Whitney Hess

Whitney Hess

User experience designer, writer, consultant

Greater New York City Area

Current
  • User Experience Consultant at Happy Cog Studios
  • Principal User Experience Consultant at Wet Pavement Productions, LLC
Past
  • Senior Interaction Designer at DIGITAS
  • Freelance Writer at Pittsburgh City Paper
  • Freelance Writer at MacAddict Magazine
  • Freelance Writer at Crain’s New York Business
  • Intern at Mainxchange
  • Intern at Smartgirl Internette
  • Assistant Producer at Xceed, Inc (formerly MercurySeven)
Education
  • Carnegie Mellon University
  • Carnegie Mellon University
  • Dalton School
  • Fleming School
Connections
500+ connections
Industry
Internet
Websites

Whitney Hess’s Summary

I make digital products easy and pleasurable to use.

Former clients: Allstate, American Express, Boxee, Brighter Planet, Claritin, EarthLink, Hearst, New York Times, Nexium, Times South Africa, Tropicana, United Technologies Corp

http://www.speakerrate.com/speakers/1398-whitneyhess

Whitney Hess’s Specialties:

Brainstorming, affinity diagramming, persona and scenario creation, paper prototyping, storyboarding, content organization, wireframing, usability testing, heuristic evaluation, functional and presentation specifications


Whitney Hess’s Experience

  • User Experience Consultant

    Happy Cog Studios

    (Privately Held; Online Media industry)

    September 2008Present (1 year 3 months)

  • Principal User Experience Consultant

    Wet Pavement Productions, LLC

    (Internet industry)

    August 2005Present (4 years 4 months)

    * Provide consulting services to help companies deliver first-class user experiences to their customers

    * Experience strategy and design services provided: user research, stakeholder interviews, persona and scenario creation, requirements gathering, sitemaps, wireframes, functional specifications, heuristic evaluations, paper prototypes, Flash prototypes, and usability testing

  • User Experience Consultant

    boxee

    (Entertainment industry)

    December 2008May 2009 (6 months)

  • Design Communicator

    Liquidnet, Inc

    (Privately Held; 201-500 employees; Financial Services industry)

    January 2007August 2008 (1 year 8 months)

    * Designed software and web products for institutional equity traders
    * Lead customer and stakeholder research, requirements gathering, detailed design and documentation using Cooper’s methodology of Goal-Directed Design
    * Collaborated with development, QA, business analysis, sales, member services, compliance and data reporting teams to create products that seamlessly integrate into our Member’s workflow

  • User Experience Architect

    Tribal DDB New York

    (Public Company; 51-200 employees; OMC; Marketing and Advertising industry)

    July 2006December 2006 (6 months)

    Clients: Claritin, EarthLink, Nexium, Tropicana, United Technologies Corp

    * Collaborated with creative and technical teams to create superior online experiences that meet brand, business and customer goals for major corporate and consumer web site redesigns
    * Developed site maps, work flow diagrams, wireframes, personas and scenarios, use cases, and specifciation documents to communicate functional requirements
    * Analyzed existing online experiences through customer experience maps, ecosystem diagrams, and site metrics
    * Validated design work through usability testing

  • Senior Interaction Designer

    DIGITAS

    (Public Company; 1001-5000 employees; DTAS; Marketing and Advertising industry)

    January 2005June 2006 (1 year 6 months)

    Clients: American Express, Allstate and New York Times

    * Collaborated on cross-functional team to create online experiences
    * Advocated for customer's interests while aligning with business objectives and brand attributes
    * Designed and documented complete functionality and presentation of the user interface

  • Freelance Writer

    Pittsburgh City Paper

    (Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Newspapers industry)

    August 2002October 2004 (2 years 3 months)

    * Wrote weekly Art Briefs column on local art exhibitions
    * Interviewed artists, curators, and other art professionals
    * Contributed to Week Link, a best-of-the-week events listing

  • Freelance Writer

    MacAddict Magazine

    (Writing and Editing industry)

    February 2001April 2003 (2 years 3 months)

    * Contributed to Droolworthy and Shareware of the Month sections
    * Reviewed high-end electronics and computer peripherals

  • Freelance Writer

    Crain’s New York Business

    (Newspapers industry)

    April 2001May 2002 (1 year 2 months)

    * Contributed to "Gadgets & Gizmos" section
    * Reviewed electronic products for business executives

  • Intern

    Mainxchange

    (Internet industry)

    20002000 (less than a year)

  • Intern

    Smartgirl Internette

    (Internet industry)

    20002000 (less than a year)

  • Assistant Producer

    Xceed, Inc (formerly MercurySeven)

    (Public Company; 501-1000 employees; Internet industry)

    July 1999September 1999 (3 months)

    * Led production team for phase 1 of Latin American family portal
    * Coordinated designers, programmers, and information architects
    * Performed quality assurance


Whitney Hess’s Education

  • Carnegie Mellon University

    Master's , Human-Computer Interaction , 20042004

    Documentation Lead for HCI Masters Project Course, January 2004 – August 2004
    * Developed Roadcasting, a revolutionary radio service for a major automotive company with four other HCI Masters students
    * Wrote and organized extensive documentation, acted as liaison to course administrative assistant, and managed finances
    http://www.roadcasting.org

  • Carnegie Mellon University

    B.A. , Professional Writing and Human-Computer Interaction , August 2000May 2004

    * Graduated with University Honors
    * Professional Writing Commencement Speaker, CMU English Dept Graduation, Student-nominated, May 2004
    * Senior Leadership Recognition Award, Faculty-nominated, May 2004
    * Mortar Board National College Senior Honor Society, Inducted April 2003
    * Dean’s List with High Honors: Fall 2001 through Fall 2004

    Activities and Societies:
    Software Developer for Open Learning Initiative, built interactive educational tutors using Flash for Causal and Statistical Reasoning online course, redesigned and maintained the course guest web site; Events Manager and Staff Writer for The Carnegie Pulse, CMU's first online student news source; Staff Writer for FOCUS, faculty and staff newspaper; Member of the Senior Gift Committee for the Alumni Association
  • Dalton School

    High School , General Education , 19912000

  • Fleming School

    19871991


Additional Information

Whitney Hess’s Websites:

Whitney Hess’s Groups:

On the Board of Advisors for the Information Architecture Institute (IAI); member of the Interaction Design Association (IxDA), on the Community Committee of NY Tech Meetup; on the Board of Advisors for Web 2.0 Expo NY 2009; on the Board of Advisors for IA Summit 2010.

  •    User Experience Network
  •    Interaction Design Association
  •    Boxes and Arrows
  •    Digitas Alumni
  •    Information Architecture Institute (IAI)
  •    Tribal DDB Alumni
  •    User Experience
  •    NextWeb
  •    User Experience Group
  •    USID - Bringing HCI & Design Community Together
  •    User Experience Professionals Network
  •    Usability Practitioners
  •    TechKaraoke
  •    IxDA NYC
  •    New Work City

Whitney Hess’s Honors:

U.S. Patent 7,587,349, Co-inventor of online card search for American Express, issued 09/08/2009

2006 OMMA Award, Content Integration
American Express and Tribeca Film Festival 15-Second Clips

2006 MIXX Award, Gold, Brand Awareness//Positioning
American Express and Tribeca Film Festival 15-Second Clips

Design Interact's Site of the Week
American Express and Tribeca Film Festival 15-Second Clips
October 7, 2006
http://www.designinteract.com/sow/080706/


Whitney Hess’s Contact Settings

Interested In:

  • career opportunities
  • consulting offers
  • job inquiries
  • expertise requests
  • business deals
  • reference requests
  • getting back in touch

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