Noreen Whysel is a Brooklyn based researcher, information architect and teacher. She is COO of Decision Fish LLC and an Adjunct Lecturer at CUNY New York City College of Technology’s BFA program. She has facilitated workshops on mentoring, accessibility, search behavior and technology standards. Her recent research includes studies of the effect of climate change on healthcare access by vulnerable populations, accessible science gateways and digital privacy and safety.
She also is a research consultant at Internet Safety Labs (ISL), where she is working on digital safety research and design specifications. She serves on several standards working groups focusing on usability and accessibility at ISL, W3C, UXPA and Kantara Institute. Noreen is also a co-founder of the Information Architecture Gateway, providing IA and SEO services to the science gateways community.
Full Biography
Noreen is a New York City-based information architect, user research consultant and startup advisor. She has worked with startups, government, education, finance, real estate, healthcare and local community organizations. Her company, Decision Fish, where she serves as Co-Founder and COO, earned a Best for NYC 2017 Changemaker award from B Lab and the NYC Mayor’s Office of Workforce Empowerment. Decision Fish was a semi-finalist in MetLife Foundation’s Inclusion Plus 2018 and Virtual Capital’s Fintech program in 2016. She was a 2018 Startup Leadership Program Fellow and mentors at SLP, Technology Transfer Days, Impact Hub NYC and the Columbia Venture Community.
She served as the Director of Validation Research at Internet Safety Labs (formerly Me2B Alliance), from 2020-2022 where she developed research and guidelines for testing and measuring the behavior of connected technology, and advocates for respectful technology behavior. Noreen has recently presented a statement on “Harmful UI Patterns” at California’s CPPA Stakeholder Meetings. She continues to collaborate with ISL as a consulting researcher.
Noreen is developing mobile identity specifications with Kantara Initiative Resilient Identifiers for Underserved Populations (RIUP) WG , which focuses on a health data use case for underserved populations. She developed UX guidelines and metrics for an earlier incarnation of the working group at Identity Ecosystem Steering Group, a body formed to address the 2011 National Strategy for Trusted Identity in Cyberspace.
Formerly, she managed non-profit operations for the Information Architecture Institute and the OWASP Foundation, and worked in global website and research practices at Price Waterhouse Coopers. In addition, she worked as a research associate for Price Waterhouse real estate advisory services.
Board and Working Group Service
Noreen is especially interested in accessible design, trusted identity, linked data, geospatial systems, and digital archives. She is a long-standing coordinating member of GISMO, a NYC-based chapter of the New York State Geographic Information Systems Association, and currently serves on its Board of Directors. In addition, she co-chairs the American Theatre Archive Project in New York and has served on the board of Virtuous Reality Interactive, Inc. (VRI), a not-for-profit digital design organization.
While serving on the board of VRI in the late 1990s, Noreen led Internet workshops for middle school students on the Pine Ridge Reservation and in Rapid City, South Dakota. This experience was valuable in her pursuit of online community development and engagement projects for the underserved. (NY Times article on VRI: “Pro Bono Work Opens New Media to Neophytes.”)
Education
An Adjunct Lecturer at CUNY’s New York City College of Technology in Brooklyn, Noreen teaches User Experience & User Interface Design, Web Design I and II, and Website Traffic and Analytics. She also taught UX intensives at General Assembly and the New York Code and Design Academy for corporate clients and individuals and facilities workshops for tech transfer and startup communities.
She has a BA in Psychology from Columbia University. Her MS-LIS is from Pratt Institute’s School of Information, with concentrations in Digital Humanities and User Experience.
Noreen Whysel on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedIn.com./in/nwhysel
Noreen Whysel’s Blog: https://www.whysel.com/blog