Curriculum Vitae / Resumé

PERSONAL SUMMARY

With a postgraduate background in user-centred design at York University, I am a dynamic and customer-focused freelance website designer and consultant with expertise in creating beautiful, clean and usable sites within a variety of public, voluntary and private sector organisations.

I have been working in web design and branding since 2001 and have extensive experience in information architecture, interface & graphic design, usability and accessibility/building with web standards.

PREVIOUS WORK EXPERIENCE

April 2001- July 2006 : Senior Interactive Media Designer, York Multimedia Network
Led the design team on various large projects over a five year period; designed interfaces or for corporate websites, intranets and extranets with high-profile clients such as Arriva, Northern Foods and Skillfast-UK as well as many of the official sites for the York Tourism Board / First Stop York.  Other duties included consultation on branding and market  online marketing (including search engine positioning).

March-October 1999: Operator, British Telecom (York)
Worked as a telecommunications operator, trained up to a world-class standard, learning oral communication and client-handling skills, dealing with a range of customers queries on telephone, inputting data and manipulating databases for information retrieval; liaising with a wide range of staff and working as an active team member.

EDUCATION AND QUALIFICATIONS

1999 to 2000       

MSc Information Processing (Computing),  University of York

The conversion degree provides a broad foundation in computer science, concentrating  most applied areas focusing on software technology and systems analysis and design. Modules covered: Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), Networks and Communications, Software Engineering, Java Programming, Databases. Computer Systems Architecture and Operating Systems.

My research project is a study of how to maintain customer loyalty on the Internet, i.e. to find what makes an e-commerce site successful and how to maintain customer ‘stickiness’ entitled ‘Strategies for the Design and Evaluation of the User Experience in B2C E-Commerce’.

1995-1998      

BA (Hons) English and Related Literature, University of York (2:i)
BA (Hons) English, Worcester College of Higher Education (transferred to York)
Foundation Course in English and Psychology,  Worcester College of Technology (Distinction)
A-Level  English Literature (A)

COMPUTING SKILLS

Languages:   HTML, Actionscript and Javascript.
Applications:  Dreamweaver, Fireworks, Flash, Photoshop, Illustrator, Freehand, InDesign
Operating Systems:  Mac OSX, Windows 2000


Have done a short course in utilising Cold Fusion to link databases to the front-end

ACHIEVEMENTS AND ADDITIONAL SKILLS

Work/Industry:   Gained certificate for Team Development skills for the York Award on a team-interaction course sponsored by BP Amoco and Chalybeate.

Music:   Performing in various bands and play a wide range of instruments, especially  woodwind.   Have released four CD albums with three forthcoming and currently produce and engineer for my solo projects and other bands at my studio.  Organise musical events, publicise and promote local or underground bands.

Media:   Editor, writer and publisher of independent music magazine I started in 1997.  Involve Desktop publishing, marketing and promotion/distribution.   Have people writing reviews and articles for me.  Responsible for persuading distributors, record companie  and independent artists to advertise.

Sport:  Circuit and weight training with general health and fitness.

REFERENCES