Creative UX/UI leader accomplished at managing design teams across multiple projects, with a track record of successfully evangelizing design systems and best practices. Accomplished at collaboration with product management, subject matter experts, internal and external stakeholders, designers and developers within agile environments. Focused on synthesizing user centered design from consumer insight, data analytics, user research and business requirements. Experienced in creating pixel perfect UI for responsive mobile/web environments.
When I am not working on solving UX/UI problems I can most often be found spending quality time at home. Playing drums and listening to music. I love the outdoors and also hike, bike and walk to achieve the perfect work-life balance.
God bless.
Manage design/development team, engage with project managers, stakeholders and content providers to solve business goals using best practice data analytical principles of user-centered agile design methodology.
See my Resume for details.
Led UX/UI team to drive ideation, strategy and execution of next generation SaaS application to correlate existing data points with new Nielsen purchasing data to forecast future ad revenue spend for top five product categories.
See my Resume for details.
Team leader in developing strategies to design/redesign and optimize automotive dealership websites and the dealer management system for world-class brands such as Lexus, VW, GM, Hyundai, Mini, Kia, Acura and Holden.
See my Resume for details.
(Or at least as lean as I can make it)
“As a designer I expect failure of my ideas early and often. I embrace it as part of the process to reach a consistent user experience over numerous systems and channels, including applications, websites and mobile initiatives that will continually please my customers and their users.”
Here is where I help determine the goals of the project. Both long and short term. What is trying to be achieved with the project, how success will be measured and the priority of each of these within that scope.
Accepted Methods of Practice - Stakeholder Interviews - Competitor Analysis - Analytics Review
Often skipped in the Lean UX process, it still needs to be considered one of the most important steps especially on a large scale project. Smaller startup projects could scale down or even skip this process entirely.
Accepted Methods of Practice - Ethnography/Contextual Inquiry – Diary Study – User Interviews – Surveys – Heuristic Review
Validation time. Lots of data has just been gathered during the Research/Discovery phase. Here is where the “what” I have gathered helps me to formulate and understand the “why.”
Accepted Methods of Practice - Use cases – Storyboards – Personas – Scenarios – Experience Maps/Flows
For me this is where the rubber meets the road. I’m still a UI guy at heart.
This is the time to get ideas in front of the users, get feedback, (“fail early and often”), rinse and repeat. Here I’ll use wireframes, paper prototypes and “low fidelity prototypes only” as to prevent any “visual burn-in of branding, color palettes and other visual details.
Accepted Methods of Practice - Site Map Wireframes – Paper Prototypes - Low Fidelity Prototypes - Diary Study - In Person User Testing – Unmoderated User Testing – User Interviews – Collaborative Design
Time to champion the entire vision created and followed by all the previous steps. Here is where I work with developers to bring it all to life by going high-fidelity using full stack development where validation is sought from key stake holders and end users alike.
Accepted Methods of Practice - Scums to include QA Sessions - In Person User Testing – Unmoderated User Testing – Beta Release – Final Release
What I have laid out above is by no means the final word on the topic. As you see there is noticeable overlap. Moving forward will only provide learning moments where it will be crucial to look back to some of the previous research steps, get more feedback and continually iterate new ideas. This practice of UX design is a means-to-an-end as I remain driven by results not the process itself.
- Be sure to enlarge image and scroll - I was asked to design an application UI/UX that was going to be used exclusively by the top executives of the 5 major product categories for Kellogg's Foods of Battle Creek, MI. The application would provide daily insights into how revenue spends were performing and would even look into the future, based on past performance, and help executives determine the best path to take regarding future spending initiatives. I had to gain an understanding of big data and Hadoop and how they functioned in the context of complex and structured data sets. Although I am not a big data scientist, I was included in all the meetings so I could gain that understanding as we talked about getting all that data into a visual format via the charts and the tools used to tweak and manipulate it. The UX process used was that every Monday morning the team would gather with the VP's of the 5 divisions within Kellogg's, and as the latest data was added to the system, we would watch them use the appliation. This gave all involved a first hand insight as to the method of using the tool with the ability to ask questions, make suggestions and do a lot of listening. The collection of agreed upon ideas was then worked on through the following week and resulted in another release of code. Then the process was repeated till the projects completion. The image at top shows one example of the chart designs while the image in the middle shows another set of chart designs. These are also what the final UI design was. The one below these is the beta UI/UX used through the early stages of the project.
- Be sure to enlarge image and scroll - I was asked to design an app for a new stove that my client would soon be releasing to market. (I had 24 hours to come up with something as a test.) The idea is for the connected home market and would provide the user a custom interface with the appliance from wherever they happened to be. This was a total gorilla UI/UX thing using my family and friends as the sounding boards for feedback.
- Be sure to enlarge image and scroll - The above first shows the amount of links that a VW Service & Parts page had before I was asked to redo the section for their dealer websites. Next you will see the flow diagrams for desktop and mobile I created in response. These are flow and wireframes combined. The resulting code releases improved user retention and most importantly increased Service appointments by 1/3 overall across the entire dealer website program! Volkswagen was very happy to say the least.
- Be sure to enlarge image and scroll - Here you will find an example of an interactive prototype for Volkswagen Service & Parts AxureRP screen shots.
- Be sure to enlarge image and scroll - Cards and Decks was the buzzword for the new NextGen platform at my former company. I was part of a team of designers who were tasked with creating new widgets for automotive retail websites. Shown above is my Axure RP wireframe for a blog widget showing various layout possibilities.
- Be sure to enlarge image and scroll - Cards and Decks was the buzzword for the new NextGen platform at my former company. I was part of a team of designers who were tasked with creating new widgets for automotive retail websites. Shown above is my Axure RP wireframe for a product filtering widget showing various possibilities.
Visit New England.com UI/UX Design - Be sure to enlarge image and scroll -
UI Design & Art Direction - Be sure to enlarge image and scroll -
UI Design & Art Direction - Be sure to enlarge image and scroll -
UI Design & Art Direction - Be sure to enlarge image and scroll -
UI Design & Art Direction - Be sure to enlarge image and scroll -
UI Design & Art Direction - Be sure to enlarge image and scroll -
UI Design & Art Direction - Be sure to enlarge image and scroll -
UI Design & Art Direction - Be sure to enlarge image and scroll -
UI Design & Art Direction - Be sure to enlarge image and scroll -
UI Design & Art Direction - Be sure to enlarge image and scroll -
UI Design & Art Direction - Be sure to enlarge image and scroll -
UI Design & Art Direction - Be sure to enlarge image and scroll -
UI Design & Art Direction - Be sure to enlarge image and scroll -
UI Design & Art Direction - Be sure to enlarge image and scroll -
UI Design & Art Direction - Be sure to enlarge image and scroll -
"James is highly skilled as a UI/UX designer. He showed his knowledge and understanding of the customer journey, and used his empathy for the end user to lead the customer in a way that kept them moving forward."
JR Cahill
Enterprise Architect: Data, Analytics, & BI, Keurig Dr Pepper Inc.
"James worked for me for 11 years as a Senior and Lead Web Designer. He is a practiced professional who's not only grounded in the fundamentals of design, but consistent in both the quality of his work and the predictability of its delivery. He is a user-centered Designer who did a fantastic job satisfying the needs of our customers while also ensuring the high performance of the websites he designed. James worked with clients, Sales, Product Management and Lead Engineers to ensure the highest customer experience was achieved. James is a person of high integrity and work ethic and I hope to work with him again some day."
Alden Hopkins
UX Design Manager, Facebook
"I was very fortunate to have James as a member of my team. Time and time again, James proved himself to be a self motivated, reliable and steady team player. I could count on him to work proactively and independently, and to meet critical deadlines for complex tasks. On many occasions James found ways to automate and streamline tedious tasks. James did a great job integrating with his team and was well liked by all. I have no hesitation recommending James for work in this field."
Peter McKeown
Product Design Manager, Facebook
"I have worked with James for over eleven years, in his capacity as a Lead Designer/UI/VX/UX Designer in Professional Services. James has many outstanding characteristics that make him a valued member of any team. Three of those are his ability to quickly learn, his team work, and his innovation. He was the primary designer for Lexus for around 6 years and in working with various client contacts learned what worked and did not work for Lexus. When Lexus wanted to include showing new vehicle inventory on their websites, they praised the design work James did saying the designs were “awesome and totally reflect the luxury that is Lexus”."
Barbara Shackleton
Senior Program Manager, ProWand
"James' designs are nothing short of amazing. James and I were on the same team together at Cobalt where I was the development lead and he was the Design Lead for the company's flagship client. James has a gift for creating designs that:
James is an excellent addition to any team, and I would most certainly look forward to working with him again in the future if the occasion arises."
Steven Green
Senior Software Developer, Amazon
"I worked with James Jordan while at ChannelPoint in Colorado Springs, Colorado. James is a highly talented creative professional with a keen sense of design and usability across all forms of new media. James is an expert in his field, and he was an excellent mentor to me as well. I would highly recommend having James be part of your new media design and development team. His experience and eye for detail will ensure your project will be done to the highest standard and quality."
Aaron Spring
Executive Director, Spring Media Works