Design ethnographer
USA
In brief:
– Founder, owner and CEO of Gotomedia
– President of the AIGA Center for Brand Experience
– Clients include Adobe, Apple, Macromedia and Warner Bros.
IN THE BORDERLANDS BETWEEN USER,
TECHNOLOGY AND DESIGN
Interactivity is no longer restricted to the web. The methods we use to reach one another, whether in private or business relationships, are increasing in line with the growth in mobile telephony, mp3 players, palmtops and other new communication gizmos. And since we can now communicate with customers via products we carry with us around the clock, communication itself must be developed and adapted to suit the way modern people live their lives.
Kelly Goto, founder and CEO of Gotomedia, has dedicated her professional life to research and design in this field. Indeed, her company has become a global market leader in research driven development of lifestyle design. The company’s methodology combines research in strategy, brand building and usability as a first step in creating an appealing complete experience for the customer or viewer/audience. On paper, the actual working process appears simple: Design – Observe – Ask –
Repeat. Although most of Gotomedia’s solutions are web applications, they are also used in mobile telephony and in many other interactive media.
Kelly Goto is both a designer and ethnographer in one and the same person. As such, she has specialised in understanding how people take in information on products and services in their everyday lives. She quickly gained an enviable reputation in her field; her list of satisfied clients includes such names as Seiko Epson Japan, Wherify, NetIQ, Adobe, Apple, Warner Bros., Macromedia and Symantec.
Kelly Goto’s observations and research findings have been compiled into a book, Web Redesign 2.0: Workflow That Works, that has become something of a global standard work on user-focused design principles. Goto is also the force behind gotomobile.com – a web site that relates and presents users’ own experiences of the mobile world. Goto is also President of the AIGA Center for Brand Experience, a national organisation, spearheaded by some of the most innovative creative directors, market analysts and brand strategists in the USA. The organisation is tasked with facilitating cooperation between business strategy and design strategy in order to create stronger and more successful brands.
