John Sorflaten has over 25 years of experience in usability engineering, systems engineering, and project management. He has worked on projects across many industries for both government and commercial clients. He has extensive experience leading agile teams and is trained in various project management methodologies. He has a PhD in Instructional Design and Technology and is certified in usability analysis.

1. Sorflaten, John, PhD
Columbia, MD 641-455-1873
Usability/Systems Engineer/Agile Team Lead
johnsorflaten@gmail.com
Summary of Qualifications
More than 25 years ofinnovative business systems requirements and usability engineering in all
phases ofweb and application design: clear problem definition for enterprise and project levels,
winning proposals, cost-sensitive planning and on-time management, requirements analysis that meets
the realneeds of stakeholders to include customers and end users, motivating clients for follow-on
projects, top-level training and mentoring, and efficient, productive meetings.
Well-honed project management skills: situation analysis, goal-identification, team problem-solving in
workshop settings, facilitating stand-up training/presentations with interactive, engaging style. Bridge
gap between customer community and the development team; manage requirements specification,
verifying their fulfillment through traceability. Excellent written and oral communication, clear thinking.
Provide functional/technical guidance with detailed specifications. Trained in Project Management and
Microsoft Project. Candidate for PMP. Team lead & Scrum master experience with JIRA,VersionOne
and Rally.
Rapid adaptation to varied venues: DoD,government, cyber, financial brokerages, insurance, medical
equipment, manufacturing, national chain management, health, military, ecommerce,intranet, customer
service, education, information, point-of-sale kiosk interaction, telecommunications and travel.
Specialize in cross-team collaboration: coders, training, DB modeling/admin, middleware, sys admin,
program management, testing, usability.
Security Clearance
● TS/SCI Cleared with FS Poly
Education
● PhD,Instructional Design and Technology, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA
● MA, Foundations of Education, Maharishi University of Management, Fairfield, IA
● BA, Cinematography, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA
Certifications
● Certified Usability Analyst (CUA) #20
● Certified User Experience Professional (CUXP) #242
Training
● Completed (and subsequently taught) 6 courses offered by Human Factors International:
User Centered Analysis (3 days), Usability Testing (2 days), Web and Application Design (3 days),
Putting Research into Practice (2 days), PracticalGUI Design (3 days), Essentials of Usability (2
days).
● Graduate of leading student-centered training method taught by www.bobpikegroup.com
● Trained in Fundamentals of Project Management, University of Maryland, PMP candidate.
Honors & Awards
● Named “Employee of the Year” at world’s largest user interface design firm, Human Factors
International (HFI).
● Won “Best of the Fed” award for design and branding of National Institutes of Health website

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www.ninds.nih.gov. Wrote and consulted on this proposal for HFI’s biggest dollar project to that
time.
● Since 1998, consistently chosen as lead instructor for course “Putting Research into Practice”.
Received excellent course evaluations in this and 3 other courses offered in HFI’s “Certified
Usability Analyst” program, teaching thousands of professionals over 20 years.
● Won competition for University of Iowa prestigious “Visual Scholar’s Program” fellowship
sponsored by Eastman Kodak. Won “Best Dissertation Topic” award from Phi Beta Kappa.
● Co-applicant on patents for computer-based training, help system and keyboard layout algorithms for
Japanese word processor. Layout algorithm saved 40% on training time and increased typing speed
10%, beating the Japanese touch-typing champion of that period.
● Distinguished graduate of Air Force Officer Training School. Won competition for training in
Cinema degree at USC. Attained rank of Captain and assigned Commander of Audio Visual Unit
within two years of beginning officer career.
● 2015 proposal selected for presentation to the NSA think tank LAS (Laboratory for Analytic Science
at NC State). Content included methods for utilizing “big data” for Command and Control of analytic
services in the intelligence community. Presentation scheduled for May, 2016.
Employment History
Omnyon LLC, Columbia, MD…………………………………………..April 2016 – January 2017
Business Process Analyst,Agile Team Lead– Retained to evaluate, advise and re-engineer contract
acquisition processes for an advanced technology innovations group. Reviewed extant practices and
conducted interviews regarding organizational goals and current processes. Researched solutions and
socialized alternative approaches. Recommended workshops in “innovation” planning using the established
method of alternate futures scenarios. In a second venue, served as team lead/system engineer to support
mission management collaboration applications. Participated in demos to new organizations, internal
brainstorming of new functions; coordinated with usability and development staff. Wrote the user-centered
user manual within Confluence media environment. Documented changes in the completion-based contract
and coordinated with the government client. Monitored, measured and reported Agile work projects in
Confluence and JIRA. Served as Co-SCRUM Master.
Prophasys, Columbia, MD …………………………………………..April 2015 – November 2016
Principal Usability Engineer - Selected to redesign with short time window a major DoD innovation in
web-based data utilization by analysts. Worked with non-local development team in JIRA Agile context.
Toured facilities with stakeholder team to gain awareness of contexts, user types, tasks and environments.
Built on prior design efforts,bringing new insights into how search and discovery should be conducted,
with an eye to extensibility for future functions. Utilized Balsamiq to create low fidelity mockups for
usability testing with end-user team and communication with stakeholders and developers. Published a
design patterns standard to guide others in their design efforts. Worked with graphics designer in creating
high fidelity mockups using the Google Material design language (Angular). Successfully completed for
timely delivery: information architecture (high level navigation) and designs that were tested and reviewed
against stakeholder requirements. Usability design phase completed on time, as planned.

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Vencore (formerly the SI Organization, Inc), Laurel, MD…….……September2014 - April 2015
Usability and Systems Engineer, Sr. Staff – Served as Usability and Systems Engineer performing
multiple functions for a high-priority, user-visible projects. Performed systems engineering and
requirements analysis, usability review, concept of operations visioning, training strategy and execution,
navigation design and testing, detailed usability design and testing, and documentation services.
Researched and designated user groups, scenarios, use cases,design standards and proposed interactions
with supporting applications. Evangelized project as ideally suited for other funded demonstration projects
within the larger organization. Utilized JIRA for Agile support, created “Usability Nexus” information
center within a Confluence environment. Prototyped and conducted card sorting with available tools
including PowerPoint; reverse engineered structure and function of existing application with analytic tools
including Excel pivot tables. Provided 80 recommendations for improvement of the user experience. Also
served as a Field Site Systems Engineer, with responsibilities for tracking, maintaining, and configuring
government information technology systems.
Northrop Grumman Information Services, Annapolis Junction, MD.….August 2013 - March 2014
Sr. Usability Engineer - Sole usability consultant for multi-application, fast-tracked mission management
modernization suite under Congressional purview. Provided user profiles, screen standards,design
artifacts; requirements verification, prioritization, validation through user interviews/use cases; task flow
simplification, screen design, mockups, documentation, training reviews and user testing. Collaborated on
OWF, GWT, EXT-JS, CSS and JQPLOT cross-team software development activities. Supported strong
Agile/SCRUM methodology using Rally. Prototype tools: Axure, Balsamiq, Gliffy, Visio, Powerpoint..
Brought design and coding solutions from prior projects into the current project. Briefed large team of
developers and SE on principles of good design and layout; provided documentation. Utilized prior
contacts,ad hoc teams,project knowledge and institutional objectives to speed solutions for current
projects; created requirements traceability docs/test plans, pushed boundaries of what is possible to build
best solutions. Uncovered hidden agendas, brought out essential requirements through one-on-one and
group interviews; evangelized and coordinated high-level navigation approach with welcomed
enhancements to client’s original proposal. Successes allowed client to divert usability funding and
position to much needed coding positions.
Leidos (formerly Science Applications International) Columbia,MD…. February 2010 - April 2013
Principal Usability Engineer - Lead usability consultant on various classified projects involving
collecting and documenting user characteristics,workflows, scenarios and task requirements. Vetted
requirements with stakeholders and project management. Created and tested interface designs in low and
high fidelity prototypes with Axure, PowerPoint, Visio, iPlotz; familiar with iRise. Broke ground with
proposals for semantic technology to data exploitation by diverse end-users. Project tools include IBM
Rational ClearQuest, Agile/SCRUM, JIRA,VersionOne, MS Office Suite, DoDAF architecture products,
CONOPS,test plans and requirements/design documentation with traceability to origin
Three major projects over three years plus completed institutional screen design standards for large
government client. Gained familiarity with cyber workflows, challenges, and technical solutions with
attention to detail. Also, supported successfulupgrade of the user interface to a major knowledge base
used by 6,000 government analysts. Selected to provide Sr. advisement and consulting on
congressionally funded OWF-based cyberdata modernization project that used 4 other usability

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engineers: developed user experience from concept to completion, analyzed, verified and traced
requirements; insured requirements comprehensibility, consistency and feasibility, including NOTA3rd
party test preparations. Gained technical understanding of semantic technology solutions.
Worked with developers, managers,systems engineers and stakeholders. Planned, conducted and
analyzed surveys. Integrated systems taking into account both COTS and custom software tradeoffs,
coordinated multiple stakeholders/business needs. Commended for collaborative skills and solution
oriented designs that met constraints of time, cost and development resources. Taught 8 usability brown
bag seminars for SAIC developers and systems engineers. Located vendor and researched/wrote outline
for SAIC internal course “Visionaries Introduction to Semantic Technology”.
User Experience Works(my consultancy) Fairfield,IA...December 2008 – January 2010
Principal Usability Consultant - Provided range of usability services to High Point Insurance (web site
usability testing); HFI London (planning and conducting focus groups for Nokia); Ringtail Design
(usability job aids for defense contractor); Peach Pit Press (technicalbook editing); various (web site
reviews).
Human Factors International, Inc., Fairfield,IA……………..…….April 1988 – Nov 2008
Usability Specialist 1988-1997; Project Director 1998- 2008 - Insured usability of web and
applications designs. Touched on all aspects of the design and testing life-cycle (given above).
Supervised one or more specialists including successfulmentoring of off-shore HFI employees.
Championed “institutionalization” of usability; mapped HFI’s ISO 9000-approved methodology to
Rational Unified Process (RUP) methodology and CMMI and SDLC. Used waterfalland spiral
methodologies prior to industry adoption of Agile.
Promoted effective usability skills user interface design and prototyping (web and applications), usability
testing (remote and lab), information architecture, user experience design, user interaction design,
instructional design, computer-based training, process improvement, change management, and
management of off-shore support personnel.
Engagements often represented $5 million -$15 million total software development investment by the
client and affected 500-15,000 end users or more. E.g., enterprise design and standards projects for the
financial sector (among other sectors) include Pershing (Workstation), Reuters (Income 3000 traders
station and DAC permissioning system), Electronic Joint Ventures (EJV) (UniView bond analysis tool).
Experienced in a wide range of research protocols, statistical methods. Prototyping tools include Axure,
iRise, Balsamiq, iPlotz, Visio, PowerPoint, Visual Basic.
Innovated accessible design standards and testing, plus content management authoring for the Institute
for Neurological Disorders and Stroke public web site (see www.ninds.nih.gov). Conducted full cycle of
usability methodology. See PowerPoint presentations at my LinkedIn profile:
https://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=3664087&trk=nav_responsive_tab_profile
Usability projects include credit application forms for Volkswagen, bill re-design for Sprint, seminar
scripting for Social Security Administration, consumer product instructions for Avery-Dennison (over 20
sets of printing instructions). Wrote design standards for enterprise B2B and B2C clients such as
Platinum, Allen Bradley (now owned by Rockwell Collins), J&H/KVI (employee benefits services),

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McKesson-HBOC,Prodigy, World Span and others.
Chosen to create the first paper and web-based generic Web standards offered by HFI as a stand-alone
product. Selected to produce video product of HFI founder Eric Schaffer instructing on GUI design.
Initiated program of PR via web for HFI by writing trade articles. (See Publications list.)
Lead instructor 1988-2008 - Successfully taught all HFI seminars over 20 years in the U.S.,U.K.,
Netherlands, Germany, France,Spain, Norway, Mexico, Philippines and India. Addressed cultural
differences for instruction.
Seminars included User Centered Analysis (3 days), Usability Testing (2 days), Web and Application
Design (3 days), Putting Research into Practice (2 days), PracticalGUI Design (2 or 3 days). Often
incorporated client design challenges into the course offering. Encouraged workshop atmosphere to
excellent effect.
Selected to produce and host important video courses for in-house HFI training as well as for the HFI
flagship training product “Essentials of Usability”.
Innovated engaging topics on usability methods such as “winning at usability politics”, “active listening”,
“online testing” and “faceted navigation in support of decision-making”.
Among top 20% of instructors at HFI. Received evaluations of “best instructor” and “very engaging
interaction”. Unedited evaluation reports available upon request.
Organized panel session on popular and well-received “Winning at the Politics of Usability” for the 2008
Usability Professionals Association meeting. For this slide set and other presentation materials see
http://www.slideshare.net/johnsorflaten/NewBestPractice/ .
Summary of specific technical skills/tools/products
● Lifecycle tools: competitive analysis, use cases,personas/profiles, task analysis, requirements
management, scenarios, usability testing and reporting
● Collaboration with developers and graphics designers, writers, software architects
● Rich Internet Application (RIA) environment and future technologies, HTML, CSS, JavaScript,
Section 508 and accessibility, internationalization (I18N), OWF application environment
● Agile, SCRUM and traditional waterfall methodologies; VersionOne, Rally, JIRA,Confluence
● Wireframe prototyping tools such as Visio, Axure, Balsamiq, iRise, Gliffy, etc.
● PMP training, qualified in Microsoft Project
OTHER RELATED EXPERIENCE
OPTIMUM PERFORMANCE TRAINING,Fairfield, IA (my consultancy)
Instructional Designer, User-interface Designer,Writer
● Created easy-to-use documentation manuals and demos for Atrium Group. Received excellent
reviews in PC Magazine for documentation of application subsequently acquired by Computer
Associates.
● Innovated “information mapping” for DB2 best practices standard for Ford Motor, Inc.

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● Re-designed nationally promoted 3-day seminar on computer-based training design.
● Successfully brought user-centered design to severalsmall businesses including:
www.artselect.com,a kiosk placed in grocery stores http://www.nutritionanalysis.com, another art
site www.gallerydirect.com and severalother start-up web projects. Consulted on enterprise spa
reservation system for www.theraj.com . Provided critical usability services for web entrepreneur
The JACI Group.
GLOBAL INTEGRATIONTECHNOLGIES, Fairfield, IA
Training and R&D Specialist
● Invented ergonomic optimization for Japanese word processor that resulted in a 40% decrease in
training time and a 10% increase in typing speed. Patents applied for.
● Invented software designs to automate touch-typing task analysis and instructional sequencing. Co-
wrote computer-based-training specs and manual.
SAN JOSE STATE UNIVERSITY,San Jose, CA
Taught TV Production and Broadcasting
MAHARISHI UNIVERSITYOF MANAGEMENT, Fairfield, IA
Taught TV Production and Usable Web and Application Design
U.S. AIR FORCE,Orlando and Tampa, FL; Vietnam
Motion Picture Production Officer, Captain, Unit Commander (top secret clearance) at U.S. Strike
Command (now CentralCommand).
PUBLICATIONS and PROJECT LIST
(Available upon request.)