Employment History

Independent Consultant

2008-11

UI Architect (UI Team Manager), ACE Program, IBM for CBP (contractor)

2006 - 2007

• Build, train, and manage a team of 15-18 designers and writers who are matrixed into 5 different projects at various stages in the development life cycle.
• Serves as the Acting UI Lead for 2-5 projects, and the Acting Team Lead for 1 project simultaneously
• Is Responsible for UI and design standards, process, documentation, and design approvals.
• Is the 508 Compliance Touchpoint for ACE Portal
• Plays a significant role in improving process and documentation throughout software life cycle on multiple projects using different software development processes.
• Serves as a floating troubleshooter and problem solver throughout the project.

User Interface Designer, America Online (contractor)

July 2004 - December 2004, February 2005 - December 2005

• Designed and specified user interfaces for AOL Community products (AOL Journals, Social Networking, Email Groups, Message Boards)
• Designed and specified user interfaces for AOL Search products (Local Search, Smartbox, Yellow Pages, Search Standardizations, and two new products)
• Created concept UIs, information architecture documents, user experience flows, interaction documents, storyboards, and presentations
• Identified future paths for innovation in AOL Groups, AOL Journals, Local Search, and Search Standards.
• Drove requirements, coordinated with multiple product and business teams, worked with internal and external development teams, as well as content partners outside AOL.

User Interface Manager, Engenia Software, Inc.

February 2000 - July 2004

• Managed, designed, and documented UI for core company software (web and pc-based project and process management applications)
• Introduced UI Design, Usability, and change management into requirements and development processes, and was an advocate for the user and usability in the company.
• Gathered, refined, and documented product requirements
• Conceptualized and designed new applications and features around core technology
• Pinch-hit for testing, analysis, marketing, product management, customer engagement, and product requirements groups, and served as a floating troubleshooter.
• Member of oversight group that successfully managed product development process in 2003 and 2004; led 3 efforts to ensure we met critical corporate goals
• Conducted usability and ethnographic studies
• Created highly successful UI specification and product requirements documentation, training material, and company collateral
• Mentored new hires, served as employee advocate, and made other significant cultural contributions
• Received Extra Mile Award, May 2004.

Senior Consultant / Senior User-Centered Designer, Ernst & Young, LLP.

September 1996 - February 2000

• Designed and implemented user interfaces for complex web-based applications, intranets, and extranets
• Managed prototype and user interface teams, as well as contractors
• Created successful and compelling prototypes that led to additional work
• Managed risk and change, including creating a change management module that was adopted by more than 20 development teams within a year.
• Led efforts to define UI Design and Development Process; modified national RUP software development processes to include a robust UI Design module.
• Served as a UI Team troubleshooter often deployed to get design efforts back on schedule, to solve tricky design issues, or to improve client relationships.
• Designed branding initiatives and campaigns, created collateral, and contributed components to cutting edge multimedia presentations, art director of video shown to all employees in the US.
• Clients included: Standard and Poor's, Whirlpool, Nationsbank, Coca-Cola, Food & Friends (pro bono).

Member*, Technical Internet Support Team, Lockheed Martin (MMTSI)

July 1995 - April 1996

• Prototyped and built mini-sites and document templates
• Developed Catalog of Services
• Implemented mini-sites
• Translated documents into HTML
• Quality assurance, testing, and analysis
• Created catalog of services

*"part-time" position averaged 40 hours/week, funded by the EPA contract

Research Assistant and Information Systems Consultant*, University of Virginia

June 1988 - July 1994

• Designed, renovated, created, implemented, and used information systems for scientific data
• Created informational graphics and brochures
• Built gopher-sites and websites for international and university efforts
• Managed scientific samples and documents
• Evangelized the World Wide Web
• Taught professors and graduate students to build/use the World Wide Web

* multiple part- and full-time positions, funded by multiple LTER, FEMA, & NOAA grants

Additional Employment

• While a graduate student at the University of North Carolina, I held two true part-time jobs prototyping and building websites with the Kenan-Flagler School of Business and the Center for Early Adolescence.

Education

M.S.I.S, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

June 1996

Focus: Organization and Design of Information

A.B., Smith College

June 1994

Major: Ancient Studies, Minor: History of Art

Publications

• Seven articles in A List Apart:
  • Indie Exposure, in Issue 82
  • Language: The Ultimate User Interface, in Issue 59
  • Juggling Chaos: The Gentle Art of Prototyping, in Issue 48
  • Have Laptop, Will Travel, in Issue 29
  • Testing 1-2-3, in Issue 17
  • Them Changes: Maintaining Sanity When Clients Change Spec, in Issue 9.
  • Big Team, Big Problems? Surviving Large Scale Projects, in Issue 5.
• An Overview of Scanner Technology, in Office Systems '98, with Diana George and Amy Matteson, (1998).
• The Virginia Coast Reserve: An Overview, in Virginia Explorer. Volume 10 (4), pp. 2-5, with Bruce Hayden (1994)
• Privately printed letterpress and digital art books (1992-2003)
• Editor in Chief, Smith College Sophian, Fall, 1992 - Spring, 1994. (Associate Editor, Spring, 1992; Arts Editor, Fall, 1991)