★ Ben Sykes ★

Current

Principal at Interactoid

Past

Manager of User Centered Design at Cisco Systems
Product Manager - Human Experience Lead - GFS MSN Live at Microsoft
Principal - Founder at Superfly Industries LLC

United States Marine Corps at Golf Company, 2nd Battlalion, 23rd Marines
Associate Creative Director at American Idol Underground - Fluid Audio Networks
Product Manager User Experience : Information.com at Oversee.net
Sr. Web Developer - Professional Services at Digital Evolution
Camera P.A. - AMERICAN BEAUTY at Jinks / Cohen Company
Property Assistant Art Department at Murder In The First - Warner Brothers Pictures
Assistant Production Coordinator at Melrose Place - Spelling Entertainment
Motion Picture Casting at Independant Consultant

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★ Ben Sykes ★’s Summary

Dev design hybrid with 14 years experience designing human experiences, based on story and biological neural processes. USER EXPERIENCE / USABILITY / ★ ARE YOU CLICKABLE?™

// CAREER HIGHLIGHTS //

• Using JavaScript frameworks, created a way to “Drag & Drop” in Microsoft SharePoint for the GFS Ignition Portal at Microsoft.

• Conceived, Created and designed the search engine Information.com. (Global top 500 sites on the web – Alexa Rank)

• Successfully led the creative UI vision of the music website American Idol Underground from conception to over 1 million unique hits a week.

• Designed Siderean’s Seamark UI which was named by KMWorld, as one of the Top Trend-Setting Products of the Year! (2006).

★ Ben Sykes ★’s Specialties:

o User Experience Design & Leadership
o Usability Testing and Contextual Inqury
o Neuro Design
o User Experience Evangelism WorldWide
o Motivation and People Management
o Iphone Application Development
o Facebook Application Development
o User Research
o Neuromarketing
o Heuristic Evaluation
o Human Computer Interaction
o Web 2.0 Application Development
o Interactivity in RIA’s utilizing technologies such as HyperVideo and interactive flash video.

★ Ben Sykes ★’s Experience

Principal

Interactoid

(Internet industry)

2009 — Present (less than a year)

// PROJECTS //

• Experience & interaction design consulting
• Interactive video / hypervideo widgets
• Mobile application development / Iphone UI design

// TECHNOLOGY //

• Affiliate advertising
• Actionscript/Flash
• Fireworks/Photoshop
• Sprout API
• XML/CSS/JavaScript
• Facebook/Iphone SDK
• Premiere/Chroma Key
• Amazon (AWS)
Manager of User Centered Design

Cisco Systems

(Public Company; CSCO; Computer Networking industry)

2008 — 2009 (1 year)

// PRODUCTS //

• WebEx & WebEx Connect
• Cisco Unified Personal Communicator
• Enterprise Instant Messaging Clients
• Web 2.0 Management Portal

// TECHNOLOGY //

• Adobe Suite (all)
• Visio
• MS Project
• Expression Suite
• Visual Studio
• XAML/WPF

// RESPONSIBILITIES //

• Requirements capture & UI/Design spec development
• Team & vendor management, evaluation, scheduling & hiring globally
• Interaction design, information architecture & wireframe development
• Coordinate WebEx Connect design (ixd, ia, wireframe) into the Cisco Unified Communicator
• Coordinate and design (ixd, ia, wireframe) Cisco IM client integration into IBM Sametime & Microsoft Office Communicator.
Product Manager - Human Experience Lead - GFS MSN Live

Microsoft

(Public Company; MSFT; Computer Software industry)

2006 — 2008 (2 years)

// PRODUCTS //

• GFS/MSN Ignition Portal - Microsoft Sharepoint
• TSP Plug-in for Visual Studio (VSTF)
• Microsoft Online Suite (saas)

// TECHNOLOGY //

• Adobe Suite (all)
• Visio
• MS Project
• Expression Suite
• Visual Studio
• XAML/WPF

// RESPONSIBILITY //

• Requirements capture & UI/Design spec development
• Product managed the marketing strategy and wrote the usability testing plans.
• Worked closely with disparate development groups to establish product functionality, scope and delivery.
• Led team in experience design, Interaction design, information architecture & wireframe development
• Assisted in user contextual inquiry and usability tests. Translated user findings into affinity diagrams, event sequence diagrams, and use cases.
• Created & managed the creation of multiple high fidelity Flash driven clickable prototypes.
Principal - Founder

Superfly Industries LLC

(Internet industry)

March 1996 — 2007 (11 years)

// PROJECTS & CLIENTS //

• 200 plus client base
• Gary LeMel - Warner Brothers Music
• MGL Entertainment
• 5G Wireless (UCLA Portal)
• Siderean Software (NSA, NASA, Oracle)
• Venice Nutrition
• Hollywood Aid
• Crowne Limousine
• Informercial Host: Forbes Riley
• Inhost Web Hosting (Wyenet)
• Globe Motorsports
• IDT Technologies: EZCD Stack
• Designer Tracy Ross
• Comedian Carl Labove

// RESPONSIBILITIES //

• Web development
• Company direction & market strategy
• New business development
• RFP/RFI response & bid
• Requirements capture & UI/Design spec development
• Contextual inquiry / usability testing / usability participant recruitment
• Rapid prototyping
• Hypervideo & interactive flash video
• Worked closely with disparate development groups to establish product functionality, scope and delivery.
• User experience design, interaction design, information architecture & wireframe development.
United States Marine Corps

Golf Company, 2nd Battlalion, 23rd Marines

(Military industry)

October 2001 — 2006 (5 years)

o Operation Iraqi Freedom
o Provided humanitarian support.
o Part of the "21 Days to Baghdad" documentary.
o Took part in numerous press interviews from agencies all over the world.
o Secured Saddam’s Palace in Tikrit, Iraq
o Secured the UN Bldg in Baghdad.
o Secured the Special Republican Guard Headquarters.
o Made decisions under extreme pressure and noise
o Combat Leadership
Associate Creative Director

American Idol Underground - Fluid Audio Networks

(Internet industry)

September 2005 — August 2006 (1 year)

// PRODUCT //

• Social network for fans and artists separate from
the TV show, yet under the American Idol brand
• Print collateral (Rolling Stone, Music Connection)

// TECHNOLOGY //

• Adobe Suite
• Actionscript/Flash
• ASP.net
• MS Project
• XML/CSS/JavaScript
• Visio
• Agile - Scrum
• Visual Studio/Subversion

// RESPONSIBILITIES //

• Design direction for both site & magazine collateral & UI/Design spec development
• Team & vendor management, scheduling & Fremantle engagement.
• Usability planning/testing & hotspot analytic tracking.
• Interaction design, information architecture & wireframe development
Product Manager User Experience : Information.com

Oversee.net

(Privately Held; Internet industry)

2004 — 2005 (1 year)

// PRODUCTS //

• Search engine: Information.com
• BlogSource - Social blogging platform

// TECHNOLOGY //

• Adobe Suite (all)
• Visio
• WAP/WML
• Agile - Scrum

// RESPONSE //

• Conception of a “multi-search” engine harnessing untapped vertical engines and providing a tools layer.
• Technical requirements capture & UI/Design spec development
• Responsible for revenue modeling, market strategy & stakeholder pitch.
• Extensive new business development & strategic partnership creation.
• Coordinated / conducted all usability tests and A/B testing - tracking.
Sr. Web Developer - Professional Services

Digital Evolution

(Privately Held; 51-200 employees; Computer Software industry)

May 2002 — January 2004 (1 year 9 months)

o Project Director – EMTM (Interactive Training)
o Sr. Web Developer – Digev Corporate Web Site
o Project Manager / Dev – Corporate Intranet
o Sr. UI Designer – Sony APG Intranet
o UI Designer – Nissan Brand Performance System
o Flash Developer – The Zenith Insurance
o Lead Developer – Hewlett Packard CRM Site.
Camera P.A. - AMERICAN BEAUTY

Jinks / Cohen Company

(Entertainment industry)

December 1998 — February 1999 (3 months)

+ Provided all panaflex video monitor feeds for the Director Sam Mendes, Writer: Alan Ball, and producers.

+ Worked closely with the 1st & 2nd A.C.'s and Director of Photography Connie Hall.

I M D B http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0003777/
Property Assistant Art Department

Murder In The First - Warner Brothers Pictures

(Entertainment industry)

December 1993 — January 1994 (2 months)

+ Director: Marc Rocco

+ Production Company: Three Marks Productions

+ Northridge Crew
Assistant Production Coordinator

Melrose Place - Spelling Entertainment

(Entertainment industry)

June 1993 — August 1993 (3 months)

+ Filled in during the double episode season.

+ Assisting in managing of the production office, and acted as a fill-in liaison to cast and crew for production team.
Motion Picture Casting

Independant Consultant

(Entertainment industry)

1991 — 1993 (2 years)

Films Include:

o Money for Nothing - Dir. Ramon Menendez
o Blind Spot - Hallmark Hall of Fame
o The Fire Next Time - CBS Entertainment
o The Cemetery Club - Dir. Bill Duke - Touchstone Pictures
o Hoffa - Dir. Danny Devito - Jersey Films
o Citizen Cohn - Dir. Frank Pierson - HBO Pictures
o Innocent Blood - Dir. John Landis - Warner Brothers
o Striking Distance - Dir. Rowdy Herrington

Additional Information

★ Ben Sykes ★’s Websites:

★ Ben Sykes ★’s Groups:

o UPA – Usability Professionals’ Association
o AIGA – American Institute of Graphic Arts
o ACM SIGCHI - Association for Computing Machinery Special Interest Group on Computer-Human Interaction.
o HFES – Human Factors & Ergonomics Society
o STC – Society for Technical Communication