About

The Story of Mike:

My name is Mike Altman and I was up until recently, a full time undergraduate student studying at Northeastern University in Boston, MA. I have just acquired a Bachelors in Science in Information Science and Cognitive Psychology.

In late February of 2008 I embarked on a 5(ish) month study abroad program to the University of Auckland, NZ. The purpose of this site/blog was to act as a sort of journal for family and friends back home in the states while away. At this point, this site primarily serves as a personal blog. I hope to use it to report findings in my upcoming usability research project.

I am currently employed at Cambridge BioMarketing (formerly RDVO) as an Information Architect / User Experience Designer. My primary passion is in usability in the form of UI design and usability evaluation (hence the otherwise nonsensical dual major program was enrolled in.) Since it is not in the scope of this site to market myself, I will just save space and everyone’s time by just posting a current resume. (.pdf) You can see a little bit of what I do in my portfolio.

Besides being the obvious computer nerd, I do have other interests.

I’m a huge music geek as you may see from the occasional post about music. I love hiking as a weekend warrior and the occasional backpacking trip. Once the snow falls, my weekends include nothing but snowboarding until the last snowflake melts. So naturally the answer to the question “what are you up to this weekend?” from Thanksgiving until the beginning of April will inevitably be “snowboarding, you should come along.”

- Mike (January 12, 2010)