Experience

LRN

2010-06-18T22:06:00.000-07:00

Senior Product Designer in charge of a risk assessment tool and a community for an ethics, compliance and environmental knowledge company. I lead the team through the transition from an acquired concept to a enterprise application. The position involved heavy communication with the business owners as well as on/offshore development team.

All three products in LRN’s suit have an end user, customer admin and an internal admin element to them. Defining the personas and their usage pattern was critical in defining the posture of the tools and separating UI’s were appropriate. Gathering research was not a task that was budgeted in most smaller projecst, but I had to figure out how much casual needs gathering could be done. ‘Just because it is not budgeted, doesn’t mean its not expected’ is the odd reality in environments that don’t fully understand design.

Once the research has been gathered, it was compared to previous personas that were developed to see if it still mapped and either an individual persona was evolved or a new vague persona would be define. I find that a vague persona is better than nothing. Scenarios would then be developed to translate the business requirements and materialize them into a quick prototype. The Axure based prototype would help us, design and business, collaborate to clearly define the framework for the new features or overhauls. I say that in plural as many of LRN products were developed very quickly, without proper design the first time around. Once customers demonstrated interest AND frustration with it’s usability, then the business would commit to funding design for it. A bit backwards, but a reality in too many companies.

Once the framework was signed off, then the form and behavior spec was developed with collaboration from development. I find that earlier collaboration with dev helps the team morally as well as produce a realistic spec. Once development starts, my role reduce only about 25% as many details had to be communicated and tuned through the majority of the process. Once dev support dies down it’s time to communicate the design to QA. The process is what helps deliver on the business needs. It is one of the things I enjoy about in-house design work as opposed to agencies that hand off a design and never see it again.

Walt Disney Parks & Resorts Online

2010-06-18T22:05:00.001-07:00

(07/2008 - 11/2008)
Senior Information Architect position where I helped develop design patterns and a simple system for keeping track of requirements. A major task here was identifying standard interactions that we wanted to follow vs. opportunities to innovate that were appropriate for Disney. For instance, the interaction patterns for a map are better left to follow the google approach, but the content the given may be innovative in the sense that it accounts for kids.

iRise

2010-06-18T22:04:00.001-07:00

(08/2004 - 07/2008)
Interaction design position for a Windows based application. The application allows business analyst and interaction designers to build full fidelity prototypes of web apps without programming. My responsibilities included user research, detailed interaction design, usability testing, writing specifications and communicating ideas through development into testing. Cooper methodologies were heavily used here. Attending the Cooper Interaction Design Practicum with the full design team was one of the most successful team building events. It helped get everyone on the same page and formalize the language.

Creative Source Inc.

2010-06-18T22:03:00.001-07:00

(01/2001-08/2004)
Interaction design position at an advertising and interactive agency. My contributions spanned from logo designs, print, web sites and advanced ad customizing solutions. I was involved in initial client meetings to final presentations as well as working with development and printing shops.

iOM Composition Group

2010-06-18T22:01:00.001-07:00

(07/2000-12/2000)
Interaction design position for an international web app and graphic design agency. My involvement started at initial client meetings, developing flow diagrams, wireframes, and implementing the look that graphic designers had defined. I then worked with oversees development teams to complete the projects.

Universal Electronics

2010-06-18T21:43:00.000-07:00

(01/1999-07/2000)
Product design position working with hard and soft interfaces. My key project was Mosaic, a touch screen remote control, for which I did the industrial and interaction design for. Special consideration was needed in order to fit physical keys close to the screen for a seamless integration. My tasks also included user flows, final GUI and usability testing.