INDUSTRY TRAINING

TRAINING

INDUSTRY TRAINING

Development and delivery of corporate training courses across industries on topics including:

  • User Experience & Usability
  • Prototyping & Testing
  • Design of Interactive Computational Media
  • Embracing Technology

Flexible delivery formats: from 1-hour talks to multi-day courses (of >24 hours of training)
Tailored content for corporate teams, startups, and industry professionals

Delivered Courses for

  • Rogers Communications
  • CIBC
  • Deutsche Bank
  • Human Factors International – HFI
  • Intelliware Development
  • International Institute for Learning – IIL
  • Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority – LAMTA
  • Metrolinx
  • OMERS Worldwide
  • Ontario Science Centre
  • PeopleSoft
  • Scotiabank
  • Shoppers Drug Mart

 

Workshops at Conferences & Events

  • DocSHIFT Toronto
  • DOC Toronto
  • MaRS Tech Startups, Toronto
  • Mobile Accelerator Program (MAP), OCADU Toronto
  • Mobile Experience Innovation Centre (MEIC), OCADU Toronto
  • Mobile Developers & Designers of Toronto (MDOT)
  • Ryerson’s Digital Media UX Design Workshop
  • Next Media Conference, Toronto
  • SMART Conferences, Ann Arbor, Michigan

 

Recommendations

 

Participants in HFI’s Web Design and Usability Testing Courses, Online Worldwide

  • Love your style of teaching… Feels very engaged in this class!
  • The class was fantastic and I learnt a lot! Thank you Ilona for sharing your vast knowledge and expertise! I feel like my impostor syndrome has been finally vanquished and I have the tools to make a real impact in my job!
  • This was a great course for an online setting. I really enjoyed the paceand the student/teacher interactions as well as stories and shared wisdom from past experiences. Thank you so much!
  • Today’s class was one of the best onesthat I have taken so far. The instructor included rich and relevant anecdotes from her professional experience. These “extensions” of teaching have allowed me to narrow the chasm between theory and reality, especially since I have not had that opportunity to practice such activities. 
  • I learned an amazing set of practical puzzle pieces for setting up a super professional and flexible usability workflowthat can be applied to improve pretty much anything. I learned there are levels to this discipline and that there is a lot more to learn than I expected. This feeds and grows the unassuming spirit that I am trying to cultivate as a person and as a professional.
  • I recently took a design and usability testing class from Ilona as part of the CUA certification from HFI, something I’ve wanted to do for years. Ilona’s style of teaching isfun and interactive, and I learnt a lot from her. Thank you Ilona for sharing your vast knowledge and expertise! I feel like my impostor syndrome has been finally vanquished and I have the tools to make a real impact in my job!

 

 

Shao Kang Tat, CIBC, Manager of Development

  • “Ilona was my computer science prof for Human-Computer Interaction at the University of Toronto. I learned a great deal from Ilona and you can say that my extra attentiveness to all things User Experience related in the development world came from her. Years later, Ilona came to work for the same company I worked for. Ilona as the User Experience Research Lead and myself, managing a team of developers. I wanted my team to get a sense of where my attention to UE issues came from, so I had asked Ilona if she would be open to a lunch & learn to talk about UE related issues. It was a last minute arrangement, but Ilona pulled it all together with just 4-5 business days notice. She delivered the presentation quite successfully. Everyone in the room was engaged and certainly learned a thing or two (or more!). She is a great speaker, certainly gets your attention the moment she talks and has ways to keep you hooked in by presenting interesting material and never staying on a topic for too long. She even incorporated a hands on team activity to close off her presentation. I certainly will be looking to Ilona for more material!”

 

Jackie Garrow, DOC Toronto, Managing Director

Ilona’s paper-proto-typing workshop was a hit with the professional documentary filmmaking community. Each time we invite her back her session consistently ranks as a conference favorite!

 

Richard Lachman, Ryerson University, Assistant Professor, Digital Media  & DocSHIFT Labs Incubator Lead Mentor

Ilona’s paper-prototyping presentation and workshop was one of the most highly-regarded invited-talks of our incubator.  The participants appreciated Ilona’s clear insights, fantastic examples and knowledgeable presentations.

 

Alice Tolar, Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, Transportation Planning Manager, Central Area Team

Thank you for the time you have been able to spend with our staff.  We have all benefitted greatly.

 

Zbigniew Duszak, OMERS Worldwide, Director Information Technology Solutions

After your course people started thinking about users and usability, and now we are doing it!

 

Usability Workshop Participants, OMERS Worldwide, December 2008.

  • “Usability should be part of every iteration throughout software development lifecycle.”
  • “This course opened my eyes to many different levels of user skills & knowledge.”
  • “An extremely valuable workshop!  Would like to have had more time for the workshop.”
  • “Course taught me ways of getting user inputs in building a system.”

 

Christine Pilkington, Executive Director, DigitalEve Toronto Chapter of Women on the Web Organization

Thank *you* Ilona!  I was very very pleased about your presentation – and many others who attended shared the same sentiment. You are a terrific speaker who communicated the information clearly and effectively…  A very entertaining lecture!

 

Kathryn Saunders, George Brown College, Program Coordinator, January 30, 2006

Thank you so much for coming to speak to the Advanced Digital Design students today.  When you left, they requested that you come back to ‘hang out’ (i’m NOT kidding)  — because you were so interesting.  (That’s gotta make your day! :-)…. Ilona, you were a BIG hit.

 

David Modjeska, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Information Studies, University of Toronto, March 1, 2002

Thanks for an interesting talk. I really enjoyed hearing about the case study, as well as some points about how usability is done in practice. A very entertaining lecture!