Senior User Experience Practitioner & Owner, The Communication Studio LLC
Greater New York City Area
- Current
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- Senior User Experience Design at 2 Concurrent "Virtual Office" Consultancies
- Past
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- Senior User Experience Design at [Company Confidential]
- Senior User Experience Lead at Prudential
- Interaction & UX Design - Consultant at Advertising Database
- User Experience Design at Modem Media / Digitas
- Senior Information Architect - Consultant at Business Edge Solutions
- Senior Information Architect - Consultant at Stein Rogan & Partners
- Customer Experience Design at NIA Group
- Senior Interaction Design Consultant at SchoolNet
- Senior Information Architect - Consultant at Standard & Poors
- Senior Interaction Design Consultant at Bank of America
- Senior Interaction Design Consultant at Credit Suisse
- Senior Information Architect - Contractor at Bunge Global Markets
- Lead Interaction Design Consultant at Kyocera / Mita
- Senior Interaction Design Consultant at Grey Advertising
- Lead Information Architect Consultant at CityTime FISA
- Senior Interaction Design Consultant at Deutsche Bank
- Senior Information Architect - STAFF at Morgan Stanley
- Senior Writer & Interface Designer - Consultant at Ernst & Young
- Senior Interactive Architect - STAFF at Immersant - Bowne
- Interaction Design Consultant - Multiple Projects at Multiple Projects
- Interface & Documentation Manager - STAFF at Dow Jones Markets
- Interaction Designer - STAFF at Instinet / Reuters
- Interaction Design Contractor at National Newspaper Association
- Owner & Primary Designer at The Communication Studio (Sole Proprietorship)
- Lighting Director at Automation House Video Studio
- Director at Somerville Municipal Cable Project
- Animator at Lisberger-Ladd Animation
- Education
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- New York University
- Boston University
- Tufts University
- Recommended
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12 people have recommended John - Connections
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117
connections
- Industry
- Internet
- Websites
John Vaughan’s Summary
Seasoned Senior Interactive Architect and manager of user interface design, customer experience, usability, and documentation teams at Fortune 500 companies (Deutsche Bank, Morgan Stanley, Ernst & Young, Instinet). Very strong financial. Point man and the competitive edge for transformation of legacy software and interactive services. Extensive background in all aspects of multimedia development and high level integration. Creative and insightful, with excellent analytical and communication skills. Experienced and technically astute. Able to integrate, articulate and motivate across disciplines.
With more than 20 years experience crafting the customer experience of interactive systems, I offer a unique combination of business understanding, technical acumen, creative talent and strategic insight. Adaptable, innovative and insightful, I "hit the ground running" and excel in a challenging environment.
My Professional Goal: I am looking for senior interaction design position that allows me to integrate and exercise the full extent of my experience, talent and skills, preferably as the champion for the User/Customer Experience practice.
John Vaughan’s Specialties:
Customer experience, usability, website design, interaction architecture, information architecture, graphics, animation, presentations, best practices, documentation
John Vaughan’s Experience
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Senior User Experience Design
[Company Confidential]
(Financial Services industry)
June 2007 — August 2007 (3 months)
UI makeover for High Net Worth audience at major financial company
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Senior User Experience Lead
Prudential
(Public Company; Insurance industry)
March 2007 — May 2007 (3 months)
As the Senior Colleague on the Interaction Design Team, I worked closely with Business Team stakeholders to craft cohesive design solutions for a new product.
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Interaction & UX Design - Consultant
Advertising Database
(Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Market Research industry)
January 2007 — February 2007 (2 months)
Provided complete visual & functional makeover for an advertising contact management application. Look & feel, continuity, workflows. http://www.addataexpress.com/projecta/
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User Experience Design
Modem Media / Digitas
(Public Company; 501-1000 employees; Information Technology and Services industry)
October 2006 — December 2006 (3 months)
Senior Consultant with well-established design firm, assisting our client - an energy utility company - to make over their employee services intranet site.
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Senior Information Architect - Consultant
Business Edge Solutions
(Privately Held; 201-500 employees; Information Technology and Services industry)
July 2006 — September 2006 (3 months)
I sub-contracted thru this high-end consulting firm to work with a major financial enterprise, focusing on high net worth market niche. Assisted in crafting stakeholder presentations, strategic white papers, website analysis, identifying customer personas and service opportunities.
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Senior Information Architect - Consultant
Stein Rogan & Partners
(Marketing and Advertising industry)
July 2006 — July 2006 (1 month)
Worked with this ad agency to design a compelling 35-page mini-site designed to showcase a new financial service being offered by the client, a large international banking institution. The primary challenge was to turn dull, legalistic brochureware print collateral into accessible web-enabled information. http://www.us.abnamromarkets.com/showpage.asp?M=6833&N=0&Ne=20940000+20910000&locale=USP
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Customer Experience Design
NIA Group
(Privately Held; 201-500 employees; Insurance industry)
April 2006 — May 2006 (2 months)
In this 2-month total redesign for a customer-facing insurance aggregator website I worked directly with the CIO and Marketing Director to deliver a 70-page targeted, customer-centric site that generates viable sales leads. The makeover site is simpler & friendlier, offering attractive, personalized presentation, service-oriented structure, client outreach, leveraging the strengths of the business. http://www.niagroup.com/
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Senior Interaction Design Consultant
SchoolNet
(Public Company; 51-200 employees; Education Management industry)
December 2005 — February 2006 (3 months)
Intergrate and redesign website for online service providing educational performance monitoring, teacher support, management tools and learning standards compliance.
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Senior Information Architect - Consultant
Standard & Poors
(Public Company; 501-1000 employees; Investment Management industry)
September 2005 — November 2005 (3 months)
Led design team in creating a UI model for rules-engine-driven financial portfolio advisor site. Overcame numerous issues within an aggressive delivery schedule, provided documentation leadership.
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Senior Interaction Design Consultant
Bank of America
(Public Company; Banking industry)
October 2005 — November 2005 (2 months)
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Senior Interaction Design Consultant
Credit Suisse
(Public Company; Commercial Real Estate industry)
May 2005 — June 2005 (2 months)
Strategic redesign of legacy B2B websites for residential mortgage lending divisions. Developed strong brand identity, migrate to a common, integrated platform and roll out the web-based service as a private label that provide a “re-brand-able” business front-end for strategic partners.
Improved usability, add functionality, competitive analysis, customer support. -
Senior Information Architect - Contractor
Bunge Global Markets
(Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; Capital Markets industry)
July 2004 — April 2005 (10 months)
Design leadership for a complex intranet-based internal commodity trading application for this major international firm. Reworked legacy interface to focus on user experience: Provide best practices, functionality, navigation, consistency and ease of use and integration across multiple divisions.
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Lead Interaction Design Consultant
Kyocera / Mita
(Public Company; Consumer Electronics industry)
May 2004 — July 2004 (3 months)
This international copier/printer company needed to make their web-based Dealer Order Management System both usable and competitive. Redesigned legacy interface.
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Senior Interaction Design Consultant
Grey Advertising
(Design industry)
April 2004 — May 2004 (2 months)
Site design services for client "Slim-Fast". Analyzed the existing site and its features. Evaluated usability and the customer's experience.Developed a full set of wireframes for the focal areas of the website. Provided design consultation on navigation structure, search tools and cross-marketing techniques.
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Lead Information Architect Consultant
CityTime FISA
(Government Administration industry)
December 2003 — February 2004 (3 months)
Design leadership for a complex web-based Time and Payroll Management application used by 200,000 city employees at 80 city agencies. Integrateed services across multiple agencies. Provide an efficient interface, best practices, functionality, navigation and ease of use. Translated workflows from multiple agencies into a common vision based on user experience.
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Senior Interaction Design Consultant
Deutsche Bank
(Public Company; Financial Services industry)
March 2003 — July 2003 (5 months)
Usability engineer and interaction designer for Global Equity Research website and intranet preferences management fulfillment system. Integrated branding across the banks' international corporate sites. Enable cross-selling of enterprise services. Implemented substantial new competitive functionality.
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Senior Information Architect - STAFF
Morgan Stanley
(Public Company; Financial Services industry)
December 2001 — July 2002 (8 months)
Usability champion and interaction design architect for flagship Equity ResearchLink client-facing website, which pushes equity research to Morgan’s institutional investor client base. Focused functionality on search, customer profiling & preferences and fulfillment. Liaised to Business Unit with weekly presentations & consultation. Redesigned a problematic legacy interface for industry data analysis tool. ClientLink/Onelook working group on enterprise-wide standards.
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Senior Writer & Interface Designer - Consultant
Ernst & Young
(Management Consulting industry)
March 2001 — July 2001 (5 months)
Creative and technical writing, documentation, interactive design and strategic consulting on implementation for range of internal Ernst & Young initiatives:
Documentation & Help for Tax Processing training / reference system and training modules for Human Resources. Designed navigation, UI and help system for HR Career Self-Management intranet site and Notes-based site for Documentation Management Strategy. -
Senior Interactive Architect - STAFF
Immersant - Bowne
(Internet industry)
January 2000 — February 2001 (1 year 2 months)
Lead "human factors" expert, usability analyst and interaction designer at this corporate-oriented internet service bureau design shop. Attracted and brought in corporate clients. Led web e-commerce initiatives. Pioneered the Customer Experience practice. Instrumental in closing and defining the majority of major new client projects: including Paine Webber, T Rowe Price, EquiServe, Bank One.
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Interaction Design Consultant - Multiple Projects
Multiple Projects
(Internet industry)
March 1998 — December 1999 (1 year 10 months)
Tools: Visual Basic, style guidelines, Erwin, documentation, RoboHelp, Unix
BT&R - Redesigned highly complex international talent payment system.
PostalWorks - Packaged functioning prototype of an integrated Web-delivered email Direct Marketing Campaign Manager tool.
AT&T Labs - Interactive Voice Response (IVR) design for Customer Call centers. Project Lead on writing $850,000 proposal for cutting edge Natural Language Speech Recognition.
Sumitomo Bank - Documented mainframe processes, technical specifications & runtime scripting for mission-critical financial transactions processing development group.
CD-Now - Prototyped a "wireframe model" for improving usability of customer interface for music-oriented consumer Web service.
NBC Market Research - Redesigned the UI for a legacy client-server application enabling marketing staff to research, analyze, strategize and report on Nielsen TV viewership data. -
Interface & Documentation Manager - STAFF
Dow Jones Markets
(Public Company; Financial Services industry)
May 1997 — January 1998 (9 months)
Supervised user experience and documentation practice for e-commerce Transactions Development Group (TDG). Primary client contact in developing all aspects of UI design and analysis. Defined best practices. Implemented full range of System Develpoment Life Cycle documentation and processes for Windows and Web environments.
Projects: Electronic trading, foreign exchange, commercial paper and decision support, involving live market data feeds and custom databases ; Developed "Design Resource Center" platform for the entire group -
Interaction Designer - STAFF
Instinet / Reuters
(Capital Markets industry)
February 1994 — January 1997 (3 years)
Interface Design expert for the Order Management System (OMS), Instinet's flagship electronic online stock trading and portfolio management service. Also provided a central pool of design resources and usability engineering to software development groups throughout the enterprise.
Responsible for integration and compliance with performance standards. Championed Usability Testing and Analysis at Reuters Usability Lab. Established common branding and best practices across the enterprise. Created enterprise-wide Design Resource Center online database. Designed and produced majority of the content on corporate intranet site. -
Interaction Design Contractor
National Newspaper Association
(Newspapers industry)
March 1990 — February 1994 (4 years)
Designed and developed Electronic Sales Assistant (ESA), a cutting-edge interactive online sales presentation and marketing self-service support system. Enabled the NAA to effectively support the Sales and Marketing staffs of more than 100 member newspapers across the US.
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Owner & Primary Designer
The Communication Studio (Sole Proprietorship)
(Sole Proprietorship; 1-10 employees; Internet industry)
1981 — 1990 (9 years)
Established and successfully operated one of the first user interface design / usability service bureaus in the country, providing services and successful computer software products to Fortune 500 and international clients (1981-1990):
• AT&T
• Bank of America
• BBDO
• Booz-Allen & Hamilton
• Citibank
• Dun & Bradstreet
• IBM
• Indiana University
• Information Industry Association
• NBC
• Nynex
• Pacific Bell
• Prime Computer
• Prodigy
• RCA Engineering
• Sony Corporation
• Southern New England Tel.
• Texas Instruments
• Telerate
• Welles, Rich & Green
Been contracting and on staff since 1990 (see other positions). -
Lighting Director
Automation House Video Studio
(Privately Held; 1-10 employees; Media Production industry)
May 1977 — July 1978 (1 year 3 months)
Built and operated one of the first local video production and "Live Injection Points" for Manhattan Cable TV.
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Director
Somerville Municipal Cable Project
(Government Agency; 1-10 employees; Government Administration industry)
March 1975 — September 1976 (1 year 7 months)
Managed staff of 6 as we built and operated the first community-operated cable TV station in the United States (Somerville, MA).
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Animator
Lisberger-Ladd Animation
(Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Motion Pictures and Film industry)
January 1975 — March 1975 (3 months)
Created cartoon sequences for ABC Network children's weekly program "Make a Wish"
