Professional Goals

Help companies develop better technology products, Web applications and sites leveraging user experience methods.

Craft actionable strategies for research design and development to satisfy business goals and delight customers.

Lead UX teams in research, analysis, design and prototyping. 

Help companies extend their brands and craft experiences in the new cross-media environment.

Qualifications

Leadership:  Manager of a services group producing web applications and executive presentations.  Project Manager and Interactive Producer supporting design and development of interactive applications for the health, telecommunications, utility and media sectors.  Lead Interaction Designer of brand-essential e-commerce applications and Web sites for multiple sectors including transportation, hospitality, manufacturing and consumer packaged goods sectors. 

Research: User research and usability testing in academic and business environments.  Defining research needs, conducting research, analyzing findings and compiling recommendations for Web sites and applications. 

Design:  Fluent in definition of requirements and constraints and designing to those constraints.  Skilled at facilitating design activities including brainstorming, card-sorting, cluster analysis, modeling, wireframes, interaction flows, prototyping and evaluation.  User interface design of gaming interfaces based upon user experience best practices.

Documentation:  Project documentation including proposals, estimates, timelines, requirements definition.  Research artifacts including test protocols, research findings, task flows and personas.  Design artifacts including wireframes, interactive flows, site maps and prototypes. 

Experience

Art Institute of Atlanta - Web Design and Interactive Media Department

2009 to Present

Fiserv

2009 - 2010

Responsible for designing user interfaces for call center and bill pay applications.  Developed a growth strategy for using UX methods to research, measure and design better applications, improving the quality of the user experience through enhanced usability and visual design.  Introduced methods of user research and analysis  to establish enhancements and measure success. 

iCare

The iCare call center application was redesigned in order to improve usability.  We performed task-based design to ensure that key information can be located within three clicks, and in most cases, two.  Each interaction flow was assessed and designed for excellent performance and readability.  User feedback confirms it is a vast improvement on the prior version.

User Experience Professional – Consultant

1999 – 2009

As a Senior Information Architect, lead activities to design user friendly Web applications.  Interaction design activities can include heuristic evaluation, requirements gathering, persona development, flow charts and wireframes, prototypes and usability testing. 

Project:  Cartoon Network Fusion Fall

 For the FusionFall MMOG geared toward children,  performed user experience design for online account creation and management functions, and made usability enhancements to the in-game user interface controls.  www.fusionfall.com

Project:  InterContinental Hotels Group

Refined map search features and redesigned individual hotel pages for this ecommerce Web site representing Intercontinental Hotels and Holiday Inn.  We performed incremental enhancements designed to increase conversion revenue.   www.ichotelsgroup.com

Project:  Harrah’s (IBM Interactive Studios)

The ecommerce Web site was redesigned to provide single interface for all Harrah’s properties, reservation capabilities, and rewards program account access.  Lead the information design team of three to detail wireframes and create content management templates.  The site was designated one of the “Top 10 Most Innovative Web Sites in Nevada” by the Internet Business Alliance of Nevada.        www.harrahs.com (since redesigned)

Project:  Prudential Financial (IBM Interactive Studios

During a digital branding engagement, our team developed a Web strategy for Prudential Financial.  Our team developed a new strategy for the user interface to serve several lines of business, including a unified account access, trading and financial planning features. My contribution drove the design away from a simple categorization of existing lines of business to a establishing a single face to Prudential Financial.  www.prufn.com (since redesigned, now www.prudential.com)

Information Architect / Interactive Producer – Consultant

1997 – 1999

Managed the design and development of interactive projects and was regularly responsible for the information design.  Clients included Elemental Interactive, iXL / Floyd Design, Mindflex.  Projects included Time Warner Do It Yourself and Bayer Interactive Kiosk.

MCI

1995 – 1997

As Presentation Services Manager, supervised a team of Interactive Media Producers within the sales and marketing division. Rapid development included Internet/Intranet applications and interactive multi-media presentations. 

Still Current Design

1992 – 1994

Designed and produced graphic interfaces for various multimedia kiosks, specializing in economic development and utilities industries.

Education

Masters in Human-Computer Interaction, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2009

Bachelor of Fine Arts in Studio Art, University of Tennessee, 1986

Publications

“Managing Information in a Creative Environment,” 

Carol Bales, Ellen Yi-Luen Do, ACM Creativity and Cognition, 2009

Affiliations

ACM, CHIA IXDA, UPA