User Experience Designer, Certified Usability Analyst
Greater Minneapolis-St. Paul Area
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Chase Willkom’s Summary
User Experience Designer and certified Usability Analyst. I conduct user research and analysis to ensure an experience for the user that is not only intuitive, but both effective and pleasurable. I am passionate about elegant design and the technological innovations that make those desirable experiences possible.
Chase Willkom’s Specialties:
Expert knowledge in CSS, XHTML, and JavaScript. Strong understanding of Web Standards, User Interface/Interaction Design, Usability Research and Testing, Interaction Design Heuristics, Layout Conceptualization, Information Architecture/Navigation Design, Search Engine Optimization, and User-Centered Analysis & Design.
Chase Willkom’s Experience
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User Experience Designer, Usability Analyst
Assurant
(Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; AIZ; Insurance industry)
May 2006 — Present (3 years 3 months)
Designed and developed Assurant websites and web applications with a focus on user-centered design and web standards. Facilitated usability testing exercises including card sorts, paper prototyping, contextual inquiries, surveys, and user interviews. Advocated the benefits of usability and design best practices. Provided direction and mentoring for less experienced members of the team.
Lead technical framework evaluation from user interface and information architecture perspective... and helped define cross-site, multi-disciplinary team’s design and development methodology.
Organized and conducted peer code reviews to enhance the quality of the products we developed.
Continually evaluated and adopted new and better strategies for improving design process and methodology. -
User Experience Designer
Fastenal
(Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; FAST; Wholesale industry)
August 2004 — May 2006 (1 year 10 months)
Designed and developed Fastenal websites and web applications with a focus on user-centered design and web standards. Involved with usability testing and information architecture gathering techniques. Advocated usability and design best practices. Demonstrated leadership capabilities by providing direction and mentoring for less experienced members of the team.
Redesigned company’s e-commerce website using web standards and latest presentational and behavioral techniques along with an innovative user-interface to convey the company’s fresh looking corporate branding and improve usability.
Separated structural, presentational, and behavioral layers of our websites to improve ease-of-management and increase code reuse by other developers.
Worked closely with Marketing on the look and placement of marketing materials including online brochures, promotional ads, and email campaigns.
Optimized website to increase rankings with major internet search engines. -
Web Designer
Chippewa Falls School District
(Education Management industry)
September 2002 — August 2004 (2 years)
Developed web-based ticket management application to automate help desk functions such as work order management, client and technician control, knowledge base, and asset management. Project done on individual basis which allowed me to perform all phases of development on a large-scale project. Application focused on user-centered design and web standards development.
Redesigned internet and intranet websites using latest web technologies.
Created other various web applications to help user groups accomplish operational tasks faster and easier
Chase Willkom’s Education
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University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire
Bachelor of Business Administration , Management Information Systems , 2000 — 2004
Graduated with Honors in Management Information Systems.
Additional Information
Chase Willkom’s Websites:
Chase Willkom’s Honors:
CUA, Certified Usability Analyst from HFI
ITIL, Foundations Certified in IT Service Management
ISA, Information Systems Analyst from ICCP
Chase Willkom’s Contact Settings
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