Career...

Senior Designer in Features & Products (December 2005 - Current)
Designer in Features & Products (August 2004 - December 2005)

10 words or less...
Lead design resource for feature editors and classified product managers.
Common day...
My time is divided between daily editorial design requests, special package creation, light site design and overall redesigns of the classified and search products. Common year...
Par for the course at washingtonpost.com, multiple large scale redesigns are released simultaneously while numerous feature packages are hovering around. It is a 60/40 breakdown between time spent on products and on features. Projects of note...

City Guide 2.0 » Design Lead (2006)

This project focuses around improving the City Guide's user experience through its front page, quick search placement, faceted navigation, category pages and profiles.

Participated in extensive user testing panels where we witnessed numerous City Guide users and non-users perform searches on our product. From these sessions, the faults in the UI became apparent.

2.0 set out to correct these issues. With the collaboration of various stockholders, I have designed an new interface that has shown significant improvement in preliminary user testing sessions.

Working with feature editors, search specialists, SEO experts, front-end and database developers, I guided the design process through user testing, requirement gathering, site flows, wireframes, design comps, retesting, technology development and product review.

In the end, 2.0 will have produced a new front page that elevates quick search, provides top user search data, enriches our editorial voice, along with balancing editorial and commercial needs. Sandwiched between the search results and the front page, we introduce new browse section fronts for our top categories. These pages are tailored for two unique types of users: ones who prefer browsing by link association and ones who like to fill out a more detailed search form to get results.

The new search results page clears up some confusion while continuing with our previous faceted navigation. The users search string takes on a more elevated position, the adding and removal of search items is more apparent, literal usage of titling and a stronger grid within the search results improves overall UI.

In the end, a well-researched product that pushes local searching forward will launch on washingtonpost.com.

Jobs 5.0 » Design Lead (2006)

This project introduces faceted navigation to search results, along with upcoming UI improvements across all pages of Jobs section.

With this project, I am working with over 15 stakeholders across Jobs, front-end production, database design, technology and project management.

The 5.0 project was the first to take advantage of user testing that was performed on City Guide. Their data provided the opportunity to test out new UI theories for faceted navigation inside Jobs -- an experience that did not exist previously.

The layout and style of that experience will now be rolled out across the Job Seeker and Employer areas. Improvements will be made in the use of page space, introducing ajax technology and developing a consistent design language across all areas of Jobs.

Real Estate 2.0 » Design Lead (2006)

Redesign of both Real Estate and Rentals sections. Introduced quick search on section fronts, changed the balance between map and form searching, created consistent placement for editorial material and introduced new advertising products.

Repositioned the search experience from internal section pages up to the front, all along setting out to design these components in a unique and graceful style.

Worked with both product managers and section editors to create a balance between editorial, search and advertising areas of the site. Developed and executed an aggressive timeline that ensured design and coding could happen in parallel tracks.

Cars 2.0 » Design Lead (2005)

First large-scale project as design lead. Worked with Feature/Product Design Manager to ensure proper planning and execution of overall project.

This redesign included overhauling the Cars aesthetic and grid, search functionality, editorial pages and multimedia components.

Developed a cleaner, more visually powerful presentation throughout Cars. Editorial material was moved to a strong position on the front page and a quick search was introduced. Additional advertising areas were rolled out across all pages, while maintaining a light footprint. A new hub for editorial car reviews, columnists and multimedia was developed. Produced designs for on-page video modules and guided production work to ensure proper construction.

Detailed SEO plan was developed to draw users in primarily through our search and editorial hubs. Post launch analysis revealed outstanding success in this plan with referral traffic doubling across a majority of the redesigned Car pages. This edge subsided a general industry lull in 2006 and resulted in continued steady traffic.

Features Design

Nearly all of the feature design work that is presented on washingtonpost.com I create, in harmony with the various ongoing redesigns detailed above.

Features design includes editorial material for the Arts & Living sections, including books, movies, music, City Guide, Fashion & Beauty, Travel, Food, Home, Museums along with the editorial pages for Jobs, Cars and Real Estate.

On the high end I am creating designed out special sections for various feature topics that are rooted in strong presentation, increasing awareness of various site resources, elevating SEO and performing efficiently through clean CSS.

These projects utilize various templates, whether section fronts or multimedia packages, and provide the user with a rich visual experience.

In the day to day, I am also tasked with maintaining these specials sections. This includes responding to editor updates, providing new iterations or promotional artwork.

With this responsibility, it is imperative to manage the resources I have, whether it be my own time or the freelancers at our disposal. I oversee a great deal of material that relies on effective and timely execution. Through my work, I manage editor expectations, set timelines, work with the necessary variables and perform with efficiency.

Design Editor (June 2004 - Current)

Involvement...
Conceptualize, develop and execute the design of a 24-page monthly regional entertainment publication which, in August of 2006, broke into an 8 page weekly insert.

What began as a freelance project to work with editors to create the visual identity and layout for a new start-up magazine transformed into a weekly commitment. I am now the sole designer for this weekly.

The initial content planning sessions launched a summer of mock-ups and design presentations. Through those sessions a logo, visual style and marketing campaign were created for an August launch.

Week after week, I have worked to push the stylebook forward and grow from the lessons learned each production cycle, which happens to be a three-day turnaround.

Through tight deadlines, I have become an efficient designer that can gather all the necessary assets and create compelling layout and storytelling.

All in all, Take ONE provides an outlet to try layouts that would be ineffective and impossible in the digital world.

References...

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Jeremy J Norman | PO Box 25645 | Washington, D.C. | 20027 | 202.320.8876 | © 2008 Jeremy J Norman