Marty Gage

VP User Experience Research, Lextant

Marty has been innovating and evolving upfront user research for over three decades. He has been the VP of User Experience Research at Lextant, the human experience firm, for the last 15 years. His work has impacted industries from Consumer Products, Automotive, Financial Services and Healthcare. His uniquely targeted approaches to research eliminate guesswork so that clients can establish category leadership, uncover big ideas, revitalize brands, and drive use and adoption. These research methods ensure findings are actionable for all functions in an organization AND drive alignment. Marty has helped clients such as P&G, ConAgra, Kohler, Microsoft, Ford, GM, Stellantis, HP, and many more win in the marketplace. His passion for user research has extended into teaching, writing, and speaking throughout his career.

SCAD + Lextant: Partnering to Create a Certification in Upfront Design & User Experience Research

Co-Presenter: Keynote

Track 2

Wed - Sept 22

7:00 pm EDT

In this presentation, Dean Victor Ermoli and Professor Kwela Hermanns of Savannah College of Art & Design (SCAD) along with Marty Gage and Spencer Murrell from Lextant will share how they collaborated to develop a certification in front-end design and user-experience research. In sharing this story with you, they hope to encourage more collaboration between design educators and design practitioners.

Their goal in the collaboration with Lextant was to ensure that students’ designs are grounded in what people desire; so that as designers, students can create meaningful experiences that have the potential to be successful in the marketplace. Through the certification, students are learning how to systematically approach the first step in the design thinking process: develop empathy. The Lextant approach to this first step centers on defining what people value, in a way that is actionable for design. The certification is supported by a practical guide to front-end design/user experience research, and includes a series of examples and videos devised for specific moments in the curriculum.