Buck Sommerkamp

I’m a UX researcher/designer/developer and programmer/analyst with four decades of experience in radio, television, print, and interactive production. I spent many growing-up years inside a radio studio with a huge microphone hanging in front of me (KCMW-FM, KOKO-AM, then KLSI-FM — now Mix93.3).

A few more years flew by behind big consoles full of knobs and switches as I got to be a TV guy and a police dispatcher and a magazine editor and a manager of information systems for a publishing company…and now I spent lots of time with all sorts of technology in every way possible.

I love to communicate in oh-so-many ways. I earned my Public Relations degree at Central Missouri State University (I know they call it the “University of Central Missouri” now, but to me it will always be CMSU…with apologies to the Board of Somethings Who Find New Names For Perfectly Good Universities). I'm currently working on my Master's in Interaction Design at the University of Kansas.

I spent a lot of time doing video and interactive web applications for Butler Manufacturing, a division of BlueScope Steel based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. As a developer for several web sites within Butler’s Customer Solutions Group, I worked with search engine optimization, social media, and the integration of internal and external communications to the 1,500 North American customers who design and erect Butler pre-engineered steel buildings.

Beginning in 2013, I work as a researcher in the User Experience (UX) team for a regional financial institution that’s somewhat of a hybrid government/non-profit, startup/entrepreneurial, and commercial entity. We get to work on some significant financial applications and mobile experiences, and best of all, we learn from each other in the team room. I (seriously) work with some of the best people out there who know their stuff!

Once a month (and sometimes more), you’ll find me managing KCDesigncore, a local community of designers and developers who love to use Adobe software and sharpen their skills.

I enjoy interacting with colleagues in Toastmasters International and the Social Media Club of Kansas City. I've volunteered at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts, the Kansas City Center for Inclusion, Mid-America Assistance Coalition, and a few other Kansas City organizations that make this a great community to live in, love in, and enjoy.

A tribesman and Eagle Scout, I’m also the father of two amazing grown sons. For fun, I enjoy great music…crisp, high-definition anything…being around like-minded friends…streaming live events, video and audio editing, podcasting, and an occasional splurge of Caramel Apple Spice.

If you ask me something about music from the 70s*, I’ll be your friend for life! Actually, that could probably happen anyway — I enjoy meeting new people on the road of life.