Keith S. Karn, Ph.D.
Keith Karn is the owner and principal consultant of Human Factors in Context LLC, a consulting firm offering user research, human factors engineering, and physical / digital interaction design. Keith has been steeped in human-centered design since strapping himself into the ejection seat of a supersonic airplane during his first human factors job in the early ’80s. Since then he has trekked across mountains, slogged through coal mines, and trailed ER docs, all in the pursuit of user research to support product innovation. Before starting Human Factors in Context, he led user research and design teams at Bresslergroup, Design Science, Xerox, and Kodak. He earned his PhD in Experimental Psychology at the University of Rochester and degrees in Ergonomics and Systems / Industrial Engineering at North Carolina State University and Penn State. He taught human factors and human-computer interaction for many years at the Rochester Institute of Technology and the University of Rochester. He has 13 utility patents. Fun Fact: When he’s not in the office, he spends most of his time in the woods – backpacking, canoeing, fishing, hunting, and camping.