Lee Farabaugh

“Know thy users, for they are not you.” That’s the mantra of Lee Farabaugh, the Director of User Experience at Point Clear Solutions, an IT services firm based in The Innovation Depot downtown.

PointClear bills itself as offering “software with soul.” In other words, software designed to be easy for people to use. Farabaugh is a key part of that effort.

“We start by understanding the users, their needs, their goals and what they’re trying to do,” Farabaugh says. “We design the interface first, and the software is built to support that.”

“The beautiful thing about users is that they always stumble onto something that you never predicted,” Farabaugh says. “Even as a designer, I’m too close to an application to understand what all the stumbling blocks are. When you let people interact with it, they always surprise you.”

Farabaugh recalls the moment she decided to pursue a graduate degree in usability design. She was on assignment for a former employer at a client’s West Coast office. The client — using a less-than-user-friendly interface designed by Farabaugh’s company — was struggling to upload new product information onto the firm’s web site.

“This interface was so hard for my client to use, that I ended up doing all,” Farabaugh says. “And I was there ‘til like one in the morning, and I was thinking, ‘This is nuts. Surely we can come up with a way that she can upload all these images and descriptions.’ I think at maybe two in the morning I starting researching usability programs.”

She ultimately chose Georgia Tech, where she earned a master’s degree in Human-Computer Interaction, or HCI, a computer field with a significant number of female students.

“The percentage of women in computer science master’s programs was about 8 percent, whereas HCI was 50-50 male-female,” Farabaugh says. “I think it’s that human element, the idea of going out and talking to people, and empathizing with their stories, that draws a lot of women.”

Because of the design involved, HCI professions demand a combination of creative and technical experience. For Farabaugh, who holds a bachelor’s degree in studio art from Wake Forest University and has worked as a web designer, the work has allowed her to make use of a broad skill-set.

“I’ve taken that test where they tell you which side of the brain you are, and I’m right in the middle,” she says. “Sometimes I feel like a jack of all trades, master of none, but sometimes I feel that it’s great to be able to do the creative side but also the analytical side, so I just try to make it work for me.”

Farabaugh says that her job allows her to satisfy her restless curiosity.
“I think the thing I love most is that with every project I get to learn about a new field or new group of people or new environment, whether I’m working with doctors in a hospital or operating a remote system through a computer interface,” she says.

Born in Tuscaloosa and raised in Charlotte, N.C., Farabaugh has fallen in love with her adopted home and seems excited about the city’s future.

“I love Birmingham because it’s manageable,” she says. “I live in Homewood and I can be at work in 10 minutes. The people are wonderful, and there’s such a vibrant art scene, and great places to eat.

“I feel the tension between the old and the new, and trying to make change. I think it’s exciting what’s happening here,” she says. “There are young people, and not just young people, who are interested in making it more cosmopolitan, but there are so many beautiful things about the heritage of a southern city.”

Farabaugh has found abundant opportunities in Birmingham to meet and work with other women, including the Birmingham Women’s Network, a professional networking group. “Women in Birmingham are interested in mentoring each other and helping each other, doing business with each other,” she says. “Women, maybe it’s in our genes, but we have a natural inclination to want to help each other out.”

Farabaugh is also a bicycle racer on the National Racing Council (NRC) circuit. Despite competing for only four years, she is the first woman ever in Alabama to achieve a Category 1 national ranking. To help bring more women into a male-dominated sport, Farabaugh has helped form the Southeast Women’s Racing Series. Women will be encouraged to take part in a series of existing races in Alabama, Tennessee, Georgia and Florida to earn points and improve their standing in the sport.

The dedication, long hours of training, and fiery spirit necessary to compete as a racer have their analogues in the efforts of Farabaugh and her three partners to make sure that PointClear succeeds.

“There’s so many parallels between competitive athletics and business,” Farabaugh says. She cites a recent discussion at the firm regarding a prospective client: “We were saying, ‘We’ve just got to get this business,’ and I realized that’s the same way I feel when I’m in a race. I think, ‘I have just got to win this. I’m going to dig really deep and do whatever I need to do.’ When I’m testing my limits, there’s so much training that goes into it, so much hard work, for one little moment when you cross the finish line.”

Bicycle racing has yielded one unexpected benefit for Farabaugh.

“I have found that when I am going to speak in front of a large group of people, it’s not very intimidating, because all I have to do is think, ‘Well, last week I was flying around a corner at 25 miles an hour with some girl six inches away from me.’ Now that’s scary.”

Lee Farabaugh is a frequent contributor to the Point Clear Solutions blog, which you can find at www.pointclearsolutions.com.

[wp_geo_map]