Expertise
| User Experience Strategy for websites and web applications | 11 Years |
| Information Architecture, User Interface Design & Web Site Design | 12 Years |
| Rich Internet Applications | 9 Years |
| Conversion Rate Optimization and Website Optimization | 5 Years |
| Mobile User Experience Design & Strategy | 3 Years |
Experience
Senior User Experience Manager
The Vanguard Group . Malvern, PA | 01.09 - Present
Formed Vanguard's prototyping and web optimization team. Led large-scale website optimization efforts across thousands of users participating in split testing campaigns. Led the creation of Vanguard Labs, Vanguard's first publicly accessible region to solicit user feedback on beta concepts. Led multivariate testing program using SiteSpect and content optimization program using Google AdWords.
Led the mobile user experience strategy for Vanguard. Directed multi-disciplinary teams in the design of the mobile user experience including experiences tailored for feature phones, smartphones, and tablets. Worked closely with IT to collaborate on development strategies comparing native app development to mobile web app development.
Led user experience teams in support of Vanguard.com. Orchestrated team roles across information architecture, visual design, interactive design, prototyping, and development throughout the user centered design process. Defined measureable website success metrics and developed website optimization plans to continuously impove site toward defined goals.
User Experience ManagerThe Vanguard Group . Malvern, PA | 09.07 - 12.09
Managed user experience teams for Vanguard's institutional websites, including those for financial advisors and institutional asset managers. Primarily focused on website strategy and user centered design processes while ensuring appropriate front-end implementation solutions with development teams.
User Experience Design Director
Radian Guaranty. Philadelphia, PA | 04.02 - 08.07
Led and managed all user experience design efforts for company-wide web applications. Directed user-centered design across information architecture, high-fidelity prototyping and client-side development integration. Designed and developed robust rich-client user interfaces for web applications. Served as a key participant in requirements development using the Rational Unified Process and conciliated dissimilar interests between marketing, business, end user, and development teams. Established highly respected thought leadership by defining emerging industry best practices by publishing articles in IBM developerWorks, IBM Ease of Use Journal, BEA DEV2DEV, Digital Web Magazine and User Experience Design Magazine. Planned and executed in-house usability testing. Established company’s original user experience team.
Principal Interactive Designer
Destiny WebSolutions. Conshohocken, PA | 09.99 - 12/01
Responsible for the design and development of user interfaces for top financial services companies including Fleet, Mellon, Bessemer Trust and The Bank of New York. Created user-centered interfaces for online account access systems and coordinated branding and information architecture development. Worked closely with business analysts to refine use cases and with developers to execute UI designs. Collaborated with marketing to successfully transition and enhance their existing offline brand to the web while providing enhanced online functionality. Helped develop a staff of six designers and contributed to the documented design methodology.
Database Developer
Claritas, Inc. Ithaca, NY | 06.99 - 08.99
Fully developed an Access database front-end to access data through ODBC driver. Used Visual Basic and SQL to fully automate advanced queries and report generation based on user menu input choices. Incorporated graphical user interface with optimized heuristics for easier user input. Created full documentation of all work to facilitate future database maintenance.
Publications
"User Interface Implementations of Faceted Browsing". Digital Web Magazine. April 29, 2008."Prescribing AJAX: Panacea, Placebo, or Poison? Peeling the AJAX Onion". AjaxWorld Magazine. December 5, 2007.
"Ease of Use Outside the Box". Boxes and Arrows. August 16, 2007.
"Unify your Web apps with UUE". IBM DeveloperWorks. September 19, 2006.
"User Interface Design - Taking the Good with the Bad". Digital Web Magazine. July 18, 2006.
"Content Personalization: Planning and Implementation". BEA Dev2Dev. June 29, 2006.
"Design interactive error handling for Web apps". IBM DeveloperWorks. February 14, 2005.
"The Requirements Rift. The missing ingredient between requirements and successful application development". User Experience Magazine. Spring/Summer 2004
"Create rich client apps with the DOM". IBM DeveloperWorks. February 17, 2003
"Strike a Balance: User's Expertise in Interface Design". IBM DeveloperWorks. September 4, 2003
Technologies
XHTML, CSS, JavaScript, AJAX, Sencha Touch, PHP, Google Analytics, WebTrends, TeaLead, Dreamweaver, Photoshop, ImageReady, Illustrator, Flash, InDesign, Access, Visio, Excel, BEA WebLogic Portal, DocumentumAwards
Finalist for the 2013 Core77 Windows Mobile Design Contest
2012 American Inhouse Design Awards Winner - Vanguard Mobile
Finalist for the 2011 Core77 Windows Mobile Design Contest
Top 10 Finalist for the Sencha Touch App Contest
Finalist for the AT&T Open Call Mobile Development Contest
Finalist for the Macromedia Flash Usability Design Contest
BestFlashSites featured site
Grand Prize Winner of Solid Solutions cover contest
Artwork featured on cover of Solid Solutions magazine
Published in Runner's World, Mechanical Solutions, Machine Design
Winner of Cornell Bridge Design Contest
Varsity Letter Winner in Men's NCAA DI Track and Cross Country
Featured in New England Runner
Winner of the 1999 Boston Prudential Stairclimb
Winner of the 2004 Philadelphia Race for the Cure
Dean's List
Mensa Member
Research
Formed and led research team in Cornell's Human Power Lab to study and improve mountain bike rear suspension systems. Performed a complete free-body analysis of bike/rider system to determine best suspension linkage and pivot location. Determined optimum design. Built full scale working prototype.Download report (5MB
)
Education
Cornell University. Ithaca, NYBachelor's of Science, Mechanical Engineering 1996
Education
Cornell University. Ithaca, NYBachelor's of Science
Mechanical Engineering, focus on Ergonomics
Featured Published Article
User Interface Implementations of Faceted Browsing. Digital Web Magazine"Faceted filtering helps users manage large amounts of information. Do you need to slice-n-dice or puree? If you can only filter by selecting one value per facet (slice-n-dice), can you efficiently accomplish your ultimate task or do you need to select multiple values per facet, across facets (puree). The former can be done simply with links while the latter may require a complex combination of form controls with all facets values always persistent. "
Read more...
View all publications.
Featured Projects
Disneyed | 12/15
Implemented and customized Wordpress templates and widgets for Disneyed.
Optimizable | 8/11
Created Optimizable.org to help others learn about optimizing a website by coining and explaining the key concepts of idle rate and traffic flow.
Instant Playdates | 10/10
Conceived, designed, and developed Instant Playdates, an HTML mobile web application with Facebook and Google Maps integration, that allows parents to schedule impromptu playdates for their children.
Vanguard's Investing Truths | 06/07
Conceptualized four interactive graphics that explain fundamental truths of investing. Led a Flex development team to implement the interactive tools.
Protonotes | 06/07
Founded, designed, and developed Protonotes, a prototype annotation web service that allows project team members to easily collaborate on requirements development in a wiki fashion. Mentioned in the Wall Street Journal article, "A time for sharing", on GigaOM, Mashable, Adaptive Path, and Ajaxian. The development community has built Protonotes plugins for Drupal, Joomla, Axure, and Wordpress.
Carbon Rubber | 05/07
Created and online portfolio for my younger twin brothers' athletic shoe design portfolio .
Wine Investor | 05/07
Redesigned the layout for Wine Investor.
Runner Art | 11/06
Designed and developed the website for Runner Art, seller of watercolor running prints.
Verilogue | 09/06
Designed and developed the website for this pharmaceutical market research provider.
Classy Mommy | 07/06
Planned, designed, and developed faceted information architecture and AJAX user interface for this dynamic baby product finder.
EBS Healthcare | 04/03
Designed a web layout for EBS Healthcare incorporating new branding that I prescribed. EBS is a leader in speech pathologist job placement.
Camp $tartup | 03/03
Designed and developed the website for Camp $tartup, an entrepreneurial summer program for teen women, held at the Johnson School, Cornell University.
Valley Paving | 01/03
I created the website and branding for Valley Paving Company including logo design, layout design, copy creation and web implementation.
Lap2Go | 06/02
I developed the complete branding for Lap2Go including logo design, layout design, copy creation and web implementation for Olympian and American record holder Marc Davis. Also designed and developed Runner Art.
IBM and FullTilt | 04/02
To stir interest in a new software product alliance between IBM and FullTilt, I created this Flash web-mercial.
LivePerson | 02/02
With non-unified messaging on the poorly branded existing homepage, I evaluated the content design and layout. Based on product and demographic focus, I suggested a new design. Read the full design review memo.
Juniper Bank | 01/02
In response to poor banner ad and landing page effectiveness for online credit card customer acquisitions, I redesigned an online ad set focusing on key value points of the product. Read the full design review memo.
The Bank of NY | 12/01
Focusing on highly usable interactive design, I developed the user interface for the Private Client online account access for The Bank of New York. I successfully designed the navigation and information architecture around the large amounts of data and complex functionality. I also created an interactive site tour in Flash 5.
Flash Usability | 05/01
My Flash website design focusing on usability was chosen as a finalist in the Flash Usability Contest. From the over 700 entries received worldwide, only 20 were selected as finalists.
UBS Paine Webber | 05/01
I created a design layout for the merged financial giant.
Flash Experiment | 04/00
I designed an introspective multimedia piece to hone my animation skills. Chosen as a "Best Flash Site".
VP Technologies | 11/00
I completely redesigned website and branded it to convey a cutting-edge technology firm.
CitiBank | 10/00
I designed two layouts(layout 1, layout 2) that reflected the relationship manager's role with new online technical capabilities.
Original Personal Site | 07/00 I created my original personal website.
Fleet Credit Card | 05/00
I worked on multiple Fleet initiatives including: banner design, flats-to-web conversion, logo design, smart card download demo and online credit card selection. I also worked on many layout designs 1 2 3 4
Mellon Private Asset | 03/00
I redesigned the website to reflect Mellon's high class/high touch service that it offers to its private clients. I also created an earlier prototype version along with several layout designs.
Bessemer Trust | 12/99
I completely redesigned the website, including logo design and online branding.
3D Solid Modeling | 05/99
I used SolidWorks CAD software to create 3D models and rendered them use PhotoWorks.
Tricycle
Toothbrush
Stapler
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