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Professional Resume

Website User Experience Consultant. I am a strategic consultant who helps not-for-profit organizations and small businesses use the Web to build relationships, cultivate community, conduct outreach, and offer an engaging online experience for their audience – from local communities to distributed international constituencies, and everything in between.

Experience | Education & Coursework | Skills

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Experience

Manager of User Experience, Convio, Inc. Austin, Texas. January 2008 - present.

  • Create strategic plans for nonprofit organizations to build a successful online presence, including:
    • Audience analysis;
    • Content structure and strategy;
    • Design visioning; and
    • 3- to 5-year Web campaigns to engage their targeted audiences.
  • Oversee all strategic and creative work of an 8-p¬erson team of consultants: audience researchers, information architects, content consultants, and designers.
  • Manage all aspects of the company’s User Experience consulting program, a $1.5+ million business unit within a $50-million software and consulting company.

Senior Information Architect, Convio, Inc. Austin, Texas. January - December 2007.

  • Pioneered and developed a User Experience consulting program for nonprofit organizations, including for-fee consultation packages covering information architecture and design, usability, and accessibility for website visitors with disabilities.
  • Developed and managed all aspects of consulting engagements, including content analyses and plans; business requirements documentation; stakeholder and user research plans; information architecture materials such as site path analyses, audience prioritization schema, and usage scenarios; layout wireframes; and usability evaluation plans.
  • Conducted industry research resulting in several articles and conference presentations on user-centered practices and user research for nonprofits.
  • Blogged for Convio’s nonprofit technology blog, Connection Cafe.
  • Hired, trained, and mentored all new User Experience consulting staff.

Interactive Project Manager, Convio, Inc. Austin, Texas. February 2005 – December 2006.

  • Lead all strategic Web projects for 4 national non-profit organizations: American Red Cross, American Cancer Society, Easter Seals, and Defenders of Wildlife.
  • Serve as champion to client organizations, promoting online communication best practices.
  • Helped organizations plan and implement site architectures from concept to finished structures, including conducting content inventories, developing usability test plans, accessibility consulting, and wireframe creation.

Information Architect & Web Content Manager,The University of Texas. Austin, Texas. February 2003 – January 2005.

  • Planned, organized, and implemented UT’s Web site for prospective students, a content-heavy site with 7 levels and 200+ pages (bealonghorn.utexas.edu).
  • Collaborated with a team of programmers, designers, and administrators to meet both internal clients’ and external constituents’ needs. Conducted focus groups and user testing.
  • Created content development materials to manage user experience (affinity diagrams, storyboards, wireframes, content models).
  • Served as project leader for all Web-related information services.

Freelance Web Consulting. 2003 - present.

Blog Consultant. The Texas Observer. Austin, Texas. 2005-2006.

  • Designed and built the magazine’s pilot legislative session blog, Texas Legislature Observed (texaslegislatureobserved.com).
  • Provided strategic counsel and training on blog writing and reporting to magazine’s three editors and a staff of 10 intern bloggers.

Information Architect. Fisterra Studio and Austin’s East 7th Street Project. 2003 – present.

Education & Coursework

M.S. in Information Studies, Information Architecture. 2007.
School of Information, The University of Texas at Austin.
Mentor & Advisor: Andrew Dillon

Information Architecture & Interaction Design coursework: Information Architecture & Design, Designing Digital Communities, User-centered Design, Managing Information Organizations, Usability (introductory and advanced), Project Management, Metadata & Classification.

B.A., English and Women’s Studies. Summa Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa.
Southwestern University, Georgetown, Texas. May 2002.

Center for Academic Programs Abroad. London, England. Fall 2000.

Skills

  • Fluency with HTML and CSS
  • Metadata, tagging, semantic Web, and taxonomic/folksonomic skills
  • Experience with a range of open source software applications, especially content management systems (e.g. Drupal, Joomla)
  • Strong understanding of visual design principles and applications, including Adobe and Macromedia suites
  • PC & Mac expertise


Misty McLaughlin

Information Architect,
User Experience Consultant

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Selected client list

Jewish National Fund
U.S. Fund for UNICEF
Autism Society of America
American Red Cross
Easter Seals, Inc.
Lambda Legal
University of Texas' "Be a Longhorn"
Michael Erard, author

 

 

 

 

© 2009 misty a. mclaughlin. portland, maine.