Paul Doncaster isn't your average user experience (UX) professional. After graduating Bentley University's Human Factors in Information Design program (HFID) in 2007, he used his understanding of what he calls the more "human side" of technology to write a book. "The UX 5-Second Rules: Guidelines for User Experience Design's Simplest Testing Technique" tells professionals specifically how they can test designs in a measurable way.

Now, Doncaster is a manager of user experience at Thomson CompuMark — the business unit of the 55,000-employee company Thomson Reuters. Despite a busy schedule, we had the opportunity to talk with him about his beginnings, his book and how Bentley fits into it all.

Q: What were you doing before Bentley?
Originally, I was a corporate video producer. I saw that the idea of companies having in-house video production capabilities was dying and decided to go into the Internet.

I was working at the old Polaroid complex, splitting my time between flash development and administering the company's online customer self-service website (FAQs, user guides, etc.). That sort of paved the way for me to investigate the Bentley program. Monitoring which types of content were rated negatively and positively, then making improvements based on that data — that was my first formal exposure to the whole idea of using user feedback to improve a product.

When I got my first look at the HFID program, it was like a light bulb went off over my head and told me that this is sort of like what I was doing anyway.

Q: Why did you choose Bentley?
My bachelor's degree had served me well, but I was looking to start a family and I knew I had to upgrade my skills. I wanted to go into something that was a relatively new discipline but had a lot of promise, but something that leveraged knowledge that I already had.

Q: What were you hoping to get out of the degree?
What I really liked about it — it wasn't focused narrowly on a technical or design skill to be developed. The fact that Bentley was a business school underscored how the discipline could be seen as a contributor to business profitability. It really does belong at a business school because it doesn't matter how graceful a product's UX is if it doesn't benefit the business tangibly.

It was a bit intimidating getting started because I had a liberal arts background. By the time I finished up the program, the concept of UX in business seemed to be gaining traction everywhere, so I think the timing was perfect.

Q: What was the best part of the HFID program, for you?
The big benefit for me was associating with people who were coming in from all walks of professional life. There were people doing coding but were seeking a closer connection to the human side of technology; business people who wanted to be more tech-savvy because the way their industry seemed to be going — just all different types of people.

The fact that these people came together under a common cause, under a common banner, was really intriguing. There are people with whom I graduated that are now in VP-level UX positions that never existed before. It really put a significant stamp on the discipline in general.

Q: Why is UX testing so important to companies today?
The way people connect with what your company offers will ultimately determine the success or failure of that offering. The differentiator is how closely people are invested in your product or service.

There's still something to be said for the face-to-face interactions of business, but in an age where so much is taking place virtually, UX can help retain company or product loyalty in a way that didn't exist before. If you don't have that, things can fail much quicker than they did before.

Q: What do you do on a day-to day basis?
It's very much a unique situation for me. My company is co-headquartered — half of us are in Antwerp and half of us are in Boston. So I'm typically in online meetings and answering questions for Antwerp for the first half of the day then cleaning up from the morning requests or preparing for the next day in the second half.

There are a lot of challenges in working so closely with a European office. That's where all the developers are located, yet most of our product leads are in the Boston office. It's very challenging to collaborate and communicate effectively, especially when you're dealing in an agile development environment and quickly iterating products. It really challenges collaboration — when half the people you interact with are an ocean away, things can take a lot longer than they should.

The fact that the Bentley program rooted UX within a business context really helped me learn to "speak the business language" in a way I wouldn't have been able to otherwise.

Q: What do you love about your job and the UX field?
My favorite part is sitting with a user in front of a product that my company has created and watching them use it — picking up on their verbal and non-verbal cues, being able to get at the heart of what their joys and frustrations are and seeing their satisfaction when something they've never used before works exactly how they expected it to — that's my favorite part.

I see people as users, not customers. Whenever I'm in a meeting with other managers, I refer to them as users and that sometimes throws people who are used to thinking of them as customers. That's the unique thing that UX brings to the process. In my opinion, if you take care of people at the user level, the customer part will take care of itself — then again, there are MBAs who might disagree.

Q: What are you doing next? Will we see you speaking somewhere in the near future or working on research?
I've given a few smaller presentations on the topic. I am a regular guest blogger for a provider of online test tools like these. I did a webinar on the topic and was featured on a UX podcast that got me some visibility, so little things do come up.

While blogs and podcasts may be his latest projects, Doncaster's authored book is certainly one of his most recent great achievements. In part 2 of our interview, we ask him all about what "The UX 5-Second Rules: Guidelines for User Experience Design's Simplest Testing Technique" is about, how the project started, and what it's like to be a published author.