Resume
Summary of Qualifications
- Five years experience in user-centered web design for AARP, with two years in a leadership position as Art Director.
- Two years working experience creating and updating websites in Zope; five years experience designing for developers working in a LAMP environment; eleven years experience coding in HTML; and eight years writing CSS.
- Extensive knowledge of usability issues in web design, including a 2004 presentation at the Usability Professional Association’s annual conference.
- Seasoned writer and editor.
- MFA in Art and Visual Technology (George Mason University, January 2010); BA in English (Grinnell College, 1998).
- Comprehensive design, documentation, and production skills on both Mac and PC platforms, and advanced working knowledge of the following software: Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Acrobat, and Dreamweaver (Adobe Creative Suite); Adobe PageMaker and Quark Xpress; Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Visio, Project, and Outlook.
Related Experience
Information Architect (12/2010-current)
NavigationArts
Define, characterize and prioritize audiences for web design projects. Gather communication and functional objectives by leading client working sessions, reviewing the competitive landscape, and creative brainstorming sessions with the project team. Organize content and functionality to develop organizational models, naming schemes and navigational hierarchies. Create user flows, schematic drawings and documentation to illustrate the structure and functionality of a project.
Designer and Editor, Freelance (9/2005-12/2010)
Clients Include: Gura & Possessky, ViaTech, AARP
Evaluate, design, code, launch, and maintain websites. Prepare website redesign RFP for distribution. Review and evaluate responses to RFP. Coordinate and facilitate usability testing. Edit corporate newsletters, proposals, papers, and textbooks.
Art Director, Web/Online (1/2003 - 7/2005)
AARP
Provide creative direction for a team of designers and HTML coders. Establish style guides and maintain knowledge of current brand guidelines, and review products for compliance with these standards. Facilitate client relationships. Gather project requirements, set service and project cycle expectations, and pair clients with the appropriate production team. Track workflow to ensure projects are delivered on deadline. Monitor the online presence of AARP, and make recommendations for updates in web design and strategy as needed. Set standards for online and print graphic production, and monitor production quality. Manage production of print materials and verify files are press-ready. Work with usability consultants to assess website usability – coordinating, designing, and conducting tests as required, and presenting the results of research to stakeholders. Assess and maintain the information structure of the website.
Web Designer (8/1999 - 1/2003)
AARP
Design and update websites to meet client needs within corporate standards and best practices. Create wireframes, prototypes, and visual designs. Coordinate and conduct user testing. Manage production of graphics for website. Establish and maintain thorough archives of all projects. Obtain images and illustrations, and process them for easy access by content consultants. Assist the art director in overall design and strategy for the website, providing graphics and design plans as needed. Produce print materials to support the website and other AARP creative services needs. Write and edit HTML and CSS in compliance with W3C standards.
Additional Experience
- George Mason University
- Instructor, Potomac Arts Academy: 2009-current
- Adjunct Faculty: Spring 2009
- Teaching Assistant: 2007-2008
Related Conference Presentations
- “The Blind Leading the Blind: Theorizing a Web for the Visually Impaired” – Breaking New Ground, Fifth Annual ASIS&T Information Architecture Summit, February 2004 (Austin, TX); also presented at Connecting Communities, Conference of the Usability Professionals’ Association, June 2004 (Minneapolis, MN)
Additional Presentations and Publications
- “Birth Activism as Feminism,” presentation at Difficult Dialogues II, The National Women’s Studies Association Annual Conference; November 14, 2010 (Boulder, CO).
- “The Taboo Aesthetics of the Birth Scene,” interview with Imogen Tyler. Feminist Review 93: 134-137.
- “Drawing on Motherhood.” Reconciling Art and Motherhood. Ed. Rachel Epp Buller (forthcoming).
- “Seeing Birth: What happens when visual taboos are challenged?” presented at INTENDED TO PROVOKE: Social Action in Visual Culture[s], The Fifth Annual Visual Cultures Symposium; March 27, 2008 (Fairfax, VA).
Summary of Qualifications
- Organization: Organized a multi-disciplinary academic symposium, from conception to execution, to correspond with graduate research on reproductive justice (“Perinatal,” George Mason University, October 7, 2009).
- Communications: Reviewed and edited usability reports presented to upper level management, and wrote accompanying recommendations for changes to web design strategy. Established internal and external style guides to support consistency across multiple web presences.
- Leadership: Cultivated an atmosphere of creativity and teamwork within the web design workgroup, whose members tended to work independently with clients. Encouraged sharing of ideas, clear verbalization of goals and approaches, and constructive evaluation of ideas. This approach led to a thorough plan for the visual redesign of a 5,000 page website in five business weeks, with buy-in from all team members, and increased collaboration within the team.
- Leadership: Led an 18-month project team made up of department-level executives from five different functional areas. Facilitated the team members’ key issues, enabling the team to develop a website which served each of their unique needs and the broader goals of the organization: to communicate with professionals instrumental to changing public policy.
- Analysis: Created a new and more powerful website for AARP’s professional audience. Reviewed known issues with the current site and examined features on peer sites, identified possibilities for future growth, and integrated these into a new site structure.
- Creativity: Designed a system for making large, existing web sites accessible and fully usable for blind and vision-impaired users, building on Section 508 guidelines. Abstracted basic components of accessibility from available research, and evaluated areas for improvement in usability. Worked with technical staff to produce a model, which improved access to the website for an estimated one million vision-impaired members, and even more potential members.
- Communications: Presented AARP's new approach to web accessibility for the blind and visually impaired before three major professional conferences with a total attendance of over 850 people. Educated internal staff on new changes and best practices via presentations tailored to their levels of expertise, thereby increasing the availability of this knowledge and helping to enhance AARP's reputation as a leader in usability issues for older adults.
- Development, Implementation: Developed a new methodology for assessing information structures. Incorporated aspects of two established techniques and worked with a usability practitioner to identify and resolve potential issues with the methodology. Planned and conducted testing using the new methodology, and implemented resulting data in a new information structure for the AARP member website.
Education
- MFA, Art and Visual Technology, George Mason University: 2010
- BA, English, Grinnell College: 1998