J.D. Welch

J.D. Welch

Senior Web & User Interface Designer, Information Architect

Greater Seattle Area

Current
  • Product Designer III, Management & Administration Experience (MAX) at Microsoft
  • Art Director at League of Professional System Administrators
Past

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3 more...

Education
  • State University of New York College at Purchase
Recommended
J.D. has 8 recommendations 8 people have recommended J.D.
Connections
72 connections
Industry
Information Technology and Services
Websites

J.D. Welch’s Summary

Visual communication and user interface designer with eight years experience across a wide variety of organizations and industries. Strong style focused on clean, usable aesthetics and interaction. Seeking a position demanding my versatility for working across platforms and media to deliver compelling, brand-focused applications and marketing communications.

J.D. Welch’s Specialties:

Branding & identity design, information architecture, information design, process/taskflows, visual UI design

J.D. Welch’s Experience

  • Product Designer III, Management & Administration Experience (MAX)

    Microsoft

    (Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; MSFT; Computer Software industry)

    May 2008 — Present (7 months)

    So far, I've designed the Setup experience for V2 of the SCE product. Shortly we'll be doing lab studies to see if I nailed it or not.

  • Art Director

    League of Professional System Administrators

    (Non-Profit; 1-10 employees; Non-Profit Organization Management industry)

    April 2002 — Present (6 years 8 months)

    In an informal ongoing relationship, I design and develop brand design pieces and related collateral artwork for a nonprofit system administration group, working closely with volunteers and staff to accomplish goals. Key accomplishments:

    - Created new branding system and logo for the organization, including a large library of reusable production art, web buttons/banners and other collateral, and authored an extensive branding guide

    - Produced artwork for national print advertising campaign

    - Designed collateral materials, including certificates, posters, postcards, brochures, shirts, etc. for marketing communications, giveaways and promotions

  • Freelance Graphic Designer, Web Designer, Front-End Web Developer

    Self-employed

    (Self-Employed; Myself Only; Design industry)

    January 2000 — May 2008 (8 years 5 months)

    - Print design and production, including identity packages, logos, advertising, merchandise, signage, etc.

    - Web/interactive design and production, including design comps & storyboards, graphics production, photo editing, DHTML/CSS markup, JavaScript coding, Flash animation, information architecture and lower-level backend coding. Emphasis on a holistic, user-centered approach focusing on simplicity, utility and accessibility

    - Notable clients: FCB Seattle, Peel Interactive, The System Administrators Guild and SAGE Certification

  • UI Designer and Information Architect

    WatchGuard Technologies, Inc.

    (Public Company; 201-500 employees; Information Technology and Services industry)

    February 2007 — March 2008 (1 year 2 months)

    Lead visual and interaction design and information architecture for all areas of WatchGuard's website, with special emphasis on pre-sales marketing, e-commerce, web applications and channel partner resources. Focus on streamlining & reducing content, revamping visuals & typography and creating reusable design & interaction patterns.

    [read the rest about this position at jdwelch.net/resume]

  • Product Designer, Education Products Group

    Microsoft (through FILTER)

    (Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; MSFT; Information Technology and Services industry)

    December 2006 — February 2007 (3 months)

    As lead designer on the Student Experience Client project, I drove the interaction and visual design of a modular, gadget-style project management, time tracking and research tool application for secondary and university students.

    In early planning at the time, my work on this project consisted of, among other things

    - Determining features and interaction through user-centered design process

    - Exploring of issues in creating an experience for both the desktop and web platforms

    - Integrating features & modules into existing applications (word processors, web browsers, calendars, etc.), including work on a custom RibbonX tab for Office 12

    - Illustrating use-case scenarios for the design and product teams with high-fidelity comps

    - Providing visual assets for user research team

  • Product Designer, Customer Design Center

    Microsoft (through FILTER)

    (Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; MSFT; Information Technology and Services industry)

    July 2006 — December 2006 (6 months)

    Working on Windows Live applications, most of my work centered on the Windows Live OneCare product, including

    - Visual and interaction design for point and major software releases; from minor tweaks to major new features. Collaborated with feature teams, usability and copywriting experts to present solid user experience solutions to intricate problems

    - Redesign of key sections of marketing website and associated graphics production. Emphasized consistency in presentation of key visual elements across media. Tackled and solved localization issues in displaying visual examples of the user interface

    - Revamped client application(s) to use new Windows Aero interface style

    - Designed visuals and interaction for Sidebar Gadget displaying syndicated security news, OneCare status, etc.

  • Interactive Designer / Web Monkey

    Copperfin

    (Partnership; 1-10 employees; Marketing and Advertising industry)

    June 2005 — June 2006 (1 year 1 month)

    As a hybrid designer/front-end developer, I worked on a variety of web projects for local and national clients. Interpreting FreeHand-designed layouts, creating original concepts, production, and webmaster tasks were all my responsibility. In addition, I contributed to the design and was responsible for the implementation of Copperfin's own portfolio website on the occasion of their name change and identity overhaul.

  • Web & UI Designer/Developer

    Coinstar

    (Public Company; 201-500 employees; CSTR; Supermarkets industry)

    September 2004 — March 2005 (7 months)

    My major involvement with Coinstar consisted of coding and graphics production of the user interface for a major software release and localizing Coinstar's website for US Spanish and UK markets. Several other interesting projects grew out of this environment:

    - Worked on a prototype for the next generation of their kiosk's consumer UI, using a back-end of XML/XSLT and PHP to output static HTML with dynamic images and automatically-generated localized (US English, Spanish, French) versions

    - Created a standalone CD-based demo version of the kiosk UI which uses the same front-end codebase with various DHTML tricks to mimic kiosk behavior closely, allowing the sales groups to show off new software functionality accurately and stylishly

    - Maintained the website and assisted the interactive designer in exploring options for enhancements to style & content of same, including the implementation of web traffic analysis software and production work for an extranet database of artwork

J.D. Welch’s Education

  • State University of New York College at Purchase

    BA, Art History, 2000 — 2002

Additional Information

J.D. Welch’s Websites:

J.D. Welch’s Interests:

*Painting* Mixed-media collage exploring themes of history, identity, religion and African diaspora aesthetics: http://www.jdwelch.net/painting/ *Writing* Reviews, commentaries and research on contemporary American art and architecture, neo-Dada and African art: http://www.jdwelch.net/writing/ <http://www.jdwelch. net/writing/> *Photography* Subjects from nature and architecture to cameraphone snapshots and an ongoing photo essay on the adventures of a precocious teddy bear: http://www.jdwelch. net/photo/ <http://www.jdwelch. net/photo/> and http://www.flickr.com/photos/jayd/

J.D. Welch’s Groups:

IxDA, LOPSA

J.D. Welch’s Contact Settings

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