Lynn Stott, Ph.D. - principal consultant

Lynn Stott is an Information Architect & User Experience strategist with 12 years' cumulative experience in: investigative research, instructional design, strategy development, information architecture, user experience design, user assessments, usability analysis, and project conceptualization.

Experienced in corporate, non-profit, and academic environments, Lynn has led teams planning and developing information-rich web sites, B2B portal functionality, online instructional modules, marketing and promotional campaigns, and corporate site redesigns.

From 2003 to 2006, Lynn served as director, then senior director for TechSoup.org. Earlier, she led the formation of internal IA/UX practices at Pacific Gas and Electric Company and World Savings Bank. In all her web work, Lynn has focused on clarity of information and ease of use; she has made a pro-active effort to design user experiences that are accessible to all users regardless of physical capacity.

In her current work, Lynn draws on insights gained from an eclectic work experience (financial services, energy, performing arts, product liability litigation, museum display design, commercial real estate and non-profit administration). Those insights inform her cross-disciplinary approach and success with clients in a variety of industries.

Since Lynn's approach to analysis and problem-solving was developed, not in a single industry, but from nearly 2 decades of learning new ways to see and interpret information and processes, her work is marked by fresh vision and by fully customized solutions. She is able to focus on the business of the client at hand and draw on tools collected in a number of different contexts to craft tailor-made solutions.

The richness of Lynn's experience means she is able to speak a number of different "languages" - the language of business, strategy, and finance, as well as the languages of web project design and development, and user experience strategy (information architecture, interface design, usability testing, site analytics, design strategy). Lynn's array of entrepreneurial and cross-disciplinary experience is enlivened by a sense of curiosity and adventure. She is ever eager to apply her skills and tool kit to new challenges - solving new problems.

Her rare combination of technical understanding, business acumen, marketing insights, strong communication skills, team management experience, and a strong commitment to crafting customer experiences to harmonize with business goals make her an essential strategic advisor.

T. Lynn Stott earned a Ph.D. with honors in Anthropology & Religion (symbols, culture, & semantics with work in rhetoric & literary analysis) from Vanderbilt University. She has master's degrees from Harvard University and Vanderbilt University and a B.A. in French language and literature from Wake Forest University. She taught graduate and undergraduate courses at Vanderbilt University, Santa Clara University, and St. Mary's College of California. In 1999, Lynn left undergraduate teaching to pursue work in web communications, user experience strategy, and usability. In preparation for that work, she completed coursework for certificates in Web Authoring and Multimedia Design from California State University at Hayward. Lynn has lived in several regions of the U.S., in France, and in Togo. She remains semi-fluent in French. Lynn Stott is a founding member of the IA Institute, and a member of BayCHI, the San Francisco Bay Area chapter of the ACM special interest group on Computer-Human Interaction.