Jaime Levy
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Jaime Levy is an American author, new media artist,
interface designer User interface (UI) design or user interface engineering is the design of user interfaces for machines and software, such as computers, home appliances, mobile devices, and other electronic devices, with the focus on maximizing usability and the ...
, and
user experience User experience (UX) is how a user interacts with and experiences a product, system or service. It includes a person's perceptions of utility, ease of use, and efficiency. Improving user experience is important to most companies, designers, a ...
strategist. She first became known for her new media projects in the 1990s. Her best-known projects include the floppy disk distributed with
Billy Idol William Michael Albert Broad (born 30 November 1955), known professionally as Billy Idol, is an English singer, songwriter, musician, and actor. Idol achieved fame in the 1970s on the London punk rock scene as the lead singer of Generation X ...
’s album ''Cyberpunk'', ''WORD'', an
online magazine An online magazine is a magazine published on the Internet, through bulletin board systems and other forms of public computer networks. One of the first magazines to convert from a print magazine format to an online only magazine was the comput ...
, and an online cartoon series, ''CyberSlacker''.Can You Be a Millionaire?. (2000, December). ''Dateline NBC'' elevision broadcast New York, NY: NBC Universal Television. She is the author of the business book ''UX Strategy'', which was first published by
O’Reilly Media O'Reilly Media, Inc. (formerly O'Reilly & Associates) is an American learning company established by Tim O'Reilly that provides technical and professional skills development courses via an online learning platform. O'Reilly also publishes bo ...
in 2015. It is widely regarded as the definitive work on the practice of user experience strategy and has been translated into nine languages.


Background

Levy was born on March 8, 1966, in
Hollywood, California Hollywood, sometimes informally called Tinseltown, is a List of districts and neighborhoods in Los Angeles, neighborhood and district in the Central Los Angeles, central region of Los Angeles County, California, within the city of Los Angeles. ...
, and raised in the
San Fernando Valley The San Fernando Valley, known locally as the Valley, is an urbanized valley in Los Angeles County, Los Angeles County, California. Situated to the north of the Los Angeles Basin, it comprises a large portion of Los Angeles, the Municipal corpo ...
. In 1988, she graduated with a B.A. from
San Francisco State University San Francisco State University (San Francisco State, SF State and SFSU) is a Public university, public research university in San Francisco, California, United States. It was established in 1899 as the San Francisco State Normal School and is ...
. In 1990, she earned her Master’s degree from th
Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP)
at
New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...
’s
Tisch School of the Arts The New York University Tisch School of the Arts (commonly referred to as Tisch) is the performing, cinematic, and media arts school of New York University. Founded on August 17, 1965, as the School of the Arts at New York University, Tisch ...
where she later spent seven years as a part-time professor.Huntington, A. (1995, September). These Women Do Not Fear The 21st Century. ''Harper’s Bazaar''. She later taught graduate level courses on UX design and strategy for six years at the
University of Southern California The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in ...
(USC) in the
Viterbi School of Engineering The USC Viterbi School of Engineering (formerly the USC School of Engineering) is the engineering school of the University of Southern California. It was renamed following a $52 million donation by Andrew J. Viterbi, co-founder of Qualcomm. ...
.


Career

Levy's career began in 1990 with the creation of the electronic magazines ''Cyber Rag''Froman, L. (1992, October). Jaime Levy’s Pioneering Electronic Magazines. ''Mondo 2000'', p. 112. and ''Electronic Hollywood''.Ehrman, M. (1993, March). Behind The Zines. ''Los Angeles Times'', p. E1, E6. They were programmed in
HyperCard HyperCard is a application software, software application and software development kit, development kit for Apple Macintosh and Apple IIGS computers. It is among the first successful hypermedia systems predating the World Wide Web. HyperCard com ...
and
Macromedia Director Adobe Director (formerly Macromedia Director, MacroMind Director, and MacroMind VideoWorks) was a multimedia application authoring platform created by Macromedia and managed by Adobe Systems until its discontinuation. Director was the primary edi ...
and distributed on 800k
floppy disk A floppy disk or floppy diskette (casually referred to as a floppy, a diskette, or a disk) is a type of disk storage composed of a thin and flexible disk of a magnetic storage medium in a square or nearly square plastic enclosure lined with a ...
s. She leveraged her publicity from numerous print publications and tv to increase the sales of these disks in book stores and mail-order. In 1993, she worked with
EMI EMI Group Limited (formerly EMI Group plc until 2007; originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records or simply EMI) was a British transnational conglomerate founded in March 1931 in London. At t ...
Records where she designed, animated, and programmed the first commercially released interactive press kit (IPK) for
Billy Idol William Michael Albert Broad (born 30 November 1955), known professionally as Billy Idol, is an English singer, songwriter, musician, and actor. Idol achieved fame in the 1970s on the London punk rock scene as the lead singer of Generation X ...
’s ''Cyberpunk'' CD digipack. The project featured sequenced samples, digitized video, hypertext, and interactive animation all integrated together as a seamless experience. She followed that up with the animated electronic book, ''Ambulance'', that was written by Monica Moran and included music by
Mike Watt Michael David Watt (born December 20, 1957) is an American bassist, vocalist and songwriter. He co-founded and played bass guitar for the rock bands Minutemen (1980–1985), Dos (1985–present), and Firehose (1986–1994). He began a solo ca ...
from the band
Minutemen Minutemen were members of the organized New England colonial militia companies trained in weaponry, tactics, and military strategies during the American Revolutionary War. They were known for being ready at a minute's notice, hence the name. Min ...
and art by
Jaime Hernandez Jaime (sometimes spelled Xaime) Hernandez (born 1959) is the co-creator of the alternative comic book '' Love and Rockets'' with his brothers Gilbert and Mario. Early life Jaime Hernandez grew up in Oxnard, California.Aldama, p. 119. He is the ...
of Love and Rockets. In 1994 while employed by
IBM International Business Machines Corporation (using the trademark IBM), nicknamed Big Blue, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company headquartered in Armonk, New York, and present in over 175 countries. It is ...
as an
interface design User interface (UI) design or user interface engineering is the design of user interfaces for machines and software, such as computers, home appliances, mobile devices, and other electronic devices, with the focus on maximizing usability and the ...
er, she began hosting "CyberSlacker" salons for programmers and animators at her
East Village, Manhattan The East Village is a neighborhood on the East Side (Manhattan), East Side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, New York. It is roughly defined as the area east of the Bowery and Third Avenue, between 14th Street (Manhattan), 14th Street on the ...
loft. By 1995, she took a creative director position at Icon CMT, where she could focus on the creation of the online magazine ''WORD''. It received national recognition for its design and cutting-edge non-linear storytelling. She was recognized as ''
Newsweek ''Newsweek'' is an American weekly news magazine based in New York City. Founded as a weekly print magazine in 1933, it was widely distributed during the 20th century and has had many notable editors-in-chief. It is currently co-owned by Dev P ...
''’s top 50 people to watch in
cyberspace Cyberspace is an interconnected digital environment. It is a type of virtual world popularized with the rise of the Internet. The term entered popular culture from science fiction and the arts but is now used by technology strategists, security ...
and on ''
Good Morning America ''Good Morning America'', often abbreviated as ''GMA'', is an American breakfast television, morning television program that is broadcast on American Broadcasting Company, ABC. It debuted on November 3, 1975, and first expanded to weekends wit ...
'' as one of "The Most Powerful Twentysomethings in America." At the beginning of the dot-com era, Levy became an independent consultant. In 1996, she designed a graphical multi-user environment called Malice PalaceBunn, A. (1997, November 11)
Upstart Start Ups
''Village Voice'', p. 1.
using
The Palace ''The Palace'' is a British drama television series that aired on ITV (TV network), ITV in 2008. Produced by Company Pictures for the ITV network, it was created by Tom Grieves and follows a fictional British Royal Family in the aftermath of t ...
software. Set in a post-apocalyptic San Francisco, users could engage in real-time chat and interact with robots depicted as homeless people. Prints from Malice Palace were exhibited in a 1998 group show titled "Channel 3" at
Team Gallery Team Gallery was a contemporary art gallery located in the SoHo neighborhood of New York City, with an additional project space in Venice, Los Angeles, California. It was founded by José Freire and Lisa Ruyter in 1996. Team represented such a ...
in New York alongside
Tracey Emin Dame Tracey Karima Emin (; born 3 July 1963) is an English artist known for autobiographical and confessional artwork. She produces work in a variety of media including drawing, painting, sculpture, film, photography, Neon lighting, neon text ...
, Erik Brunetti and Pedro Ortuno. In 1997, her
Silicon Alley Silicon Alley is an area of high tech companies centered around southern Manhattan's Flatiron district in New York City. The term was coined in the 1990s during the dot-com boom, alluding to California's Silicon Valley tech center. The term h ...
-based start-up called Electronic Hollywood received an angel investment. For the next 5-years her company focused on web design, interactive advertising, and original content development. The most prestigious production was the ''CyberSlacker'', Flash cartoon series, which won the Flash Animation Award. She appeared in
Doug Block Doug Block (born 1953 in Port Washington, New York) is an American documentary filmmaker. He is best known for his work on the documentaries ''112 Weddings'', 51 Birch Street, Home Page, ''The Kids Grow Up'' and more. Life and career Doug was ...
’s 1999 documentary film ''Home Page'' and her story was chronicled in the book ''Gig''. Following the
dot-com bubble The dot-com bubble (or dot-com boom) was a stock market bubble that ballooned during the late-1990s and peaked on Friday, March 10, 2000. This period of market growth coincided with the widespread adoption of the World Wide Web and the Interne ...
burst, she shuttered Electronic Hollywood and returned to Los Angeles. From 2002 to the present she has resurfaced as a university professor, author, and
user experience design User experience design (UX design, UXD, UED, or XD), upon which is the centralized requirements for "User Experience Design Research" (also known as UX Design Research), defines the experience a user would go through when interacting with a compa ...
strategist. In 2010, she founded her second company Jaime Levy Consulting (formerly JLR Interactive). In 2015, her book ''UX Strategy'' was published and then the second edition in 2021. The book explores the intersection of business strategy and product/
UX design User experience design (UX design, UXD, UED, or XD), upon which is the centralized requirements for "User Experience Design Research" (also known as UX Design Research), defines the experience a user would go through when interacting with a compa ...
with both a theoretical and practical lens.


Bibliography


Books

* 2021. ''UX Strategy (second edition): Product Strategy Techniques for Divising Innovative Digital Products'' * 2015. ''UX Strategy: How to Devise Innovative Digital Products that People Want'' Levy has also published the following white papers and articles:
''The Four Tenets of UX Strategy''
(December 2015). ''UXMatters'' *''Imagining the YouTube Model for Interactive Television.'' (2007). In Lugmayr, A., & Golebiowski (Eds.) Interactive TV: A Shared Experience TICSP Adjunct Proceedings of EuroITV 2007. (p. 270-274). Amsterdam, Netherlands: Tampere International Center for Signal Processing. *''Six Weeks at the Smut Factory: Inside an Adult DVD Authorizing House.'' (2003, October). ''Medialine Magazine'', p. 40-41. *''The Small World of Games on DVD: Video.'' (2004, February). ''Medialine Magazine'', p. 34-35. *''Studio Pro vs. Scenarist: Is DVD Authorizing Destined for the Desktop?'' (2004, May). ''Medialine Magazine'', p. 34-36.Studio Pro vs. Scenarist: Is DVD Authorizing Destined for the Desktop? (2004, May). ''Medialine Magazine'', p. 34-36.


References


External links


Jaime Levy (Consultancy)

User Experience Strategy (book website)

Electronic Hollywood(former Dotcom website)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Levy, Jaime 1966 births Electronic publishing Interface designers Internet pioneers Women Internet pioneers Living people New York University alumni San Francisco State University alumni New York University faculty American women computer scientists American computer scientists 21st-century American women American expatriates in Germany