Introduction
This is my career history around the evolution of my design career. From environments that I have built my career to any certifications or awards I have achieved along the way. Each step helped me grow as a designer and improve my skills. I am grateful for each and every experience I had along the way.
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Wizards of the Coast (Hasbro) - Direct Hire
Start Date: June 5, 2022 - Present
Industry: Games Mobile Services
Role: UX,UI,and UXR Mobile & Web Manager
Role: UX,UI,and UXR Mobile & Web Manager
Lead a team team of designers, researchers, and UX practitioners for our many products that support the game Magic the Gathering. I was responsible for strategy and building up the practice of UX within the organization. Lead teams on how to focus on being user centric for informed design decisions. Built in new frameworks and process around to meeting the UX maturity standards of practice. Onboarded new members and provided mentorship of junior designers to build skills and delivery higher quality products. Over saw the UX direction of our key products and helped planning roadmaps, key strategy research initiatives and brought key tools to our organization. Was a key facilitator in developing our 3 year roadmap planning and building experiences that delight and help those looking to be playing the with the MTG game suite. Help guide product requirements based on user research and design recommendations.
Skills Strength: Problem Solving, Product Requirements, Mobile Design, Interaction Design, User Centered Designs, Design Language and Style Guides, Design Systems, Figma Software, User Stories, User Testing, User Research, Scrum Agile, Notion and Product Planning
Skills Strength: Problem Solving, Product Requirements, Mobile Design, Interaction Design, User Centered Designs, Design Language and Style Guides, Design Systems, Figma Software, User Stories, User Testing, User Research, Scrum Agile, Notion and Product Planning
FCA Stellantis - Direct Hire
Start Date: Aug 2, 2021 - June 1, 2022
Industry: Automotive Mobile Services
Role: UX,UI Mobile & Web Manager
Role: UX,UI Mobile & Web Manager
Lead a team of global designers that were cross platform around web and mobile UX design functions. Product owner for the creation of a design system that would include both mobile and web properties. Held user centric design workshops to help feature owners and product owners use customer centric practices. Manage the end to end digital experiences to ensure quality customer experiences. Owned the UX vision and strategy for mobile and web digital products. Lead a matrix design team with scrum Agile practices for effective delivery of design artifacts to software teams.
Skills Strength: Mobile Design, Interaction Design, User Centered Designs, Sketch Products, Design Language and Style Guides, Design Systems, InVision Software, User Stories, User Testing, User Research, Scrum Agile
Skills Strength: Mobile Design, Interaction Design, User Centered Designs, Sketch Products, Design Language and Style Guides, Design Systems, InVision Software, User Stories, User Testing, User Research, Scrum Agile
Ford Motor Company - Direct Hire
Start Date: Jan 2, 2019 - End Date: Jun 4, 2021
Industry: Automotive Mobile Services
Role: Senior UX,UI Designer - Experience Lead
Role: Senior UX,UI Designer - Experience Lead
Continued working with the Innovation team within FordPass I had the opportunity to move to our Palo Alto team where I could focus on more broad scope of Innovation work within all of connected services. First main goal was to help with the navigation team on presenting all their product suite for upper management to understand all their products including all the way up to VP and President. Working closely with the Product owner and Feature owner I was able to create a digital energy room as well as a pop up energy room that could be taken anywhere to display all their features. Was noticed for this work and moved on to the FordPass Performance team as design lead to help them develop new app for the New Ford Bronco. I worked on creation from start to finish on this product. I assisted in the production of all media products for the reveal of the Bronco and delivered all UX flows for this cross platform product. With this project I have overcome daily challenges and carried on throughout this project with confidence, courage, and optimism. With limited time and resources for design I have maintained tough deadlines and a large amount of work to move this project forward. I have taken on roles beyond my own in order to help my team so that this project could be on the right path for delivery. See featured work and article here https://thebronconation.com/fordpass-performance-app-and-the-2021-bronco-part-3/
Required me to understand and know current driver distraction laws and restrictions. CarPlay and Android Auto design requirements.
Required me to understand and know current driver distraction laws and restrictions. CarPlay and Android Auto design requirements.
Awards: Outstanding Work Award, given to be by my manager for the work I did on the Energy Room.
Skills Strength: Mobile Design, Interaction Design, User Centered Designs, Sketch Products, Design Language and Style Guides, Off-Road Design Journey, InVision Software, User Stories, Projected App, Benchmarking, User Testing, User Research
Skills Strength: Mobile Design, Interaction Design, User Centered Designs, Sketch Products, Design Language and Style Guides, Off-Road Design Journey, InVision Software, User Stories, Projected App, Benchmarking, User Testing, User Research
TekSystems for FordPass at Ford Motor Company - Contract
Start Date: Mar 26, 2018 - End Date: Dec 21, 2018
Industry: Automotive Mobile Services
Role: Senior UX,UI Designer
Role: Senior UX,UI Designer
Having worked in the connected car space I then transitioned to the mobile apps that worked with the connected vehicle. My main role while joining the team was to integrate the contract design team to work with the on-site Ford design teams. We did early testing to find out what was working with development teams and what needed improvements. Organized testing data and prototypes to show management a direction to move the newly adopted design team forward. Worked within the Innovation team on new products and feature to test for product owners to feature in the app. Held colocation workshops on team design cycle to incorporate the Product designer role into the lifecycle of the agile system. Created new concepts around updating and creating a design system through prototypes for teams to use moving forward. Participated in global design demo for Ford company workshop, and helped design prototypes which helped get approvals for new features from upper management. Training in 5D Process, LEGO Serious Play, Design Thinking, Discovery and Framing. Held workshops for annotation process across teams.
Skills Strength: Mobile Design, Interaction Design, User Centered Designs, Sketch Products, Design Language and Style Guides, Connected Car, InVision Software, Abstract, Zeplin
Skills Strength: Mobile Design, Interaction Design, User Centered Designs, Sketch Products, Design Language and Style Guides, Connected Car, InVision Software, Abstract, Zeplin
Harman International / Samsung - Direct Hire
Start Date: Jul 5, 2016 - End Date: Mar 16, 2018
Industry: Automotive Teir 1 Supplier
Role: Interaction / Visual Designer UX Connected Car
Role: Interaction / Visual Designer UX Connected Car
Continued to accelerate the work I did while at Harman but now as a direct hire. With the success of the Subaru redesign I was put on all kinds of projects to further the Connected UX space. Including the business adventure to get FCA into a Harman supplier. The work I did helped Harman get the contract with FCA which was a huge project. In order to get the new business, I took on more of a design lead for this project. I was able to re-create the FCA vehicle line with all new graphics and layouts to demonstrate our capabilities with and Android based system. With this I further learned new programs and software to advance the team in prototyping designs for easier development timelines. Focused training on Google's Android Auto material design language. Other projects included new demos for CES, with the design lead for a project for Mini Cooper which won the Red Dot Award that year.
Awards: Excellence in Service in helping the team acquire new business. Nominated by the business manager on the FCA project.
Red Dot Award for UI Design and Interaction
Skills Strength: Android Auto, Interaction Design, User Centered Designs, Adobe Design Products, Design Language and Style Guides, Benchmarking, User Testing, Connected Car, Axure prototyping, InVision Software, Atlassian tools.
Red Dot Award for UI Design and Interaction
Skills Strength: Android Auto, Interaction Design, User Centered Designs, Adobe Design Products, Design Language and Style Guides, Benchmarking, User Testing, Connected Car, Axure prototyping, InVision Software, Atlassian tools.
Aquent for Harman International - Contract
Start Date: Jun 29, 2015 - End Date: Jul 1, 2016
Industry: Automotive Teir 1 Supplier
Role: Interaction / Visual Designer UX Connected Car
Role: Interaction / Visual Designer UX Connected Car
Working within the Connected Car division I had the pleasure of taking on new roles with designing concepts for the vehicle, motorcycle, and even in the tractor space. Anywhere a connected screen could be found I was there designing the interface for it. My first big project was the redesign of the Subaru infotainment system. I was lead designer responsible for a redesign and a few new features that went into the design of the 2018 Subaru vehicles. Including redesign icons on the home display screen and creating unique designs for all interactions. I was involved early on with the work for new display screens for John Deere and Harley Davidson products.
Skills Strength: Interaction Design, User Centered Designs, Adobe Design Products, Design Language and Style Guides, Connected Car, Axure prototyping, InVision Software.
STAHLS'
Start Date: Mar 16, 2014 - End Date: Jun 27, 2015
Industry: Textiles Supplies and Business
Role: Web Graphics Designer / UX/UI Design
Role: Web Graphics Designer / UX/UI Design
My very first task while working here was to redesign the entire website based on customer research and feedback. The goal was to make it more user friendly based on actual data gathered from user testing. We did several rounds of guerilla testing while attending conventions with actual customers. Other methods to help frame the structure of the products we used card sorting with the expert team to determine final categories and layouts. My main function once we synthesized the data was to make data drive content more user friendly for our customers. Other responsibilities including designing layout of pages, flows of the user interactions for when the user is checking out (payment), and overall design support for all of the companies remaining business. This particular company had five subsidiary companies that all had to maintain the same design language.
Awards: CowBell Award, given for strength in work and nominated for excellence in completing design ahead of schedule.
Skills Strength: User Centered Designs, Adobe Design Products, User Testing, User Research, Design Language and Style Guides, and Constant Contact Design
Skills Strength: User Centered Designs, Adobe Design Products, User Testing, User Research, Design Language and Style Guides, and Constant Contact Design
Miller Media
Start Date: Jul 12, 2010 - End Date: Mar 11, 2014
Industry: Marketing Design
Role: Lead Web and Graphic Designer/Art Direction
Role: Lead Web and Graphic Designer/Art Direction
Starting at Miller I began coding and cleaning up code on sites that had requested the assistance of Miller Media to boost their rankings in Google. Very quickly I began my passion for designing clean and user friendly websites for our clients. Finding new was for most of our clients to sell their products to their users became my speciality.My designs are SEO based and usability for optimal website traffic. Helping companies and especially clients create their brand through designs that carry the same look through letterhead, newsletters, email campaigns, social media, and to make their websites efficient and user-friendly. Most of our clients at the time were suppliers in the automotive industry. Task that I was in charge of during my time there were designing business logos, customize email campaigns, website design and user interface design. Customer service is always number one, I work closely with clients to make sure the design they want is seamless for their company’s brand. With my photography experience I utilize my skills to repair images for clients use in websites.
Skills Strength: User Centered Designs, Web Layouts for WordPress, HTML basic coding, CSS, Adobe Product Suite, Social Media Branding, Automotive Products.
Skills Strength: User Centered Designs, Web Layouts for WordPress, HTML basic coding, CSS, Adobe Product Suite, Social Media Branding, Automotive Products.
AtDetroit LLC.
Start Date: Sept 13, 2008 - End Date: Mar 16, 2009
Industry: Travel and Art Design
Role: Web Designer & Maintenance + Photographer
Role: Web Designer & Maintenance + Photographer
Working on contract for the artist Lowell Boileau and Susan Kramer within their small family business. My job was to help with maintenance of one of their accounts for a Jamaican vacation booking website, content updates for a charity site, and cataloging of artwork. I would updated content and create new content within both websites. While tasked with the updates to the art catalog of Lowell's own artwork I learned how to capture via photography, editing, and arranging on his own website.
Skills Strength: HTML basic coding, CSS, data base, photography
Skills Strength: HTML basic coding, CSS, data base, photography
Redford Jewelry & Coin
Start Date: Aug 26, 2007 - End Date: Aug 9, 2008
Industry: Retail
Role: Web Designer and Design Maintenance
Role: Web Designer and Design Maintenance
My job was to keep up on the eCommerce website for online sales of a Jewelry and collectable coins site. While the jewelry portion was maintained on a separate site from the coin collectors site. The coin collection site was within an ebay online sales site. Main responsibilities was to maintain the jewelry site with updated content and imagery of new products along with the data base of clients and preferred products. Other task I performed while there was to photograph imagery of the coins that were being sold on the marketplace.
Skills Strength: E-commerce website maintenance, HTML basic coding, CSS, data base, photography
Skills Strength: E-commerce website maintenance, HTML basic coding, CSS, data base, photography