Sam Felder

Current

• User Experience Designer at Google

Past

• Senior Web Designer/Developer at University of Southern California
• New Media & Design Director at Americans United for Separation of Church and State

Education

• Art Center College of Design
• Bradley University

Recommended

3 people have recommended Sam

Connections

145 connections

Industry

Design

Websites

• My Blog
• My Company

Sam Felder’s Summary

My work as a designer has given me opportunities to work in every stage of the design process. I have conducted stakeholder interviews, deployed completed sites, and built everything in between.

Sam Felder’s Specialties:

visual design, user experience design, mental models, ethnographic design research, usability testing, front-end development

Sam Felder’s Experience

• User Experience Designer

  Google

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

  March 2008 — Present (1 year 9 months)

• Senior Web Designer/Developer

  University of Southern California

  (Educational Institution; 5001-10,000 employees; Higher Education industry)

  November 2005 — February 2008 (2 years 4 months)

  The Web Services group at the University of Southern California, where I am a Senior Designer, operates as an in-house consulting group for the university, competing against outside firms for projects. This microcosm of a consulting practice has honed my skills at working closely with clients while also giving me opportunities to manage large internal projects across teams, such as the deployment of a university-wide blogging platform.
  
  My day-to-day responsibilities include conducting stakeholder interviews, designing deliverables from wireframes to Photoshop comps, and coding final sites.
  
  I have taken on leadership roles by working to redefine our group's design process, by designing standard design deliverables, and by presenting to my peer's around campus on web standards, design research, and other topics.

• New Media & Design Director

  Americans United for Separation of Church and State

  (Non-Profit; 11-50 employees; Political Organization industry)

  January 2003 — November 2005 (2 years 11 months)

  At Americans United I began as the organization's first webmaster and led them through a complete re-architecture and redesign process. By the time I left, I was responsible for the organization's web design and back-end development of online fundraising and advocacy.
  
  In every situation I rise to the challenges around me and then begin to tackle other issues relevant to my work. Superiors recognize my work by giving me greater responsibilities. During my time there, I took on working with organizers and lobbyists to understand their goals, worked with back-end systems to create new opportunities, and designed the final message in the form of HTML e-mail and web sites.
  
  Through my leadership and design strategy, online contributions surged and activists began using the web site in ways that allow them to more deeply participate in the group's campaigns.

Sam Felder’s Education

• Art Center College of Design

  Design 2006 — 2007

  I enroll in classes at the Art Center College of Design as a non-degree student to enhance my portfolio of skills, shore up my foundation in the fundamental principles of design and art, and for fun.

• Bradley University

  BS , Political Science , 1999 — 2003

  My studies in Political Science emphasized political theory and comparative political systems. In addition to this curriculum, I took many courses in Philosophy, Economics, History, and Women's Studies.

  Activities and Societies:

  Common Ground Gay-Straight Alliance, Planned Parenthood Vox, Foreign and Art Film Society, Feminist Society

Additional Information

Sam Felder’s Websites:

• My Blog
• My Company

Sam Felder’s Interests:

design, drawing, journalism, global politics, sustainability, social justice, cooking, judaism, history, architecture

Sam Felder’s Groups:

AIGA, IxDA, SXSW

•    An Event Apart
•    Web Standards Design + Development

Sam Felder’s Honors:

Presented at SXSW Interactive 2008

Sam Felder’s Contact Settings

Interested In:

• expertise requests
• reference requests
• getting back in touch