Desigan Chinniah

Current

User Experience Consultant at Gumtree.com
Geek at 'cyberdees'

Past

Lead Front End Developer at eBay Inc
Senior Designer at BBC World Service
Designer at Skype

User Experience Consultant at Passado Ltd
Senior European Creative Designer at Ask.com
European Media Designer at Ask Jeeves
UI Designer at Search Labs Ltd
Web Designer (Contractor) at Ask Jeeves

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5 more...

Education

Mutlimedia Graphic Design Diploma
University of Durban Westville
University of the Witwatersrand

Westville Boys High School

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1 more...

Recommended

36 people have recommended Desigan

Connections

464 connections

Industry

Internet

Websites

Desigan Chinniah’s Summary

The enthusiastic, sociable and self motivated, Desigan Chinniah, is an experienced User Experience and Front-End Development Consultant, presently plying his trade for Gumtree.com.

With over 5 years of experience with leading internet properties (Ask Jeeves, Ask.com, Skype, BBC World Service, eBay and Gumtree.com), he enjoys producing, designing and developing, cutting-edge content for web interfaces and applications. He is passionate about web standards, accessibility, innovation and a positive user experience using user-centred design methodologies.

He is also actively involved with the London social media/technology scene, regularly attending meet ups, geek dinners, events and conferences, as well as most recently organising BarCampLondon5, held at eBay UK's Richmind campus.

Desigan Chinniah’s Specialties:

Semantic web standards advocate, accessibility, HTML, XHTML, CSS, user-centred design, functional interaction design, user interface design, project planning, team leader, event organising, project requirement gathering, social media activity, analytics

Desigan Chinniah’s Experience

User Experience Consultant

Gumtree.com

(Privately Held; Internet industry)

January 2008 — Present (1 year 11 months)

I am presently tasked with improving the User Experience on Gumtree.com

I have led the introduction of User Centred Design methodologies and principles within the work flow,as well as semantic accessible web standard front-end development.

Actively closing the working relationship gap with developers and participating within their Agile (Scrum) development processes.

Initial phases of my role include:
- identifying and improving present inconsistencies throughout the site
- improvement of front-end coding standards, bringing it in oine with semantic and accessible mark-up
- highlighting primary actions
- improving typography, iconography, colour, branding and white space
- making search more efficient
- introducing unobtrusive revenue modules
- working closely with 3rd parties and agencies
- new improved web standards and accessibility by rewriting front end code base
Geek

'cyberdees'

(Internet industry)

April 2003 — Present (6 years 8 months)

Involved in London events:
- CharityHack09 ~ September 2009 (organiser)
- UXCampLondon ~ August 2009 (co-organiser)
- TweetCampLondon ~ June 2009 (co-organiser)
- SocialMediaCamp2 ~ April 2009 (volunteer)
- BarCampLondon5 ~ September 2008 (organiser)

Common handle 'cyberdees' - Twitter, London IA Ning, Flickr, Last.fm, del.icio.us, Facebook, Upcoming, Brightkite, Dopplr or visit http://desiganchinniah.com
Lead Front End Developer

eBay Inc

(Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; ebay; Internet industry)

May 2007 — November 2008 (1 year 7 months)

Worked on front end development and solutions for local UK based eBay projects, as part of Local Development within Product division

- introduced standards based coding techniques
- improved accessibility features
- worked with the UED pattern engine team
- developed a CSS toolbox for European/Asia developers
- participated as a technical adviser on weekly Design Review sessions
- organised BarCampLondon5 at eBay (Richmond Campus)
Senior Designer

BBC World Service

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

February 2007 — May 2007 (4 months)

Short contract for the World Service, helping to improve the search interface offering, which at the time was different to the UK site.

Posed interesting issues especially with textual content across multiple languages.
Designer

Skype

(Public Company; 201-500 employees; Internet industry)

September 2006 — February 2007 (6 months)
User Experience Consultant

Passado Ltd

(Public Company; 51-200 employees; Internet industry)

March 2006 — February 2007 (1 year )
Senior European Creative Designer

Ask.com

(Public Company; 501-1000 employees; IACI; Internet industry)

January 2006 — August 2006 (8 months)
European Media Designer

Ask Jeeves

(Public Company; 1001-5000 employees; IACI; Internet industry)

March 2004 — December 2005 (1 year 10 months)
UI Designer

Search Labs Ltd

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

November 2003 — March 2004 (5 months)
Web Designer (Contractor)

Ask Jeeves

(Public Company; 201-500 employees; ASKJ; Internet industry)

August 2003 — November 2003 (4 months)

Desigan Chinniah’s Education

Mutlimedia Graphic Design Diploma

Diploma , Web Design, Graphic Design, Multimedia , January 2002 — September 2002

Activities and Societies:

Web Design, Graphic Design and Multimedia training covering a wide variety of Industry Standard software including : Dreamweaver, Flash, Photoshop, Fireworks, Freehand, Illustrator, Quark Xpress
University of Durban Westville

Bachelor of Accountancy January 1997 — January 1999
University of the Witwatersrand

BSc (Chem Eng) , 1996 — 1997
Westville Boys High School

English, Afrikaans, Maths, Physics, Biology, Accounting 1990 — 1995

Activities and Societies:

Equivalent to A levels.

Subjects:
Maths, English, Accountancy, Physics, Biology, and Afrikaans

Additional Information

Desigan Chinniah’s Websites:

Desigan Chinniah’s Interests:

Fatherhood, Geekery, Sports, Music, Photography

Desigan Chinniah’s Groups:

Technology and social media meetups (London Geek Dinners, Flickr Groups, BarCamp's, Tuttle)

Sports (London Softball Federation, Baseball Softball UK, Beckenham Goals)