Hot Knife Design, Inc., is a Boston-area Web design contracting and consulting firm with 10 years of experience developing Web sites and applications.

At Hot Knife, Jon is responsible for visual design and project management.

He has ten years of experience creating compelling user experiences for Web sites and Web applications. Jon’s visual design work has garnered several American Graphic Design Awards, the Apex Award, and other industry recognition. Jon’s first design job was for Saul Bellow’s literary magazine, News from the Republic of Letters, and he has a passion for typography, its history, and its proper use in design.

Jon is an internationally published author on the topics of user experience and information design. He contributes regularly to Web industry publications UXmatters, Digital Web and A List Apart. His articles have been translated into Russian, Chinese, Spanish, and Portuguese.

Jon is active in professional associations including the Boston Web Innovators Group, the Interaction Design Association (IxDA), the Usability Professionals Association (UPA) Boston Chapter, and the User Experience Network (UXnet). He is a past member of the AIGA, the professional association for design.

Selected Clients, Contracts, and Employers:
DF King, New York Public Library, Scenic Hudson, Glance Networks, Concert Pharmaceuticals, State of Massachusetts Public Employee Retirement Administration Commission

Matthew Holm is an accomplished writer, artist, and Web developer.

For eight years, he was an editor at the Hearst Corporation's 1.6 million-circulation Country Living Magazine, where he wrote about topics ranging from home-building, architecture, and historic preservation to food, travel, and current events. His freelance work has included a great deal of science writing, making the research of Ph.D.'s accessible to a lay audience.

At Hot Knife, Matt is a CSS consultant and HTML/ASP developer. He also skins off-the-shelf blogging/CMS software such as WordPress, Blogger, and ExpressionEngine. Matt acts as a copy writer and an information architect as needed, using his writing and editing skills to organize the structure and content of clients' Web sites in the most clear, logical, and approachable manner possible, and employing his considerable talents as an illustrator to craft wireframes and paper prototypes to aid in the design, testing, and building of Web sites.

Matt is Vice Chair of the Computer-Human Interaction Forum of Oregon (CHIFOO, the Oregon chapter of the Association of Computing Machinery’s Special Interest Group on Computer-Human Interaction), and a participant in and volunteer for both the Interaction Design Association (IxDA) and the User Experience Network (UXnet).

In addition to his work in the on-line world, Matt is also a professional children’s book illustrator, and is active in the children’s literature and reading education communities. More than half a million copies of his award-winning, critically acclaimed Babymouse graphic novels (published by Random House) are currently in print.

Selected Clients, Contracts, and Employers:
DF King, New York Public Library, Scenic Hudson, AnswerThink, NeoVision HeatMaps, Hearst New Media, Random House, American Library Association

Seth Aaronson is the principal partner of Amset Software, a software solutions company founded in 1991.

Seth has been working in the computer industry for more than 20 years. He has held positions including technical support and training, software engineer, and vice president of software development. He has implemented and maintained embedded systems, digital video and image processing applications, large scale multimedia presentations, and both static and interactive internet applications.

Seth has been a founding member of several Boston area companies. His last startup, Fantasy Entertainment, is a manufacturer and operator of digital photo kiosks. During the seven years that Seth was with Fantasy Entertainment, revenue grew to more than $50 million in domestic and international sales. As part of the founding group, Seth helped set up the technical support, MIS, and software development departments. His responsibilities included project planning, new product conceptualization and design, software architecture and development, existing product maintenance, and vendor contact.

Seth is a member of the IEEE Consultants Network, working with the steering committee to increase the outreach of the organization.

Seth graduated summa cum laude from Boston University with a bachelor of science in computer science. His technical skills include C/C++, Java, HTML, XML, web scripting languages, SQL and database concepts, and many standard desktop applications.

Selected Clients, Contracts, and Employers:
Blue State Digital, Oasis Open, Air2App Wireless Telemtry Inc, Fantasy Entertainment Inc, Micro Visual Systems Inc, AB Lasers Inc, Fisher Pierce Inc, Setforth Research Institute for New Media Technology, Beth Israel Hospital, Museum of Science, Boston

With nine years of experience in Web site/Web application design—from business requirements analysis to HTML production—Anne is an expert in visual and graphic design for the Web. She has deep knowledge of Web-enabled application user interface design.

While working at Fidelity Investments, the largest mutual fund company in the United States and a leading online brokerage firm, Anne redesigned the online account opening workflow/interface for most Fidelity retail products, the online statement section of Fidelity.com, the Alerts section of Fidelity.com, and portions of the online stock option management interface.

Anne received a Bachelor of Arts in English at Kenyon College, Gambier, Ohio, and enjoys running, reading, travel, and photography.

Selected Clients, Contracts, and Employers:
EMC, Experience, Fidelity Investments, Investors Bank and Trust, Mercer Management Consulting, Massachusetts General Hospital Institute of Health Professions, Massachusetts Teachers Association, Seaport Hotel and Conference Center, and Veritude.