Rick Spencer
Profile
As an Information Architect and User Experience Designer, I’ve lead, or contributed to, the design of products for social networking apps, mobile apps, and content sites. My responsibilities range from idea generation, user advocacy, through to communicating interface design.
Experience
Information Architect, Myfamily.com; Seattle, WA — 2006-2007
- Provided current state analysis, competitive research, site map, and interaction catalogue
- Led collaborative design sessions
- Provided high and low fidelity wireframes and visual mockups
- Served as primary user advocate during product design for (agile) scrum teams
- Created Essential Use Cases, usage scenarios and industry-standard user flows
Information Architect, Classmates.com; Seattle, WA — 2005-2006
- Developed wireframes, user flows, use cases and detailed functional specs
- Engaged creatives and business owners in brainstorming and product design exercises
- Cross-team consultation and interaction across the product cycle.
- Advocate for a positive user experience and for strong user-centric architectural thinking
- Thought leadership for products and the creative process for our team
User Experience Designer, Dwango.com; Seattle, WA — Feb. 2005-Oct. 2005
- Produced user flows, information architecture maps, interface designs and visual treatments for websites and mobile applications
- Worked with Product, Development, Business, and Creative teams in the development of user interfaces for web and mobile.
- Advocate for a positive user experience and for strong user-centric architectural thinking
Webmaster, College of Engineering, University of KY; Lexington, KY — 2001-2004
- Served on a select committee which developed a new architecture for www.uky.edu
- Redesigned and deployed the architecture and site design that is in use currently
Skills
User Advocacy
Worked to closely with usability counterparts as both observer and in a support role. Utilized experiences and insights from real users throughout the design cycle.
Idea Generation
Lead agile and waterfall teams in collaborative brainstorming sessions by framing the process with research; research that includes persona-driven user scenarios, competitive research, and analysis of the existing product. Helped the team understand goals and tasks that would ultimately result in clear and intuitive interaction design.
Interface Design
Served as the primary functional and visual designer for a variety of customer-facing products. Supported the reuse of established design, brand, and interaction patterns, and created original interfaces where no model existed. Was responsible for first interaction model inventory as part of an effort to enforce design consistency for a rapidly developing web application
Communicating Design
Produced a wide variety of deliverables capable of communicating to business and product leaders, designers, and developers. Documentation included: low-fidelity snapshots of design sessions, detailed wireframes, visual mockups, essential use cases, industry-standard user flows, visually rich flow maps, sitemaps, functional specifications, etc. Contributed to the formation of a "Visual Vocabulary for Rich Internet Applications," a diagramming language or communicating conditional interface specifications.
Affiliations
- ACM PSSIGCHI – Puget Sound SIG Computer-Human Interaction
- ASIS&T The American Society for Information Science & Technology
- IAI – Information Architecture Institute
Education
- Lexington Community College, Lexington, KY —AAS, 2002
References
- Anthony Colfelt
- Creative Director (former)
- Myfamily.com
- Bellevue, WA
- 2062347636
- anthony at colfelt dot com
- Virginia Bing
- Manager, Information Architecture
- Classmates.com
- Renton, WA
- 4259174760
- vbing at classmates dot com
- Chris Schwan
- Creative Director
- Dijji Corporation (now at Popcap Games)
- Seattle WA
- 2068900295
- cschwan at gmail dot com