Cia Romano, Chief Executive Officer and Founder of Interface Guru®, is a respected evangelist for end users of digital media such as the Web, intranets, software, and kiosks. A hands-on user interface researcher, Cia developed the widely disseminated Usable Times 5™ criteria for ranking computer screen effectiveness - a major factor in profitability for companies and organizations conducting business online. The metric, based on her usability lab studies, focuses on user response to five consistently observed factors: Orientation, Permission, Interactivity, Relevance, and Speed. "Every one of our user tests validates Usable Times 5," says Cia. "The criteria are relevant across differences in age, gender, education, and technical expertise."

Cia and her team have also developed guidelines for user interface on kiosks in public spaces. These Digital Interactive Guidelines were accepted for presentation at the 2007 Visitor Studies Association conference in Ottawa, Canada. This work led to a recent "visualizing 2040" engagement for the National Museum of the United States Air Force.

Interface Guru, Cia's consulting group, provides usability and information design services to a national clientele, emphasizing profitability and brand experience in environments ranging from enterprise-level Web sites to software, intranets, and interactive museum kiosks. The company's work includes projects for clients ranging from a major credit card corporation to a publisher of globally recognized media brands. Other projects include TV Guide Online, Crain Communications, Shedd Aquarium, IEEE, The Sharper Image, The Higher Learning Commission, Penton Media, The Chicago History Museum, Kiplinger Washington Editors, Magazine Publishers of America, American Society of Magazine Editors, Clickability Inc., Trex Company, The University of Arizona, and Go Daddy Software. Interface Guru has provided pro bono services to projects such as the Mars Phoenix 2007 Mission, Flandrau Planetarium, and the National Optical Astronomy Observatory, and is currently guiding online collaboration for several projects funded by the National Science Foundation.

Cia's highly-rated conference sessions have been featured at Smithsonian's Mutual Concerns of Air and Space Museums (Washington DC), Seybold Seminars (San Francisco), Internet World (New York, Chicago, Los Angeles), the Folio: Shows (New York, Chicago), the Visitor Studies Association (Ottawa), and COMDEX (Las Vegas). She has also trained hundreds of people in the fundamentals of usability.

Cia's lifelong interest in visual arts, anthropology, and technology led her to a 15-year career in traditional media; she began to develop full-scale Web sites supporting e-commerce in 1994 with Arizona Highways Online and the Arizona Department of Transportation super-site. She founded Interface Guru in December 1999. Cia is a member of the Association for Computing Machinery, the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and the Usability Professionals' Association (co-chair, 2004 conference).

A native of Havana, Cuba, Cia is based in Tucson, Arizona US.

Download her bio (PDF)