Ben Ellis

Current

Freelance Information Architect at Dare
Consultant Information Architect/Web Developer & Designer at Hungry Browser Limited

Past

Freelance IA/Front end web developer at Preloaded
Freelance Information Architect at Crayon London
Freelance Information Architect at Bostock and Pollitt

Freelance Information Architect at Preloaded
Freelance Information Architect/Web Developer at Duke, Avenue A Razorfish
Freelance Information Architect at Grand Union
Freelance Information Architect at Dare
Lead Information Architect at Crayon London
Freelance Information Architect/Web Developer/Designer at Hungry Browser
Freelance Web Developer at Duke
Freelance web developer at Dare
Freelance Web Developer at Ogilvy Interactive
Freelance Web Developer at Blue Barracuda
Freelance Web Developer at Four Communications
Freelance Web Developer at Bostock and Pollitt
Freelance Web Developer at Keepthinking Limited
Freelance Web Developer at SAS Design
Designer/Developer at LTA Ltd
Interactive Product Advisor at TMP Worldwide
Web Content Executive at Travelchest

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Education

The University of Birmingham
Newport Free Grammar School

Recommended

8 people have recommended Ben

Connections

186 connections

Industry

Internet

Websites

Ben Ellis’s Summary

• 10 years experience spanning information architecture, web planning and strategy, design and development.

• Involvement in the full life-cycle of a variety of integrated web projects.

• Experience of working in the top London agencies, client-side and start-ups both in a F/T and freelance capacity

• Exposure to a range of industry sectors including: financial, telecoms, travel, sports & leisure, lifestyle etc.

• Extensive experience of OmniGraffle, MS Visio & Axure for production of common UX deliverables (wireframes, site maps, user journeys, personas etc.)

• Fluent in Adobe products for interface design & development: Illustrator, PhotoShop, Fireworks, Dreamweaver
Proficiency in film editing and production using Final Cut Pro, LiveType, DVD Studio Pro

• Operating systems: Mac OS X (used on a daily basis), Windows 9x/NT/XP, Linux/Unix (testing purposes)

• Fluent in MS/Neo Office- Access, Excel, Outlook, Powerpoint, Word, iWork: Keynote, Numbers, Pages

Ben Ellis’s Specialties:

• Information architecture (OmniGraffle, Visio, Axure)
• Usability & User-centred design
• Accessibility
• Web strategy
• Web metrics (Google Analytics, Omniture SiteCatalyst)
• Web design (Dreamweaver, Illustrator, Fireworks, PhotoShop)
• Web development (XHTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP, MySQL).

Ben Ellis’s Experience

Freelance Information Architect

Dare

(Privately Held; Marketing and Advertising industry)

April 2009 — Present (4 months)
Consultant Information Architect/Web Developer & Designer

Hungry Browser Limited

(Internet industry)

April 2008 — Present (1 year 4 months)

I am currently working as Consultant Information Architect for a number of major London agencies.

Clients include: Vodafone, Sony Ericsson, London 2012, Freeview, The FA, Energy Saving Trust.

Tasks include: Development of information architecture strategy & production of common UX deliverables. Attendance at internal and external client and team meetings. Working alongside concepters, designers and developers.

I also offer IA, website design and development services directly to my own clients
Freelance IA/Front end web developer

Preloaded

(Privately Held; Design industry)

January 2009 — February 2009 (2 months)
Freelance Information Architect

Crayon London

(Privately Held; Marketing and Advertising industry)

February 2009 — February 2009 (1 month)
Freelance Information Architect

Bostock and Pollitt

(Privately Held; Design industry)

December 2008 — January 2009 (2 months)
Freelance Information Architect

Preloaded

(Privately Held; Design industry)

December 2008 — December 2008 (1 month)
Freelance Information Architect/Web Developer

Duke, Avenue A Razorfish

(Internet industry)

September 2008 — November 2008 (3 months)
Freelance Information Architect

Grand Union

(Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Marketing and Advertising industry)

May 2008 — August 2008 (4 months)
Freelance Information Architect

Dare

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

May 2008 — May 2008 (1 month)
Lead Information Architect

Crayon London

(Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Marketing and Advertising industry)

June 2007 — April 2008 (11 months)

Clients: BT, Legal & General, London Captial Group, Just Giving, James Villas, DMA
Project budgets include: £114,000 BT Voice redesign, £80,000 BT DMA Awards, £30,000 BT Vision redesign
Developed the IA proposition, deliverables, templates and methodology within the agency
Experience of site auditing, user behaviour/journeys, information design, usability/accessibility testing
Analysed web metrics (Google/Omniture) and market research to gain insight and drive web strategy and IA
Created IA deliverables including: site maps, competitor analysis, user journeys, wireframes, fallout reports
Educated the role of IA to internal and external agency stakeholders
Championed usability, accessibility and user-centred design within the agency by conducting workshops
Assisted account managers and planners in the creation of web strategy and scope of work documents
Briefed designers, developers and copywriters on IA requirements and ensuring recommendations are followed
Freelance Information Architect/Web Developer/Designer

Hungry Browser

(Internet industry)

October 2002 — June 2007 (4 years 9 months)

Agencies: Bostock & Pollitt, Blue Barracuda, Crayon, Dare Digital, Duke Interactive UK, Electric, Keepthinking Ltd, SAS Design, OgilvyOne Interactive
Clients: Barclays, Barratt Homes, BT, Canterbury NZ, DirectGov, Krispy Kreme, Lovells, McDonalds UK, Nectar, Nissan UK, PropertyFinder, Sunsilk, TGI Fridays
Projects: Information Architecture, dynamic and static websites, HTML emails, CMS development, HTML/PHP prototypes

Scoped web project requirements, strategy and prepared IA deliverables
Developed web projects using web standards XHTML, CSS, JS, AJAX, accessibility and usability testing
Back-end web development: PHP (OOP), MySQL, XML, RSS including source/version control
Designed and built CMS including bespoke, WordPress, Moveable Type, Expression Engine
Cross-browser/platform compatibility testing and benchmarking
Freelance Web Developer

Duke

(Internet industry)

November 2006 — April 2007 (6 months)
Freelance web developer

Dare

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

2006 — 2006 (less than a year)
Freelance Web Developer

Ogilvy Interactive

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

October 2006 — November 2006 (2 months)
Freelance Web Developer

Blue Barracuda

(Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Marketing and Advertising industry)

September 2006 — October 2006 (2 months)
Freelance Web Developer

Four Communications

(Public Company; 51-200 employees; Public Relations and Communications industry)

August 2006 — September 2006 (2 months)

I worked for Electric Group as a Freelance Web Developer. They have now since been acquired by Four Communications.
Freelance Web Developer

Bostock and Pollitt

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

2006 — 2006 (less than a year)
Freelance Web Developer

Keepthinking Limited

(Internet industry)

July 2004 — December 2005 (1 year 6 months)
Freelance Web Developer

SAS Design

(Privately Held; 51-200 employees; Online Media industry)

2005 — 2005 (less than a year)
Designer/Developer

LTA Ltd

(Telecommunications industry)

September 2001 — October 2002 (1 year 2 months)
Interactive Product Advisor

TMP Worldwide

(Privately Held; 1001-5000 employees; Marketing and Advertising industry)

November 2000 — August 2001 (10 months)
Web Content Executive

Travelchest

(Internet industry)

November 1999 — November 2000 (1 year 1 month)

Ben Ellis’s Education

The University of Birmingham

2:1 , Geography , 1996 — 1999
Newport Free Grammar School

1989 — 1996

Additional Information

Ben Ellis’s Websites:

Ben Ellis’s Interests:

• I am inspired by art, architecture, photography, graphic design and music • I enjoy shooting and editing short films and have co-produced 3 surfing and 2 skiing/snowboard DVDs • My sporting interests include skiing, surfing, working out and swimming • I have travelled widely across Europe and the World completing 2 surfaris: a 19 week round-the-world trip and a 7 week trip to Brazil, both of which included surfing, documenting and filming local cultures • I am training to qualify as a RLSS Beach Lifeguard & BSA (Level 1) Surf Instructor (to complete August 2009)