Design Executive Staff

Varghese Mathai

www.varghesemathai.com

Summary

10+ years of experience in UX, designing innovative products which inspire and delight users while balancing the needs of business, product and technology

Managing and leading UED teams, exceptional problem-solving skills and interaction design abilities

Conceptualizing design models for various domains and technologies, implementing strategies for both, web and print media.

Interaction design abilities for web and desktop-based software tools.

Expertise in developing end-to-end clickable prototypes for enhanced navigation and workflow aesthetics, creating broad variety of sketches and prototypes.

Creating style guide documents, pattern documents, specifications & presentations from concept to completion.

Expertise in high-level product strategy (collaborating with business, product, design and technology)

Extensive experience leading multidisciplinary global design teams to deliver quality products on time. Adept at working collaboratively in a fast-paced environment and exceeding stakeholder expectations

Deep understanding of user-centered design and research methodologies

Excellent communication skills and attention to detail. Extensive organizational and analytical skills.

Professional Experience

EBay-Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp.

Senior User Experience Designer (eBay UED team)

Jan 2008 – Till now (3.5 years)

Developed expertise in creating a directed shopping experience for e-commerce and strengthening a world-class brand by balancing business needs and user goals effectively. Researched unique behaviors of online buyers and sellers and the impact it has on their perceived value of the eBay brand.

Led cross-functional global design teams to deliver innovative products under tight timeliness. Mentored junior designers and conducted design reviews for central UED team. Established design patterns. Built consensus among team members and balanced business needs and technical constraints with design goals.

Collaborated with product managers, business sponsors, engineers, and designers to create use case scenarios, personas, task/workflow analysis, conceptual models and user interface design; presented designs to executive staff.

Evaluated usability findings and applied user inputs to iterate on design and product requirements.

Researched and conducted competitive analysis for eBay’s selling platform to analyze the impact of brand and user experience by conducting qualitative analysis of survey results and presented recommendations to improve the user experience to executive staff.

Participated in strategizing holistic design direction, Created story boards and high-fidelity mock-ups.

Defined the information architecture and created end-to-end work flows. Established user test plans to conduct usability studies.

In addition, developed and strengthened strategic relationships with business, product, and technology partners. Led the team to create pattern documentation to ensure a high bar of quality.

JPMC-Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp.

User Experience Designer

Dec 2007 – Jan 2008 (2 months)

Lead designer for two projects and was required to deliver innovative products under tight timeliness, executed within 2 months of time frame.

Developed conceptual models from functional and information specifications of the system thus mapping the needs / purpose of the existing system and its users. Worked closely with client at onsite to understand requirements, convert them in sketches and wireframes, collaborate with client and test with users (since product was targeted to internal user).

In addition to my responsibilities mentioned above, also conducted holistic design reviews, partnered with marketing and brand to build synergies and managed the relationship with my offshore team in India.

Communicated the design concepts and ideas with offshore team and making sure of quality deliverables. Working with offshore team for developing prototypes using existing JPMC style-guide in html and java-script, and making sure of high quality prototype.

Mentored new designers for this project, led a team of 3 designers at offshore.

Cognizant technology solutions India (P) Ltd.

User Experience Designer

July 2005 – Dec 2007 (2.5 Years)

Job profile included UI Design, Flash animation, html java-script, etc.

Client I worked for: Cendant, Dow Corning, Experian, FleetCor, First Data, Hess Corporation, JPMorgan Chase, MetLife, Merck, Wachovia, Washington Mutual, Wells Fargo, Wright Express, Morgan Stanley, eBay Inc.

Lead Designer for the Banking and Financial Services Vertical. Actively involved in UI Design for Internet and Intranet Applications for the company’s other business verticals.

Developed conceptual models from functional and information specifications of the system thus mapping the needs / purpose of the existing system and its users.

My job duties also included Visualizing and sequencing the project in tasks, mapping various components/modules thus integrating the project with appropriate usability analysis and usability tests at various stages of development.

Designed prototypes and developed style guide documents for future applications. Communicated the design concepts and ideas with offshore team and making sure of quality deliverables.

Mentored junior designers, Conducted knowledge sharing session’s with-in Design team, wrote project reports and white papers on design.

Worked on preparing project estimations and timelines for large projects, Worked on resource planning and allocations for large projects.

Created presentations and was involved with marketing team for client pitching. Conducted heuristic evaluation on other projects.

Aligned the design team to work with developers on agile methodology.

Conducted offline and onsite interviews for design team.

Riverside Multimedia

Senior Multimedia Professional (Team Lead)

March 2002 – May 2005 (3+ years)

Client I worked for: Patheja Groups, Ceat Tyres, Dubai Shopping Festival, Bilcare, Tata Honeywell, Reliance Group, GE, Vikram Kapadia, Kale Consultancy, Thyssencrupp, Emaar Dubai construction, UAE Goes Green, Kalyani Steels.

Created high impact, highly marketable solutions in multiple media.

Implemented Projects in Diverse Languages. Designed prototypes, developed style guide documents & successful presented to the clients.

In addition to the above job responsibilities was responsible for Corporate presentations, Graphic User Interface, 3D & 2D animation & CD-ROM presentation.

Shubh Advertising & Marketing (P) Ltd.

Graphic Designer

July 2000 - June 2001 (1 year)

Job profile involved Paper Ad. Designing and Visualization. Creative design, layout and production in multiple environments. Working with marketing team and clients to create brand building.

Hoardings and billboard designs. Static TV commercial designs.

Education

2008 - CUA (Certified Usability Analyst) from HFI

2001 - DACA (Diploma in Advance Computer) C-DAC (Centre for Development of Advance Computer)

Certificate in Graphic Designing, Advance Computer

2000 - Bachelor of Commerce - Commerce College, Rajasthan University.

Professional Training, Certifications & Memberships

Active member of BayCHI

Art of effective presentation - Stanford

Certified Usability Analyst from HFI (Human Factors International)

Certificate for participating Accessibility Programme

Certified Graphic Designer from Advance Computer Graphics

Tools

Designing & Animation Skills :

Fireworks, Flash, Photoshop, Director, Dream weaver, Illustrator, Image Ready, Corel Draw, Swish, 3D Studio Max, Premier, MS FrontPage, Icon creator, After-effects, Visio etc.

Programming Skills:

HTML, CSS, Java scripting and Flash scripting

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