Projects
The User Experience of your Web or mobile product is the single best predictor of its long-term success and vulnerability to competition. I offer two things that few other UX Architects can: First, a uniquely well-rounded skill set with an emphasis on process. Second, a 20-year track record of successful solutions produced for marquee clients that went to code and solved problems. Here are seven representative examples of the work I’ve done over the course of my career to date:
product design - 2018
I architected the User Experience of Distributed Data Flows, a cutting-edge, cloud-based B2B SaaS launched in May of 2018 by Cleo Communications. As the most ambitious offering in the Cleo Integrated Cloud suite of SaaS solutions, this product has generated the kind of enthusiasm in Cleo’s market that spurs prominent positioning in the promotional video currently available on their home-page.
From concept to beta, I architected every important dimension of this revolutionary new product's User Experience. I designed everything from its overall conceptual model to the core interactions on each of its key screens.
Above all else, this exciting new product is the result of the thoughtful application of process at every stage of its design. From my seat on a cross-functional “Discovery Team,” I evangelized “Lean UX,” successfully keeping this project on course and helping to evolve the design culture at Cleo away from “Implementation-Model design” and “Big Design Up Front.” I also connected leadership’s regard for thought leaders like Marty Cagan and Jeff Patton to the absolute necessity of more and better prototyping. The effect was immeasurable. My prototypes did more to keep this project on schedule than any other single factor. Shared understanding was a constant and exactly zero developer time was wasted when one of my prototypes was available.
UX OVERHAUL - 2016
In 2016 Cleo Communications had to overhaul their VL Portal solution for the benefit of customers like Target and Ryder. The User Experience of this application topped the list of needed upgrades. I ensured this product would enable users to interact with Cleo’s on-premise Versalex platform through the Web in a more elegant and usable way.
When this project kicked off I had to that point only worked on refining Cleo’s existing products. Conversely, Cleo Portal was a total re-do. And more likely than others to be used by people who were NOT Cleo customers. This product would enable customers of Cleo’s on-prem Versalex platform to invite their customers to participate in a limited subset of Versalex operations through the Web. Whether the customers’ customers were experienced with such operations or not. There’d be no training, help files, or call center to fall back on for them.
I emphasized this distinction to the team. It had to be self-evident in its purpose and use. And starting over from the ground up was the perfect opportunity to do this.
usability remediation - 2015
As the market for "Enterprise File Sync and Share" (e.g. Box) heated up in 2015, my employer at the time, Cleo Communications, sought to iterate their EFSS solution, Unify & Trust.
When I rolled on at Cleo Communications in 2014, Unify & Trust was in 1.0 and floundering. Suffering badly, as many enterprise products do, from what’s been called “Executive Centered Design.” As opposed to, of course, “User Centered Design.” The UX team that preceded me had whipped up some attractive slideware, put it in front of some decision-makers and had gotten the green light because it looked good. Then they threw it over the wall to Dev and expected them to sort out the details.
This led inevitably to poor usability. This product would never stand a chance against the competition until we enabled users to intuit its conceptual model and discover its UI affordances. Here’s how I helped turn the tide ...
Information Architecture & Interaction design for native mobile app - 2015
In 2015 I was designing user experiences for Cleo Communications. My first project was the mobile version of its “on-premise” enterprise file sharing application, Unify. Packaged together with Trust (Cleo’s secure e-mail solution), Unify marked Cleo’s debut in the then-popular EFSS (Enterprise File Sync and Share) space alongside more-established players like Box and DropBox. Unify’sdifferentiator was security. Because it was an on-prem install, your files were presumably safer behind your firewall. Unify Mobile was intended to add access and convenience for new and existing Unify users and to perhaps dispel any perceived stigma around its on-prem roots.
When I joined Cleo Communications in the winter of 2014, work on Unify Mobilewas well underway. Development and visual design had each been separately offshored to competent contractors but the project was not materializing into a viable product. The front and back ends were not connecting to facilitate user goals. And prospective customers were growing impatient.
I assessed that not enough research or strategy had preceded design and implementation. Dev was in Scotland, making agile tricky and Lean UX impossible. So I back-filled research and strategy in the course of making specific change requests. Which meant, for example, my analysis reports would recommended fixes. And my new content model would overlay my wireframes.
Here's how I bridged the gap and helped make our release date.
PRODUCT DESIGN - 2014
By 2013, the property management software firm RealPage had made a number of acquisitions in its industry, inheriting the signature products of each. LeaseStar represented a monumental, year-long, phase-1 effort to merge three of these products into a single, unified, paid, enterprise service. And I was in charge of designing it.
I effectively designed the entirety of this product’s UX. From its overall conceptual model, to its organization, labeling, and navigation systems, to every one of its workflows. From its look-and-feel to the various tests I wrote to ensure optimal usability. Considering where we started, the scope, the schedule, the political and financial pressures involved, it was no small feat to have produced a 1.0 version in just over a year. I was very lucky to be working with an exceptionally talented and diverse team of engineers, product managers, and QA staff. All of whom were usually, if not always entirely receptive to my “design thinking” evangelism.
large transactional feature - 2012
Broker Subscriptions was a B2B feature Yield Technologies, my employer in 2012, added to their social media product RentSocial. Like a facebook for renters, RentSocial was a free online gathering place enabling users to collaboratively search for apartments with friends and potential roommates. Broker Subscriptions was a paid turnkey solution for lessors to broker vacancies.
Waiting for the adoption rate of a social media site to reach levels high enough to charge advertisers a sustainable rate was something Yield Technologies realized they couldn’t afford in 2012. Worse, it could dissuade potential suitors looking to acquire Yield. Which meant RentSocial had to be monetized as quickly as possible and in bold, creative ways. Ergo, strategy became paramount.
The two-part approach I took ensured success across contingencies and buoyed investor confidence. First, I authored a bullet-proof strategy report our developers could start building from upon delivery. And second, I created high-fi visual design in parallel. If we got a potential buyer before it was built, at least we could show them our impressive plan and finished visuals. If not, I could back-fill the edge-cases during implementation.
product design for humana - 2005
Coordinated Communication was a Content Management System PCS built for Humana, currently America’s fourth-largest provider of medical insurance. In 2005, Humana was looking to reconcile and consolidate its various channels of internal communication. PCS, my employer at the time, was sub-contracted to design and build a solution. Coordinated Communication enabled Humana to improve efficiency and eliminate instances in which one department was telling consumers one thing and another department, something else.
The year 2005 was a different time. Described in Information Architecture for the Web and Beyond, as a time when “many companies employed a one-step process called ‘Code HTML.’ Everyone wanted to jump right in and build the site. People had no patience for research or strategy.”
Such was the context in our industry for my team on-site at Humana HQ in Louisville, Kentucky. The client expected to see results immediately and sketches or diagrams wouldn’t do. Which meant the user interface I was designing and prototyping would come to drive every major decision about the product’s ultimate capability.
This project was a huge success, earning our team an award from Humana and my employer repeat business. Here's how we did it.