Steve Mulder is Director of Emerging Interactions at Molecular (an interactive agency headquartered in Boston), where he helps organizations innovate on customer relationships using social networking, user-generated content, rich Internet applications, new digital interfaces, and other Web 2.0 opportunities. He is also the author of The User Is Always Right: A Practical Guide to Creating and Using Personas for the Web and a regular speaker at web conferences. With over 13 years of experience in user research, information architecture, interaction design, and usability, Steve practices what he preaches by delivering successful user experiences that drive business results. He has brought his expertise to a wide range of companies, including Morgan Stanley, TripAdvisor, Talbots, Adidas, PC Connection, 3M, CVS, Estee Lauder, Philips, Wired, Terra Lycos, and ZDNet.

MOLECULAR
Oct 2003 - present
Director of Emerging Interactions
Co-lead of a practice focused on user-generated content, rich interfaces, openness, new digital interactions - all that Web 2.0 stuff.
Principal Consultant, User Experience
Led the delivery of successful user experiences for multiple clients, from strategic direction through implementation. Clients include Morgan Stanley, PC Connection, Talbots, VistaPrint, Adidas, BMW, CVS, and RH Donnelley. Developed best practices for usability testing, personas, and information architecture.

TERRA LYCOS
Apr 2001 - Oct 2003
Manager of User Experience
Directed the global User Experience Group of information architects and usability researchers focused on the many sites that were part of Lycos and Terra. Projects included Lycos Search, My Lycos, HotBot, Matchmaker, Wired News, and the Terra Lycos Style Guide.
Manager of Information Architecture
Developed IA standards for Terra and Lycos, established methodologies and tools, and consulted with product teams.

RAZORFISH
Dec 1999 - Apr 2001
Experience Lead
Responsible for projects across multiple clients, including Gloss.com, Estee Lauder Companies, Chanel, Lotus, and DMNews.com. Led a team of designers, information architects, writers, and interface developers.
Information Architect (Associate Director)
Led creation of site features, site maps, process flows, wireframes, and functional specifications for multiple projects.

TSDESIGN
May 1998 - Dec 1999
Senior Consultant
Strategy and design consulting role for various clients, including 3M and WebCriteria. Specializations in information architecture, interaction design, writing, and front-end development. (TSDesign was acquired by Razorfish.)

ZD UNIVERSITY
May 1997 - May 1998
Senior Editor
Managed editorial content, information architecture, and design of online learning/community site (part of ZDNet).

MACMILLAN PUBLISHING
Feb 1995 - May 1997
Product Development Specialist & Editor
Shaped overall book publishing plan in Web design and development areas for Hayden Books. Served as lead editor on numerous books.

The Future

Higher Education Web Symposium (Philadelphia, 7/08)
"AJAX and Web 2.0" full-day workshop

Web Design World (Seattle, 7/08)
"The User Is Always Right: Making Personas Work for Your Site"
"Rich Interface Design: How AJAX Changes Everything"

The Past

"What Consumers Say About Your Brand Online"
American Marketing Association - Boston (5/08)

"Rich Interface Design: How AJAX Changes Everything"
Web Design World (Chicago, 5/08)

"The User Is Always Right: Making Personas Work for Your Site"
Web Design World (Chicago, 5/08)
User Interface Engineering Virtual Seminar (5/07)
WebVisions (Portland, 5/07)
DigitalNow (Orlando, 4/07)
Web Design World (Boston, 12/06)
Web Builder 2.0 (Las Vegas, 12/06)

"AJAX and RIAs: Moving Functionality Over to the Client"
Web App Summit (San Diego, 3/08)

"Second Life: Business Boom, Bust, or Both?"
Web Design World (Boston, 12/07)
Web Builder 2.0 (Las Vegas, 12/07)

"Designing for Discoverability"
Web Design World (Boston, 12/07)
Web Builder 2.0 (Las Vegas, 12/07)

"You Are Not Your User: Proven Techniques for Discovering Who Is"
Voices That Matter: Web Design Conference (San Francisco, 10/07)

"Let the People Speak: How Users Are Changing the Web"
PodCamp Boston (Boston, 10/07)
American Marketing Association Digital Marketing Summit (Pittsburgh, 10/07)
Web Design World (Seattle, 7/07)
Web Design World (San Francisco, 3/07)
Web Design World (Boston, 12/06)
Web Builder 2.0 (Las Vegas, 12/06)

"Making Personas Work for Your Website" (workshop)
IxDA Boston (Watertown, 11/07)
Documentation & Training East (Lowell, MA, 10/07)

"Incorporating the Social Networking Features of Web 2.0" (panel)
Endeca Discover Conference (Boston, 6/07)

"Making Web 2.0 Usable: An Ajax Case Study"
Web Builder 2.0 (Las Vegas, 12/07)
Web Design World (Seattle, 7/07)
Web Design World (San Francisco, 3/07)
Web Design World (Boston, 12/06)
Web Builder 2.0 (Las Vegas, 12/06)

"UX Research Beyond Software Design: A Comparison of Customer-Centered Research Techniques" (panel)
Boston Mini-UPA Conference (Bentley College, Waltham, MA, 5/07)

"Web 2.0 - What Is It and What Does It Mean?" (with Riccardo La Rosa)
Babson Executive Education Program (Babson College, Wellesley, MA, 5/07)
Center for Information Management Studies Workshop (Babson College, Wellesley, MA, 1/07)

"Make AJAX Work for Your Site and Your Users: A Case Study on Improving Product Selection"
AJAXWorld (Santa Clara, CA, 10/06)

"Next Generation of Web Applications" (panelist)
User Experience Week 2006 (Washington, DC, 8/06)

"Bringing More Science to Persona Creation"
Information Architecture Summit (Vancouver, 3/06)

"Designing for Real User Behavior"
Web Design World (Seattle, 7/06)
Web Design World (San Francisco, 1/06)
Web Design World (Boston, 12/05)

"Finding Things My Way: Faceted Navigation"
Web Design World (Seattle, 7/06)
Web Design World (San Francisco, 1/06)
Web Design World (Boston, 12/05)

"Personas: Making Your Users Real"
Documentation and Training Conference (10/05)
Web Design World (Seattle, 7/05)
Web Design World (San Francisco, 3/05)
Web Design World (Boston, 12/04)
Boston-IA (Waltham, MA, 9/04)

"How Users Surf: What Usability Tests Reveal"
Web Design World (Seattle, 7/05)
Web Design World (San Francisco, 3/05)
Web Design World (Boston, 12/04)
Digital Design World (Seattle, 7/04)
Digital Design World (San Francisco, 2/04)

"The Faceted Interface: PC Connection Case Study"
Discover 2006: Endeca User Conference (Boston, 6/06)
Usability Professionals Association, Boston Chapter (Boston, 5/05)
Information Architecture Summit (Montreal, 3/05)

"Improving Website Usability with Personas"
Internet Professionals 495 (Hopkinton, MA, 11/04)

"Creating Effective Web Navigation"
Digital Design World (San Francisco, 2/04)
Web Design World (Seattle, 7/03)
Web Design World (Boston, 11/02)
Web Design World (Seattle, 7/02)

"Designing Search Interfaces"
Web Design World (Seattle, 7/03)
Web Design World (Boston, 11/02)

"SVG: Vector Graphics Powered by XML"
Web2001 Conference & Exposition (San Francisco, 9/01)

"A Day in the Life of an Information Architect"
Web Design World (Seattle, 8/01)

"Getting Ready for SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics)"
Web Design World (Seattle, 8/01)
Web Design World (Atlanta, 2/01)
Web Design World (Denver, 9/00)
Web Design World (Seattle, 7/00)
Web Design 2000 (Atlanta, 2/00)

"Monkey Saw, Monkey Did: Common Practices, Best Practices and the Quest for Innovation" (panel)
Seybold Seminars (Boston, 4/01)

"Faster Web Pages: Trimming the Fat"
Web Design World (Atlanta, 2/01)
Web Design World (Denver, 9/00)
Web Design World (Seattle, 7/00)

"Intro to Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG)"
Web2000 Conference & Exposition (San Francisco, 11/00)
webDC Conference & Exposition (Washington, DC, 8/00)
webLA Conference & Exposition (Los Angeles, 5/00)
webBoston Conference & Exposition (Boston, 12/99)

"Mastering CSS (Cascading Style Sheets)"
Web Design 2000 (Atlanta, 2/00)
Web Design 99 (Denver, 9/99)

The User Is Always Right:
A Practical Guide to Creating and Using Personas for the Web

by Steve Mulder with Ziv Yaar

"Drop everything you're doing and read this book right away. It will change the way you create every product and service, with incredible results." - Jared Spool

Learn more about the book
Buy it from Amazon
Visit the blog: PracticalPersonas.com

Single-screen product selector
A project with Molecular colleagues to make product selection easier and more fun. Now with Ajaxy goodness!

My family tree
From what strange roots does this guy spring? Enter to discover lots of Dutch and German farmers and possibly one warlock.

Somerville Transportation Equity Partnership
As part of a community group fighting for better public transit in our city, I own the web site. Latest headlines:

Prospect Hill, Somerville, MA
We live halfway up the hill where the first American flag ever flew. Check it out.

History of a House
Discovering the people who have lived in our house on Stone Avenue in Somerville, Massachusetts.

Illuminated manuscript gallery
Explore the wonders of old media.

My Master's thesis
Rescued from a 5 1/4 floppy, "The Reader's Story: The Original East of Eden as a Postmodern 'Fictory'" begs to be read.

Steve Mulder
steve@muldermedia.com