My resumé.

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John “JP” ARNZEN

Information Architect + UX Designer + Developer.

resume@johnarnzen.com
+1 404-927-6338
johnarnzen.com/
www.linkedin.com/in/johnarnzen/

Summary

I bring over 24 years of extensive experience in digital creative execution and leadership, spanning roles such as information architect and UX designer. Additionally, I've accrued 5+ years as a versatile software developer, adept at crafting desktop, embedded, and Web applications. My commitment to continuous learning and adaptation has empowered me to excel in diverse domains, from agricultural tech to telecommunications, contributing to the success of businesses across various scales and industries. I prioritize craftsmanship, maintaining and refining my development skills to ensure seamless alignment between design and execution, ultimately delivering holistic solutions that drive business growth.

Work Experience

  • Freelance UX Mentor/Coach
    Mar 2023–present
    Providing continuing education and skills-transfer training for candidates changing careers into the UX field.
  • Freelance UX and Dev
    Nov 2020–present
    Providing freelance design and full-stack development services for small companies. Built a full-stack internal web application on a Microsoft and .NET Core technology stack for Northcraft Analytics, a business analytics company, to track business intelligence data migrations and client queries, with the possibility of the application becoming a product.
  • Lead UX Designer
    Aug 2010–Oct 2020
    AT&T | att.com Digital Experience
    Improved various parts of the user experience across myAT&T, AT&T's online account management system serving its 230+ million customers, by designing, leading, and managing various UX efforts. Spearheaded numerous internal projects to improve site-wide navigation and taxonomy, and improved identification and archiving of project documentation.
    • Led multifaceted teams in enhancing online user experience while managing project roles.
    • Implemented strategic improvements, such as standardized branding in transactional emails and streamlining bill payment processes.
    • Managed and improved global site navigation, contributing to enhanced use and usability.
    • Advocated for and implemented automation strategies to streamline design processes and increase focus on critical tasks.
    • Coordinated UX aspects of sustainment work across the myAT&T platform, ensuring ongoing optimizations.
  • Senior UX Designer
    Dec 2006–Aug 2010
    Red Hat
    Worked on improving the user experience for customer online help and account management. Helped with design standards documentation for company web services and applications.
  • Senior Manager of IA & Site Dev
    Apr 2005–Dec 2006
    Cingular Wireless | cingular.com e-commerce Content & Creative Services
    Led user experience efforts and site development for cingular.com. Led user experience and site development efforts for cingular.com's site-wide redesign. Acted briefly as interim site creative director.
    • Acted as lead Information Architect for cingular.com, leading and managing a cross-coastal team of IAs and site developers. Responsibilities included:
      • improving usability and accessibility of the site
      • improving site management and technology
      • evangelizing web standards
      • evangelizing web usability and accessibility
      • improving site organization and visitor experience
      • increasing sales and retention through improved customer satisfaction with the site
    • Helped merge the IA and UX of AT&T Wireless into Cingular's site post-acquisition.
    • Spearheaded the IA, UX, and site development efforts for cingular.com's site-wide redesign, including providing requirements for its new content management system (CMS).
  • Senior Information Architect
    Feb 2004–Apr 2005
    Cingular Wireless | Human-centered Design Group
    Performed field research, worked with organization leadership and executives, and designed user experience improvements for internal call center tools used throughout Cingular's call centers. Helped design the user experience and performed in-store user testing for customer-assistance kiosks to be deployed in Cingular stores to reduce/remove customer wait times to talk to in-store employees. Moderated and analyzed usability tests with customers in our usability lab.
  • Usability Engineer & Webmaster
    Mar 2002–Feb 2004
    AGRIS (formerly part of John Deere)
    Designed the user experience for a grain tracking and auditing desktop application to be used by co-ops and grain silos. Worked closely with SMEs, business analysts, application architects, and developers. Performed field research at silos with existing customers. Oversaw, managed, and improved the AGRIS company website, and enhanced various processes around its content management.
  • Information Architect
    Apr 2000–Nov 2001
    Red Sky Interactive & AGENCY.com
    Designed the IA and UX for a large-scale, custom-construction project scheduling and inventory tracking web application for a key construction software client. Worked closely with the client, business analysts, application architects, developers, and visual designers to create the first version of the application. Helped train business analysts and our larger team on how to write and execute proper, flexible use cases as part of the Rational Unified Process (RUP).
  • Software Developer/Engineer
    Jul 1996–Mar 2000
    Ratio DesignLab
    Seven years before iOS and XCode, I ported Visual Basic for rapid application development (RAD) on custom handheld embedded systems to be used by clients such as FedEx as part of Ratio's original AppForge project. I also integrated this into Visual Studio to make developing for embedded systems as easy as developing for desktop applications. Maintained and extended a custom language and compiler for testing network communications for an early home-banking application.
  • CBT Programmer
    Jul 1995–Jul 1996
    Ceridian Employer Services
    Developed computer-based training tools used for HR and payroll training for Ceridian's products.

Education

Georgia Institute of Technology
Bachelor of Science in Computer Science
Specializations
System software (programming languages & operating systems), telecommunications & networking, computer graphics, engineering psychology/human factors

Continuing Education

Coursera
Courses
Data science and R programming from Johns Hopkins University

Specialties

Design
information architecture (IA), user experience (UX) architecture, interaction design (IxD), user interface (UI) design, usability evaluation, usability testing, accessibility, user-centered design, usage-centered design, user research, design testing, design systems, design standards, design processes, design communication, navigation design, site navigation, site taxonomies, information classification, information categorization, taxonomy research, taxonomy creation, site maps, wireframes, user flows, process flows, prototyping, responsive design, mobile-first design principles, content management, content management systems (CMS)
Development
software engineering, front-end development, full-stack development, tool assessment, compiler design & creation, system software design & creation
Tools & technologies
Web standards, HTML, CSS, DOM, JavaScript/ECMAScript, C/C++, C#, .NET Core, ASP.NET Core, Entity Framework Core, SQL, Visio, Axure, Sketch, Figma, InVision, Semantic Web, Linked Data, Power BI
Familiarty & interests
Python, Julia, F#, LISP/Scheme/Clojure, Haskell, React, Svelte, functional programming, data science & analytics, Web ontologies, RDF/Turtle, OWL
Delivery frameworks
Kanban, Agile, XP, RUP, traditional/waterfall