About Me

And this is a Q&A I filled out recently for a position.

You may need more coffee...

Have you worked on projects where the stakeholders and/or the other project team members are spread across 3 - 4 global time zones? Please explain.

Yes. In my last position, teams were spread between L.A., OH, D.C., and Belarus. The position before that held an annual conference where content was required to be available by 6am EST, across all four time zones in the U.S., requiring me to come in late in the evening (sometimes on weekends) and work until early morning.

Please describe your understanding of what a Sr. UX Designer’s duties and responsibilities are.

A Sr. UX Designer is responsible for overseeing all user experience and design aspects of an organization’s product / offering, and manages requirement gathering and scope of project(s), user research, usability testing, ensuring best practices.

A senior designer creates mockups, wireframes, prototypes, regularly meeting with and presenting to stakeholders, and coordinates with other designers and development teams. A senior-level designer also works with junior designers, leading, mentoring and training as needed.

From a scale of 1 - 10, how would you rate your level of experience in providing and leading strategy in a website project?

10.

What is your understanding of responsive design?

Responsive design allows for the same content / site / interface to be viewed across multiple devices, taking into consideration screen size and orientation (vertical and/or horizontal) of those devices.

What is your understanding of human-centric design?

Human-centered design is understanding the audience you’re trying to reach and designing from their perspective. Based on the three phases of Inspiration, Ideation, and Implementation, human-centered design seeks to provide a solution where the user is at the center of the process.

How many website projects have you worked on in your entire professional experience?

Up to 30 small-to-enterprise level informational and/or e-commerce sites.

Of those websites how many have you worked on through a full cycle from start (ideation/concept) to launch and post-launch maintenance/upgrades?

All of them.

Please describe your best website project experience. And explain in detail how long was the project, who was involved, how big was the website and why it was successful.

I’ve had many great experiences, but one that stands out is the Milken Review quarterly magazine, which is well-known in economic and financial circles. From concept to completion, I directed the UX/UI web design and development to launch, and then helped to maintain the site content and assets.

The content was / is written by economic and financial thought leaders, and incorporates artwork from professional illustrators and photographers. The success of the project was realized in the CMS and CSS customization, allowing multiple non-technical users (publisher, editor, and contributors) to maintain the site content and assets with minimal to no technical skills.

Please describe your most difficult website project experience. And explain in detail how long was the project, who was involved, how big was the website and why it was difficult.

The most difficult project was a compilation of cultural music that was 20 volumes (roughly 120 albums), and included full commentaries, biographies, audio and video clips, oral histories, articles, thousands of professional quality photos, the handling of custom artwork in digital format, and allow users to purchase the music through secondary outlets such as iTunes and Amazon.

The project in total took over a year, involved everyone from the founder to the artistic director and curator, to the design and development team. The site is thousands of pages of unique content. The difficulty came in developing a single responsive site experience that could be viewed and navigated from desktop to tablet to mobile device; and then creating a custom CMS and a "shorthand" of CSS IDs and classes to allow non-technical individuals to create, administrate and maintain content.

What is your understanding of a UX Designer and the role they play in a website team?

A UX designer develops an understanding of the needs and pain points of the client / customer, researching best practices and approaches to create a viable solution and / or functioning end product. Creating persona profiles, the UX designer generates the information architecture, wireframes, prototypes and visual design. Deriving insights from usability testing and analytics are also a function of a UX designer.

What is your understanding of a UI Designer and the role they play in a website team?

A UI designer creates a user interface that make information easy to read, easy to understand and easy to find. A UI designer creates high-fidelity comps from wireframes, produce usable assets, and may / can also produce interactive prototypes and animations to promote better user interaction and engagement.

What is your understanding of web development?

A web developer has deep understanding of database-driven content, server-level setup and administration, experience coding in languages such as PHP, Ruby, React, JSON, Javascript, etc., and is able to integrate APIs into a web product / offering.

If you know some coding language and web database platforms, please explain which one(s) and in what capacity you have worked with them before.

I am fluent in HTML, CSS, SASS; proficient in PHP and Javascript. I also have working knowledge of the following databases: MySQL, Access and NEO4j.

Do you have CMS experiences? Which one(s)?

Yes. Wordpress, Drupal and Silverstripe. I have also customized CMS admin interfaces.

What is your understanding of SEO?

Search Engine Optimization is the practice of ensuring that your site is indexed properly and gains the best ranking(s) based on appropriate page title(s), canonical URLs, metadata, content headers and placement (and “freshness”) of body content.

What is your understanding of data analytics and the role it plays in website projects?

Website analytics are critical in understanding your audiences’ level of engagement in call-to-action, conversion rates, audience engagement and retention, use of site navigation, and search. Bounce rates, click-through rates, conversion rates and time on the page all play a factor in determining how your audience engages with your site and how that engagement converts to business metrics.


What is your understanding of digital marketing? And if you have experiences, which digital marketing tools have you worked with?

I have extensive experience in email marketing (Constant Contact, MailChimp), analytics (Google Analytics, Webtrends) and SEO. Additional experience includes tools such as Hubspot, Hootesuite, Trello.


Which project management tools have you worked with?

Pivotal Tracker, Trello and Slack.


Have you built project flows, wireframes, and prototypes for the website projects you’ve worked on before? Please elaborate.

Yes. From site architecture / structure to wireframing in Photoshop, Illustrator, Omnigraffle and/or Sketch, to creating responsive and/or fluid front-end prototypes using HTML, CSS, SASS, Javascript.


What is your experience working with/in the Marketing Department?

I have worked hand-in-hand with Marketing departments to execute the vision of their organization's product / service.


How comfortable are you working with Google Suite products? Explain which ones you have experience with.

I am very comfortable using Gmail, Docs, Sheets, Drive, Calendar, Photos, and Video. I have also used Hangouts.


How familiar are you with Sketch and Adobe Creative Suite? Please explain the experiences.

I am very familiar with Sketch and Adobe CS and CC. I have used Photoshop for 20+ years, from simple photo editing to high-end conceptual art; Illustrator for producing vector-based assets for web and mobile; Dreamweaver from its beginning; InDesign for print layout; Premiere and After Effects for video editing; Acrobat, Animate, and Bridge. I have used Sketch for prototyping mobile apps and some interactive site mockups.


Have you performed website QA, QC and user testings on your own? Explain the tools you have used to perform these tasks.

I have performed QA, QC and usability testing through focus groups and user feedback from beta tests.