James Dishman
Summary
UX researcher and designer finishing an MS in User Experience at Kent State University. Background spans accessibility auditing, discovery research, and AI product design. Electronic music production and a decade as Pittsburgh's Ableton User Group organizer inform a practice focused on expert users, cognitively demanding systems, and tools that genuinely extend human capability.
Skills
Research Methods
Contextual inquiry · Semi-structured interviews · Moderated usability testing · Unmoderated usability testing · Cognitive walkthrough · Journey mapping · Affinity mapping · JTBD analysis · Card sorting · Paper prototyping · Survey design · Heuristic evaluation
Accessibility
WCAG 2.1 AA/AAA · COGA cognitive accessibility · VoiceOver testing · Contrast analysis (WebAIM) · Readability analysis (Flesch-Kincaid) · PDF remediation · Universal design
Design & Tools
Figma · Photoshop · Miro · Obsidian · Adobe Acrobat · Google Forms · Loop11 · Lyssna
Technical
HTML/CSS · Next.js · TypeScript · React Native / Expo · Python · Rust · p5.js · SQLite · RAG / vector search · GitHub Actions CI/CD · API integration · AI prompt design · Multi-agent system design
Experience
Smart Meter Technician
Wellington Energy (First Energy subcontractor)
- Conduct residential electrical service assessments at high volume across assigned territory, evaluating safety conditions before equipment exchange
- Communicate directly with residents to explain service interruptions and manage expectations during live infrastructure work
- Perform meter exchanges (analog to smart meter), documenting each site and escalating non-standard conditions for triage and resolution
- Work independently across a distributed daily territory with no direct supervision, maintaining consistent safety and service standards
Graduate Assistant
Kent State University
- Developed instructional materials for graduate-level UX courses, improving course structure and student outcomes
- Assisted in authoring a graduate-level UX textbook through systematic analysis of academic publications and content development
- Conducted full site-map analysis and copy review across MS UX program web materials
- Performed qualitative research data verification for faculty research projects
User Group Organizer
Pittsburgh Ableton User Group · Ableton AG
- Founded and led monthly community meetings for Ableton users across the Pittsburgh region, growing an active practitioner network
- Served as direct liaison between user community and Ableton's international corporate team, channeling field feedback into product development cycles
- Collaborated with university faculty and educators to expand music technology education access and inclusivity
Self-employed Title Abstractor
Various Clients and Brokers
- Conducted certified title analysis across multiple states and counties; managed complex multi-party research workflows
- Led teams to resolve title defects through research, analysis, and curative process management
- Partnered with attorneys on title opinions, delivering resolution on complex legal and property issues
Education
Selected Projects
Multi-method WCAG 2.1 audit across social media, web contrast, assistive technology (VoiceOver), and PDF remediation. Music technology domain: Ableton Learning Music heuristic evaluation, Audiothingies contrast failures, Fors.fm navigation audit.
Full-cycle discovery research on food insecurity in the Mahoning Valley. Screener design, qualitative interview protocol, semi-structured participant interviews, affinity diagram synthesis, JTBD analysis.
AI-powered plain-language translation layer for healthcare portals. Team project for AI in UX/HCI. Designed around trust as the primary constraint: always-available human escalation, reading level indicator, multimodal text + audio delivery.
Sixteen-agent autonomous system with persistent memory, conversation distillation, and trust calibration. Designed and built as a working research platform for human-AI collaboration patterns.
Designed and built the web presence for Pittsburgh Ableton User Group. Next.js static site with community-first information architecture, deployed on GitHub Pages with custom domain and automated CI/CD.
MS UX Capstone. iPad FM synthesizer using the device's physical sensors (accelerometer, gyroscope, TrueDepth camera) as real-time FM modulation sources. Built with AudioKit 5 and SwiftUI.