Timothy Mills

Current

Senior Business Analyst at Ford Motor Company

Past

Senior Information Architect / Usability Specialist at TopCoder
Senior Usability Specialist / Information Architect at Ford Motor Company
High-Tech Anthropologist at Menlo Innovations

Graduate Student Research Assistant at School of Education, University of Michigan
Designer/Developer Intern at Clearweave
Senior System Analyst at Baseview Products, Inc.
System Architect/Analyst and HCI Designer at Bank of America's Global Corporate and Investment Banking
Senior Software Engineer at Bank of America's NationsBanc Montgomery Securities
Software Engineer at Chrysler Financial Corporation
Software Engineering Consultant at Analytical Technologies, Inc.
Senior Software Engineer at Pattern Recognition Systems

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Education

University of Michigan - School of Information
Northwestern University
University of Michigan

University of Michigan
Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary
Milwaukee School of Engineering
Northwestern College

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4 more...

Recommended

4 people have recommended Timothy

Connections

276 connections

Industry

Information Technology and Services

Websites

My Website

Timothy Mills’s Summary

I have close to twenty years of professional experience working with technology, people, and information as an analyst, information architect, usability specialist, human-computer interaction (HCI) designer, software architect, software developer, and instructor. User experience, human-computer interaction, ease-of-use, and usefulness have always been my foci. I consider myself an information communicator—discovering, translating, documenting, and communicating needs and designs between the various users and builders of technology.

I've done task analysis, interviews, observations, storyboarding, use case development, interface and interaction design, wireframe design, etc. I’ve written Human-Computer Interaction guidelines, mentored junior staff, and led development groups. I've done quite a bit of work with OML, UML, architecture and modeling. I am experienced in all aspects of the software life cycle from requirements capture and object modeling through design, programming, and usability inspections. I've developed and delivered in-house classes for both technical and non-technical audiences. I am experienced and skilled at creating and delivering presentations to people at all levels. I am comfortable with and successful at communicating and working with both business and technical people.

Timothy Mills’s Specialties:

Interaction design, user experience, human computer interaction, information architecture, OmniGraffle, Visio, UML, presentations, instruction

Translation and communication of information between people of different career backgrounds and different technical capabilities and knowledge

Timothy Mills’s Experience

Senior Business Analyst

Ford Motor Company

(Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; F; Automotive industry)

June 2008 — Present (1 year 2 months)
Senior Information Architect / Usability Specialist

TopCoder

(Privately Held; 51-200 employees; Computer Software industry)

August 2007 — May 2008 (10 months)

• Create wireframes and blueprints/sitemaps.
• Review user interface and interaction written specifications.
• Conduct heuristic evaluations, usability tests, and other measures of application and website usability.
• Interface with Project Managers, Business Analysts, Subject Matter Experts, and Graphic Designers.
Senior Usability Specialist / Information Architect

Ford Motor Company

(Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; f; Automotive industry)

July 2005 — August 2007 (2 years 2 months)

Usability Specialist/Information Architect with the Creative Design & Usability group.

• Create wireframes and blueprints/sitemaps for internal web applications and websites.
• Create user interface and interaction written specifications.
• Conduct heuristic evaluations, usability tests, and other measures of application and website usability.
• Interface with Business Analysts, Subject Matter Experts, Software Developers, and Graphic Designers.
High-Tech Anthropologist

Menlo Innovations

(Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Computer Software industry)

January 2005 — July 2005 (7 months)

• Contracted as business analyst/human-computer interaction designer performing task analysis, use case development, storyboarding, etc.
• Also volunteered as business analyst/human-computer interaction designer for non-profit organization projects.
Graduate Student Research Assistant

School of Education, University of Michigan

(Educational Institution; 1001-5000 employees; Higher Education industry)

September 2004 — December 2004 (4 months)

• Worked on learning technologies research with Professor Chris Quintana.
Designer/Developer Intern

Clearweave

(Privately Held; 1-10 employees; Online Media industry)

May 2004 — August 2004 (4 months)

• Design and development for website hosting company using WebObjects, Java, and XML technologies.
Senior System Analyst

Baseview Products, Inc.

(Computer Software industry)

August 1999 — December 2001 (2 years 5 months)

• Project lead for next generation of Circulation application.
• Analyzed, modeled, designed, and developed HCI, object code, and SQL database for next generation of Circulation application using WebObjects and Java.
• Analyzed and created models for Common Customer architecture.
• Contributed to definition and establishment of software development process.
• Mentor and knowledge resource for Object Oriented Modeling and Design, UML, OML, and HCI.
System Architect/Analyst and HCI Designer

Bank of America's Global Corporate and Investment Banking

(Public Company; 5001-10,000 employees; BAC; Banking industry)

April 1998 — July 1999 (1 year 4 months)

• Analyzed, developed, and contributed to creation of business models and diagrams of investment banking primary market. Worked with people (in person and on the phone) to determine their business processes.
• Designed HCI for a syndicated loans extranet web application and co-evaluated alternative solutions based on business needs and requirements.
• Designed HCI and domain object models for a deal accounting application.
• Analyzed and created models for an existing client management, profitability system composed of loosely coupled distributed databases and applications.
• Contributed to definition and establishment of software development process.
• Mentor and knowledge resource for Object Oriented Modeling and Design, UML, OML, and HCI.
Senior Software Engineer

Bank of America's NationsBanc Montgomery Securities

(Public Company; 5001-10,000 employees; bac; Banking industry)

July 1996 — April 1998 (1 year 10 months)

• Designed and developed HCI and object code for intranet applications using WebObjects.
• Designed and developed HCI and object code for NEXTSTEP/OpenStep client/server applications.
• Oversaw the maintenance and support of the Mortgage Backed Allocations system.
• Managed a team of developers.
• Instrumental in establishing the use of OPEN (Object-Oriented Process, Environment and Notation) and OML (OPEN Modeling Language).
• Mentor and knowledge resource for C, Objective C, UNIX, NEXTSTEP, WebObjects, and HCI.
Software Engineer

Chrysler Financial Corporation

(Public Company; 5001-10,000 employees; Financial Services industry)

November 1994 — June 1996 (1 year 8 months)

• Designed and developed HCI and object code for NEXTSTEP applications.
• Composed and administered guidelines for both programming and HCI.
• Mentor and knowledge resource for C, Objective C, UNIX, NEXTSTEP, and HCI.
• Designed and conducted seminars in the use of NEXTSTEP and NEXTSTEP applications for developers and for non-technical users.
Software Engineering Consultant

Analytical Technologies, Inc.

(Privately Held; 201-500 employees; Information Technology and Services industry)

August 1993 — October 1994 (1 year 3 months)

• Designed and taught courses to instruct Chrysler Financial's MIS staff in NEXTSTEP, Object Technology, UNIX, C, and Objective C.
• Designed and taught courses to instruct Chrysler Financial's non-technical staff in the use of NEXTSTEP and end-user applications.
• Mentor and knowledge resource for C, Objective C, UNIX, NEXTSTEP, and HCI.
Senior Software Engineer

Pattern Recognition Systems

(Privately Held; 1-10 employees; Information Services industry)

November 1990 — March 1993 (2 years 5 months)

• Designed and implemented HCI, user interface, and application code for client program of ArborLogic on the X Window system using OSF/Motif widgets. ArborLogic is a new breed, pattern recognition/data mining tool. Worked on a team with two other developers who wrote libraries for the data server and graphing engines.
• Used UNIX tools and utilities and wrote C programs for various in-house projects.
• NeXT system administrator in a mixed network environment.

Timothy Mills’s Education

University of Michigan - School of Information

MSI , Human Computer Interaction , 2001 — 2007
Northwestern University

MS , Computer Studies in Music , 1988 — 1993
University of Michigan

BSE , Electrical Engineering , 1985 — 1988
University of Michigan

BSE , Computer Engineering , 1985 — 1988
Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary

Lutheran Theology and Ministry 1982 — 1986
Milwaukee School of Engineering

Electrical Engineering 1983 — 1985
Northwestern College

BA , Liberal Arts , 1978 — 1982

Additional Information

Timothy Mills’s Websites:

My Website

Timothy Mills’s Groups:

The Information Architecture Institute
ACM (Association for Computing Machinery)
ACM SIGCHI (Special Interest Group in Computer-Human Interaction)
MOCHI (Michigan Ohio Computer-Human Interaction)
IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers)
Computer Society of IEEE
Member, Institutional Review Board, InDepthLearning (FWA 00003121 and FWA 00002844)
Co-Founder and Co-Chair of SEMiNUG (Southeast Michigan NeXT User Group) 1993 - 1996
Board of Evangelism, Salem Lutheran Church
Vice President, Board of Trustees, Meadowinds Home Owner Association 2001 - 2004