User experience designer, writer, consultant
Greater New York City Area
- Current
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- User Experience Consultant at Happy Cog Studios
- Principal User Experience Consultant at Wet Pavement Productions, LLC
- Past
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- User Experience Consultant at boxee
- Design Communicator at Liquidnet, Inc
- User Experience Architect at Tribal DDB New York
- 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
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- Carnegie Mellon University
- Carnegie Mellon University
- Dalton School
- Fleming School
- Recommended
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18 people have recommended Whitney - 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
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User Experience Consultant
Happy Cog Studios
(Privately Held; Online Media industry)
September 2008 — Present (1 year 3 months)
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Principal User Experience Consultant
Wet Pavement Productions, LLC
(Internet industry)
August 2005 — Present (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 2008 — May 2009 (6 months)
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Design Communicator
Liquidnet, Inc
(Privately Held; 201-500 employees; Financial Services industry)
January 2007 — August 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 2006 — December 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 2005 — June 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 2002 — October 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 2001 — April 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 2001 — May 2002 (1 year 2 months)
* Contributed to "Gadgets & Gizmos" section
* Reviewed electronic products for business executives -
Intern
Mainxchange
(Internet industry)
2000 — 2000 (less than a year)
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Intern
Smartgirl Internette
(Internet industry)
2000 — 2000 (less than a year)
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Assistant Producer
Xceed, Inc (formerly MercurySeven)
(Public Company; 501-1000 employees; Internet industry)
July 1999 — September 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
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Carnegie Mellon University
Master's , Human-Computer Interaction , 2004 — 2004
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 2000 — May 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
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Dalton School
High School , General Education , 1991 — 2000
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Fleming School
1987 — 1991
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.
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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
