Management System Design

Laurie Lamar *** S. Broadway Suite B, PMB ***

Boulder, CO, USA 80305

******@***********.***

www.laurielamar.com

voice: 303-***-****

fax: 303-***-****

Information Architecture... Interaction Design... User Interface Design

Services

for web sites and web applications

Making complex websites engaging and easy to use, while meeting business goals.

Bridge the gaps among users... IT... marketing... business.

Approach

Use empirical data to formulate and validate user-interface designs.

Prioritize user-experience features according to business needs.

Web applications, intranet portals, external portals, large or complex information-rich

Types of websites

websites, database-driven websites, hybrid marketing and informational websites, websites

with multiple audiences, websites preparing for or using a Content Management System.

Audience matrix: Characteristics, tasks, priorities, usage scenarios.

Deliverables

Metadata, controlled vocabulary, search engine requirements.

Site maps.

Interaction diagrams: Show conditional flow of web applications, similar to a flowchart but from

the user's perspective. Also storyboards that present the flow with page-level detail.

Wireframes: Low-fidelity, graphics-free, rough HTML prototypes that mock up common or

problematic aspects of the website, from the user s point of view.

Usability Studies: Observing how well different users do different tasks on a website.

Creative Brief, User Interface Spec, or Information Architecture Spec.

Visa USA. User Interface Spec and interaction diagrams for a web application that helps call-

Websites with

centers detect and prevent debit card fraud. Convert business requirements into UI functions.

interactive features

IBM Global Services, e-Business Strategy. Custom, proprietary web application with

massive backend XML feeds, enabling classification-based searches of data warehouses.

Design user interface for Search, plus feature for distributed teams to share search results.

Dex Media. Re-organize the intranet for a 14-state phone-directory publisher. Analyze

search logs from multiple repositories; help design and conduct baseline usability testing and

structured stakeholder interviews. Suggest a metadata strategy, and create controlled

vocabularies for tagging in the Content Management System. Design initial faceted browse for

documents. Design a search-engine user interface, including recommendations for relevance

ranking and Best Bets.

Colorado Department of Transportation. Re-organize a very large, "knowledge silo"

website according to user tasks; streamline selected web forms to reduce the number of help-

desk calls; recommend specific techniques for Section 508 accessibility; recommend templates

and coding techniques for a Content Management System.

Knowledge Learning Corporation, parent corporation of over 1000 childcare and

afterschool centers. Organize post-merger, corporate umbrella website encompassing nine

well-known brands (including Children s World) and almost 100 others. Design user interface

for Find a School web application; identify UI-based considerations for combining databases.

The Broadmoor luxury resort. Inform and persuade amenity-sensitive audience without

overwhelming them; work with custom CMS and iHotelier XML-to-Flash Rich Internet

Application for reservations. Initial sitemaps, initial storyboard for online activity planner.

The Cable Center. Vertical-industry library website, including complex search and

browsing, plus a custom Content Management System.

Zulaware. Meta-search engine with a collaborative "community" component and a Java-

driven user interface.

Navigant Biotechnologies. Award-winning website for bi-national startup, including

Mostly static websites

rigorous general-versus-professional audience segmentation and corresponding navigation.

Keyword research for Search Engine Optimization.

IBM Printing Systems. AS/400 Printing web site. A mixture of sales-oriented, reference,

and support information, including substantial cross-selling and up-selling.

IBM Printing Systems. Enabling Products for National Languages intranet site. Increase

developer efficiency by collating and explaining resources for internationalization.

IBM Software Solutions e-business. NCF Architecture Workbook for e-Business

Applications. Position IBM as a credible resource for Java architects.

Hewlett Packard. Object-oriented API intranet site. Decrease support costs and increase

learning speed for complex, mission-critical specs.

Children's World childcare centers. User requirements and content recommendations for

Consulting

eNewsletter; thousands of new subscribers were the result.

Daniels & Associates investment bank. Independent assessment of intranet and

information architecture proposal.

Government agency from a southern state. Heuristic evaluation and strategic, budget-

minded usability recommendations for an existing website.

Boulder Community Network (pro bono). User requirements specs, including

accessibility requirements.

Some of the above projects were completed as a direct freelancer; others were done as a sub-contractor for

an agency. Please contact me for details on my role, the business goals, and the user interface challenges.

User Experience Network (www.uxnet.org), a nonprofit group encouraging collaboration

Honors,

among user-experience-related groups: chosen as co-Local Ambassador for Denver.

publications,

speaking ACM Rocky Mountain CHI: chapter chair. Co-convenor for immersive virtual environments

demo. Convenor for panel discussions on usability ROI, user-experience conference findings.

engagements

UXmatters (www.uxmatters.com), article reviewing the IA Summit 2006 conference.

Society for Technical Communication: talk on Trends and Issues in Information Architecture;

"Keeping Your Skills Current" local panelist; international newsletter article on mailing-list

software; judge in international competition for online communication.

IEEE PCS conference: workshop on information architecture/UI design methodology.

ASIS&T Information Architecture Summits, BBC Content Modeling Workshop, Enabling CMS

Education

Through Metadata and Controlled Vocabularies, ACIA Synonyms and Taxonomies Tutorial,

Nielsen Norman Group e-Commerce Usability Seminar, other conferences and seminars

Graduate class in cognitive psychology; undergraduate work in computer science.

M.S. Technical Writing, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

B.S. Biology, Rhodes College.

HOW, Print, ID, Communication Arts, Adbusters, Slashdot (tech news and culture), Harvard

Professional reading

Business Review, Inf@Vis (information visualization), others.

& affiliations

UPA (usability), ACM SIGCHI (computer-human interaction), Information Architecture

Institute, ASIS&T SIGIA (information architecture), AIGA (experience design), others.

Studied French, German, Spanish, Italian, Russian, and several programming languages.

Footnotes

January 2006

Contact this candidate