Creating Value With User Experience
→ view portfolioWhat is user experience design worth to your company?
A successful, on-target user experience can lead to winning products, happy customers, and great returns on investment.
Since 1994, my design leadership has given many companies a competitive advantage, helping them reach new markets, win customers, and defeat competitors.
The bottom line: the right user experience can make invaluable contributions to your company’s net worth. When design plays a heavy role in your strategy for success, you need a user experience designer you can count on to deliver the goods.
UX Management:
- Interaction design
- Visual design
- User research
- Prototyping
- UI development
- Integration
Domain Experience:
- Web 2.0 AJAX/Flex RIA design (Rich Internet Applications)
- SaaS (Software as a Service)
- Human capital management
- Enterprise applications
- Consumer products
- E-commerce
- Home networking
- Digital media
- Software development collaboration tools
About Andrew Wong:
I am a Lead User Experience Designer at the San Mateo company SuccessFactors, Inc. (NASDAQ: SFSF), the SaaS (Software as a Service) leader in HCM (Human Capital Management), serving 2,700+ customers with 4.7+ million users in 185 countries and 31 languages.
Prevously, I was Chief Design Officer at Asimba, Inc., and designed the UI for 2Wire’s HomePortal gateway. As Creative Director at Poppe Tyson, I designed the first Web sites for the White House, Netscape, Intel, Chrysler, and Cadillac.
Success Story: UX as a Competitive Advantage
Superior user experience can help companies compete in new market segments.
Take 2Wire’s HomePortal residential gateway, which allows multiple computers to share high-speed Internet access. Until recently, such products were considered too technical for mass-market consumer adoption. The HomePortal needed easy-to-use software to succeed in the home networking market.
As the UI designer at 2Wire, I designed the HomePortal’s Web-based interface, making its functional capabilities appear less intimidating to non-technical users, and applying a new visual design to extend 2Wire’s brand. I also designed “broadband applications” to add parental controls and Internet telephony to the HomePortal, making it more useful for home users, and further differentiating it from competing products.
AT&T and many of the top Internet service providers now offer the HomePortal as their premier home networking solution, due in part to its breakthrough user experience.
HomePortal UI (Before):
HomePortal UI (After):
Dave Titus and Creative Touch Design (now PerceptivePath Studio) contributed to the visual design.
Helping Companies Succeed
As a user experience designer, I focus on helping companies gain an edge by increasing product value through user-centered design.
User research is important because a company’s success depends on customers and users being able to use the product to achieve their goals. Good design also can help companies lower costs due to user error, inefficiencies, returns, support calls, customer churn, and loss of goodwill. These savings can help companies increase margins while lowering their customers’ total cost of owning the product.
I specialize in executing product, branding, and marketing strategy by designing and implementing attractive and easy-to-use user interfaces. My design approach involves improving clarity, speed, effectiveness, and ease of use by streamlining the user experience. From my experience, the most successful process is user-centered design, which involves:
- User research — to extrapolate what target audiences want and present designs that meet their expectations.
- Usability testing — to validate designs and make improvements or new discoveries.
Making a Difference:
These are some of the organizations that I’ve helped reach important milestones:
- 2Wire, Inc.
- Bank of America
- Cadillac Motors
- Chrysler Corporation
- CollabNet, Inc.
- E*Trade Financial
- Edward Jones
- Excite@Home
- Gateway, Inc.
- Hewlett-Packard
- Hongkong and Shanghai Bank (HSBC)
- Intel Corporation
- Knight-Ridder Information
- Netscape Communications
- Novell, Inc.
- San Jose Convention and Visitors Bureau
- Sony Computer Entertainment
- SuccessFactors, Inc.
- Virtual Vineyards (Wine.com)
- The White House
Interaction Design:
- UI architecture
- Task and process flows
- Screen layouts
- Wire-frames
- Interaction specifications
- User experience guidelines
Visual Design:
- Brand extension
- Concept and style
- Creative direction
- Icon design and illustration
- Photo integration
User Research:
- User and task analysis
- Focus groups
- Cognitive walkthroughs
- Personas
- Usability testing
Implementation:
- Low- and high-fidelity prototyping
- UI development
- Integration
HomePortal UI | Setup Wizard | Firewall Settings | Parental Controls |
Web Remote Access | Voice Network | HomePortal Site Map | MediaPortal Flow |
The White House | Poppe Tyson | Mozilla | Netscape Communications |
Intel Corporation | Chrysler Corporation | Cadillac Motors | City of San Jose |
Virtual Vineyards (Wine.com) | Asimba, Inc. |
My Industry Track Record
Since 1994, I’ve built a consistently excellent track record of delivering attractive, easy-to-use designs for flagship products and high-priority initiatives. Over the years, I’ve led and designed successful user interfaces for millions of consumer and business users around the world.
I have more than six years of experience as a user experience manager — building, leading, and developing multidisciplinary teams of interaction designers, visual designers, UI developers, writers, and user researchers to implement the user-centered design process.
In 2007, after working for several years to hone my craft as a designer, I returned to user experience management. Before that, I also studied human–computer interaction, interface design, usability testing, and cognitive psychology in the Human Factors and Ergonomics masters program at San Jose State University. My hands-on design experience and front-end development skills are up-to-date, as is my knowledge of usability principles, best practices, and rich Internet application design patterns.
Currently, I am a Lead User Experience Designer at SuccessFactors, Inc. (NASDAQ: SFSF) in San Mateo, California, USA. I lead a talented team of user interface designers working on ULTRA, the company’s next-generation, Web 2.0 release of the performance and talent management suite.
Prior to joining SuccessFactors, I was a senior user experience designer at CollabNet, Inc., a software development company in Brisbane, California, specializing in collaboration tools for global distributed development. At CollabNet, I designed the user interface for the suite’s application lifecycle management feature, and also redesigned the discussion forums interface.
From 2001 to 2004, I joined 2Wire, Inc. in San Jose, California, as the user interface designer for the company’s core product, the HomePortal residential gateway, which allows multiple computers to share high-speed Internet access. My design distinguished the HomePortal as the most consumer-friendly product in its class. The product is now championed by AT&T, BellSouth, and other major Internet service providers worldwide as their recommended networking solution for DSL customers.
As an entrepreneur in 1998, Scott Hublou, Leo Cheung, and I founded Asimba, Inc., the leading sports and fitness Web site until its acquisition in 2001. Asimba’s sports, fitness, and nutrition applications, including online training programs, nutrition programs, and fitness calculators helped many subscribers reach athletic goals, improve health, and maintain fitness. As Chief Design Officer, my creative team designed the Web site and user interface, built prototypes, produced Web content, and usability tested our products. In addition, my team established the company’s corporate identity and produced traditional marketing collateral (print and exhibit design).
My interactive design experience goes back to July 1994 at Poppe Tyson, when I became the first Web developer in the entire $4 billion Bozell Worldwide organization. Poppe Tyson, before merging with Modem Media (now Publicis Modem), was one of the world’s top three Internet consulting firms. As creative director, I designed and directed several Web sites at the forefront, including Netscape and the White House. We built an expert team of first-generation Web developers, many of whom continue to make great contributions within the Web community.
Prior to working in user experience, I was an advertising art director and graphic designer for nine years. My experience includes designing corporate identities, marketing collateral, print ads, product packaging, datasheets, presentations, and posters. I gained not only versatility in various media, but also a foundation in creatively executing marketing strategy, which helps me interpret corporate design standards for software and interactive media.
Career Highlights:
- The White House — Designed the first official Web site for the White House in 1994.
- Mozilla — Art directed and co-created the popular Netscape mascot with illustrator/designer Dave Titus in 1994.
- Intel — Designed their first public Web site in 1995 — using a Macintosh!
- Ad banners — Created the first standardized Web ad banner for the Netscape home page in January 1995.
- Banner sizes — Came up with the 468x60 dimensions, still the most widely used on the Web.
Awards and Kudos:
- Electronic House magazine on the HomePortal 1100: “2Wire really did its homework on user interfaces...one of the slickest Web-based interfaces we’ve seen.” Four out of four (“broke the mold”) for ease of use.
Andrew Wong
San Mateo, California, USA
Phone/Fax: 650-573-6380
www.awong.com
Professional Accomplishments
- Proven track record leading and designing successful software user interfaces for over 30 million consumer and business users since 1994.
- Over six years of experience building and leading teams to increase product value, reach new markets, and win customers through user-centered design innovation, improving usability, increasing user-friendliness, extending brand identity, and increasing margins by lowering costs.
Employment History
SuccessFactors, Inc.
Lead User Experience Designer
Jan. 2006 – present
- Led UI design for the SaaS leader in HCM (Human Capital Management), serving 2,700+ customers with 5.1+ million users in 185 countries and 31 languages.
- Led and designed UI for the Recruiting product, winning a 420,000-seat deal.
- Implemented user-centered design for ULTRA, the next-generation, Web 2.0 release of the performance and talent management suite.
- Managed and facilitated user research: concept exploration, cognitive walkthroughs, design validation, task analysis, heuristic evaluations, and usability testing.
- Developed user experience guidelines, UI widget library, high and low-fidelity prototypes, visual and interaction design, interaction flows, wire-frames, and personas.
- Managed, developed, and recruited user experience team members.
CollabNet, Inc.
Senior User Experience Designer
Oct. 2004 – Dec. 2005
- Designed enterprise global distributed development software interface for application lifecycle management and communications (discussion forums, blogs).
- Developed high and low-fidelity prototypes, visual and interaction design, use cases, interaction flows, wire-frames, specifications, icons, and personas.
2Wire, Inc.
User-Interface Designer
May 2001 – Oct. 2004
- Designed and produced next-generation user experience for the HomePortal consumer/business broadband gateway (25 million sold as of 2009).
- Provided creative direction, icon design, localization, development, integration, and design for accessibility, developing solutions from product specifications, usability studies, technical and marketing requirements.
- Provided interaction design for the MediaPortal digital media server and DVR.
Asimba, Inc.
Cofounder and Chief Design Officer
Jan. 1998 – Nov. 2000
- Built, managed, and developed user experience team.
- Led creative direction, design, information architecture, usability, and UI development for corporate Web site, Web applications, corporate identity, collateral, exhibits.
- Member of executive team and board of directors.
PowerAgent Inc.
Creative Director
May 1997 – Sept. 1997
- Built and managed user experience team, and led creative direction, design, information architecture, and development for corporate Web site and Web applications.
Poppe Tyson Interactive
(now Publicis Modem)
Creative Director
April 1993 – April 1997
- Built, managed, and developed team of designers, writers, and UI developers.
- Participated in worldwide client acquisition.
Led user experience design, creative direction, layout, information architecture, and development for Web sites, Web applications, and advertising for:
- The White House
- Netscape Communications
- Cadillac Motors
- Chrysler Corporation
- Intel Corporation
- Hewlett-Packard
- Sony Computer Entertainment
- Gateway, Inc.
- Novell, Inc.
- E*Trade Financial
- Edward Jones
- Hongkong and Shanghai Bank (HSBC)
- San Jose Convention and Visitors Bureau
- Knight-Ridder Information
Freelance Experience
Andrew Wong Interactive
Principal
Sept. 1997 – present
User experience design, Web marketing consultation, creative direction, design, information architecture, and development for:
- Bank of America
- BroadVision
- Excite@Home
- CrossWorlds Software
- Icarian
- Imagine Media
- Internet Profiles Corp.
- Netopia
- PeopleSoft
- S3 Corp.
- Sun Microsystems
- Transmeta Corp.
- VantagePoint Venture Partners
- Vargas Marketing Group
- Virtual Vineyards
Skills and Training
User Experience
- Interaction design (specifications, flows, wire-frames, personas)
- Low- and high-fidelity prototypes
- Visual design
- Information architecture
- User research (task analysis, cognitive walkthroughs, heuristic evaluations, usability testing, focus groups)
Management Training
- Performance management
- Supervision
- Recruiting
- Interviewing
Technical
- Front-end Web development and integration
- Advanced, hand-coded, W3C-compliant XHTML/DHTML
- CSS
- JavaScript
- AJAX
- Yahoo! User Interface (YUI)
- Flex
- XML/XSLT
- Photoshop
- Fireworks
- Illustrator
- BBEdit
- FlexBuilder
- Microsoft Office
- InDesign
- QuarkXPress
Education
San Jose State University
2004 – 2006
- Human Factors and Ergonomics masters program
- Human–computer interaction, interface design, usability testing, cognitive psychology
U.C. Berkeley Ext.
2006
- Rich Internet Applications with AJAX
College of San Mateo
2001 – 2003
- XML and XSLT
- Java programming
- Advanced Web development
- Network+ networking
DeAnza College
1993 – 1997
- UNIX
- Video production
- Film history
- Screen writing
U.C. Santa Cruz Ext.
1995
- Macromedia Director
San Francisco State University
1995
- Graduate film studies
San Jose State University
1987 – 1992
- Bachelor of Science in Marketing and Business Administration
- Minor in Graphic Design
- Graduated with Great Distinction
- Honors at entrance, 1987
- Dean’s Scholar, 1989
Professional Affiliation
BayCHI, San Francisco Bay Area chapter of SIGCHI, the ACM Special Interest Group on Computer–Human Interaction. Volunteered as intranet developer 2003 – 2004.
Andrew Wong
San Mateo, California, USA
Phone/Fax: 650-573-6380
Let’s Get in Touch...
You can reach me by phone/fax/voicemail at 650-573-6380, or click the “Send Email” button below to send me an email.
You also can email me at my email address, which is the account “awong” at this domain (awong.com).
I look forward to hearing from you!