Dr. JoAnn Hackos is President of Comtech Services, a content-management and information-design firm based in Denver, Colorado, which she founded in 1978. She is Director of the Center for Information-Development Management (CIDM), a membership organization focused on content-management and information-development best practices. Dr. Hackos and colleagues are called upon by corporate executives worldwide to consult on strategies for content management, development and organizational management, product interface design, customer studies, Web and traditional information architecture, and tools and technology selection.

For more than 25 years, Dr. Hackos has addressed audiences internationally on subjects ranging from content management, project management, effective interfaces and information, minimal information products, usability testing, and online and Web-based information, to managing the information design and development process. Her workshops are dedicated to enhancing the practices and products that will best promote customer satisfaction.

She authored Information Development: Managing Your Documentation Projects, Portfolio and People(Wiley 2006), Content Management for Dynamic Web Delivery(Wiley 2002), Managing Your Documentation Projects(Wiley 1994), Standards for Online Communication(Wiley 1997), and User and Task Analysis for Interface Design(Wiley 1998). JoAnn is a Fellow and Past President of the International Society for Technical Communication (STC).

Read an interview with JoAnn for Modcom Communications

Bill Hackos, Jr., PhD is cofounder with JoAnn Hackos and Vice President of Comtech Services, a management consulting and information-design firm based in Denver, CO. Dr. Hackos has worked with companies in North America and Europe, helping them solve their information-management problems. He has also been heavily involved in many benchmarking projects related to information management and process improvement. He designed Comtech's estimating metrics and continues to conduct key studies into ratios of developers and writers and analysis of the return on investment of single-sourcing projects. Dr. Hackos has focused on the design of graphic user interfaces that are easy to learn and to use. With 30 years' experience in the computer industry, Dr. Hackos understands how to increase the usability of products.