Brian A. Wood

User Experience Architect

Profile

Creating fantastic experiences, and making good products great is what I’m all about. A broad background including design, research, analysis, and training, among others, lets me effectively communicate with users, developers, decision makers, and other stakeholders and successfully champion User Experience throughout the lifecycle.

Experience Highlights

  • Sr. User Experience Designer

    Workbridge – June 2015, Sterling, VA
    Principal UX Designer for B2B and customer facing products supporting network infrastructure. Guided Product and Development teams in requirements gathering and planning and created mockups, wireframes, flows, and other artifacts from which dev teams would create finished product. Performed UX review of development. Performed UX reviews of previously developed products to guide other teams in UX improvement. Performed User & Customer research and analysis. Developed global design patterns for cross-product, enterprise platforms.

  • User Experience Analyst / Architect

    Celerity 2013 – June 2015, Richmond, VA
    Led User Experience research and analysis for a US Federal Reserve System team of 100 developers, analysts, and designers creating the next generation of Federal Reserve Cash Office Management Systems. Uncovered more than 200 usability issues prior to development, preventing expensive rework. Used varied research and validation methodologies, including rapid prototype iteration, to produce user-tested designs prior to development.Created best practices and design documentation to simplify and streamline design and implementation.Pioneered remote research program to reduce travel budget and increase validity of User Testing results.

  • Human Systems Integration Analyst (HCI)

    Sonalysts 2005 – 2013, Dahlgren, VA
    Provided expert guidance to Navy and Marine Corps personnel regarding design and user interaction.Worked with Subject Matter Experts to design interfaces for combat and other systems balancing User Experience best practices and Military standards. Used heuristic and empirical testing and review to identify usability problems and solutions in pre-deployment systems. Performed usability design and testing. Assisted software developers, providing user needs perspective and suggesting alternate feature implementations that improve usefulness and usability of software.Created multimedia training and briefing materials including video and animations for marketing and user training.Presented software tools at conferences and tradeshows as a keynote speaker and corporate representative. Developed and pursued contacts and leads, resulting in increased sales and business.

  • Systems Design Manager

    Unified Industries Inc. 2001 – 2005, Springfield, VA
    Provided customer focused management of multiple projects for clients. Oversaw three application development teams. Performed high-level consulting for clients, including business process reengineering analysis, workflow analysis, application requirements analysis, and project administration. Acted as project leader for mission critical projects for Government and corporate clients and numerous content focused web sites.Instrumental in the creation and attainment of new business opportunities, clients, and contracts. Created and managed web sites and applications to facilitate business processes.

  • Web Team Lead and Senior Trainer

    The Orkand Corporation 1998 – 2001, Falls Church, VA
    Led Web Applications Team for global technical and training team. Created web applications for surveys and training audits. Created and managed online community (forums) for 150 project members at home and overseas. Provided remote and on-site support to troubleshoot and solve technical issues related to computer systems installation at U.S. Consulates and Embassies worldwide. Coordinated pilot and priority system installation in U.S. Consulates and Embassies in Europe, Asia, Mexico, and Australia. Performed surveys and audits of equipment in the field, including equipment inventories and security audits. Created and led technical training courses for project and customer personnel in the following areas: Windows operating system, Oracle database installation and tuning, physical and logical network analysis, installation and troubleshooting, web development basics, web development advanced concepts, multimedia tool creation, presentation and training concepts, and using Microsoft PowerPoint in a shared environment.

Selected Publications & Presentations

“Rapid User Interface Prototyping Tools and Methods for DoD Usability Professionals.” – Proceedings of the Human Systems Integration Symposium 2011 (paper and presentation)

“User Centered Design Challenges in WBT Development for TFSMS.” – Proceedings of the Human Systems Integration Symposium 2011 (paper and presentation)

Education

DePaul University, Chicago IL – Masters of Human Computer Interaction 2018 (expected)
Susquehanna University, Selinsgrove, PA – Bachelor of Arts, 1995

Additional Information

This is a short representation of diverse experiences. For a more detailed picture, contact me by phone or email.
Brian A. Wood
703/629.4374
[email protected]

119 Kelley Road
Fredericksburg, VA 22405
703.629.4374
[email protected]
https://www.mintconditionstudios.com

Primary Skills

User Experience Architecture
User Testing
User Experience (XU) Research
Prototyping/Wireframes
UX Analysis
Design/Product Validation
Human Computer Interaction
Human Systems Integration
Creative Technology Tools and Techniques
Evangelism, Marketing & Presentation
Training
Social Media
Remote and Onsite Analysis & Testing

Other Tools & Methods

Technical Writing
Software Systems Visibility and Marketing
Web Site planning and development
Online Community Development and Management
Audio and Video Production
Photography and Digital Imagery
Adobe Creative Cloud Software
Photoshop, Illustrator, Dreamweaver, InDesign, XD
Axure, Balsamic, Omnigraffle, Visio
InVision, Marvel App
Other tools for prototypes and mockups