Heather Ford has a Master’s of Fine Arts terminal degree from Bradley University and a BFA from the Illinois Institute of Art both in Graphic and Interactive Design. She teaches and coordinates the User Experience Program for the Department of Interactive Media within the Slane College of Communications and Fine Arts at Bradley University. Heather is a industry professional with over twenty years of of fine art, digital creative, and UX experience in both the commercial and academic sectors. Heather is highly experienced in applying methodologies of user experience design and research to website, mobile, branding, animation, and product design. She been a designer for several Fortune 500 clients working with companies and organizations such as Disney, Maui Jim, United Way, NASA, Museum of Science and Industry, Nike, and Home Depot, utilizing a User-Centered Design (UCD) approach. Heather also had the honor of being a speaker for Nielsen Norman Group and the National US UX Research Summit. Currently, Heather is working as the Primary Investigator and User Experience Design Lead on the U.S. Air Force Grant Project Virtual Augmented Reality Readiness project. It is a multi-year, large grant in collaboration with the University of Dayton Research Institute and Air Force.
Heather likes creating innovative and exciting user-centered design experiences, methods, and strategies that involve user interface, user experience, and fine art. These innovative and exciting UCD skills, processes, and strategies that include the user’s participation in a fine art and digital environment. Heather combines human-centered experiences incorporating drawings and illustrations, user interface and experience design, typography, printmaking, animation, and graphic design skills and techniques. When designing, Heather’s goal is to consider the user’s perception, context, environment, and physical space while they are experiencing a new design methodology.
