Michael Cummings

Current

User Experience Designer at Wells Fargo

Past

Sr Web Producer at CRC Health Group
Interaction Designer at Customer-Centered Interactive
Web Designer at Aquent (staffing agency)

Project Manager at AtreNet
Web Producer at VirtualMotors
Instructor, Web Interface Design at Silicon Valley College
Project Coordinator at Seagate Technology Inc.
Web Designer at Valley Design Group

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5 more...

Education

University of California at Santa Cruz, Extension
Platt College
San Francisco City College

University of Maryland University College

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1 more...

Recommended

11 people have recommended Michael

Connections

75 connections

Industry

Internet

Websites

Michael Cummings’s Summary

Twelve years experience in interactive media management, design, production and quality assurance in national agency and multinational corporate environments.

Michael Cummings’s Specialties:

User-Centered Design
Web 2.0+/"Ajax" Application Design
Information Architecture - IA
User Interface Design - UI Design
User Experience Design - UX / UE Design
Content Management System - CMS Technologies
eCommerce - Online Consumer-Centered Solutions
Usability Testing - Web QA
SEO - Search Engine Optimization techniques, keyword research, best practices

Michael Cummings’s Experience

User Experience Designer

Wells Fargo

(Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; WFC; Banking industry)

April 2008 — Present (9 months)

• Develop application maps, process flows, wire frames and mockups with accompanying interaction rules (UI specification) based on a synthesis of user needs, technical restrictions, requirements and business goals
• Collaboration with business analysis teams to develop interaction scenarios for business goals achievement
• Information architecture
• User experience best practices
• Communicate effectively and persuasively to convey design solutions to a broad range of stakeholders
Sr Web Producer

CRC Health Group

(Internet industry)

January 2007 — April 2008 (1 year 4 months)

* Ongoing development and management of XHTML, CSS and JavaScript implementations
* Work within various CMS frameworks
* Create compelling Web site designs and online marketing campaigns
* Develop coding specifications based on latest web standards
* Utilize the most effective SEO techniques
* Create and enhance in-house tools to manage web site operations
Interaction Designer

Customer-Centered Interactive

(Privately Held; Myself Only; Internet industry)

July 2000 — February 2007 (6 years 8 months)

Customer-Centered Interactive can support your initiative as an individual contractor, or as an agency, working with additional resources as needed to meet your goals and expectations.

Customer-Centered Interactive has worked with a wide range of companies in creative, technical and project management capacities, including Valley Design Group (Silicon Valley Group, ThermaWave, ), Franklin Templeton Investments Inc., Seagate Technology Inc., Elemental Interactive (IBM, Coca Cola Co., Adaptec Inc.), VirtualMotors, KrushMedia/SolutionSet (Stanford Univ., Poker Mountain, Aruba Networks), AtreNet (Borland, Mercury Interactive, Cenzic, AcceptSoftware, EnterpriseDB), Momentum Design Lab (SelectLeaders, Space2Meet) and many others.

Get the same service top agencies hire me to provide companies like yours, but for half the cost. Call 650-283-7236 now, and tell me what you need. I'll solve it.
Web Designer

Aquent (staffing agency)

(Privately Held; 501-1000 employees; Human Resources industry)

April 1998 — January 2007 (8 years 10 months)

My relationship with Aquent, a Marketing and Creative Services staffing firm, is positive and ongoing. Through Aquent I have served such companies as Franklin Templeton Investments, Seagate Technology, Patrick Mountain Advertising, Scree Interactive, KrushMedia and others. In each position I strove to continually improve project planning, information organization and comprehension, usability, coding to WC3 standards. Contact Susan Alvarez at salvarez@aquent.com for client feedback.
Project Manager

AtreNet

(Privately Held; 1-10 employees; Internet industry)

September 2005 — February 2006 (6 months)

Project oversight, coordination and documentation responsibilities for top clients such as Borland, EnterpriseDB, AcceptSoftware, Cenzic and others. Letf to pursue original desired career path in graphics and interaction design.
Web Producer

VirtualMotors

(Privately Held; 1-10 employees; Computer Software industry)

March 2004 — February 2006 (2 years)

Complete start to finish strategic planning, branding, design (IA, UI, graphics, Flash), technology execution and QA for VirtualMotors public website. Implemented project TWiki, facilitated all project related communication and content development. Integration of server-side technologies for content management and form contact routing. Domain/DNS management. Email marketing design.
Instructor, Web Interface Design

Silicon Valley College

(Privately Held; 51-200 employees; E-Learning industry)

March 2001 — July 2003 (2 years 5 months)

I led and updated the curriculum for Web Interface Design, Web Development and Multimedia courses. Using instruction methods to facilitate dialog, doubt regression and humor, I led students through comprehensive web/multimedia planning, design and production processes. Lectures and exercises included information labeling and organization problem solving, content and functionality mapping, UI conventions, interface prototyping, color psychology, computer generated color issues, image optimization, usability testing and web development process maturity. I also instructed students in various web markup languages, web graphic performance vs. display issues, A/V capture issues, video post-production applications and streaming media delivery. I emphasized the distinctions between art and design, project context development benefits and quality assurance concepts. I developed the online Web Interface Design course, as well, using WebCT.
Project Coordinator

Seagate Technology Inc.

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

January 1999 — December 1999 (1 year)

For Seagate's Web Group I strove to improve efficiency by continually improving web project scheduling, tracking, documentation, asset management and stakeholder project awareness. As the graphics approval authority for Seagate.com, I ensured graphics and layout consistency across thousands of screens to support user confidence. I made continual improvements to an intranet-based project tracking system. I advocated for internal web quality assurance standards for browser compatibility and usability, and helped establish an "in-house" test lab.
Web Designer

Valley Design Group

(Privately Held; 1-10 employees; Design industry)

October 1996 — December 1997 (1 year 3 months)

Valley Design Group, one of the valley's long-standing traditional graphic design and marketing communications firms, brought me onboard to support their new interactive media department. I was quickly entrusted with closer client interaction responsibilities, and interface design improvements. I produced web and kiosk-based projects on schedule for top-tier Silicon Valley corporate clients: Thermawave, Silicon Valley Group (SVG), KLA Tencor and others. By year's end I eagerly sought greater challenges in an environment with more experience with interactive media.

Michael Cummings’s Education

University of California at Santa Cruz, Extension

Multimedia Production Management 1997 — 1997
Platt College

Diploma, Graphic Design, 1992 — 1996
San Francisco City College

Art History 1993 — 1994
University of Maryland University College

Business Administration and Economics coursework 1986 — 1987

Attended UofM courses while serving on active duty in the US Navy (OTA3).

Additional Information

Michael Cummings’s Websites:

Michael Cummings’s Interests:

Travel, latin music (samba, salsa, jazz) / languages (spanish, portuguese). Surfing, sailing, windsurfing, downhill mountain biking, documentaries. A/V production. Percussion (various types/styles). Writing.

Michael Cummings’s Groups:

The Asilomar Institute for Information Architecture (AifIA), Professional Member
http://aifia.org

American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA), San Francisco chapter, Professional Member
http://aiga.org, UX Intensive SF08