Career Profile

I am a UX designer with an educational background in psychology, fine art, graphic/web design development and professional experience in customer success.

I utilize my background and experiences to be a voice for the customer resulting in an improved user experience. Bridging the gap between consumers and technology, through the application of empathy-driven and user-centered design.

I believe that interfaces should be easy, simple, and most importantly, enjoyable to use. I recognize the importance of understanding people's motivations in order to maximize their commitment to experiences.

By developing, empathizing & implementing: use cases, user scenario, personas, customer journey maps, experience prototyping, & UX tools to improve the customer experience. I believe that interfaces should be easy, simple, and most importantly, enjoyable to use. I recognize the importance of understanding people's motivations.

Partial List of Clients

  • AT&T
  • NASA
  • U.S. Army
  • U.S. Marine Corps
  • U.S. Navy
  • Disney
  • U.S. Coast Guard
  • U.S. Air Force
  • Intel
  • Gerber Life
  • Elle Girl
  • Sesame Street
  • Pampers
  • Fisher Price
  • Parents Magazine
  • Huggies
  • Carter's
  • Kohl's
  • Muscular Dystrophy
  • East Side Lenders
  • Crosstex
  • BistroMD
  • Viacom
  • Paramount
  • Simon & Schuster
  • Readers Digest
  • Pearson Learning
  • Graphic Artists Guild
  • Marine Midland Bank
  • Oceanside FCU
  • Seagram's
  • Infinity Broadcasting
  • Sci Fi Channel
  • Greenpeace
  • Silverback Comics
  • D.C. Comics
  • Marvel Comics
  • Briarcliffe College
  • Queensborough College
  • Baby Einstein Company
  • Pocket Books
  • Xlear
  • Dental Vibe
  • Ferrel Fritz
  • Coca-Cola
  • BBD& O
  • Bantam Books
  • Tor Books

Experience

Canon

UX Director, Lead UI Designer/Developer

Canon

Apr 2017 – Present

  • Researched, developed & implemented:
    • use cases
    • user scenario
    • personas
    • customer journey maps
    • experience prototyping
  • Converted business requirements and user research into sketches, wire-frames, high fidelity mock-ups, HTML-CSS-jQuery prototypes for multiple projects
  • Created, maintained and communicated UI/UX policies including design; coding; design/development approaches; supported browsers; cross browser testing; responsive web design; HTML email; accessibility standards; and more
  • Provided creative direction and technical UI/UX guidance for my team, all internal and external web based, data intensive applications projects both legacy and new; desktop and mobile, single applications and application platforms
  • Worked with executives; business managers; technical managers; programmers; database architects, business analysts and other stakeholders to successfully meet UI/UX requirements
  • Partnering with development teams, project managers and external vendors to clearly communicate requirements and to QA development and implementation
  • Keeping consistency across all products, enforcing standard UI patterns and guidelines across all digital properties
  • Promoted proficiency with current tools/languages and reserved time for research and adoption of newly selected tools/languages/approaches such as Adobe XD
Canon

IA Information Architect

IBM

Nov 2014 – Apr 2017

  • Working with the Digital Operations team to gather and document requirements from internal and external clients and translate business goals into unique brand and product experiences
  • Creating necessary documentation including specifications, annotated wireframes, sitemaps, and user flows
  • Collaborating with The Director of User Experience, Visual Designers and Front End Developers to design and develop experiences that meet business and customer demands, while incorporating UX best practices
  • Collaborating with The Director of User Experience, Visual Designers and Front End Developers to design and develop experiences that meet business and customer demands, while incorporating UX best practices
  • Partnering with development teams, project managers and external vendors to clearly communicate requirements and to QA development and implementation
  • Keeping consistency across all products, enforcing standard UI patterns and guidelines across all digital properties
Canon

UX UI Director, Investor Communication Solutions

Broadridge Financial Solutions

Sep 2013 – Nov 2014

  • Design and develop GUI for new company web-based applications
  • Use various languages and applications such as HTML, XHTML, CSS, jQuery, Visual Studio, Perforce. Adobe: Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Microsoft Office
  • Work and coordinate with business managers, .net programmers and database architects to determine design and functionality requirements.
  • Converted business requirements and user research into sketches, wireframes, high fidelity mockups, HTML-CSS-jQuery prototypes for multiple projects
  • Created, maintained and communicated UI/UX policies including design; coding; design/development approaches; supported browsers; cross browser testing; responsive web design; HTML email; accessibility standards; and more
  • Provided creative direction and technical UI/UX guidance for my team, all internal and external web based, data intensive applications projects both legacy and new; desktop and mobile, single applications and application platforms
  • Worked with various financial application teams including tax, transfer agency, shareholder, banks, brokers, shared data services, corporate governance, proxy voting, mutual funds, universal e-delivery and others
  • Worked with executives; business managers; technical managers; programmers; database architects, business analysts and other stakeholders to successfully meet UI/UX requirements
  • Collaborated directly with software engineers to successfully integrate UI/UX design and coding elements into Java and .Net environments using WebSphere and Visual Studio
  • Promoted proficiency with current tools/languages and reserved time for research and adoption of newly selected tools/languages/approaches such as Adobe XD
Canon

Director, UX UI Development

Hexis Cyber Solutions, Inc.

Sep 2012 – Sep 2013

  • Developer of best practices and guidelines in regard to UI design, UX standards
  • User interface design, visual design, user interaction and user flow planning
  • Prototyping UI screens, internal web sites, internal/external web applications
  • Designed Right to Left language interfaces for our clients
  • Requirements gathering
  • Worked closely with project stakeholders
  • HTML/CSS/JavaScript development for page-flow mock-ups and product prototypes for web deployment
  • Worked with production team to implement UI and create enhancements to optimize user experience.
  • Keeping consistency across all products, enforcing standard UI patterns and guidelines across all digital properties
Canon

Creative Director / UX UI Developer

Family First Media Corp.

Sep 2011 – Sep 2012

  • Demonstrated willingness to work on a team with writers and marketing strategists to meet tight deadlines for our company. Interfaced directly with clients, when necessary I have negotiated fees and brainstormed concepts, and strategies for marketing campaigns.
  • Translated customer needs and complex technology/strategic direction into user-friendly, relevant, coherent visual concepts.
  • Created building blocks for coherent company iconography; contribute to the development of corporate brands.
  • Develop website, presentations, promotional items, one-sheets, html emails, and all other collateral, and all visual assets for those vehicles, including logos, info-graphics, animations, templates, etc.
  • Expert use of HTML5, CSS3, DHTML, UI Design, Wireframe Design, JavaScript, Flash Action script 2-3, and J-query. Front end coding working in Ruby on Rails and PHP.
  • Advanced knowledge of HTML and experience with content management systems.
  • Works closely with marketing, sales and business leadership to fully understand objectives and deliverables of product to market.
  • Creates all email flows for B to C, from wire frame and messaging to installing and in E mail service provider utilizing Bronto and testing in all email clients and multi browsers.
  • Keeping consistency across all products, enforcing standard UI patterns and guidelines across all digital properties
Canon

Executive Creative Director

eboxed Inc.

Sep 2010 – Sep 2011

  • Creative Director for Email marketing company that makes it easy to create professional email marketing campaigns.
  • Led in-depth research of our clients' products and services to understand need creation, uniqueness and optimal advertising methods that would yield the quickest results.
  • Demonstrated willingness to work on a team with writers and marketing strategists to meet tight deadlines for our individual clients. As the Senior Designer I have interfaced directly with clients, when necessary I have negotiated fees and brainstormed concepts, and strategies for marketing campaigns.
  • Demonstrated a Strong knowledge of business marketing principles and applied them to work across a broad spectrum of platforms and with a wide variety online resources, including Facebook and Twitter.
  • Translated customer needs and complex technology/strategic direction into user-friendly, relevant, coherent visual concepts.
  • Designed Right to Left language interfaces for our clients
  • Created building blocks for coherent company iconography; contribute to the development of corporate brands.
  • Develop website, presentations, promotional items, one-sheets, html emails, and all other collateral, and all visual assets for those vehicles, including logos, info-graphics, animations, templates, etc.
  • Worked closely with marketing, sales and business leadership to fully understand objectives and deliverables of product to market.
  • Keeping consistency across all products, enforcing standard UI patterns and guidelines across all digital properties
Canon

Creative Art Director / UX UI Developer

Parent Media Group, Inc.

Nov 2007 – Sep 2010

  • Demonstrated willingness to work on a team with writers and marketing strategists to meet tight deadlines for our company. Interfaced directly with clients, when necessary I have negotiated fees and brainstormed concepts, and strategies for marketing campaigns.
  • Translated customer needs and complex technology/strategic direction into user-friendly, relevant, coherent visual concepts.
  • Created building blocks for coherent company iconography; contribute to the development of corporate brands.
  • Develop website, presentations, promotional items, one-sheets, html emails, and all other collateral, and all visual assets for those vehicles, including logos, info-graphics, animations, templates, etc.
  • Expert use of HTML5, CSS3, DHTML, UI Design, Wireframe Design, JavaScript, Flash Action script 2-3, and J-query. Front end coding working in Ruby on Rails and PHP.
  • Advanced knowledge of HTML and experience with content management systems.
  • Works closely with marketing, sales and business leadership to fully understand objectives and deliverables of product to market.
  • Creates all email flows for B to C, from wire frame and messaging to installing and in E mail service provider utilizing Bronto and testing in all email clients and multi browsers.
  • Keeping consistency across all products, enforcing standard UI patterns and guidelines across all digital properties
Canon

Full Professor

Briarcliffe College

Jun 2000 – Aug 2007

Full time professor, classes include Digital Imaging, Computer Illustration, Quark Express, Drawing, Painting, Advanced Web design/development & Marker Comp Rendering.

All full-time responsibilities associated with full time faculty. Including Registering new and existing students as well as academically advising the students.

Notable Achievements

  • Developed and implemented curricula for this technical four-year college's Graphic Arts department.
  • Brought team structure to Mac lab classes, teaching desktop skills and best practices for creation and production of graphic arts files through project-based courses.
  • Worked with Blackboard online teaching tools to augment live curriculum and lab work.
  • Created and implemented student-based advertising department for all internal programs and some public web and print projects related to the college.
  • Proposed and had approved by "Middle States Commission on Higher Education" new classes to the college curriculum including:
    • The Business of Graphic Artists
    • Advanced Flash Action scripting
    • Drawing Realistically
    • Advanced Realistic Painting
    • Advanced Web Design
    • How to create a successful online portfolio

Endorsements

“I've known and worked with Michael for many years, and he is definitely one of the cleverest thinkers I've ever had the pleasure of working with.

Michael has shown the rare ability to quickly ascertain the core of an issue, its context and solution. From that, Michael can design a solution that is elegant, intelligent and simplistic (even if behind the scenes it is complex).

I have very much enjoyed working with Michael various projects. Not only is it a pleasure to work with Michael it is a genuine pleasure knowing him.”

- Michael Boccia - CEO MedSafe Inc
Michael created for me amazing holiday business cards to send to my clients to keep me top of mind. I was admittedly hard to please, asking for numerous changes, but he did all of them with calm and grace and exceeded my expectations. I would not hesitate to hire him again for his incredible services.

- Dan Newmark - Presentation Specialist
Michael's style exhibits extreme sensitivity... high emotion between his subjects and viewers. While his painting technique may wow audiences, he keeps the viewers attention by evoking an experience.

- Alli Rufrano - International Photographer & Professor
Although his use of grisaille in dramatically cropped compositions could signal a stylistic kinship with David Salle, Apice's approach to womanly curves is romantic rather than pornographic; he is an artist enamored of the Goddess rather than the bimbo

- Ed McCormack - Gallery & Studio Magazine
Michael's work is not just brilliant and in impeccable taste and sense of compositor, it is visually engaging and really gets the message across. I really appreciate his work and him as a person and designer. Hire him in a minute!

- Neal Raisman - Chancellor Briarcliff College