Theresa Neil
Providing user experience solutions for web, mobile and desktop applications Portfolio UX Services | Blog
Providing user experience solutions for web, mobile and desktop applications Portfolio UX Services | Blog
"Designing Web Interfaces" O'Reilly Book
January 2009
Bill Scott and I teamed up to write a book for O'Reilly titled "Design Web Interfaces: Patterns and Principles for Rich Interactions". The principles are based on our observations and catalog of best practices accumulated during Bill's time with Yahoo! and Netflix, my experience consulting, and our time together at Sabre building the UX team.
The book will be released at the end of January 2009. We are also hard at work on a Flickr site which includes all the figures and illustrations from the book (over 500 total). Thanks to Luke Wroblewski for this great idea. All the material will be available as Creative Commons so you can use it in presentations and papers.
We are also putting together a companion site where we will be posting new examples, new patterns, new anti-patterns as well as our new blog.
Related postings: Update: Designing Web Interfaces Book Available for Pre-Order
January 2009
Bill Scott and I teamed up to write a book for O'Reilly titled "Design Web Interfaces: Patterns and Principles for Rich Interactions". The principles are based on our observations and catalog of best practices accumulated during Bill's time with Yahoo! and Netflix, my experience consulting, and our time together at Sabre building the UX team.
The book will be released at the end of January 2009. We are also hard at work on a Flickr site which includes all the figures and illustrations from the book (over 500 total). Thanks to Luke Wroblewski for this great idea. All the material will be available as Creative Commons so you can use it in presentations and papers.
We are also putting together a companion site where we will be posting new examples, new patterns, new anti-patterns as well as our new blog.
Related postings: Update: Designing Web Interfaces Book Available for Pre-Order
OtherInbox
March 2008- present
TechCrunch 50 finalist, OtherInbox, has been a fun start-up to work with here in Austin. Joshua Baer contacted me this summer to take a look at his great idea for fixing email overload.
A slow adopter myself, I am now completely in love with the service, and can't wait for the new feature which promises to make my life even easier- keep an eye on the Otherinbox site for news.
I worked with the OtherInbox team to revise the early application based on standard screen patterns, and tweaked the IA to improve the navigation and overall experience. Scott Boms of Wishingline provided the visual design.
March 2008- present
TechCrunch 50 finalist, OtherInbox, has been a fun start-up to work with here in Austin. Joshua Baer contacted me this summer to take a look at his great idea for fixing email overload.
A slow adopter myself, I am now completely in love with the service, and can't wait for the new feature which promises to make my life even easier- keep an eye on the Otherinbox site for news.
I worked with the OtherInbox team to revise the early application based on standard screen patterns, and tweaked the IA to improve the navigation and overall experience. Scott Boms of Wishingline provided the visual design.
PayPal iPhone Web Application
May 2008
PayPal contacted me in May 2008 to design their web application for the iPhone. The internal PayPal Platform team wanted something sexy to showcase their new API and to enter in the Apple iPhone design contest.
In less than 30 days, Scott Boms and I designed, developed and delivered the new application. Apple designers and developers gave it the thumbs-up, and it should be available any day now when you type in www.paypal.com on your iPhone.
Related postings: Wireframes for the iPhone, Apple's iPhone Human Interface Guidelines
May 2008
PayPal contacted me in May 2008 to design their web application for the iPhone. The internal PayPal Platform team wanted something sexy to showcase their new API and to enter in the Apple iPhone design contest.
In less than 30 days, Scott Boms and I designed, developed and delivered the new application. Apple designers and developers gave it the thumbs-up, and it should be available any day now when you type in www.paypal.com on your iPhone.
Related postings: Wireframes for the iPhone, Apple's iPhone Human Interface Guidelines
Move.com, Realtor.com
June 2007- May 2008
The president of Move Labs, Lorna Borenstein, contacted me in the summer of 2007. They had a product in skunkworks that they needed reviewed. I provided a heuristic evaluation, a usability review, of the application. Impressed by the evaluation, Lorna asked me to evaluate their two major sites Move.com and Realtor.com. A full redesign was initiated based on the evaluations.
I had the opportunity to collaborate with the internal UX team over the next year on a variety of projects including both site redesigns, mortgage search tool, Welcome Wagon, Realtor blog and other supporting tools.
The most exciting aspect of the project was seeing the results from switching to a 1990s style page heavy HTML site, to a richer user experience. The redesign, launched in September, saw a '17% increase in total minutes spent on the destination' (Tom Tauli, Nov 2008).
Related postings: Ultra Rich Search Experience, Pattern: Refining Search by Bill Scott
June 2007- May 2008
The president of Move Labs, Lorna Borenstein, contacted me in the summer of 2007. They had a product in skunkworks that they needed reviewed. I provided a heuristic evaluation, a usability review, of the application. Impressed by the evaluation, Lorna asked me to evaluate their two major sites Move.com and Realtor.com. A full redesign was initiated based on the evaluations.
I had the opportunity to collaborate with the internal UX team over the next year on a variety of projects including both site redesigns, mortgage search tool, Welcome Wagon, Realtor blog and other supporting tools.
The most exciting aspect of the project was seeing the results from switching to a 1990s style page heavy HTML site, to a richer user experience. The redesign, launched in September, saw a '17% increase in total minutes spent on the destination' (Tom Tauli, Nov 2008).
Related postings: Ultra Rich Search Experience, Pattern: Refining Search by Bill Scott
eVapt
November 2007- March 2008
eVapt is a Flex web application for metering SaaS and Cloud applications. Based here in Austin, they were a finalist at this years InnoTech Conference. They contacted me in late 2007 to redesign the alpha application, and move the product to Flex.
Working with the product manager and architect, I developed personas and workflow maps, and began sketching out the new UI. The new dashboard as well as the invoicing manager has resonated well with users. Aaron Arlof provided the visual design for the custom Flex skin.
Related postings: Flex Stencil for Omni Graffle, Flex UI Design Best Practices
November 2007- March 2008
eVapt is a Flex web application for metering SaaS and Cloud applications. Based here in Austin, they were a finalist at this years InnoTech Conference. They contacted me in late 2007 to redesign the alpha application, and move the product to Flex.
Working with the product manager and architect, I developed personas and workflow maps, and began sketching out the new UI. The new dashboard as well as the invoicing manager has resonated well with users. Aaron Arlof provided the visual design for the custom Flex skin.
Related postings: Flex Stencil for Omni Graffle, Flex UI Design Best Practices
Fluid Innovation Group
January 2007- present
Fluid Innovation Group works with companies and institutions to transform their internally developed software into commercial products, which are then sold through independent software vendors.
They approached me in January 2007 to lead their UI design effort. I mapped the work flows for the primary users, designed wire frames and delivered the form & behavior specs for development. Element Fusion provided the visual design, and the application was developed with Ruby on Rails and Ajax.
We are currently working on the next version of the application, as well as a public facing web application for patent research and commercialization.
January 2007- present
Fluid Innovation Group works with companies and institutions to transform their internally developed software into commercial products, which are then sold through independent software vendors.
They approached me in January 2007 to lead their UI design effort. I mapped the work flows for the primary users, designed wire frames and delivered the form & behavior specs for development. Element Fusion provided the visual design, and the application was developed with Ruby on Rails and Ajax.
We are currently working on the next version of the application, as well as a public facing web application for patent research and commercialization.
Leukemia & Lymphoma Society Enterprise Suite
May 2006- March 2008
The Society is the world's largest voluntary health organization with almost 70 chapters across the US and Canada. They were in desperate need of enterprise software to handle their CRM, event planning, donor development and patient services.
The CTO approached me in 2006 to lead the UI design effort. They wanted to develop a Flex/AIR application that would support the unique processes each chapter employed for conducting large-scale fundraising, while adhering to the Society's high level guidelines and best practices. A multi-product suite emerged as Mission 360.
Campaign 360, the fundraising product, was the most challenging to design since it included a CRM system, budgeting, planning, recruitment and event management. Countless interviews, user group meetings, design iterations and prototypes were undertaken to ensure we provided a system to support the chapters' needs.
Rob Jones provided the visual design and Integritas worked with the Society's internal development team to code this in Flex.
Related postings: Seek or Show: Two Design Paradigms for Lots of Data
May 2006- March 2008
The Society is the world's largest voluntary health organization with almost 70 chapters across the US and Canada. They were in desperate need of enterprise software to handle their CRM, event planning, donor development and patient services.
The CTO approached me in 2006 to lead the UI design effort. They wanted to develop a Flex/AIR application that would support the unique processes each chapter employed for conducting large-scale fundraising, while adhering to the Society's high level guidelines and best practices. A multi-product suite emerged as Mission 360.
Campaign 360, the fundraising product, was the most challenging to design since it included a CRM system, budgeting, planning, recruitment and event management. Countless interviews, user group meetings, design iterations and prototypes were undertaken to ensure we provided a system to support the chapters' needs.
Rob Jones provided the visual design and Integritas worked with the Society's internal development team to code this in Flex.
Related postings: Seek or Show: Two Design Paradigms for Lots of Data
Team In Training eTools
February 2008
Team in Training, the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's largest fundraising program, provides their participants with a web based fundraising tool. The previous product, provided by an external company, was cumbersome and difficult to use. When the Society decided to develop their own product, we knew it was essential to design a tool that would be a breeze to learn and use.
In one month, we designed the wireframes for the new RIA, provided a prototype, tested the design, and started Flex development. The new Team In Training fundraising tool is now bringing in ~4 million a month, and has provided the Society substantial savings in processing fees.
February 2008
Team in Training, the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's largest fundraising program, provides their participants with a web based fundraising tool. The previous product, provided by an external company, was cumbersome and difficult to use. When the Society decided to develop their own product, we knew it was essential to design a tool that would be a breeze to learn and use.
In one month, we designed the wireframes for the new RIA, provided a prototype, tested the design, and started Flex development. The new Team In Training fundraising tool is now bringing in ~4 million a month, and has provided the Society substantial savings in processing fees.
d3View
November 2006- January 2007
d3View is a LS-DYNA Simulator created by Suri Bala. Suri originally contacted me and asked for assistance designing a web application for finite element simulation. Despite the daunting amount of subject matter I was unfamiliar with, we were able to quickly identify the primary workflows and sketch up a rich user interface.
d3View has recently entered private beta, and has a host of new features for engineers to collaborate and share their findings in a meaningful, visual way.
November 2006- January 2007
d3View is a LS-DYNA Simulator created by Suri Bala. Suri originally contacted me and asked for assistance designing a web application for finite element simulation. Despite the daunting amount of subject matter I was unfamiliar with, we were able to quickly identify the primary workflows and sketch up a rich user interface.
d3View has recently entered private beta, and has a host of new features for engineers to collaborate and share their findings in a meaningful, visual way.
ERN Systems
January 2004- December 2005
I had the opportunity to design the interface for the new portal version of the ERN Systems, a suite of tools for Emergency Response Networks that has been used by the Texas Fusion Center, the FBI, and the Department of Homeland Security. The most challenging aspect of this project was the size and scale of the application; there are four modules that must work seamlessly together or function independently. Navigation, consistency and efficiency were my primary areas of focus while designing the interface, as well as cleaning up the aesthetics.
January 2004- December 2005
I had the opportunity to design the interface for the new portal version of the ERN Systems, a suite of tools for Emergency Response Networks that has been used by the Texas Fusion Center, the FBI, and the Department of Homeland Security. The most challenging aspect of this project was the size and scale of the application; there are four modules that must work seamlessly together or function independently. Navigation, consistency and efficiency were my primary areas of focus while designing the interface, as well as cleaning up the aesthetics.
Open Rico
July 2004- November 2005
Collaborated with Bill Scott, Darren James, and Richard Cowin to move the DHTML framework we created for Sabre Airline Solutions to an open source Ajax framework. The LiveGrid (shown here hooked on to Yahoo's search engine), drag and drop manager, accordion, css + js rounded corners, and editable data grid were our early contributions to the Ajax movement.
July 2004- November 2005
Collaborated with Bill Scott, Darren James, and Richard Cowin to move the DHTML framework we created for Sabre Airline Solutions to an open source Ajax framework. The LiveGrid (shown here hooked on to Yahoo's search engine), drag and drop manager, accordion, css + js rounded corners, and editable data grid were our early contributions to the Ajax movement.
Sabre
July 2001- July 2005
I had the opportunity to create and lead the User Experience team for Sabre Airlines Solutions. Bill Scott and I worked with close to 40 product teams, 5 major enterprise software suites and supporting products, to educate product managers, architects and developers about usability principles.
Part of our effort involved creating standard frameworks for the web, desktop and mobile applications. The rest of our time was spend in design sessions, working closely with the product teams to create personas, work flow maps, wire frames, and prototypes.
Sabre Airline Solutions now has a flourishing User Experience team, and has continued to make great strides towards providing a better user experience throughout their product offerings.
July 2001- July 2005
I had the opportunity to create and lead the User Experience team for Sabre Airlines Solutions. Bill Scott and I worked with close to 40 product teams, 5 major enterprise software suites and supporting products, to educate product managers, architects and developers about usability principles.
Part of our effort involved creating standard frameworks for the web, desktop and mobile applications. The rest of our time was spend in design sessions, working closely with the product teams to create personas, work flow maps, wire frames, and prototypes.
Sabre Airline Solutions now has a flourishing User Experience team, and has continued to make great strides towards providing a better user experience throughout their product offerings.
Work Under NDA
March 2007- present
March 2007- present
© 2005-2009 by Theresa Neil. All Rights Reserved.