Donna Maurer is a freelance information architect and interaction designer and specialises in making complex systems simple for people to use. She has more than six years in senior roles, consulting and in-house. She has designed a wide range of information systems such as intranets, websites, e-commerce sites and many business applications. She is currently focusing on mentoring other people so they can do the same.

Donna talks and writes too much. She is an experienced speaker and has presented at many events, including the Information Architecture Summit. She has developed and presented very popular workshops on usability testing, information architecture and interaction design. She regularly writes for Boxes and Arrows, and recently for Digital Web Magazine. She has been writing her weblog, DonnaM, since 2002.

Donna is also an active member of many professional bodies including the IA Institute and Usability Professionals Association. She has been on the organising committee for the Information Architecture Summit for three years (conference co-chair for 2006, conference chair for 2007) and is a local ambassador for UXnet (the User Experience Network).

Donna got into card sorting by trying it out on a hard project and finding out that it didn't give her the easy answer she hoped for. She has since spent much time trying to figure out when it works, when it doesn't and what to do about that.