Deborah J. Mayhew, Ph.D., co-founder and CEO of The Online User eXperience Institute (OUXI) is an internationally recognized consultant, author, teacher and speaker on engineering and designing for the User eXperience.

Deborah was one of the earliest pioneers of the field of software and web user experience. She has been Owner and Principal Consultant at Deborah J. Mayhew & Associates, a consulting firm offering a wide variety of services related to designing and engineering for the User eXperience, since 1986, when she became one of the first independent consultantsin her field. 

Deborah's clients have included IBM, AT&T, The World Bank, Hewlett-Packard, Ford Motor Company, American Express, The New York City Police Department, Apple Computer, American Airlines, Texas Instruments, NASA, JP Morgan Chase, The National Cancer Institute, Computer Science Corporation, Siemens, Cisco Systems, the IRS and many others.  Deborah has designed user experiences not only for web sites, but also for traditional desktop software applications, medical technology, scientific instruments, and robots.  She has taught courses in many of her client organizations as well as at many professional conferences.

Deborah holds a B. A. in Psychology from Brown University, an M. A. in Experimental Psychology from the University of Denver and a Ph.D. in Cognitive Psychology from Tufts University. She has authored or co-authored four books on topics in User eXperience engineering, and has contributed chapters to many other books in the field. One popular book is The Usability Engineering Lifecycle. Another recent book is Cost Justifying Usability: An Update for the Internet Age, co-edited with Randolph G. Bias.