User Experience and Cognitive Engineering

Francois Aubin has more than 20 years of experience in interaction design, technology development and project management. Francois holds a B.SC in Physics and M.Sc. A on the subject of ”Human Computer Interaction” from the l’École Polytechnique of Montreal.

Prior to creating and managing Cognitive Group, he served as Senior Advisor at CRIM (Computer Research Institute of Montreal) and prior to his tenure at CRIM, Francois acted as consultant in the design of Interactive Systems and research assistant at l’École Polytechnique. Francois developed his technology expertise designing interactive systems in the mid eighties. Recognizing an acute need for a more comprehensive usability discipline, he decided to formalize industry research and obtained a Master’s Degree in Industrial Engineering in 1989 in Cognitive Ergonomics.

Over the years, Francois developed interactive systems such as input devices for computer systems and 3D imaging systems. He started business consulting in 1992 at CRIM where he led user interface design activities for the Hydro Quebec’s call center. During is tenure at CRIM, Francois developed a cognitive engineering discipline (the Cognitive Approach) which has been proven to significantly increase user acceptance of IT solutions and yield dramatic efficiency benefits while shortening development time-to-market by as much as 50%.

As President of Cognitive Group, he has designed and delivered solutions for many clients in finance, including Royal Bank of Canada, National Bank of Canada, Laurentian Bank, Desjardins Group, Montrusco Bolton, FBN, in Energy including Pacific Gas & Electricity (PG&E), Shaw Group, Hydro-Quebec and Gas Metropolitain and in High Tech including Amazon, V1Jet, Lipso, GlobalMedic, PlanetMedica, Cedrom SNI, Pixel Systems, Alis Technology. Francois is also member of Usability Professional association and ACM SIGCHI.

Cognitive Group is the leading specialist in user experience in Canada.

“Cognitive brings a unique skill set. It is not just usability; it is not just GUI design. I’ve worked with usability consultants and (Cognitive) takes it to a new depth in the way they are able to reference the design and develop the strategy, They are the only ones I’m aware of that can do this.”
Marin Stevens for Royal Bank of Canada.

This “people first” approach allows Cognitive to design systems based on how users think, eliminating costly errors, delays and failures, and resulting in systems and processes that work right the first time.

Cognitive was founded by the Computer Research Institute of Montreal (CRIM) and a group of researchers in 1995.
Cognitive integrates cognitive ergonomics with business analysis and usability.