Mary Carol Day's career began with a bachelor's in library science, which allowed her some financial flexiblility, and a near-bachelor's in her real love, experimental psychology. By following her interests, she finds herself—several degrees and career changes later—happily (and unexpectedly) employed as technical manager of a Human Factors and User Interface Design group at AT&T Bell Laboratories. Her group designs human-computer interfaces, interactive voice response systems, and work processes and support systems that incorporate new technologies—making them as "user-friendly" as possible. "Although most experimental psychologists have pursued careers vastly different from my own'" syas Dr. Day, "mine is not unique in the human factors communtiy. Of more than 5,000 members of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, 39% have academic backgrounds in psychology and 9% in human factors. The field is growing, and it offers exciting opportunitites in many areas." Dr. Day describes herself as a "user advocate" who employs the tools of an experimental psychologist to optimize the usefulness of products and services. In doing so, she draws on an intensive and varied academic background. After earning her MA in experimental psychology at Florida State University and working in research at Yale and the City University of New York, she earned an EdD from the Human Development Program at Harvard. This was followed by a postdoctorate at the University of Pittsburgh and and assistant professorship in the psychology department of the University of Houston. There she conducted research on cognitive development from both Piagetian and information-processng perspectives. "The decision to leave academe," she recalls, "was a difficult one, but it's one I don't regret. My work days are packed with varied and often unpredictable activities. We provide expertise on human capabilities and limitations, just as other project team members provide expertise on hardware and software. We conduct user needs and task analyses; we create and test user interfaces of new products. A major challenge is to determine how much we can do, within demanding cost and time constraints, to ensure that the product meets users' needs and is easy to learn and use. This requires a broad understanding of human capabilities and a large toolbox of diverse methodologies for collecting valid and reliable data. In addition, we have to communicate well with people who may have very different perspectives from our own and to learn constantly about new technologies."