Kristofer Layon is a designer, design educator, and writer who became ensnared in the World Wide Web in 1995 and has been caught in it ever since. As an undergraduate, he studied German and art history at St. Olaf College, which got him turned onto architecture, graphic design, and typography. After dabbling in historic preservation and graphic design from 1993 to 1998, his career with the web took off due to a connection to Madonna (that he will explain during his talk). Since then he got a master of fine arts degree in interactive design, did a design research project in Finland, taught design and advised design students at the University of Minnesota, co-founded MinneWebCon: Minnesota’s Web Conference, and now works for Capella Education Company as their Mobile Product Manager. Kris also runs a consulting firm, Aesthete Software, where he works with clients on mobile products, and writes books and articles about mobile design for Pearson Education’s New Riders and Peachpit imprints. Kris has spoken about mobile design at national conferences including South by Southwest (2011) and HighEdWeb (2009, 2010), and has taught iPhone app design workshops in Minneapolis, Phoenix, Cincinnati, New York City, Chicago, and San Francisco.
