Ame Elliott

User experience design to re-imagine privacy, security, transparency, and ethics.

Design can change the world.

Overview:

Designer, researcher, and educator committed to responsible technology development, and using design to change who technology serves.

Education:

Executive Education Certificate, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Feb. 2024).
7-week course in Artificial Intelligence and Business Strategy.

Ph.D., Human-Computer Interaction, Dept. of Architecture, Uni. of California, Berkeley (2002).
Dissertation: Computational Support for Sketching and Image Browsing During the Early Phase of Architectural Design. Areas of study: Design Theory & Methods, Information Science, Architecture.

Bachelor of Environmental Design, University of Colorado, Boulder (1993). 
Senior Thesis: Neighborhood GIS: Integrating Geographic Information Systems and Multi-Media to Support Participatory Design. Areas of study: Urban Design, Computer Science

Employment:

Creative Leader, Neol, Berlin & San Francisco (2023 – present).

Freelance technology leadership for global clients. Portfolio includes responsible AI, data strategy, and the future of work. Current project: Large Language Model integration into an online learning platform; conducting original research into learner and instructor attitudes towards AI; designing the user experience of AI tools including chat-based interfaces for medical professionals. Consulting on implications of the EU AI Act and Digital Services Act.

Senior Fellow, Superbloom, Berlin (2023 – present).

Coaching open source technology projects for the Open Technology Fund, the Alan Turing Institute, and the PrototypeFund.de, funded by the Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung. Projects include developer tooling and machine learning applications, e.g. SiC Project - signierte Container.

Design Director, Simply Secure/Superbloom, San Francisco, CA & Berlin (2015 – 2023).

  • Created and led “Policy to Pixels” programme and developed a research agenda for studying responsible technology development in professional practice.

  • Industry advisor to the EU Horizon 2020 Open Design of Trusted Things programme, training early-stage researchers in responsible Internet of Things development.

  • Global workshop facilitation and field research with 117 participants from thirty-one countries to produce Deceptive Design: Moving Towards Trusted Design Patterns, supervision of local researchers in Nigeria, Zambia, India, and Mexico.

  • Founded Underexposed, symposium series 2015 - 2019 on ethical implications of technology development with a focus on algorithmic accountability, trust, and privacy.

  • Partnered with Mozilla on data donation strategies to reimagine consent for the Rally platform.

  • Clients include: World Wide Web Foundation, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, RightsCon, Open Tech Fund, Internews, Omidyar Network, Digital Democracy, International Women’s Media Foundation, Equalit.ie, The Markup, Reset.tech, Luminate, and Mozilla.

Design Researcher & Senior Project Leader. IDEO, San Francisco, CA (2007 – 2015).

  • Coaching, education, and professional development to ensure cutting edge qualitative/quantitative methods and outstanding research quality by 30 design researchers across two California locations.

  • Directed multi-disciplinary tech strategy projects for Global 500 companies from initial need-finding, through prototyping, implementation, and evaluation.

  • Launched hardware, software, and service products in media, education, telecommunications. 

Research Scientist. Xerox PARC: Palo Alto Research Center, Palo Alto, CA (2004 – 2007).  

Design ethnographer/inventor, Computing Science Laboratory. Focus: prototyping Internet of Things applications and recommender systems, special interest in end-user programming. 

Research Scientist. Ricoh Innovations Silicon Valley, Menlo Park, CA (2001 – 2004).  

Focus on workplace collaboration. UX work on early AI/Internet of Things applications for smart meeting rooms and document handling resulting in seven patents.

Project Director. University of California, Berkeley School of Information (2000). 

Developed a classification scheme to describe e-businesses for use by the U.S. Department of Commerce with Hal Varian, soon-to-be Chief Economist of Google.

TEACHING

ACADEMIC POSITIONS

  • Ph.D. Jury External Examiner (Examinatrice), 2023.
    Peer Production in Citizen Science: A Community-Centered Approach on the Example of Personal Science, by Dr. Katharina Kloppenborg, Department of Mathematics and Information Sciences, Université Paris Cité. Development of Python packages under review by pyOpenSci.

  • Course Instructor, “User Experience Design & Privacy Policy,” 2021.
    Open Design of Trusted Things (OpenDoTT) programme of EU Horizon 2020 for Marie Skłodowska-Curie early stage researchers/Ph.D. students of University of Northumbria, UK. Created an original course at the intersection of design, industry, and technology policy.

  • Visiting Faculty, “People-Centered Design,” 2015.
    Two-week Masters program module on user research methods, Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design; with Nina Christofferson.

  • Mentor, “CS198: Advanced HCI-Research Studio,” 2000. 
    University of California, Berkeley, Computer Science; with James Landay, Scott Klemmer, and Francis Li.

  • Graduate Student Instructor, “SIMS 202: Introduction to Organization and Retrieval,” 1999. 
    University of California, Berkeley, School of Information; with Marti Hearst and Ray Larson.

  • Graduate Student Instructor, “IDS 110: Introduction to Programming for Non-Majors,” 1998.
    University of California, Berkeley, Interdisciplinary Studies; with Larry Lagerstrom.

  • Lecturer, “ENVD 2050: Computers in City Planning,” 1998, and 1994. 
    University of Colorado, Boulder, College of Environmental Design, created an original course to account for rapid technological change.

INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION, EXECUTIVE EDUCATION, & CORPORATE TRAINING

  • Founded and developed Simply Secure’s training and workshop program focused on the intersection of policy, technology, human rights, and design, 8.000+ participants. 

  • Designed and developed a corporate training/executive MBA course based on The Innovator's DNA, including group activities, discussion guides, and assignments, working closely with author Clayton Christensen (Harvard Business School) and team.

  • Coaching for more than 100 public interest technology teams. Clients include: Mozilla, PrototyeFund.de, RightsCon, Open Tech Fund, Internews, Omidyar Network.

  • Developed and facilitated design thinking workshops for 200+ executives from Global 500 companies including Samsung, Acer, HP, Ericsson. 

  • Created and led multi-day in-person workshops delivering Silicon Valley-style innovation to engineers and business leads from Japanese and Korean companies. 

MENTORING ENTREPRENEURS + ADVISING STARTUPS

  • Mentor to participants in Lean Startup Conference San Francisco and Indie.vc accelerator program; advisor to early stage startups in San Francisco; investor and thought partner/strategic advisor to early stage German startups in the clean energy sector.

Patents:

• U.S. Patent 8452153, “Associating pre-generated barcodes with temporal events.” Issued May 28, 2013.

• U.S. Patent 7739583, “Multimedia Document Sharing Method and Apparatus.” Issued June 15, 2010.

• U.S. Patent 7672864,  "Generating and displaying level-of-interest values." Issued March 2, 2010.

• U.S. Patent 7703002  "Method and Apparatus for Composing Multimedia Documents." Issued March 20, 2010.

• U.S. Patent 7546528, “Stamp Sheets.” Issued June 9, 2009.

• U.S. Patent 7344078, "Device for scanning and printing barcodes." Issued March 18, 2008.

• U.S. Patent 7313340, “Paper control of document processing.” Issued December 25, 2007.

WHITE PAPERS/TECH REPORTS:

From Policy to Pixels: Strategic UX Design and User Support for GDPR Implementation, Ame Elliott and Susan Kennedy, November 2023.

Practitioner Reflections on a Trustmark for IoT: From Consumer Choice to Communal Action, Ame Elliott, December 2022.

The Limits to Digital Consent: Understanding the Risks of Ethical Consent and Data Collection for Underrepresented Communities, New Design Congress and Simply Secure, October 2021.   

On Trust and Transparency, Simply Secure, June 2019.

Straight Talk: New Yorkers on Mobile Messaging and Implications for Privacy, Ame Elliott and Sara Sinclair Brody, May 2016.

PEER-REVIEWED PUBLICATIONS:

Elliott, A. and Kennedy, S. (2023). “From Policy to Pixels: Practitioner Lessons from Cookie Banner Implementation,” in CHI '23 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems.

Elliott, A. and Sinclair Brody, S. (2016). "Design Implications of Lived Surveillance in New York," in CHI '16 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems. PDF.

Churchill, E., Dray, S., Elliott, A., Larvie, P., and Siegel, D. (2010).  “Addressing Challenges in Doing International Field Research,” in CHI '10 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems, pp 3127-3130. 

Churchill, E. and Elliott, A. (2009). “Flexibility and the Curatorial Eye: Why and How Well-Documented Ethnographically Inspired Fieldwork Sustains Value Over Time,” EPIC 2009 (Ethnographic Praxis in Industry, Chicago, IL) pp 72-80.

Smetters, D., Dalal, B., Nelson, L., Good, N., and Elliott, A. (2008). “Ad-Hoc Guesting: When Exceptions Are the Rule,” in ;login: The USENIX Magazine, 33 (4), pp 34-40.

Newman, M., Elliott, A., and Smith, T. (2008). “Providing an Integrated User Experience of Networked Media, Devices, and Services Through End-User Composition,” in PERVASIVE 2008, pp 213-227.

Schiano, D., Elliott, A., and Bellotti, V. (2007).  “Tokyo Youth at Leisure: Online Support of Leisure Outings,” chapter in Oxford Handbook of Internet Psychology, pp 361-372.

Gugerty, L., Billman, D., Pirolli, P., and Elliott, A. (2007). “An Exploratory Study of the Effect of Domain Knowledge on Internet Search Behavior: The Case of Diabetes, in Proceedings of the 51st Annual Meeting of the Human Factors & Ergonomics Society.

Elliott, A., Mainwaring, S., Woodruff, A., and Sengers, P. (2007). “Nurturing Technologies in the Domestic Environment,” in IEEE Pervasive, April-June, pp 110-111. 

Schiano, D., Elliott, A., and Bellotti, V.  (2007). “A Look at Tokyo Youth at Leisure: Towards the Design of New Media to Support Leisure Outings,” in Journal of Computer Support of Collaborative Work, pp 45-73.

Elliott, A. and Dalal, B. (2006).  “Design for Healthy Living: Mobility and the Disruption of Daily Healthcare Routines,” in EPIC 2006 (Ethnographic Praxis in Industry, Portland, OR), pp 30-39.

Schiano, D., Elliott, A., and Bellotti, V. (2006). “Between Cram School and Career in Tokyo,” in EPIC 2006  (Ethnographic Praxis in Industry, Portland, OR), pp 150-154.

Schiano, D., Elliott, A., and Bellotti, V. (2006). “Tokyo Youth at Leisure: Towards the Design of New Media to Support Leisure Planning and Practice,” in Extended Abstracts of CHI 2006.

Elliott, A. (2005). “Physical Artifacts for Promoting Bilingual Collaborative Design” in EPIC 2005 (Ethnographic Praxis in Industry, Redmond WA), pp 158-164.

Elliott, A. and Hearst, M. A. (2002). “A Comparison of the Affordances of a Digital Desk and Tablet for Architectural Image Tasks,” in International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, Vol. 56(2), pp 173-197.

Hearst, M., Elliott, A., English, J., Sinha, R., Swearingen, K., and Yee, K.-P.  (2002). “Finding the Flow in Web Site Search,” in Communications of the ACM, 45 (9), pp 43-49.

Elliott, A. (2002). Computational Support for Sketching and Image Browsing During the Early Phase of Architectural Design, Ph.D. Dissertation, University of California, Berkeley.

Elliott, A. (2001). “Flamenco Image Browser: Using Metadata to Improve Image Search During Architectural Design,” in Extended Abstracts of CHI 2001. 

Elliott, A. and Hearst, M. A. (2000). “How Large Should a Digital Desk Be? Qualitative Results of a Comparative Study,” in Extended Abstracts of CHI 2000.

Chastain, T. and Elliott, A. (1998). “Cultivating Design Competence: Online Support for the Beginning Design Studio,” in Proceedings of ACADIA ‘98 (Association of Computer Aided Design in Architecture). 

Gross, M. D., Parker, L. and Elliott, A. (1997).  “MUD: Exploring Tradeoffs in Urban Design,” in CAAD Futures'97, R. Junge (ed.), Dortrecht, the Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers.

AlSayyad, N., Elliott, A. and Kalay, Y. E. (1996).  "Narrative Models: A Database Approach to Modeling Medieval Cairo," in Proceedings of ACADIA ’96 (Association of Computer AidedDesign in Architecture). 

Press

Simply Secure

“How We Built a Facebook Inspector,” The Markup, by Surya Mattu, Leon Yin, Angie Waller, and Jon Keegan, January 5, 2021.

“Internet Health Report 2018,” Mozilla, April 10, 2018.

"Simply Secure is a 2018 Most Innovative Company in Design," February 20, 2018.

“Our Apathy to Privacy Will Destroy Us. Design Can Help.” Fast Company Design, January 11, 2018

“10 New Principles of Good Design,” Fast Company Design, January 3, 2018.

"The Future of the Internet of Things Depends on This," CNN.com, October 14, 2017.

“What Comes After User Friendly Design?” Fast Company Design, September 18, 2017.

"A Simple Design Flaw Makes It Astoundingly Easy To Hack Siri And Alexa," Fast Company Design, September 16, 2017.

"Wie Design zum Datenschutz beitragen kann: Ein Interview mit Ame Elliott," O'Reilly Blog, September 14, 2017.

"Our Apathy Towards Privacy Will Destroy Us. Designers Can Help," Fast Company Design, January 11. 2017

“Art, Design, and the Future of Privacy,” DIS Magazine September 9, 2015.

 

The Innovator’s Accelerator:

“Apollo to Offer Course in Business Innovation,” Wall Street Journal, January 15, 2013.

“Lessons from U of P's Innovator's Accelerator Online Course,” Inside Higher Ed, February 11, 2013.

Ripple Effect:

“Announcing IDEO.org: Addressing Poverty Through Human-Centered Design,” Core77, March 7, 2011. 

"Getting Water to the World's Poorest," Forbes, September 11, 2009.

Global Research Methods

Mentioned in Observing the User Experience, Second Edition: A Practitioner's Guide to User Research, by E. Goodman, M. Kuniavsky, and A. Moed. Waltham, MA: Morgan Kaufmann/Elsevier, 2012. 

AWARDS

Individual Recognition as Ame Elliott
Fast Company, Most Creative People 2018

Simply Secure (Role: Design Director)
Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies: Design, 2018.

The Innovator’s Accelerator (Role: IDEO Project Lead)
Edison Award, Silver: Living, Working, and Learning Environments, 201

The Bold Italic:
AIGA 365 Design Effectiveness winner, Digital, 2011.
IDEA Finalist, Interactive Product Experience, 2011.
SF Weekly's Best Of, Webzine, 2011.
Webby Honoree, 2010.                            

EXHIBITS

“Reimagining Digital Consent: A Discussion & Gallery Exhibition” at MozFest, online, 2022.

“Dilemmas in the Connected Home,” at MozFest, Ravensbourne, London, UK, 2016.

“Why Design Now?: Ripple Effect,” at Cooper-Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum, New York City, 2012.

SERVICE

• Editorial board interactions magazine 2008 – 2010.

• Associate Chair for Computer-Human Interaction (CHI) 2007 and 2008 Conference.

• Reviewer for CHI conference 2004-2010 (papers, short papers, experience reports, design competition).

• Reviewer for Computer-Supported Cooperative Work Conference (papers, short papers) 2004-2009.

• Reviewer for Ethnographic Praxis in Industry Conference (EPIC) 2007-2009.

• Lead workshop for Ethnographic Praxis in Industry Conference (EPIC) 2007.

• Organized workshop on “Nurturing Technology in the Home” at UbiComp 2006 Conference.

MEMBERSHIP

  • Senior member of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)

  • ACM European Tech Policy Committee - Artificial Intelligence and Climate Change working groups

  • International Association of Privacy Professionals

  • Women in Security and Privacy

  • MyData.org

  • Ethical Commerce Alliance