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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
Full Professor
Briarcliffe College
Jun 2000 – Aug 2007
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
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
- Dan Newmark - Presentation Specialist
- Alli Rufrano - International Photographer & Professor
- Ed McCormack - Gallery & Studio Magazine
- Neal Raisman - Chancellor Briarcliff College