PORTFOLIO


Mobile Products
 

UI Flows
 

Wiki-Based Specs
 

"Skin" Architectures
 
Haptic waveforms
Haptic Waveforms
 

RandyNewman.Com
 

Content Management
 

UI Mockups
 

Financial UI
 

Online Help Systems
 

Quality Assurance
 

Printed Docs
 

Music Editing
 

Technical Direction

SUMMARY

A creative interaction designer/information architect with mobile experience who bridges the gaps between management initiatives, academic research, and practical solutions.

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Motorola Consumer Experience Design (CXD), Chicago, IL, 2006 to 2009

Senior Interaction Designer

  • Enhanced mobile usability by designing interactions and information architecture (flows, wireframes, mockups, and simulations) for various products (e.g. the $2000 AURA, Q9, and ROKR E8) and mobile platforms (e.g. Android, Linux-Java, Windows, UIQ).
  • Created new competitive advantages for Motorola by researching and designing haptic (touch) user experiences for future generations of mobile devices.
  • Employed personas and scenarios on the team that developed Motorola's mobile, multimedia-centric, social-networking reference design.
  • Shortened the software development cycle by more than 50% on the $2000 AURA mobile phone by being the first to bring Agile concepts and tools (e.g. wikis) to CXD, insuring the quick and accurate creation of phone Layout Requirement Specifications (i.e. blueprints).
  • Fostered a more collaborative development process by negotiating media improvements with other teams worldwide (e.g. China, India, Brazil, and Russia) and training coworkers in the use of web-based collaboration tools (e.g. Motorola’s internal Compass CMS, Zope/Plone, and MediaWiki).
  • Tools used: Photoshop, Illustrator, Dreamweaver, Flash, InDesign, PowerPoint, Excel, Word, Visio, Audition.

ALTEC (University of Kansas), Lawrence, KS, 2005 to 2006

Web Prototype Developer/Systems Specialist

  • Quickly designed prototype web sites—using Plone and Microsoft's .NET—in response to competitive grant-funding opportunities.
  • Worked with academic, government, and commercial clients to explore new web-based content-management technologies.
  • Facilitated ALTEC delivery of innovative software tools to educators around the country by setting up and maintaining more than ten Plone sites for various ALTEC initiatives.
  • Enhanced the sense of site-owner equity by training ALTEC project leaders to become the content managers of particular sites.
  • Tools used: Photoshop, Illustrator, Dreamweaver, PowerPoint, Excel, Word, Visual Studio, SQL Server.

Biodiversity Research Center (BRC) (University of Kansas), Lawrence, KS, 2002 to 2005

Research Application Interface Developer

  • Helped the BRC team win a series of NSF grants by designing, coding, and creating content for the BRC's web sites (e.g. Specify, KU Informatics, and Lifemapper).
  • Enhanced the usability of BRC's grant-funded Specify museum collection management software by designing, prototyping, and testing a wide variety of user-interface variations.
  • Reduced development costs and increased efficiency by promoting the use of collaboration-enhancing software such as Plone and Microsoft SharePoint.
  • Wrote print-oriented documentation, designed graphics, and supervised contractor work.
  • Tools used: Photoshop, Illustrator, Dreamweaver, Flash, PowerPoint, Excel, Word, Visio, SharePoint, Visual Studio, SQL Server.

Euronet Worldwide, Leawood, KS, 1999 to 2001

User Interface Team Lead

  • Boosted sales of Euronet’s integrated transaction-management software products as the UI design lead, crafting demonstration web browser, mobile phone, and PDA interfaces.
  • Decreased time to market and enhanced product consistency by managing the documentation and quality-assurance teams.
  • Provided extensive user guidance by writing and illustrating documents for the full range of Euronet's readership.
  • Tools used: Photoshop, Illustrator, Dreamweaver, PowerPoint, Excel, Word, Visio, Java, WebSphere.

Netopia (now Motorola), Lawrence, KS, 1994 to 1997 and 1998 to 1999

Senior Technical Writer

  • Authored award-winning online help, printed user's manuals, and technical guides for Netopia's Timbuktu Pro and Netopia Virtual Office remote control programs (Windows and Macintosh versions).
  • Expanded the global reach of Netopia's products by supervising the localization of the documentation into French, German, Spanish, and Japanese.

Intel Corporation, Folsom, CA, 1997 to 1998

Senior Quality Engineer

  • Expanded and centralized access to Intel's microprocessor QA processes by creating the Product Qualification (PQ) Intel intranet site. The popular PQ web site distributed information about quality standards to Intel's various product divisions.
  • Simplified the microprocessor QA process by developing the VBA-driven PQTool. The PQTool took a product's description and determined which QA rules were necessary for that particular product.

Gulbransen (now QRS Music Technologies), San Diego, CA, 1993 to 1994

Electrical Engineer and Sound Designer

  • Attracted new customers by developing the sound set for Gulbransen's General MIDI chip set and creating effective demonstration sequences that leveraged those sounds.
  • Augmented Gulbransen's bottom line by efficiently managing the production of, and handling customer service for Gulbransen's line of acoustic piano MIDI adapters and electronic music products.

PianoDisc, Sacramento, CA, 1991 to 1993

Technical Director and Senior Music Editor

  • Evolved PianoDisc products into world-class musical instruments by designing, managing the production of, and creating demonstration sequences for PianoDisc’s very successful microprocessor-controlled player-piano systems.
  • Enhanced the ease of installation and use of PianoDisc products by writing and illustrating user guides and technical manuals.

Various Positions, California, Kansas, Missouri, and Oklahoma, 1977 to 1991

Engineering, Education, and Entertainment

  • Served as a data analyst, audio engineer, keyboard technician, graduate teaching assistant, electronics technology instructor, and computer programmer.

EDUCATION

University of Kansas, 2006

MA in Interaction Design

University of Oklahoma, 1991

MA in the History of Science

University of Kansas, 1983

BM in Music Theory

Kansas State University, 1977

BS in Electrical Engineering

PUBLICATIONS (Partial List)

  • RandyNewman.Com, 2004 to date.
  • Downie, Scott, “Multimedia” (chapter) in “Windows 98 Professional Reference” (1998, New Riders).
  • Downie, Scott, “Working with MIDI” (chapter) in “Windows 98 Multimedia: Lights! Camera! Action!” (1999, Que Corporation).

PRODUCTS (Partial List)

  • Motorola AURA luxury phone, 2008
  • Motorola ROKR E8 music phone, 2008
  • Motorola U9 phone, 2007
  • PianoDisc PDS-128 player-piano system, 1993

PRESENTATIONS (Partial List)

  • Chang, Angela and O’Sullivan, Conor: “An Audio-Haptic Aesthetic Framework Influenced by Visual Theory.” Presented at the Haptic and Audio Interaction Design (HAID) Conference, 15 September 2008.

AWARDS

Technical Writing

  • Society for Technical Communication's 1998-1999 Technical Publications Competition (Denver chapter):
    • Distinguished Award for the Timbuktu Pro 4.8 Macintosh Apple Guide online help
    • Merit Award for the Timbuktu Pro 4.8 Macintosh printed Getting Started Guide
    • Achievement Award for the Timbuktu Pro 4.8 Macintosh printed At-a-Glance card
  • Society for Technical Communication's Merit Award for the Timbuktu Pro 3.0 (Macintosh) Apple Guide online help, 1996-1997 Technical Publications Competition (Kansas City chapter).
  • Society for Technical Communication's Distinguished and Best of Show Award for the Timbuktu Pro 1.1 (Windows) online help, 1995-1996 Technical Publications Competition (Kansas City chapter).

Teaching

  • Kansas City Kansas Community College's Outstanding Service Award for Teaching, 1987.

Academic

  • University of Oklahoma History of Science Department's Rockefeller Foundation Program Graduate Assistant, 1988-1989 and 1989-1990 academic years.
  • Norman Oklahoma Chamber of Commerce's John H. Patten Memorial Scholarship, 1989.

TECHNICAL SKILLS

Applications

  • Dreamweaver, Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash, Visio, InDesign, OmniGraffle, wikis, MS Office, RoboHELP, Logic Pro, and others

Languages, and Scripts

  • HTML, XML, XSL, CSS, JavaScript

Specialties

  • Interaction design, interface design, audio, haptics, technical writing, project management, education

PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS

  • Association for Computing Machinery + SIGGRAPH
  • IEEE
  • Society for Technical Communication
  • History of Science Society
  • Audio Engineering Society