Paul Sherman, Ph.D., of Canfield, Ohio, has joined the School of Library and Information Science (SLIS) at Kent State University as an assistant professor, beginning fall 2014. He will teach courses in the Master of Science user experience design concentration.
Paul ShermanSherman received his Ph.D. in psychology in 1997 from the University of Texas in Austin. His research focused on how pilots’ use of computers and automated systems on the flight deck affects their individual and team performance. He holds a master of education (M.Ed.) in psychology and a bachelor’s degree in English both from Rutgers University in New Brunswick, N.J.
He has served as an adjunct instructor and lecturer for Kent State and other organizations for five years prior to assuming this full-time role.
Prior to coming to Kent State, Sherman held a variety of positions in the user experience design field. He has worked as manager of User-Centered Design at Intuit in Plano, Texas, and as a Director of User Research for Andara Digital in Dallas. He then held a position as the senior director of User-Centered Design in Atlanta for Sage Software, where he led efforts to redesign the user interface and improve the overall customer experience of the Peachtree Accounting product family.
In 2008, Sherman and his UX team received the HFES User-Centered Product Design Award for user research, design and usability analysis on the Peachtree Accounting 2007 redesign project from the Human Factors and Ergonomics Association. He also designed and implemented a customer-centric innovation program that sought to identify new product and service opportunities by observing small businesses and led efforts to modernize and make Sage products’ user interfaces consistent.
Later, in Youngstown, Ohio, he worked as the Product Design Lead for Turning Technologies.
In addition to his current position at Kent State, Sherman is also the founder and principal consultant for ShermanUX (Sherman User Group Experience), a research and design company he founded and has maintained since 2008. As a consultant, he and his team of collaborators have conducted customer research, usability testing and interface design for dozens of desktop, browser-based and mobile applications.
Sherman is past president of the User Experience Professionals’ Association (UXPA). He was the founding president of the UXPA Dallas/Fort Worth chapter and served on the UXPA’s Board of Directors and Executive Committee. In 2009, he received the Usability Professionals’ Association President’s Award for service to the user experience community and the UPA.
He is also contributor and editor of the book Usability Success Stories: How Organizations Improve by Making Easier-to-Use Software and Web Sites, published in 2006. Sherman also writes a regular column for UXmatters, an online user experience magazine.
Sherman has presented at conferences around North America, Asia, Europe and South America.
For more information about Sherman, visit http://www2.kent.edu/slis/people/~psherma4/.
The School of Library and Information Science at Kent State University offers a Master of Library and Information Science (M.L.I.S.) and Master of Science in Information Architecture and Knowledge Management (IAKM). In addition, the school participates in an interdisciplinary Ph.D. in the College of Communication and Information. With more than 700 students enrolled, SLIS has the largest graduate program at Kent State. Its M.L.I.S. is the only American Library Association-accredited master’s program in Ohio and is recognized by U.S. News and World Report among the nation’s top 20 LIS programs, with a youth services program that is ranked 10th. For more information, visit www.kent.edu/slis.
-- By Lily Martis
