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Sr. UX Designer
Improving Enterprises
Oct 2013 - Present (11 years)
I consult for the user!
UX muscle for hire.
Student of all things Improving.
Part of a phenomenal team.
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Founder / Rich Media Designer & Developer
Nonlinear Media, LLC
Jan 2005 - Present (19 years 9 months)
Founded this independent interactive multimedia production company where I design and developed Flex, HTML, CSS and Flash websites and RIAs. Contribute as Senior UX/UI Designer, Developer and Art Director. Compose and arrange music and sound for games, interactive media, theater, television and video. Record and engineer audition and demo CDs for local and international talent. Shoot on-location interviews, edit video. Some highlights include:
• Consulted, developed and designed on East and West coasts and Asia in Senior Flex and Design positions.
• Designed and built a popular Twitter application using Flex 4 and Parsley for iOS and Android tablets and desktops. (Flex 4, AS3, Parsley)
• Aggressively built network of contacts within video game industry by attending trade shows and meeting as many people as possible. Secured several contracts despite competition from more established audio houses.
• Composed all music and designed all sound effects for the SolidWorks’ Cosmic Blobs. (Finale, Reason, FMod)
• Rescued implementation of audio within Cosmic Blobs by assuming responsibility and quickly gaining technology knowledge, freeing company’s CTO to focus on other tasks. (FMod)
• Served as Audio Lead on multiple independent game titles creating music and sound effects. Also managed the recording of game dialogue in multiple languages. (Digital Performer, Reason, FMod)
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Director of User Experience
StudioGood
May 2013 - Oct 2013 (5 months)
Brought on to help lead the company in a shift from social to digital agency, and establish user experience as a core element. Along with the leads for development and account management, I spear-headed the development and implementation of a new design/development process to build in efficiencies while producing responsive websites, microsites and Facebook tabs.
• Served as coordinator between design and development teams, ensuring team parity during the lifetime of the project.
• Designed social graphics, posts and media for major brands. (Photoshop, Illustrator)
• Designed responsive web sites, Facebook Tabs and microsites (wireframe, UI, layout, graphics, icons) (Omnigraffle, Foundation 4, HTML5, CSS3, jQuery)
• Lead brainstorming sessions for idea generation for client pitches, social and marketing strategies
• Established regular brown-bag meetings where members of the team could share new ideas and skills with the rest of the company
• Built and established usage of a company Wiki, taught teams how to use it
• Helped establish a new responsive, agile design/development process for producing responsive websites.
• Counseled with every person in the company as to what was wrong and how we could fix it - began instituting changes to help with major issues.
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Lead Developer, UX/UI Designer
SolarWinds
Jul 2011 - May 2013 (1 year 10 months)
I lead the front-end team in the design and implementation of all features and fixes. As SolarWinds, I helped design and owned implementation of all feature improvements and fixes for the LEM frontend.
• Designed custom affordances, tools and front-end solutions. (Photoshop, Illustrator, Flex 3, AS3)
• Wrote many custom components, established coding best practices and standards. (Flex 3, AS3, Parsley)
• Oversaw the UX implementations and guidance for all front-end work (Photoshop, Flex 3, AS3)
• Assisted project management where able
• Worked closely with backend developers to design and implement new features and fixes (Flex 3, AS3, BlazeDS)
• Oversaw the continuous build environment (TeamCity, Bamboo, Perforce, ANT)
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Director of User Experience, Senior Software Engineer
TriGeo Network Security
Sep 2009 - Jul 2011 (1 year 10 months)
I lead the front-end team in the design and implementation of all features and fixes. As TriGeo, I designed and helped launch our most successful product release ever (from icons, to interface, to packaging) leading to a record year for the company and a key factor in the company’s acquisition in 2011 by SolarWinds for $35 million.
• Designed and developed icons, color schemes and palettes, dynamic dashboards, custom search and query interfaces, reporting tools, labels, packaging, marketing materials and more. (Photoshop, Illustrator)
• Wrote many custom components, established coding best practices and standards. (Flex 3, AS3, Parsley)
• Managed the front-end team of 6 developers, and served as liaison to management, QA and the back-end. (Agile, Scrum)
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Senior Flex Designer & Developer
Brainbox
Nov 2008 - Aug 2009 (9 months)
As a consultant, Brainbox contracted me to bridge the gap between design and development for a new online enterprise sporting platform (Kronum.com). I ramped up quickly and provided valuable input on project scope, communication, art preparation for Flex consumption, skinning, Flex themes and more.
• Consulted and educated the design team on file preparation and layout in order to streamline and optimize deliverables so each team could use their time doing what they did best. (Keynote, Photoshop)
• Built a robust and powerful avatar customization engine, including working with the back-end developers to create the necessary data structure and value objects. (Flex 3, AS3, Cairngorm)
• Designed and built numerous custom controls, components and widgets. (Flex 3, AS3, Cairngorm)
• Recruited and trained additional talent to augment the development team.
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UI/UX & Interaction Designer
Delve Networks
Jan 2008 - Sep 2008 (8 months)
Hired only as UX & UI designer for the front and backend applications of this revolutionary startup. Added value by quickly learning and taking on additional Flex development to allow developers more cycles on building components, not skinning them.
• Wireframes, prototypes and final art for front-end media Player, TroopTube website and others; utilized AS3 drawing API to draw UI dynamically at runtime. (OmniGraffle, Illustrator, Photoshop, AS3, Flex 3)
• Developed personæ, use-cases, workflow diagrams, mind-maps and other research tools to investigate and design the Analytics portion of backend tool. (OmniGraffle, Word, FreeMind, Illustrator)
• Used research and documents to wireframe and create final art for Analytics portion of backend tool. (Illustrator)
• Leveraged AS and development skills by creating a bridge between contracted designer and development by researching and establishing methods for UI Theme development, integration and implementation. (Unix, Maven, mxmlc, compc)
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Senior Flash Developer & Interaction Designer
Eporia, LLC
Feb 2007 - Jan 2008 (11 months)
Initially slated to merely continue development for existing Flash application, quickly transformed role into Lead UX & UI designer and Developer for striking new multi-media projects. Injected energy into and revitalized morale in production department.
• Identified and fixed over 80 bugs in existing application within first few months. (Flash, AS2, AS3)
• Developed new RIAs that brought a new vision to Eporia’s offerings. (Flash, AS2, AS3)
• Designed and implemented sleek new UI for Eporia’s namesake product. (.Net, C#, CSS)
• Designed UIs, OOP models and Design Patterns for RIAs and developed said RIAs. (Photoshop, Illustrator, UML, Flash)
• Creatively applied new and existing prototypes and classes to create efficient and reusable technologies. (Flash, AS2, AS3)
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Senior Flex Developer
Preventive Medicine LLC
2008 - 2008
Designed and coded a dynamic star-cluster animation, wrote and used unit tests for custom classes, researched dynamic instantiation of dynamically imported classes in ActionScript, implemented custom UI in Flex and ActionScript
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Interactive Media Designer
MediaPro, Inc.
Jun 2005 - Mar 2007 (1 year 9 months)
Contracted as Flash developer, quickly brought into multiple projects for graphic design, video and audio consultation and voice-over talent. Quickly advanced to full-time development coordinator. Trained 2 new developers and oversaw their progress. Highly sought-after developer/designer for internal projects for clients such as American Express, TAP Pharmaceuticals and Microsoft. Highlights include:
• Voted Star Employee for exceptional contributions by company-wide vote, 4th Quarter, 2005
• Salvaged audio for TAP Pharmaceuticals pilot project. (SoundForge)
• Quickly ramped up on in-house procedures and practices then trained other developers.
• Oversaw development of 4-hour interactive project including interactive full-motion composited green-screen video, interactive conversations and activities. Oversaw quality and progress of 5 additional developers.
• Advanced to audio/visual/design consultant role for multiple projects.
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Lead Sound Designer
Mindsurge Entertainment
Jun 2004 - Jun 2005 (1 year)
Designed sound effects for fantasy MMORPG Freeworld and MMOFPS ControlMonger.
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Interactive Media Designer
Prepress Training Solution
2000 - 2005 (5 years)
Hired by this company to write, produce, record and edit their online interactive training program for CD and Web delivery. Recorded all audio used for training. Composed original music and created graphics for trade show videos. Became subject matter expert in Adobe CS applications for press.
• Saved time and money while vastly improving audio quality by handling all recording, engineering, directing and performance of voice-overs, music and sound effects for interactive training programs. (Digital Performer, Audacity, Reason, QuickTime Pro, Premiere Pro)
• Took over CTO position with no prior experience, increasing production and consistently boosting annual revenue. Increased income 63% over previous year in 2004.
• Successfully streamlined training and testing to make programs more efficient.
• Developed interactive training program that won 2 prestigious awards and earned the company a listing in the “Top 25 Companies to Watch” by World Leaders In Print, published by Reed Business Information.
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Assistant Gallery Director
Albertson College of Idaho
Sep 1994 - Jun 2000 (5 years 9 months)
Managed gallery personel, set up/tear down of all shows, gallery-precise hanging/placing of all artwork for shows, catalogued all art on campus owned by the College of Idaho.