Resume: Who was it for?
Thanks for your interest! Is your organization seeking a talented UX designer that can actually code responsive sites and apps, with decades of experience who excels in fast-paced, Agile/Scrum and Lean UX environments?
If so, your search is over: My name is Ezra Ekman, and I'm the solution you've been searching for! I've been designing responsive web sites, hybrid and native mobile apps, and building brand and identity systems for over 25 years, from startups and consumer-facing apps to enterprise operations for multinational Fortune 100 companies.
Please browse my resume below for more information about my background or learn how I approach UX in my profile. If you want to speak with me about a role, please give me a buzz!
User Experience Designer Delivers Exceptional Results Under Tight Deadlines
Meticulous User Experience Designer with 25+ years of experience designing and building mobile applications and responsive sites is fluent in all aspects of digital experience design, from inception, UX research, and design, to code implementation and testing. A self-motivated leader, always seeks process improvement utilizing collaborative influence between teams and passionate vision to build consensus. Excels in fast-paced Agile and Lean UX environments, guiding Scrum methodologies while also keeping things simple, palatable, and balanced.
Strengths: Bridging the gap between creative and technical teams; assessing project scope and level of effort; identifying personas and user journeys; conducting user studies and heuristic evaluations; establishing and matching existing brand and style; rapid prototyping; mentoring, coaching, and managing teams of 5 to 50.
Professional Experience
Front Range Community College: Photographer & Videographer
Sep 2017 - Jan, 2021
- Photographed students, faculty, and executives, shot news photos, scientific images, and headshots, provided photo and video coverage of performances and graduation ceremonies, and mentored other photographers.
- Produced promotional and educational videos for college scholarship programs, podcasts, and employee training, including script writing, actor direction, audio recording, music composition, and final post-production.
- Led the creation and development of a comprehensive image library in 3 weeks to move Biology, Anatomy and Physiology, and Geology courses online at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic for FRCC’s Science Department.
Infosys Technologies: Principal User Experience Designer
Jan 2012 – Present
- Built proof-of-concept prototypes and promotional videos for prospective clients, at a 90%+ sales success rate.
- Refreshed UX and visual design on Aetna’s Workability site, increasing usability for thousands of employees.
- Led teams of onshore and offshore UX designers and UI developers, ensuring consistent client deliverables.
- Partnered directly with client executive leadership, stakeholders, product owners, and end-users.
Myspace: UI Design & Development Lead
Jan 2010 - Mar 2011
- Developed 4 high-traffic automated and community-driven support sites, serving millions of users daily.
- Improved the findability of help topics, increasing contact deflection without confusing or frustrating users.
- Captured and produced video tutorials, improving help articles and make Myspace features more intuitive.
- Designed wireframes, mockups, and style guides, and photographed executive portraits and company events.
University of California, Office of the President: UX Designer & Developer
Jan 2009 - Jan 2010
- Developed 3 web-based portals, including California Digital Library and eScholarship, improving discovery and accessibility of articles and research for more than 40,000 UC students, faculty, and librarians worldwide.
- Interviewed users, defined personas and user journeys, produced wireframes, and built clickable prototypes.
Contract User Experience Design & Development
Aug 2000 - Jul 2009
- Designed and built web sites, iOS and Android apps, and digital campaigns for over 80 independent brands.
- Managed numerous simultaneous projects while defining brand strategy, developing scalable web sites, developing corporate training courses, and designing wireframes, mockups, logos, and other collateral.
Skills and Expertise
UX Design, Visual Design, and Usability
- Designing user-centric, responsive, mobile-first, and Section 508 accessible experiences and design principles.
- Performing extensive user research and interviews and analyzing end-to-end customer experience journeys.
- Defining interaction design standards and scalable solutions that consider usability, aesthetics, and accessibility.
Creative Content and Physical Prototyping
- Photography, including headshots, products, editorial images, macro and microscopy, retouching, and lighting.
- Videography, including audio/video capture, production, music composition, green screening, and streaming.
- Designing 3D-modeled objects from scratch or modifying existing models in software (ex: Blender, Fusion 360)
- Producing custom-designed physical objects utilizing 3D printers, laser cutters, and prototyping by hand.
Technical Implementation, Testing, and Metric Verification
- Hand-coding clickable, functional prototypes with production-ready code to ease asset handoffs to developers.
- Preparing visual style guides and design pattern libraries for consumption by both design and technical teams.
- Establishing quantifiable metrics via A/B or bucket testing using prototypes and live, production environments.
Project Management and Leadership
- Estimating scope, timeline, and effort, identifying strategic objectives, and adapting to changing scenarios.
- Composing user stories, tracking projects, and reporting defects via Basecamp, Slack, Rally, JIRA, and Bugzilla.
- Mentoring employees and coaching teams through positive reinforcement and individual empowerment.
- Performing individual and classroom instruction and clarifying complex topics to a non-technical audience.
Software Proficiency and Design Tools
Axure RP, Adobe Creative Suite (Photoshop, Illustrator, Lightroom, Dreamweaver, Premiere), Balsamiq Mockups, Blender, Cubase, Eclipse, Final Cut Pro, Fusion 360, Logic, OmniGraffle, Visio, Visual Studio.
Volunteer Efforts
Front Range Community College Student Government Association: Vice President
Jan 2019 - Jan 2021
- Advocated for student rights, led team-building activities, promoted scholarship opportunities, built mental health initiatives, and created and published the first complete guide to free student resources on campus.
- Awarded the Vice President’s Service Award for outstanding leadership and service to the college and community, and the Janet White Citizenry Award for creating an open and supportive setting in the classroom.
FRCC Club Founder and Officer: Tech Club (Founder) and Tabletop Club (Secretary)
Jan 2018 - Jan 2021
- Led workshops, performed and guided repairs and upgrades, built educational technology projects, promoted inter-club collaboration and cooperation, and encouraged leadership opportunities for other club members.
Four-Wheel Emergency Assistance Team (FEAT): Emergency Personnel Transportation
Mar 2016 – Present
- Transported doctors, nurses, and emergency and disaster relief workers during extreme weather conditions.
Brands Developed
I've developed over 100 independent brands during my career, some of which are listed below. Hover your cursor overTap each of them for a brief description of some of the projects with which I've had the honor of being involved:
Led a team of UX designers and UI developers to redesign Aetna's Workability leave management portal, improving access for hundreds of thousands of customer employees. Performed a heuristic analysis of identify current usability issues and pain points, redesigned the entire user experience, and led UI implementation efforts.
Created PHP-driven HTML and CSS prototype and implemented content for Ann Taylor's career portal.
Established multiple mobility applications for BP’s Trade Confirmations and Executive Operations to provide instant status availability to leadership. Traveled to London and Singapore offices to gather leadership needs and project requirements, traveled to India to liase with offshore engineering teams, produced functional proof-of-concept prototypes, and designed both native and hybrid apps for iOS and Android.
Led multiple teams of UX designers and UI developers both in Calgary and offshore to design the interface for Enbridge's Capacity Operations suite of tools.
Created and enforced branding, usability and Section 508 accessibility standards across over 2,500 Hewlett-Packard web properties. Acted as the Single Point of Contact for brand and usability queries serving all Hewlett-Packard departments.
Designed interface and developed muliple templates and landing pages for the Lexus Bluetooth portal site in partnership with Let's Talk.
Worked with a team of designers to develop templates and implement content for a site-wide redesign of the NetLedger brand.
Developed over 300 micro-sites for individual Radisson Hotels, defined best practices and implementation techniques, and produced custom screensavers for presentation kiosks.
Developed 12 high-traffic comparison shopping web properties, including Shopping.com, DealTime, Epinions, and over 20 additional co-branded sites, each serving millions of unique visitors daily; hand-coded search engine optimized CSS and HTML templates; designed buying guides, landing pages, and eBay shopping widgets.
Designed interfaces and dashboards for project managers, and implemented content for many internal tools, micro-sites and internal portals.
Created promotional micro-site for product sales.
Created promotional micro-site for discounted cell phone sales combined with guest packages.
Developed custom data-driven graphs and data tracking interfaces in Illustrator using Adobe Graphic Server as a data source.
Designed and developed multiple sales and activation landing pages matched to the primary brand.
Led UX activities for a suite of mobility applications designed to support oilfield maintenance operations and allow live updates from the field.
Developed education and career site, implemented new design and content.
Shot and produced a promotional video resulting in approval for ongoing projects.
Created branded icons and UI elements for vendor software products.
Developed 4 high-traffic sites serving millions of users daily. Designed and built both direct and community-driven support options to improve contact deflection without reducing usability or user satisfaction. Defined coding standards for local and remote engineering teams, performed usability studies, created video tutorials, and photographed executive portraits and company events.
Created promotional micro-site for cell phone and accessory sales and activations.
Redesigned Ricoh’s sales quoting application to improve quoting speed and accuracy for all levels of direct sales. Performed a comprehensive heuristic analysis and ongoing usability research, traveled across the east coast to interview over 30 end users in person, utilizing audio and video recordings.
Designed and built Salesforce's Small & Medium Business micro-site. Developed the Dreamforce registration site and built re-usable templates to support scalable implementation.
Led the redesign of the T-Mobile's Small & Medium Business lead site, led UX design and UI development activities for T-Mobile’s consumer site relaunch. Also shot and produced multiple promotional videos resulting in full funding for additional project phases.
Developed 3 high-traffic portals (including California Digital Library and eScholarship) to improve accessibility for over 40,000 UC students, faculty, and librarians worldwide. Interviewed users, defined personas, journeys, and user stories, produced wireframes, mockups, and prototypes, coded UI templates utilizing YUI and JQuery, and developed an informational site on safe pesticides and alternate pest control methods.
Designed and developed browser-based reference interfaces delivered on CD-ROMs for inclusion with textbooks.
Designed and produced Williams Adley's corporate web site.