Carol Barnum is the Director and cofounder of the Usability Center at Southern Polytechnic State University, where she works with clients to discover the user experience for the client's software, Web applications, Web sites, e-learning applications, and training products. The Usability Center was originally funded as part of an IBM million-dollar total quality management grant. After that excellent startup, the Center has maintained currency with the latest tools and technology through the resources generated from its projects.

In addition to directing the Usability Center, Dr. Barnum is a Professor of information design and communication at Southern Polytechnic and the Graduate Program Coordinator for the online graduate certificate in technical communication and the MS degree program in information design and communication. She teaches graduate courses in usability testing, information design, marketing communication, international communication, and professional oral presentations. A frequently invited speaker at conferences around the world, Dr. Barnum has had the pleasure of speaking at conferences in India, China, New Zealand, Australia, Ireland, Canada, and all over the US. Among her five published books is Usability Testing and Research, which is the most popular book in academic settings and which won the top award in the Society for Technical Communication's International Technical Publications competition in the year it was published. Dr. Barnum can be reached at cbarnum at spsu.edu.