ABOUT ASHER TOWNSEND

When I was a child, I fell in love with computers. I get my hands on any device I can, as I am able to intuitively understand them and enjoy optimizing them to fit my needs. My passion for human factors evolved as I grew up assisting my father in his home technology design and installation business in which he focused on optimizing his clients’ experience and now extends to many aspects of my life. During my two years as a resident advisor, I was responsible for the floor life of 45 different individuals and how to derive the programming and design the events that would commonly benefit all of them, an ongoing endeavor with human factors in the residential life system. As an independent technology consultant, not only do I troubleshoot hardware and software issues on a wide array of devices, but I provide my customers with solutions to reduce their frustrations and make using their devices more accessible and enjoyable. 
Many people use various technologies but do not understand what it took to make the functionality of what they are doing easy and accessible.  I am fascinated by the concept of what makes something work for most people, and I want to develop ways to improve the ease of use for the general population.  When someone goes out to purchase a computer, a desk, a car, whatever it may be, it should not just satisfy what they want, but most importantly what they need.  The combination of my specific training in human factors, my understanding of the convergence of people, products and processes honed by my IMSE curriculum, and my innate fascination with evaluating the user experience uniquely position me to immediately contribute to the research of innovative, customer-centric technologies.