Content Stratey + UX

I’ve spent most of my career creating end-to-end web experiences in one form or another. And while content strategy is likely my strongest skill set, user experience is the one I enjoy the most. Telling a story has grace and beauty, but building a usable website or application flexes the same muscles for me as  and sketching my dream houses — it’s where you take ideas and make them into living, tangible experiences. I also really enjoy watching usability trends over time, and seeing how and when people prefer the most expected, straightforward experiences vs. lingering over what they’re doing. We use the internet for so many things and in so many ways, and understanding UX is, to me, like being able to see the code in the Matrix — it’s a fundamental artform that most end users don’t even notice.

Affiliate Marketing Fashion Project (pre-launch)

In September, I will be launching a personal project in the plus-size fashion niche. The project will rely on affiliate linking as a revenue driver and will be distributed via website, email and social media. I created the overall concept and content strategy for the project. I also built the website and MailChimp newsletter templates, personally curated all content for the first month post-launch, and handled all affiliate marketing program signup.

Beauty Ecommerce Project (pre-launch)

I am currently working on a confidential ecommerce project launch based in dropshipping on Shopify. I began the project during the pandemic as a way to stay busy and ended up becoming literally obsessed with an entire product category. I have created an ecommerce site married to a strong content model, with extensive how-to articles, reviews and video tutorials. The site’s “101” primer section consists of how-to content in 30 categories and review content in three categories. The content is designed to integrate with product pages and encourage click-through or to stand alone as featured content.

NYU Gallatin

I worked with NYU Gallatin on a home page revision to expand the functionality of their site above the fold. They had only designed for one featured item and approached me about designing a home page slider. I convinced them users have “slider blindness” and that they should go with a design that allowed them to feature multiple items above the fold at the same time, instead.

American Poolplayers Association

This project was an enormous UX challenge. They came to us requesting a reskin of their existing site – but with an additional cleanup of many, many years’ worth of unused pages sitting on their servers. We moved them from Drupal to WordPress, and built a custom theme. My primary role on the project, beyond project/account management, was the site content inventory and content input. TBD.

The designer I hired for this project owned her own agency, so she knocked the design out without even asking me for wireframes. (Since we were just reskinning the existing site, they weren’t really needed.)

Star Wars Holograms

My agency, Undeniable, helped Austin company Zebra Imaging launch their Star Wars hologram displays when one of the prequels came out. I was project manager, lead strategist and UX for the project.

Undeniable

I was able to vastly streamline my design process when I had my own agency, and because of my overall familiarity with my tools, I was able to forego wireframing and work much more quickly by creating page comps as a first-draft effort, instead. Generally, I work with the client to create a mood board for the site, with fonts, colors, textures and photographical inspiration for the site. We work together to create a content strategy and then i create a fully designed prototype, which is generally approved as the final site without revisions. The sites below were created using this method.

Texas Property Tax Assistance Redesign

Texas Property Tax Assistance Site Redesign

As a Web Content Developer for the Texas Comptroller, I worked with web administrators in a number of public agencies who owned sections of the site. The Property Tax section, which had not been audited since the 1990s, had more than 380,000 pages on our servers – most of them outdated. I helped the section owners tackle a content inventory, which we did over several weeks through card-sorting exercises. After culling the unused pages, they were able to clean up content on those remaining, and I architected a new section landing page that made accessing important content vastly easier. I trained them in web content basics and how to write for the web, so that they could rewrite their pages to be more user-friendly.

Where the Money Goes

Where the Money Goes Site Redesign

This feature on the Comptroller’s site was extremely popular, since it was the one where citizens could track how the state was spending money. As lead strategist and UX for the project, I turned the clunky, text-heavy page into something clean, graphical and extremely easy to use.

Texas Transparency

Texas Transparency

This site, created to highlight transparency within the state’s budgeting and expenditures, provided open data in a number of categories and was awarded #1 State Government Transparency Website. I was lead UX for the project and was responsible for creating access to a number of database tools at Texas state agencies. I worked closely with the agency’s IT team to create an Open Data portal as well as monthly data update procedures. I also re-architected a number of state budget and expenditure tools, updating the existing text-heavy pages to an easily scannable graphical format.

  • Texas Transparency Project Page

    • Rosie.com

    I worked with Rosie O’Donnell as she planned her next steps after leaving The View. I was project manager, lead strategist and UX for her site redesign, working with outside design and development agencies. Ro wanted a design that looked like a TV, reflected the style of her artwork, allowed her to connect with her readers more via video, and gave her space to write reviews of things she liked.

    Nicktoons Network

    I joined the staff at Nicktoons as their senior digital project manager. Over time, my responsibilities expanded to include producing, overall digital media strategy and departmental budgeting. I was lead strategist and UX on a number of major show mini-sites, as well as a major site rebrand initiative. I also wrote all site content for every project I worked on.

    Gotham Girls Roller Derby

    Gotham Girls Roller Derby

    Once upon a time, I joined up with a group of women in New York City and we started Gotham Girls Roller Derby. In addition to long hours of skating, the league was entirely run by and for the skaters. Over time, my responsibilities included league marketing initiatives, public relations, digital strategy and website design. I was lead UX and designer for the first three versions of the GGRD website, as well as site content manager and email marketing manager.