PORTFOLIO


Mobile Products
 

UI Flows
 

Wiki-Based Specs
 

"Skin" Architectures
 
Haptic waveforms
Haptic Waveforms
 

RandyNewman.Com
 

Content Management
 

UI Mock ups
 

Financial UI
 

Online Help Systems
 

Quality Assurance
 

Printed Docs
 
Letters of Reference
 

SUMMARY

Phones, Tablets, Musical Instruments, etc. ⇔ Me ⇔ Humans

EDUCATION

University of Kansas, 2006

  • MA in Interaction Design

University of Oklahoma, 1991

  • MA in the History of Science

University of Kansas, 1983

  • BM in Music Theory

Kansas State University, 1977

  • BS in Electrical Engineering

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Motorola Consumer Experience Design (CXD), Chicago, IL, 2006 to 2009, 2011 to present

Senior Interaction Designer

  • Create new competitive advantages for Motorola by researching and creating new haptic (touch) and LED lighting experiences for mobile devices (e.g. the 2011 RAZR, RAZR MAXX, and Droid 4).
  • Research the evolution of the Android user interface and promote the use of relevant software-development media-integration tools.
  • Enhanced mobile usability by designing interactions and information architecture (flows, wire frames, mock ups, and simulations) for various products (e.g. the $2000 AURA, Q9, and ROKR E8) and mobile platforms (e.g. Android, Linux-Java, Windows, UIQ).
  • Shortened the software development cycle by more than 50% on the $2000 AURA mobile phone by being the first to bring Agile concepts and tools (e.g. wikis) to CXD, insuring the quick and accurate creation of phone Layout Requirement Specifications (i.e. blueprints).

Freelance Contractor, Kansas City, KS, 1998 to present

Interaction Designer and Technical Consultant

  • Designed and maintain the web site for Oscar- and Grammy-winning artist, Randy Newman at RandyNewman.Com.
  • Wrote articles for Smart Developer magazine describing various user-interface concepts for software developers.
  • Researched and improved customer experiences as a part-time Apple Specialist at the Apple Store in Leawood, KS.
  • Attended Apple’s 2010 WWDC to stay on top of developments in mobile UI design.
  • Provided developers with some new perspectives via UI mock ups for their proposed iOS apps.
  • Completed courses in cognitive and social psychology, Apple "Creative" training, and Adobe Flex/Flash programming to stay on top of the latest research.

ALTEC (University of Kansas), Lawrence, KS, 2005 to 2006

Web Prototype Developer/Systems Specialist

  • Quickly designed prototype web sites using Plone and Microsoft's .NET in response to competitive grant-funding opportunities.
  • Worked with academic, government, and commercial clients to explore new web-based content-management technologies.

Biodiversity Research Center (BRC) (University of Kansas), Lawrence, KS, 2002 to 2005

Research Application Interface Developer

  • Helped the BRC team win a series of NSF grants by designing, coding, and creating content for the BRC's web sites (e.g. Specify, KU Informatics, and Lifemapper).
  • Enhanced the usability of BRC's grant-funded Specify museum collection management software by designing, prototyping, and testing a wide variety of user-interface variations.
  • Wrote print-oriented documentation, designed graphics, and supervised contractor work.

Euronet Worldwide, Leawood, KS, 1999 to 2001

User Interface Team Lead

  • Boosted sales of Euronet's integrated transaction-management software products as the UI design lead, crafting demonstration web browser, mobile phone, and PDA interfaces.
  • Decreased time to market and enhanced product consistency by managing the documentation and quality-assurance teams.
  • Provided extensive user guidance by writing and illustrating documents for the full range of Euronet's readership.

Netopia (now Motorola), Lawrence, KS, 1994 to 1997 and 1998 to 1999

Senior Technical Writer

  • Authored award-winning online help, printed user's manuals, and technical guides for Netopia's Timbuktu Pro and Netopia Virtual Office remote control programs (Windows and Macintosh versions).
  • Expanded the global reach of Netopia's products by supervising the localization of the documentation into French, German, Spanish, and Japanese.

Intel Corporation, Folsom, CA, 1997 to 1998

Senior Quality Engineer

  • Expanded and centralized access to Intel's microprocessor QA processes by creating the Product Qualification (PQ) Intel intranet site. The popular PQ web site distributed information about quality standards to Intel's various product divisions.
  • Simplified the microprocessor QA process by developing the VBA-driven PQTool. The PQTool took a product's description and determined which QA rules were necessary for that particular product.

PUBLICATIONS (Partial List)

  • RandyNewman.Com, 2004 to date.
  • Various user-interface articles for Smart Developer magazine, 2010 - 2011
  • Scott Downie, "Motion Picture Moods For Geeks and Non-Musicians: An Automated, Intelligent Music-Generation System" (master's thesis, University of Kansas, 2006).
  • The user manual and online materials for the University of Kansas Biodiversity Research Center's "Specify" collections-management software, 2002 - 2005.
  • Scott Downie, "Multimedia"€ (chapter) in "Windows 98 Professional Reference" (1998, New Riders).
  • Scott Downie, "Working with MIDI"€ (chapter) in "Windows 98 Multimedia: Lights! Camera! Action!" (1999, Que Corporation).

PRODUCTS (Partial List)

  • Motorola AURA luxury phone, 2008
  • Motorola ROKR E8 music phone, 2008
  • Motorola U9 phone, 2007
  • University of Kansas Biodiversity Research Center's "Specify" collections-management software, 2002 - 2006
  • University of Kansas Biodiversity Research Center's "Lifemapper" data-visualization project, 2002 - 2005
  • Various Euronet online banking solutions, 1999 - 2001
  • Gulbransen electronic musical products (MIDI keyboards and General MIDI chip sets), 1994
  • PianoDisc PDS-128 player-piano system, 1993

AWARDS

Technical Writing

  • Society for Technical Communication's 1998-1999 Technical Publications Competition (Denver chapter):
    • Distinguished Award for the Timbuktu Pro 4.8 Macintosh Apple Guide online help
    • Merit Award for the Timbuktu Pro 4.8 Macintosh printed Getting Started Guide
    • Achievement Award for the Timbuktu Pro 4.8 Macintosh printed At-a-Glance card
  • Society for Technical Communication's Merit Award for the Timbuktu Pro 3.0 (Macintosh) Apple Guide online help, 1996-1997 Technical Publications Competition (Kansas City chapter).
  • Society for Technical Communication's Distinguished and Best of Show Award for the Timbuktu Pro 1.1 (Windows) online help, 1995-1996 Technical Publications Competition (Kansas City chapter).

Teaching

  • Kansas City Kansas Community College's Outstanding Service Award for Teaching, 1987.

Academic

  • University of Oklahoma History of Science Department's Rockefeller Foundation Program Graduate Assistant, 1988-1989 and 1989-1990 academic years.
  • Norman Oklahoma Chamber of Commerce's John H. Patten Memorial Scholarship, 1989.

In-House

  • Motorola Consumer Experience Design's first "Mr. Sunshine" award, 2007.

TECHNICAL SKILLS

Applications

  • Dreamweaver, Photoshop, Illustrator, Hype, After Effects, Flash, Visio, OmniGraffle, wikis, WordPress, MS Office, Logic Pro, Finale, and others

Languages, and Scripts

  • HTML, XML, XSL, CSS, JavaScript

Specialties

  • Interaction design, audio, haptics, technical writing, project management, education

PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS

  • Association for Computing Machinery + SIGGRAPH
  • IEEE
  • Society for Technical Communication
  • History of Science Society
  • Audio Engineering Society