
  
• GTE Telephone Operations (1991 - 1995). Consulted to GTE Telephone Operations for various customer contact interactive voice response and speech recognition applications. 

• Volaitis, L.E., et al. (2001) Lab Report: Windows XP Easier and Faster to Use.
  http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/evaluation/whyupgrade/usability.asp#top
  
  
• Volaitis, L., Joffre, K., Birns, J., & Thurrott C. (2001).
  http://www.microsoft.com/Office XP vs. Office 2000: Comparing Productivity Advantages.
  
  
• Fowler, T. Vote of confidence/Made-in-Texas electronic ballot received high marks in election.
  http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/business/746327
  
  
• Volaitis, L.E. (1999). Can speech improve cell phone interfaces?  Speech Technology, April/May issue.
  
  
• Gardner­Bonneau, D., C. Delogu, F. U. Bordoni, C. Green, L. Volaitis, M. Lindeman, and L. Laux (1998). Interactive Voice Response (IVR) Systems as Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) Comes of Age.  Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society 42nd Annual Meeting, 5 to 9 Oct., pp. 444­447, Chicago
  
  
• Volaitis, L., Dumas, J. & Mastoras, E. (1997). Comparison of productivity gains among leading programming languages for test applications: LabVIEW, HP VEE, and C/C++.
  Online: http://www.hp.com/go/hpvee
  
  
• Miller, J.L., Volaitis, L.E., and O'Rourke, T.B. (1997). Internal structure of phonetic categories: Effects of Speaking Rate. Phonetica, 54, 121-137.
  
  
• Wayland, S.C., Miller, J.L., & Volaitis, L.E. (1994). The influence of sentential speaking rate on the internal structure of phonetic categories. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 95(5), 2694-101.
  
  
• Volaitis, L.E., & Miller, J.L. (1992). Phonetic prototypes: Influence of place of articulation and speaking rate on the internal structure of phonetic categories. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 92, 723-735.
  
  
• Volaitis, L.E., Sundstrom, G.A. & Salvador, A.C. (1991). An evaluation of the graphical human-machine interfaces of five network management systems. GTE Labs Technical Memorandum 0439-08-91-465.
  
  
• Miller, J.L., & Volaitis, L.E. (1989). Some effects of speaking rate on the perceived internal structure of phonetic categories. Perception and Psychophysics, 46, 505-512.

© Lydia Volaitis 2005, All rights reserved