I am a UX Design Manager born in Pittsburgh, PA, raised in South Florida, and now living in Pittsburgh again. I live and play here with my wife Nikki and our dog Cassidy. When I’m not designing, I’m trying to learn how the human mind works by studying psychology and behavior. Or I’m talking someone’s ear off about the importance of designing for emotions. When I need a break from all that I like to grab my camera and get out in nature to get my ‘zen on’ taking photos. Nature and wildlife photography is my artistic outlet and mental salvation.

What I do

Leadership, UX Strategy, & Design Ops

  • Build and manage high-performing design teams
  • Align crossfunctional teams
  • Define, prioritize, and maintain product roadmaps and backlog
  • Define operational processes
  • Change management
  • UX training and skill building

Research, Testing & Analysis

  • Quantitative and Qualitative research studies
  • Usability and IA validation
  • Kano analysis and JTBD studies
  • Satisfaction studies (NPS, C-Sat, CES)
  • Data analysis

Universal Design & Accessibility

  • Define adoption roadmap and strategy
  • Train crosscuntional teams (design, dev, content, product, legal, and UAT)
  • Lead compliance reviews
  • Code review (web only)
  • Remediation recommendations

Content Strategy & UX Writing

  • Content audits
  • Page table co-creation
  • Content testing and scoring
  • SEO strategy
  • URL strategy

Consulting & Workshops

  • 1- to 3-day training workshops on UX, usability, accessibility, research, and testing
  • Design sprint workshops
  • Consulting
  • Contact me with any questions about pricing and availability

Speaking & Blogging

You may have guessed by the name of my site that I love talking about UX. I love to connect with others and exchange thoughts on all things UX. To that end, I blog, I’m active on social sites, I’m starting a video channel, and I present at conferences and local meetups.

How I do it

Below is my Universal eXperience Framework (UXF). It looks at the experience through the lenses of both the end user and the designer. It describes what end users want from an experience and how designers should approach designing the experience.

End user perspective

  • Context: Circumstance > Contraints > Capabilities
  • Expectations: Access > Ability > Equity
  • Outcomes: Emotional > Social > Functional

Designer perspective

  • Goals: Meaningful > Inclusive > Compassion
  • Principles: Useful > Intuitive > Appropriate
  • Process: Content out > Context informed > Adapt and Enhace

Why I do it

One simple and selfish reason – I’m designing the world I’d like to live in.

I love solving problems and trying to make things better. UX is the perfect career for me to do both. This is my way of leaving the world better than I found it.

How I got here

 

Employer history

  • 1986 to present: Freelance and consulting
  • 1990-1993: G•Neil Corporation, graphic designer
  • 1995-1998 & 2000-2002: Rexall/Sundown, designer to senior designer
  • 2002-2004: JKG/Solnex (agency), design manager and designer
  • 2004-2006: Habitat for Humanity, site supervisor
  • 2008-2013: Jarden Consumer Solutions, senior designer to senior web designer
  • 2013-2019: Citrix, UX architect to senior UX architect, accessibility specialist
  • 2019-2022: Dick’s Sporting Goods, Sr. UX Designer, accessibility specialist
  • 2022-2026: Highmark Health, lead accessibility designer, now UX Design Manager of Design Systems and Standards

Skills added

  • 1986: Graphic/visual design for print and packaging
  • 2002: Web design, information architecture (IA), front-end development (HTML/CSS/JS), management and leadership
  • 2010: UI/UX design, responsive web design (RWD), e-commerce design, conversion rate optimization (CRO)
  • 2011: Content strategy, UX research (quant and qual), search engine optimization (SEO)
  • 2013: Usability testing, design workshops
  • 2014: UX strategy, accessibility, and public speaking
  • 2017: Change management, design systems
  • 2022: SharePoint design
  • 2023: People/team management, product management, design ops

My other passion

Contact me

Give me a shout

  • Got questions?
  • Got a job opportunity?
  • Looking for a workshop?
  • Need a speaker?
  • Just want to talk UX?

No more contact form

I’ve removed the contact form due to the overwhelming amount of spam coming through. Sadly every bot, marketing agency, and web development company around the world is using the form. If you’d like to contact me, please find me on LinkedIn. My sincere apologies for the inconvenience.