Beth Dean

Current

Senior UX Developer at Progressive Insurance

Past

Visual Communication Instructor at Cuyahoga Community College
Senior UI Developer at American Greetings
Editor at Designorati

Interactive Designer at WhiteSpace Creative
Web Designer at Nexagen USA

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2 more...

Education

Columbus College of Art & Design

Connections

177 connections

Industry

Graphic Design

Websites

My Website

Beth Dean’s Summary

Presently I'm a Senior User Experience Developer with Progressive Insurance, responsible for the billing and payment experience, and leading the mobile experience team. A fast paced work environment necessitates strong problem solving skills and strategic thinking.

Prior to that I worked at AG Interactive, a subsidiary of American Greetings, as a Senior UI Developer and standards advocate. Typical day to day duties include designing interfaces and forms, building XHTML/CSS based pages, optimizing existing markup for search engines, and implementing best practices across sites.

Beth Dean’s Specialties:

UX design and development of pure XHTML/CSS sites, rapid prototyping and wireframing, usability testing, information design, information architecture, data visualization, as well as metrics analysis.

Beth Dean’s Experience

Senior UX Developer

Progressive Insurance

(Public Company; PGR; Insurance industry)

February 2008 — Present (1 year 10 months)

My work includes translating business requirements into design concepts, creating process flows and prototypes, testing prototypes through usability studies, investigating user interaction with current applications, developing well formed XHTML/CSS, supporting IT and QA peers during development, documenting and maintaining interaction diagrams, working with business stakeholders to create objectives and capture success metrics.

As owner of the billing and payment experience I am responsible for increasing payment volume and electronic funds transfer enrollment, lowering call volume, and improving Customer Satisfaction Index and Net Promoter Scores. I develop strategies for long term success by analyzing business and customer needs, user feedback and critical metrics.

I lead the Mobile Platform ExperienceTeam, developing mobile best practices and standards which translate across all our applications and user groups, and create device independent, usable payment experiences.
Visual Communication Instructor

Cuyahoga Community College

(Educational Institution; 1001-5000 employees; Higher Education industry)

January 2008 — December 2008 (1 year )

I taught introduction to WYSIWYG editors/beginning web design as an adjunct instructor. Students learned how to use Dreamweaver for publishing standards compliant, accessible web sites, as well as basic design, usability and information architecture principles.
Senior UI Developer

American Greetings

(Public Company; Consumer Goods industry)

February 2007 — February 2008 (1 year 1 month)

I worked on a daily basis to bring web standards to American Greetings. As UI lead on one of AG's sites, I was responsible for migration to a new content management system, standardized and accessible coding practices, developing process flows, and implementing SEO best practice techniques increasing site traffic and membership revenues.

I strove to create the best possible user experiences and used creative problem solving skills to resolve unique site issues. In addition to code I provided deliverables such as wireframes and prototypes. It was also my responsibility to bridge the gap between business stakeholders, product management, development and quality assurance.
Editor

Designorati

(Privately Held; 1-10 employees; Graphic Design industry)

November 2005 — December 2007 (2 years 2 months)

Editing and writing about web design for the digital design magazine Designorati.
Interactive Designer

WhiteSpace Creative

(Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Graphic Design industry)

February 2006 — February 2007 (1 year 1 month)

WhiteSpace is an award winning agency in Akron, Ohio. I designed and built websites for them, as well as multimedia presentations. I saw a project from start to finish, from initial wireframing and information architecture, to designing and coding. Occasionally I only designed the look of the site, or translated someone else's design to code. Additionally I did illustration. One of the things I loved about WhiteSpace was the opportunity to do a wide range of work, from both enterprise level businesses, to pro-bono work for non-profits.
Web Designer

Nexagen USA

(Privately Held; 10,001 or more employees; Alternative Medicine industry)

August 2004 — February 2006 (1 year 7 months)

I wore a lot of hats at Nexagen, designing all new pages, designing collateral for special promotions and conferences, and translating that collateral to the web. I spent a lot of time honing my digital illustration skills. I completed two major successful redesigns while there, in a very short period of time. I also co-developed a large Flash application that translated data about our users' binary tree into an interactive visual.