“It turns out that my interest and passion is in the piece of the pie where we are looking at users and understanding what they do and what they need.” – Josie Scott, History of IA Panel, World IA Day Ann Arbor, 2012.
We lost one of our community’s founders on Christmas Day when Josie Scott passed away after a long battle with cancer.
If you look at Josie’s LinkedIn page, you will see her career as a usability practitioner and user research leader at some of the most prominent companies in Michigan. She was at Borders in 2000, Compuware in 2005, TechSmith in 2010, and GE Capital/Synchrony Financial at the end of her career.
But she was also active in our professional community (locally and nationally). She was a super hero on the Usability in Civic Life project. She wrote articles for UXPA Magazine and reported on UXPA conferences.
Sarah Swierenga remembers Josie as a passionate advocate, a fierce fighter for justice, a good friend, and trusted colleague. Sarah met her around 2005 when they worked on the U(X)PA Usability and Voting project together. They took a memorable road trip to Erie, PA, to give usability/accessibility training to state election poll workers. While it was Sarah’s first voting project, Josie was a pro, of course! She truly is missed.
Locally, she shared her mobile usability testing adventures in 2013. She talked about innovation at Michigan World Usability Day in 2015. She advocated for plain language and taught usability basics. She did countless other presentations and workshops for her Michigan UX colleagues.
She got very personal during her heuristic evaluation of being a cancer patient.
During the World Information Architecture Day panel in 2012, Josie reflected on our local community (starting at the 34 minute mark). “People were very, very, generous with what they knew and what they shared and I personally learned so much from everyone.”
She casually adds “I may have made a small contribution or two in my time.” Yes, Josie, you made much more than a small contribution to the UX community in Michigan! You are one of our “Founding Mothers.”
Josie’s family invites you to visit her memorial page, read stories about Josie, and contribute your own.
Michigan UXPA 