The Jury

Make their job difficult. Our jury is ready, share your story with us.

Marc Rettig

Jury Chair
Founder and Principal at Fit Associates
Pittsburgh, USA

After a first career as a software developer, Marc found that the field of design allowed him to combine his passions for ethnographic methods, language, systems thinking, and people. In 2005 he co-founded Fit Associates, which uses research, facilitation, cultural immersion, and coaching to connect clients’ design and strategic decisions to life outside the cubicles, and to their own core purpose. Marc’s client list includes Philips Home Healthcare, Whirlpool, Comcast, Microsoft, and BBC. He has taught both lecture and studio courses at Carnegie Mellon’s Graduate School of Design and the IIT Institute of Design. Marc frequently speaks and conducts hands-on workshops in industry and academic settings around the world, and he is a faculty member of the groundbreaking Masters in Design for Social Innovation program at the School of Visual Arts in New York.

Steve Baty

IxDA president & Principal at Meld Studios
Sydney, Australia

Steve Baty, principal at Meld Studios, has over 15 years experience as a design and strategy practitioner. Steve actively contributes to public discourse on these topics through the design community, articles and conferences. Steve serves as President of the Interaction Design Association (IxDA) and sits on the Good Design Council of Australia. He is the founder of UX Book Club; co- Chair of Australia's UX Australia, Service Design, and Agile UX conferences; and served as Chair of Interaction'12 – the annual conference of the IxDA for 2012.

Kate Hartman

Interim Director at OCAD
Toronto, Canada

Kate Hartman is an artist, technologist, and educator whose work spans the fields of physical computing, wearable electronics, and conceptual art. She is the co-creator of Botanicalls, a system that lets thirsty plants place phone calls for human help, and the Lilypad XBee, a sewable radio transceiver that allows your clothing to communicate. Her work has been exhibited internationally and featured by the New York Times, BBC, CBC, NPR, in books such as “Fashionable Technology” and “Art Science Now”. She was a speaker at TED 2011 and her work is included in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Hartman is based in Toronto at OCAD University.

Liz Danzico

Chair, Interaction at School of Visual Arts
New York City, USA

Liz Danzico is chair of the MFA in Interaction Design program. With more than fourteen years of experience as a user experience professional, Liz makes information useful, usable, and delightful. She has organized information across a variety of industries, including retail, publishing, media and entertainment, and financial services.She is also an independent consultant, working with businesses to explore the relationship audiences have with their products and services through design research, information architecture, and by leading teams of experience design groups. Recent projects have included work for This American Life, The TED Prize, and Teach for All.

Matías Duarte

Director of User Experience, Android at Google
Mountain View, USA

Matías Duarte leads the Android User Experience team. He’s responsible for all aspects of the software and visual experience across the Android platform and core applications services, and the design of Nexus tablets and phones. Prior to Google, Matías spearheaded the design of several lauded consumer devices and computing platforms. As VP of Human Interface at Palm, he led the design of the WebOS operating system. As VP of User Experience at Helio, he created the Ocean series of 2 way sliders, and as Director of Design at Danger he led the design of the T-Mobile Sidekick. Matías received his bachelor's degree in Computer Science from the University of Maryland in College Park. His ongoing mission is to make computers delightful.

Dan Hill

CEO at Fabrica
Treviso, Italy

Dan Hill is a designer and urbanist. Throughout a career focused on integrating design, technology, cities and people, Dan has been responsible for shaping many innovative, popular and critically acclaimed products, services, spaces and strategies. He is CEO of Fabrica, the Benetton group communications research center. Prior to Fabrica, Dan was Strategic Design Lead at Sitra - the Finnish Innovation Fund, an Associate at Arup, Web & Broadcast Director for Monocle, and Head of Interactive Technology & Design for the BBC. He writes the well-known blog cityofsound.com, as well as being Interaction Design Editor for Domus.

Ben Pieratt

Freelance Product Designer at Pieratt
Ipswich, USA

Ben Pieratt is a freelance identity and product designer. Ben has designed and launched a number of his own digital products, most recently acting as the CEO and designer of Svpply.com, one of the first successful visual shopping experiences built for the web. After selling Svpply to eBay, Ben now focuses on helping young startups find their identity through their branding and early launch strategies. His work has been shown in such publications as WIRED, Hacker Monthly, GQ Italia, and American Trademarks. In all of his work, Ben is most known for his unique sense of style, humor and editorial voice.