Paul Sherman VP of User Experience Research & Design Dr. Paul Sherman has worked in user experience since the days of dial-up. As SmartShape's VP of User Experience Research and Design, he is responsible for discovering and validating customer needs for both digital and physical products and services.

With decades of experience under his belt, Paul has conducted user research, usability testing and user experience design for mobile, web and desktop applications in several domains, including accounting, banking, e-commerce, financial planning and portfolio management, healthcare, mobile gaming, mobile device hardware and software, network, server and cloud application security, tax preparation, and travel, as well as advertising technology.

In the 2000’s he was Head of Design at Turning Technologies and Senior Director of User-Centered Design at Sage Software in Atlanta, Georgia, where he led efforts to redesign the UI and workflow for Peachtree Accounting and several other business management desktop and web-based products.

Prior to that he was a Manager of User-Centered Design at Intuit, and also served as Senior Lecturer at The University of Texas at Dallas, where he taught a user experience design and human-computer interaction.
During the 1990’s he was a Member of Technical Staff at Lucent Technologies in New Jersey, where he led efforts to develop cross-product user interface standards for several telecommunications management applications.

Paul received his Ph.D. in 1997 from the University of Texas at Austin. His research focused on how pilots' use of computers and automated systems on the flight deck affects their individual and team performance.
Paul is a past President of the Usability Professionals' Association and was the founding President of the UPA’s Dallas/Fort Worth chapter. He is also the editor of the Gower book "Usability Success Stories: How Organizations Improve by

Making Easier-to-Use Software and Web Sites," published in 2006. He has been an invited speaker, and has formally presented at conferences around North America as well as Asia, Europe, and South America.
Outside of SmartShape, Paul currently teaches graduate courses at Kent State’s Master’s of Science program in User Experience Design.