Professional
Info
As a person who strives to continually grow and improve, I find that working to understand both client and user, and designing experiences for both, affords me constant learning opportunities. User experience designing allows me to give purpose to my creative side and satisfies my tendency to be analytical and detail-focused, and to help both business and users achieve their goals in easy and delightful ways.
My main focuses are on user research and user-centered design, and being having the ability to marry their needs with those of the business.
Work
Experience
Lead User Experience Designer, Bluewolf (an IBM Company), March 2016 - Present
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Led the charge in implementing design into a Salesforce partner global agency by creating a UX methodology, running educational sessions and classes on UX and design thinking, training co-workers in user-centered design.
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Convinced co-workers and stakeholders of the value in user-centered design and pushed for a change in how design is viewed; was then tasked with scoping for many successful RFP and SOWs.
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Designed projects for Salesforce Visual Force, Lightning Communities, and mobile responsive additions.
User Experience and Visual Redesign, Soft Networks, Freelance
January 2016 - March 2016
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Tasked with the redesign of a large e-commerce website dealing buying and selling networking equipment.
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Created an appropriate color palette to compliment the existing logo, as well as chose appropriate fonts.
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Created the layout of each page, including homepage and product page, created new navigations and gave the site a more welcome feel through my use of copy and advertisement.
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Managed the requirements of key stakeholders with respect to branding and user needs, while adhering to a strict timetable.
User Experience and Redesign Consultant, Charity Miles
July - August 2015
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Tasked with finding out why the app had such a large ‘bounce’ and ‘exit’ rate at certain stages, and to come up with solutions to fix those issues, as well as encourage more daily use of the app.
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Through extensive user research came up with several solutions that improved the app’s usability and design.
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By implementing a stronger social aspect, we were able to use accountability and teamwork to encourage active daily use.
Website Design and Sales Associate, Absynthetika Designs, 2008 - present
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Redesigned full website, organizing necessary information in logical order and allowing for future e-commerce development; modulated for future manageability.
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Strengthened brand trust and aesthetics by creating a new logo and illustrations, allowing for a more consistent feel throughout the website.
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Kept a friendly and welcome feel too keep the user comfortable; nothing intimidating.
Insurance Claims Assessor, Desjardins Financial Security, Toronto, ON, 2008 to 2011
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Maintained company policy, codes, and rules, paying out thousands of dollars per day.
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Communicated with policy holders to determined claimed loss and the extent of insurance coverage.
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Learned new business systems and held to a strict error and output percentage.
Software
SKETCH
ILLUSTRATOR
PHOTOSHOP
OMNIGRAFFLE
GOOGLE ANALYTICS
GOOGLE FORMS
GOOGLE DRIVE
INVISION
AXURE
POP
TRELLO
KEYNOTE
SALESFORCE
UX Practices
AFFINITY MAPPING
BEST PRACTICES
BUSINESS ANALYSIS
COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS
COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS
CONTEXTUAL ANALYSIS
COPYWRITING
DESIGN ANALYSIS
DESIGN STUDIO
FEATURE PRIORITIZATION
ITERATIONS
KPIs
NEXT STEPS
OPEN/CLOSED CARD SORTING
PERSONA CREATION
PRESENTATIONS
PROTOTYPING
SITE/APP MAPPING
SKETCHING
STORYTELLING
SURVEYSUSER INTERVIEWS
USABILITY TESTING
USER FLOWS
USER INTERFACE DESIGN
USER RESEARCH
WIREFRAMES
Education
User Experience Design Immersive
General Assembly, New York City
2015
I immersed myself into the user experience designer world, learning in 10 weeks how to conduct research, ask the right questions, understand motivations, discover and fix areas of opportunity, and prototype to show my ideas.
Also learned how best to work with team members and present these findings to stakeholders and developers.
Honors Bachelor of Arts, Specialist in English
University of Toronto
2001-2006
I read and wrote a lot, and focused a lot on the different usages of language, and its history. The classes I most enjoyed were those on science fiction, creative writing, and where the entire classes were build around a central thesis. I also took quite a few media and film classes.
Additional:
Copywriting That Sells
University of Toronto Graduate Course
2006
Learned the basics of copywriting and applied it to case-study assignments. Oftentimes, the assignment involved creating a fake product and learning to sell it to various audiences in a multitude of ways. Poster ads, brochures, and magazine ads.