Experience
Make Things Studio
Owner, March 2008 – Present
Working with small businesses, non-profits and educational institutions to realize their business goals through online experiences. I practice a content first approach to design, working with clients to craft their message, structure their content, and create effective designs & management tools for sustainable interactive campaigns.
Key Projects
Maryland SPCA
Website redesign and development, including Baltimore’s first “Lost & Found” for pets. Site helped grow donations from $2,500 to $25,000 in its first year.
Robert McClintock
E-commerce design and development. The first year of the site saw online sales grow from $17,000 to $54,000.
Baltimore Brew
Content Strategy, visual design, front-end development, Wordpress, and server management. Sessions grew from 5,000/mo. to 124,000/mo during its first year.
Otis for Mayor
Designed visual platform for Otis Rolley’s mayoral campaign, including brand, styleguide, emails, website, and signs.
The first contractor I hired for my time at @DowJones, Ben helped kick off the subsequent 8 years on the right foot. https://t.co/uZ9DWa7XgN
— Erin Sparling (@everyplace) February 29, 2016
Roadmap
Co-founder & Chief Design Officer, May 2015 – November 2015
Led and managed the redesign of Roadmap’s online project forecasting tool. Created the concept, design, and frontend styles for Odometer, a stand-alone time tracking tool for Roadmap. Implemented customer outreach and beta testing programs.
Key Projects
Odometer
Developed product roadmap for Ember based time tracking application. Designed & implemented visual styles, continuous integration, and deployment.
Customer Onboarding
Redesigned Roadmap’s weakest link to drive trial conversions. Focused on small steps that explain how Roadmap works.
Roadmap Redesign
Led redesign of primary application, focusing on interface clarity, mobile usage, and performance.
Maryland Institute College of Art
Adjunct Faculty, August 2009 – December 2015
Through graphic, web, and user experience design courses, have provided students the fundamental structural, visual and interaction concepts of screen-based design. Projects emphasize competitive analysis, user research & feedback, prototyping, and iteration.
Select Classes
Design for User Experience
Students explore the process for developing digital products that serve users’ needs. Students will prototype screen-based experiences that are empathetic to the needs of the end user. Students will develop design concepts that mediate relationships between people and products, environments, and services. Key concepts might include content strategy, navigation structures, usability principles, personas, and wireframes.
Advanced Web Design
This class explores professional web development processes and tooling. Students develop their own coding guidelines, integrate data from other services, and learn the basics of a modern web application
Web Design
This class introduces the concepts, technologies, and languages used to design and build modern interactive experiences. Students will learn key components of the interactive design process and design and production techniques. Students use and build on their typography, compositional, and systems design skills to realize their ideas. This class is 35% Design, 65% Development, and 100% work.
R2 integrated
Senior Designer, 2005 – 2008
Vitamin, Inc.
Lead Designer, 2004