Rex Hartson

Rex Hartson, Ph.D., is an internationally recognized consultant, author, teacher, and speaker on Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and User eXperience (UX). Hartson is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Computer Science, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA, where he was the founding faculty member in HCI in 1979. For 30 years, as a pioneer in HCI as a field and in usability engineering as a discipline and practice, he helped develop many of the techniques that are now considered an integral part of good practice.

Rex holds a B.S. and M.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Michigan and an M.S. and Ph.D. in Computer & Information Science from the Ohio State University. His research, writing, and teaching have always been grounded in extensive interaction with UX practitioners and practical experience in consulting and training for business, industry, and government.

Currently, Hartson is co-author of new book on interaction design to ensure a high quality user experience (Rex Hartson and Pardha Pyla, The UX Book: Ensuring a High Quality User Experience, Morgan Kaufmann, 2012), winner of the Text and Academic Authors Association 2013 Most Promising New Textbook Award.