Design Project
Resume:
Stuart Partridge
Senior User Experience Designer
abqlzs@r.postjobfree.com
www.stuartpartridge.com
OVERVIEW
I m an experienced and well-credentialed user experience designer. I am passionate about great
design.
I have twelve years solid experience working at all levels of the electronic design industry. I ve
worked extensively within the corporate sector and have much experience applying my skills
across a wide range of creative and commercial applications. I m confident and professional in
the way I present myself, be it negotiating with a stakeholder, taking lead on a project,
brainstorming solutions or communicating within my team.
My work focus for the last two years has been as custodian of the on-site brand, visual design
and user experience for the SEEK Learning global websites. Working closely with the Product
Director and Site Producers, I ve played a significant part in making sure the site not only
presents the business in the highest quality and most professional light, but also that it meets
the target of generating leads and helping our business prosper. I m pleased to have been
closely involved with SEEK Learning during it s most profitable and productive years to date.
More than that, I m proud of the contribution I ve been able to make towards making our sites as
good as they presently are.
My user experience and interactive media design skills are advanced and up-to-the-minute. I
have an extensive folio of excellent interactive design work, both corporate and creative,
available for viewing on my site www.stuartpartridge.com, as well as that work that can be seen
immediately on www.seeklearning.com.au.
MY WORK
Great User Experience, Excellent Design & Meeting Commercial Need
I enjoy working in that space between the person and machine, taking the part of the user to
deliver a great design experience. I believe we can use good design to meet the needs of the
user and also serve the business s commercial need. The integrity of the design and the project
and it s overall worth to the user are my primary concerns, and I very much enjoy seeing good,
considered work come to fruition.
User Centric Design: Methodologies & Ways of Working
Gathering the requirements and examining the functional aspects of new interface and
software projects whilst studying and understanding the business case; value-adding where
possible to the business case, and exploring the possibilities and boundaries of the project. Does
the solution meet user and business needs? Do we have the best solution for the user and the
business in mind?
Designing good user experience in new products. I take a fundamentally user-centric view on
the product to ensure users needs are catered to. I research project goals and consider our
interfaces in terms of how a new product will work within the framework of our existing tools,
and how the user might respond to and use the new product.
Designing modern, good looking visually-rich interfaces that will entice and excite but not
terrify or deter the user. Be a champion for great UX and visual design.
Looking for opportunities within emerging technologies to leverage benefits for the design or
the user. Always questions: is there a new or better way of doing things? Is there value in an
established methodology?
Negotiating and communicating with key stake-holders in consultation with a Product
Manager, if we have one on the project on project and business goals, and managing their
expectations during the design and development cycles.
Coordinating and undertaking user-testing: gathering requirements, building a brief, recruiting
test subjects, undertaking testing and analysing the results. Run multi-variant or A-B testing to
sanity-check the design rationale, redesign and reiterate to make the work better. Make sure
there are measures in place Omniture or some form of in-house metrics - to account for
success or failure.
Producing documentation and wire-frame product architecture designs that trace the functionality
of the project and explain and extrapolate on the usability business logic and commercial application.
Coordinating the implementation of the designs, and acting as a consultative resource to
correct the project when and where it might go off-course.
Working with a good team of Product Managers, Business Analysts, Project Managers,
developers, consultants, engaged stake-holders, and well-skilled developers.
PROFESSIONAL + COMMERICAL EXPERIENCE
SEEK Learning (www.seeklearning.com.au).
Mid 2008-present
I am currently working full-time as the in-house User Experience Designer for this large-scale
education-based business. I work on a number of high profile sites, including www.seek.com.au,
www.seeklearning.com.au, www.seeklearning.co.uk, www.seeklearning.co.nz, and
www.dynamicwebtraining.com.au, a training company owned and managed by SEEK.
I have responsibilities across many levels of the business including product and user related
design issues. I work on large design projects and also look after the day-to-day design needs of
the various sites.
The SEEK Learning Product Team is small in number, meaning that I ve been able to have an
impact on the site far beyond that of contributing designer; I play a significant role as a thought
partner and strategist, which has allowed me to be much more involved with the strategic
direction and decisions we take with the site.
Amongst my achievements whilst working for SEEK has been the recent re-design and launch of
the Dynamic Web Training website (www.dynamicwebtraining.com.au). The site features a
revised information architecture, navigation structure and visual design. The site redesign took
over a year to complete, and I was involved at every step of that process, from initial discussions
through to user testing, visual design and the development process.
Hitwise Pty Ltd (www.hitwise.com).
Early 2004-2008
I was the full-time in-house Senior User Interface Designer for this large-scale Melbourne-based
international e-business. I had responsibilities across many levels of the business including the
design needs of our web-based client-facing metrics product, research and development for new
projects, consultation on various marketing, product and user interface-related projects,
coordinating developers to implement designs in code, as well as managing the day-to-day
graphics and multimedia needs of the company.
With Hitwise I worked closely with the Research and Development team in the creation and
enhancement of user-interfaces for the browser-based software within our client-subscription
web analytics site. My particular focus has been on the usability and consistency of our suite of
Search Marketing-focused tools. I have been across such projects as the prototyping of new web-
based application interfaces, the development of e-commerce transaction pages and designing
content management systems.
- 2001-2003: The Ball Group (www.theballgroup.com.au). Worked as a Senior Interactive
Designer and Developer for this corporate design and communications company based in
Melbourne. A wide range of blue-chip corporate clients included Telstra, Southcorp, BHP and
Fosters, amongst others.
- 1998-2002: Slightly Moving Productions (www.slightly.net am no longer involved with
the design!). Owned and operated this small business, which I co-founded in 1998. SMP operates
from a studio in Westgarth and provides digital media solutions for the performing and creative
arts community. I shared technical and managerial responsibilities with my co-founder, David
Corbet, and supervised a number of staff and contractors over a wide array of projects. I learned
the arts of team-management and job-costing, as well as best-practice production methods.
Clients included Youth Performing Arts Australia, Odd Productions, SCAPE
Entertainment, The University of Melbourne, The ANZ Bank, Monnington Centre, Arts
Access and The Blue Grassy Knoll.
OTHER WORK: Freelance+ Contractor
- 2004: ongoing freelance work for ACMI @ Federation Square as a video + image editor for
various projects.
- 2001-2003: Operating as an independent contractor/freelancer specialising in database/PHP-
driven Flash sites + presentations, negotiating freelance and contract work as it arises. My latest
multimedia work has included projects for The University of Melbourne, the Blue Grassy
Knoll, and Transience, a site devoted to original animation.
- 2003: Consultancy work with entities including Bright Adult Education and Crops Inc.
Responsibilities included advising on and overseeing production of large multimedia projects,
supervising and quality-controlling workflow and signing off on completed work.
- 2002: Three month stint as content creator and designer for SCAPE Entertainment, a short-
lived online entertainment entity operating out of The Jam Factory, South Yarra. Responsibilities
include conceiving, writing and animating original online content.
- Ongoing in a part-time capacity: Working with and managing the design interests of a
number of freelance clients in various capacities, from regular design requests through to website
management and updating.
ACADEMIA AND TEACHING WORK
- 2006: At Swinburne University teaching Multimedia Authoring in the Multimedia Masters course.
- 2002-2005: Teaching Flash digital animation short courses at RMIT. Designed and
implemented Beginners and Advanced courses.
- late-2003: Took a half-time contract position as Coordinator and lecturer at Victoria University.
I was contracted to design and co-ordinate a PHP/MySQL/Flash Dynamic Animation component
for their Multimedia Degree course. The course demanded a high degree of organization as well
as team-leadership, not to mention much on-the-fly trouble-shooting and individual project
management.
- 2003: Ran extensive training workshops for the ABC New Media department based at ABC
Southbank. Sessions included work with Flash, Dreamweaver, PHP-server integration, as well as
online practices training.
- 2002-2003: Workshop tutor for Victoria University of Technology, St Albans and Footscray Park
campuses, 2001 teaching Design, Animation, Interactive Authoring.
- 1999: Tutored on internet/intranet usage, Monnington Centre, Cue.
- 2000-2005: Extensive number of private tuition arrangements.
URLS OF INTEREST
Latest work
I keep a basic business card site with links at:
www.stuartpartridge.com
I have a blog I keep at:
www.tricksome.com
SEEK and SEEK Learning Pty Ltd
A range of connected sites.
www.seek.com.au
www.seeklearning.com.au
www.seeklearning.co.uk
www.seeklearning.co.nz
www.dynamicwebtraining.com.au
Hitwise Pty Ltd
Sales site for the web anaylitics and measurement company, Hitwise: www.hitwise.com
Of course, the good stuff is only available on the other side of the log-in; a viewing of samples
of the work I do on the client site can be arranged.
Athlon Sports Medicine
Straight HTML, original design and development.
www.athlon.com.au
Katy Abbott - Composer
PHP based content management system, HTML + JavaScript, original design and development
www.katyabbott.com
Matisse Furniture
Sales-style sales Flash presenter
www.customsofas.com.au
Corporate Work
Some my name-brand corporate work can be viewed as links of my
www.stuartpartridge.com/links.html site, including:
Telstra Interactive Annual Report 2000
Fosters Interactive 2000 Concise Annual Report
Southcorp Limited Annual Report 2000
Monnington Centre
SKILLS
My producer-level experience is buoyed by a lot of years working hands-on: my skills with the
tools of multimedia are sharp and current.
Technical skill-set specialty areas
I like technology and enjoy playing with it and learning new things. My technical skillset includes:
Flash (advanced-scripting)
Adobe Photoshop
Adobe Illustrator
Adobe InDesign
Adobe After Effects
Final Cut Pro
Quark Xpress
Browser mark-up - HTML + Javascript
PHP scripting
ColdFusion scripting
SQL (MySQL + PostGRES)
Macromedia Suite including Freehand, HomeSite, Dreamweaver, Director
Adobe Premiere
I am comfortable on any computer system. The main systems I am working with currently are
Windows XP, Macintosh OSX, Fedora Linux and Debian Linux.
My skillset includes:
Copy-writing/editing
Digital image editing and manipulation, Video-editing + video-effects-editing
Animation and interactive media production
Programming Languages:
HTML, CSS, JavaScript
ActionScript 2.0 + 3.0
ColdFusion
PHP
SQL
Production and workflow management
Excellent communications and systems management skills
Non-technical
Having successfully managed a business for some years, I feel my management, communication
and interpersonal skills are top-notch. I have extensive experience costing and assessing jobs
and project viability, as well as being accustomed to delivering jobs on-time and on-budget. I am
familiar with many of the tools available for managing a large number of resources and feel I
work in a production management framework extremely well.
OTHER WORK
Writing and publication
- Worked as a freelance writer 1996-97. Published work in a diverse array of titles including:
The Australian (newspaper)
Outdoor Australia
Australian Mountain Bike
Womens' Forum
General design-based work
- Worked as graphic designer/finishing artist in freelance capacity 1996-99. Clients included
University of Melbourne, Ormond College, Saecum Group.
- Designed print graphics for audio CDs, Way Over There Records, 1999-2000.
- Typesetting for UniNews, University of Melbourne, 1998
- Various posters and promotional materials for artists and performers as the need has arisen.
- I edited the student magazine Opus whilst still at University
REFEREES
Mike Efron
eBusiness Manager
Lumley Insurance
Sue McCauley
Producer Next Wave Festival
Course Co-ordinator
Bachelor of Arts Multimedia
Victorian University of Technology
Jack Rosemboom
Short Course Co-ordinator
RMIT University
Brett Collinson
(former) UX Manager
SEEK Ltd Pty
abqlzs@r.postjobfree.com
Note: Brett recently left his position at SEEK to relocate to the United States.
Contact this candidate