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Web Producer / User Experience Strategist BEN SYKES
 ABOUT ME
I'm a Hybrid.
(right brain - left brain). Prototype It - Test It with Users - Code It!! PORTFOLIO / LINKEDIN
AFFILIATIONS
UPA
AIGA
ACM SIGCHI
HFES
STC
CAREER HIGHLIGHTS
+ Conceived, prototyped and product managed the development of the search engine Information.com, which became ranked as one of the top ten search engines on the web in 2004 (Nielsen Net Ratings). + Successfully led and Product Managed the creative UI vision of the music website American Idol Underground from conception to over 1 million unique hits a week. + Prototyped, designed and developed Siderean’s Seamark user interface (Seamark 4.0 Rincon) designed for faceted metadata search and browse. This product was named by KMWorld, as one of the Top Trend-Setting Products of the Year! (2006) PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
Microsoft | Product Manager / User Experience Lead - Web 2.0 July 2006 – October 2007 GFS MSN Live | Product Manager – Front End Developer (Web 2.0.) The Ignition Portal • Product managed the marketing strategy and usability testing plan. • Led GFS MSN Live team in User Experience Design, and integration of Prototype and Dojo JavaScript frameworks in conjunction with ASP.net Ajax into SharePoint for the Microsoft Ignition Portal. Used the Expression suite, and experimented with Xaml & Silverlight. Services IT | User Experience Lead TSP Plug-In for Visual Studio Team Foundation (shipping) • Led team in conception and prototyping of a TSP Methodology plug-in for Microsoft’s Visual Studio Team Foundation. • Assisted in user contextual inquiry and usability tests. • Translated user findings into affinity diagrams, event sequence diagrams, and use cases. • Applied usability best practices into the creation of multiple fidelity and Flash driven clickable prototypes. • Further translated user testing, and heuristic evaluated prototypes into a final UI Spec. • Worked closely with disparate development groups to establish product functionality, scope and delivery. American Idol Underground | Sr. UI – Associate Creative Director September 2005 – August 2006 • Worked closely with Fremantle Media to ensure correct American Idol brand usage. • Worked with stakeholders to translate business requirements into user-centered design. • Hired, managed, and mentored a team of 20 designers, flash devs, and freelancers. • Established process and procedures to equalize the heavy design workload. • Provided art direction, extensive wireframe & prototype development, and .CSS implementation in a .NET environment. • Created dynamic controls using Flash Actionscript.2.0, and the Flash / JavaScript integration kit. • Served as the final gateway of approval for UI implementation to the live server. SKILLS
Core Competencies: • Faceted search, and search user experience. • Public speaking / Author “What Species Is Your User”? • Successful track record of managing, mentoring, and motivating resources through all steps in the design and development process including interaction design, user experience, visual design, production, QA, and post mortem. • Extensive engineering requirements and design spec. documentation. • Usability best practices, user centric design methodologies, human factoring, wire framing and rapid prototyping. • Extensive knowledge and use of Web 2.0 technologies and JavaScript Frameworks (Prototype, MooTools, DoJo, YUI).
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