Melissa Wittmayer

Melissa Wittmayer — Director, UX at Ontra. Talks and sessions delivered at UXDX.

Melissa Wittmayer

Director, UX

Melissa Wittmayer is a Director of User Experience in AI, with over 14 years of expertise in human-centered design across higher education, non-profit, and technology. With a background in human services and crisis intervention, she brings a trauma-informed design approach that prioritizes safety, trust, and meaningful user experiences.

Past talks

1 talk · 1 event

2026

UXDX Community: From Design Thinking to Product Decisions and AI EvaluationApr 2026

Shaping AI Agent Behavior: Why UX Must Own AI Evaluation Frameworks

As AI agents move from novelty to core product functionality, UX teams are stepping into an unexpected new responsibility: designing and managing evaluation systems that shape how AI behaves. In this talk, Melissa Wittmayer shares practical insights from building multi-layered evaluators— trust, momentum, and sentiment —to monitor and improve AI agent experiences in production. She breaks down how designers can create meaningful evaluation frameworks, integrate them into existing UX workflows, collaborate with cross-functional partners, and support teams through the mindset shift this work requires. Attendees will leave with a clear picture of why UX is uniquely positioned to guide this evolution, how to overcome the initial overwhelm, and how these evaluators open up entirely new avenues for design impact. The result: a more accountable, measurable, and human-centered AI ecosystem.

Melissa Wittmayer