Chris Pallé

Current

IA/UX Consultant at Direct Brands
User Experience and Interaction Design Contractor at Blue Flame, LLC

Past

IA/UX Consultant at McGraw-Hill Construction
IA/UX Consultant at G2 Direct and Digital
IA/UX Consultant at Alexander Interactive

Senior Information Architect at Behavior
IA/UX Consultant at Behavior
IA/UX Consultant at Bertelsmann Direct North America
IA/UX Consultant at BMG Columbia House
IA/UX Consultant at OgilvyAction
IA/UX Consultant at TribalDDB
Pro Fitness Trainer at Town Sports International, Inc. (NYSC Marlboro, NJ)
Lead Interactive Media/Graphics Designer, Marketing Communications Coordinator at Blonder Tongue Laboratories, Inc.
Graphics Designer at Calvary Chapel Old Bridge
Lead Interactive Designer/Author, Information Architect at Lanmark Group, Inc.
Director, Web Administration at Living Abroad Publishing
Production Assistant at O’Plenty Animation Studio
Web Page Designer at Brookdale Community College

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13 more...

Education

Rochester Institute of Technology
Brookdale Community College
McClintock High School

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Recommended

11 people have recommended Chris

Connections

348 connections

Industry

Internet

Websites

Chris Pallé’s Summary

• Creative, multi-disciplinary user experience professional with over 12 years of experience;

• Healthy skeptic for effective discovery and scope definition phases;

• Analytical problem-solver adept at conceptualizing specific UI widgets as well as complete sites;

• Specialist in e-commerce storefronts, branding/marketing micro-sites, and Web-based applications;

• Collaborative bridge-builder between business groups, uniting operations divisions such as business analysis, marketing, front-end design, and technical staffs;

• Skilled in educating clients and staff on user experience best practices;

• Adaptable in constrained environments with legacy information systems or changing business scopes;

• Comfortable and proficient in remote office arrangements;

• Well-versed in various design and development technologies such as HTML/CSS and PHP/MySQL;

• Recognized for excellence in building and maintaining friendly rapport with both clients and staff;

Chris Pallé’s Specialties:

User Experience/Interaction Design
Information Architecture
Concept Prototyping and Wireframing
User Interface Design and Development
Technical Communication
Standards-Compliant Web Authoring
Internet Marketing Strategies
Device Independent, Accessible UI Design

Chris Pallé’s Experience

IA/UX Consultant

Direct Brands

(Internet industry)

2009 — Present (less than a year)
User Experience and Interaction Design Contractor

Blue Flame, LLC

(Internet industry)

October 2005 — Present (4 years 2 months)

• Serves as user-advocate throughout entire design process;

• Interviews stakeholders to determine design strategy as well as establish and document project scope and business requirements;

• Creates and documents usability surveys and ethnographic research to understand user mental models and their objectives;

• Performs heuristic evaluations of existing applications to find successful aspects to build on as well as propose revisions where needed;

• Facilitates design ideation, competitive site analysis, and usability test efforts;

• Produces IA deliverables such as personae, architectural diagrams, wireframes, user interface prototypes, design specifications, user experience flows, and functional requirements;
IA/UX Consultant

McGraw-Hill Construction

(Public Company; MHP; Publishing industry)

November 2008 — April 2009 (6 months)
IA/UX Consultant

G2 Direct and Digital

(Internet industry)

October 2008 — November 2008 (2 months)
IA/UX Consultant

Alexander Interactive

(Privately Held; Internet industry)

September 2008 — October 2008 (2 months)
Senior Information Architect

Behavior

(Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Internet industry)

May 2008 — August 2008 (4 months)
IA/UX Consultant

Behavior

(Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Internet industry)

April 2008 — May 2008 (2 months)
IA/UX Consultant

Bertelsmann Direct North America

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

May 2007 — May 2008 (1 year 1 month)
IA/UX Consultant

BMG Columbia House

(Internet industry)

2007 — 2008 (1 year )
IA/UX Consultant

OgilvyAction

(Public Company; 51-200 employees; Marketing and Advertising industry)

July 2007 — October 2007 (4 months)
IA/UX Consultant

TribalDDB

(Public Company; Internet industry)

February 2007 — May 2007 (4 months)
Pro Fitness Trainer

Town Sports International, Inc. (NYSC Marlboro, NJ)

(Public Company; 5001-10,000 employees; Health, Wellness and Fitness industry)

September 2005 — February 2007 (1 year 6 months)

NASM Certified Personal Trainer - nasm.org

Design and implement fitness program designs that successfully meet client health and fitness goals.

Coach and educate clients on proper use of the body including diaphragmatic breathing and engaging the core to perform exercises that make workouts more effective and achieve a more efficient use of time.
Lead Interactive Media/Graphics Designer, Marketing Communications Coordinator

Blonder Tongue Laboratories, Inc.

(Public Company; 201-500 employees; BDR; Electrical/Electronic Manufacturing industry)

March 2003 — June 2006 (3 years 4 months)

Performed interviews with senior stakeholders to understand business requirements, and develop scope and project deliverables;

Produced deliverables such as site blueprints, wireframes, user interface prototypes, and user experience process flows;

Created UI design visuals aligned with corporate branding identity strategies through fluent usage of Photoshop and Illustrator. (tvchannelblocker.com);

Hand coded designs into accessible (WCAG/WAI), device independent sites using W3C standards-based CSS/xHTML.

Provided creative direction, illustration, and design skills to support marketing strategies for online and offline campaigns;

Interfaced product managers and executive staff to present creative initiatives and production schedules;

Using various Web-based technologies, architected, built, and maintained custom Web applications for corporate product literature that integrated with Quark and InDesign workflows.
Graphics Designer

Calvary Chapel Old Bridge

(Non-Profit; 51-200 employees; Graphic Design industry)

August 2004 — January 2005 (6 months)

Reported to Pastoral Staff to update church bulletin and create graphic design for tape packaging.
Lead Interactive Designer/Author, Information Architect

Lanmark Group, Inc.

(Privately Held; 51-200 employees; Marketing and Advertising industry)

January 2000 — June 2001 (1 year 6 months)

Persuaded executive management to engineer a custom, modular Content Management System for clients’ Web applications and in turn, Lanmark could market the system to cover development costs;

Key liaison between technical and creative staff to translate requirements and business goals into messaging, site navigation, labels and content organization on the user interface;

Performed interviews with senior stakeholders to understand business requirements, and develop scope and project deliverables;

Produced deliverables such as site blueprints, wireframes, user interface prototypes, and user experience process flows;

Using HTML and CSS, authored and revamped multiple Web sites, an entire client extranet system (hosting all clients), and multiple intranet components.
Director, Web Administration

Living Abroad Publishing

(Privately Held; 1-10 employees; Internet industry)

January 1999 — January 2000 (1 year 1 month)

Conceptualized, designed, developed, and optimized interfaces for Content Management Systems and business communication systems for Fortune 500 clientele such as Philip Morris, UBS, Merill Lynch, CitiGroup, KPMG, Berlitz International;

Collaborated and managed interdepartmental projects with multiple reports
Production Assistant

O’Plenty Animation Studio

(Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Animation industry)

August 1997 — December 1997 (5 months)

Provided animation assistance including rendering, cell cleanup, and frame sequencing for award-winning cartoons
Web Page Designer

Brookdale Community College

(Educational Institution; 501-1000 employees; Internet industry)

August 1996 — December 1996 (5 months)

Assisted department professors with creating Web pages for the ceramics students. Duties included: HTML scripting, digital photography, graphic optimization

Chris Pallé’s Education

Rochester Institute of Technology

Bachelors of Applied Arts and Science , Graphic Arts, eBusiness, Technical Communications , 2000 — 2003

I completed this degree in an online, distance learning format. Graduating with a 3.4 GPA, this experience gave me the ability to work proficiently in a telecommuting arrangement. It was a challenging and rewarding experience that I would never trade in for the on-campus lifestyle.
Brookdale Community College

AA , Computer Art and Design , 1995 — 2001
McClintock High School

High School Diploma , 1989 — 1993