Alan D. McFarland, PhD

Alan D. McFarland, PhD

Alan is a Human Experimental Psychologist and senior practitioner of user-centered design and solution engineering. After completing a Human Experimental Psychology Ph.D. program at the University of New Mexico, he has spent the last 38 years driving successful customer and end user IT solutions by combining user-centered design principles, methods, and tools with event driven architecture and agile approaches. His IT solutioning work has spanned multiple organizations, including R&D companies (Bell Labs, Bellcore/Telcordia, IBM) and industry sectors (Financial Services, Human Capital Management, Pharmaceuticals, Telecommunications). Applying a “lifecycle” solutioning approach as both individual contributor and managing director, Alan works to bridge and integrate Human Factors (HF) principles with contemporary UX research and design practice. His more recent focus is on cooperative work between human and intelligent agent actors, applying traditional and contemporary HF and UX discovery, design, and usability testing approaches for AI IT solutions.
Alan lives with his spouse on the mid-coast of New Jersey, and spends his fun time gardening, cooking, reading philosophy – and listening to Rock n Roll