Web Gets Real
Portfolio Showcase : 2000 - 2007
By the mid-90's the graphical Web had caught the imagination of the world.The interactive online dream was still alive - and evolving - but now it was on ... the internet.
The Web eventually re-emerged as a more mature environment - in part defined by the emergence of the UI-oriented disciplines that are the origins of User Experience .
We began to look at the usability arena as both an Art and a Science.
Interactivity gets Serious
Despite the bursting of the The Internet Bubble in 2001, even traditional businesses still continued to move their enterprises toward the Web platform. This was an era of big portal engagements. It became clear that one of tne of The Challenges Ahead was to effectively integrate User Experience into the conventional Corporate IT milieu.
My primary design toolset evolved during this active period to include Dreamweaver, Contribute, Fireworks, CSS Stylesheets, DHTML, Javascript and Flash and Ajax techniques.
I pioneered effective UI management strategies for working hand-in-glove with enterprise development teams on a range of popular platforms, such as ASP, JSP, .NET, PHP, SharePoint, and Java Server Faces.
UxP Becomes Business-like
Players in the interactive arena must address integration and infrastructure-related issues. Business, Techside and Marketing liaise about about how to make User Experience part of their total solution.
That's why we need to think of UxP as a Business
During this period I focused on financial market applications because they offered the greatest interactive design challenges: Complex workflows, a well-defined business case, rich functionality, multi-channel strategies, and the integrated "portal".
Success is based on understanding How It All Fits Together.
Making IT Work
Anyone who wants to compete in the interactive space must understand how the User Experience Practice fits into their organization.
It's a delicate dance: Evangelism and Education are a big part of the solution.
The role of the User Experience professional is to articulate and advocate the vision for the role that's emerging within the enterprise.
It's A Manifesto of Sorts.
2000-2007
Cap Gemini
Interactive design agency Publicis sub-contracted TCS to analyze, assess and propose content presentation and marketing solutions for international consulting firm Gap Gemini's website.
Cub Scout Pack 215
So I worked with our local Cub Scout Pack a little while back - and in so doing soon rediscovered some of my community service roots (harking waaaay back to video documentaries and cable TV activism in the 70's). This is a neat little solution for a volunteer community service website.
The Hartford
This major financial firm needed to rollout their new customer and client-facing service in a short period of time. Since the online site is intended to deliver customer and client self-service, true "ease of use" was the focus of this UI makeover / functional redesign.
Interactive One
Interactive One is the leading online network serving the African-American community. In 2007 they asked us to help them evolve their social networking site.
Advertising Database
We helped this advertising contact management tool make the transition from CD-ROM to become a successful online service.
Prudential Insurance
Prudential already had an online public-facing website that allowed customers to apply for term life insurance in a self-service environment. The next phase was to provide an in-bank version of the web-based service which would allow client Bankers to assist their customers in buying term life insurance from their desk in the bank.
SCANA
Modem Media brought TCS onboard to assist with an intranet redesign for their client, a public energy firm serving the southeast coastal region. The client wanted their inward-facing Sharepoint site to be come more pro-actively useful to employees, while also serving as an effective venue for internal marketing.
Rick Daccardi Photos
This was Rick's first website. He wanted it simple and he wanted to present the range of his photographic skills and visual sensibility.
BusinessEdge Solutions
The h igh-end consultancy BusinessEdge Solutions (now part of EMC Consulting) brought me onboard to assist in providing their client with strategic insights in the Uxp arena, focusing on wealth management.
Conchango
This international design firm was looking to open a US office. They asked TCS to assist in bringing in some new potential clients, based on the Sharepoint platform.
LPPOA Recreation
As a community member, in 2005 I volunteered to help redesign the existing Lake Parsippany Property Owners Association (LPPOA) website with an eye towards both service and outreach.
ABN-AMRO
TCS helped award-winning ad agency STEIN ROGAN + PARTNERS to roll out a major advertising campaign for their new structured product in the US market. The product-oriented mini-site built brand identity among broker dealers and full service brokerages.
NIA Group
This total redesign for a customer-facing insurance aggregator website involved working directly with the CIO and Marketing Director to deliver a targeted, customer-centric site that generates viable sales leads.
SchoolNet
This portal to educational services supports The administration of "no child left behind" mandates facing the primary and secondary school systems. Their in-house UX Practice needed some senior assistance in preparing their Sharepoint-based site for a new software release.
Credit Suisse
The primary focus of this project was to assess client needs and define the Scope of Work for the strategic redesign of existing B2B client-serving residential mortgage lending websites.
Standard & Poor's
Led design team in creating a website model for rules-engine-driven financial portfolio advisor site. Overcame numerous design issues, integrated functionality with existing legacy services, provided documentation leadership in identifying business rules and functional needs.
Bunge Global Markets
Design leadership for a complex intranet-based suite of services for this global commodities firm. Focus on trading and fulfillment, risk management, strategic planning, reporting, customer assistance. Reported directly to CIO on usability and portal design issues.
Kyocera / Mita
This international copier/printer company needed to make their web-based Dealer Order Management System both usable and competitive. Kyocera needed to provide real self-service to their extended dealer base in order to maintain a competitive presence in the marketplace.
Grey Advertising
Diet giant Slim-Fast needed to redesign their consumer website. I helped online ad agency Grey Interactive to put together the structure of their "new look", oriented towards "ease of use", self service and building a strong customer relationship.
FISA / CityTime
This complex web-based Timesheet and Payroll Management application integrated services across 80 New York City agencies with more than 200,000 employees (Fire, Police, Sanitation, Department of Corrections, etc.). This huge project also needed help in establishing accountability, process and effective communication among client stakeholders, business analysts and the technical implementation team.
Deutsche Bank
The IT department at this large international bank needed help - and fast. They wanted to integrate incompatible corporate sites that had been published by their international offices into a client-facing portal, while also providing cross-selling of their services, as well as substantial new functionality.
Morgan Stanley
On-Staff as Senior Information Architect. Equity ResearchLink service competes with several other well-known firms to push equity research documents to their institutional investor client base. The firm had already spent a huge amount of money (both outsourcing and internally) in trying to make the experience of their site more competitive when they hired me in 2001 to bring some closure to the process.
Ernst & Young
As a consultant member of Ernst & Young's Communications Learning Team I was involved in technical writing, documentation, interactive design, training and strategic consulting for several internal projects: Global Tax Operate, PeopleSoft Training, Document Maintenance Strategy, Employee Career Self-Management
Immersant
In 1999 financial print publishing giant Bowneset up Immersant as an internet service bureau design shop in order to leverage their position into the emerging web-based electronic publishing arena. I was hired as the lead Interactive Architect for the New York City / New Jersey office.