Education:

  • Master of Arts in Information Resources and Library Science (SIRLS), University of Arizona
  • Bachelor of Arts in Mass Communication (Journalism), Idaho State University

Professional Experience:

Taxonomist – Optum Technology for United Health Group (01/24 – Present)

  • Transitioned seamlessly from user experience to data taxonomist for a large-scale headless content fragments project.
  • Activated library science degree to apply taxonomic principles to existing knowledge model.
  • Created taxonomy governance process.
  • Documented processes that included silent videos to instruct customers in AEM and the various home-grown helper apps developed by developers for their need.
  • Deliverables include: spreadsheets, lots of spreadsheets; tuned model using Semaphore Knowledge Model Manager; manage content ids in Adobe Experience Manager.

Senior User Experience Designer – Optum Technology for United Health Group (03/13 – 12/23)

  • Application designer detached to scrum teams, filling the UX role as well as baking in Accessibility (A11y) design practices. Incorporate user research (qualitative and quantitative), accessibility and best practices into applications for healthcare providers.
  • Deliverables include: wireframes, high-fidelity prototypes, personas, user test scripts, journey maps, flow charts.
  • Collaborate daily with scrum and business teams, communicating ideas in person, through video, and via screenshots, written reports, email.
  • Present design work daily and ad hoc to development team, business partners, and executives.
  • Continuing education efforts include keeping abreast of current thinking in my field while stretching into new skills.
  • Conducted user test, writing scripts, hosting user test participants, writing up and presenting findings.
  • Incorporate user test feedback from Research team partners be synthesizing report data into actionable changes to prototypes, collaborating with scrum team to prioritize updates (must-do, nice-to-have) based on time to code, business initiatives, and best practices.
  • Using QA test scripts, tested MyUHC as a “UAT Irregular” when UAT team members were strapped for time.

Senior User Interface Designer — SMCI for Choice Hotels, Phoenix, AZ (04/11 – 03/13)

  • Embedded user interface designer on an Agile framework development team designing internal web applications. Focus on usability, accessibility and browser compatibility.
  • Deliverables include wireframes, HTML prototypes, user personas and user testing scripts. Ensure developed applications follow corporate design standards. Participate in corporate UI design community to continually refine design standards and for HTML/CSS markup practices. Document design patterns for other projects lined up to use the new standards.
  • Application developed using Java. Interactions and effects using jQueryui. Validations done in javascript and AJAX.