About me

Hi, I’m Roy Zornow, the founder of Usergoals UX consultancy. I’ve helped deliver high-quality products across multiple sectors and form factors over the past 20 years.

My experience spans digital media, finance, consulting, government, public relations, big tech, pharmaceuticals and sports. I’ve designed the UX for everything from enterprise-wide platforms to responsive mobile sites.

My emphasis is on context, meeting the user where they are, to uncover the real issues, rather than assuming knowledge of the user’s priorities.

Educational background: B.S. English literature; J.D. Law.

Outside of work

I live in New York City, where in pre-socially-distanced days I did standup and improv comedy and played league pool. I like funk drumming, woodworking, reading, and cartooning. I once drove a scooter from NYC to Savannah, Georgia and back. I’m part of a tenants group here in NYC, advocating for more affordable housing.

Group shot of Roy Zornow with coworkers at an ice cream store

Websites, Conferences, Social Media

cartoon images of a video conference computer screen. It's split into 4 quadrants with a stylized image of a person in each.

NYC Scrum User group
Interaction Design Association (IxDA) NYC
Jeff Gothelf’s Twitter feed
An Event Apart Conference (actual actionable learnings)
Nielsen-Norman Group

Books I find useful

In addition to the classic Don’t Make Me Think“, “The Design of Everyday Things“, and the Edward R. Tufte books, these have made a specific impact on me:

“Universal Principles of Design“: provides a vocabulary and breadth of knowledge for working with visual designers.
Jeff Patton’s “User Story Mapping” breaks an intimidating process into doable chunks.
“Emotional Design” by Don Norman: teaches that by making users feel better, they will do better
“Why We Fail: Learning from Experience Design Failures“, Victor Lombardi: Schadenfruede? Shows that allowing a bad company culture to influence your role as user zealot can result in catastrophe.