Alvin Woon

User experience/interface designer
[email protected]

Plurk.com

Plurk.com is a social networking website that is very popular in Asia. As the design lead of this startup, I lead the art direction and conceptualize the idea of timeline interaction. The main goal of this project is to give users a rich conversational experience that involves a reading pattern from left to right, as opposed to the more conventional way of top to bottom. I design a simple visual interaction model to help users understand the unconventional idea of a timeline. I also designed various accompanying parts of social features on the site. This service grows from 0 to millions of users within one year and is currently one of the hottest social sites in the region.

UNL Events Publisher

I was the lead interface designer for this project. I lead the interaction prototyping process, ranging from personas creation and paper prototyping to the final visual design. Working with the university's disabled service department, I also developed a comprehensive ADA-compliant usability and accessibility testing guideline for this project. This project was initially developed for inter-university use before being released as an open source project. Currently, University of Duke and Cornell University are among those who are using this calendar system.

UNL Interactive Map

I played the same role as the lead in interface design for this map/tour application. This project took on the enormous and difficult task in organizing all the university's landmarks meta-information such as coordinates, 3D illustrations and virtual tours, text descriptions, images and point to point directions and displays them in an interactive web environment.

UNL Smart Website Initiative

A revolutionary initiative aiming to transform main UNL web pages into an interactive and customizable user experience for the students and faculty. The goal is to personalize these web pages according to student class schedule, dormitory meal plan and other preferences. I designed the plan and visual elements for this project. It was later presented to the chancellor and board of regents.

Dmv.com

Dmv.com is one of the largest informational-based site I've designed. I worked along side with three information architects in designing the blueprint and wireframe of the site. The information design process is implemented in steps, from paper prototyping to figure out how the deep level navigational model will help users find what they need, to multiple usability tests to improve findability and content accessibility. I also did the final visual design.

Rumble.com

Rumble.com is three things: a consumer faced gaming portal, a flash game developer ecosystem and a brand advertiser. The idea is to provide a color riched and interactive user experience for flash gamers/flash game makers.

Interface/Interaction Design Expertise

Solid user interface prototyping skills using HCI methods such as personas, paper prototyping and card sorting.
In depth knowledge about color theory, typography, design patterns and guidelines (Apple Human Interface Guidelines, KDE User Interface Guidelines).
Extensive experience in designing UI visuals as well as other accommodating deliverables such as blueprints, wireframes and written reports to communicate design strategy.
Excellent communication skills and ability to sell design ideas and decisions to various stakeholders.
Impressive track records in launching products with large user base/community.

Specialties

User Interface Design, Interaction Design, Human-Computer Interaction, User-Centered Design, Task Flow Analysis, Information Architecture, Heuristic Evaluation, Cognitive Walkthrough, Contextula Inquiries

Employment

Design Lead, 2007-Current
Plurk Inc.. Toronto, Canada

Take ownership on aspects of interface design from button graphics to overall layout decision.
Designed and developed detailed wireframes, task flows and paper prototyping illustrating the interaction flow of social networking process.
Implemented a unified user interface guideline for i18n support. Plurk interface is available in 16 different languages 2 months after it was launched.
Providing UI leadership throughout the development process within diverse development teams.

Senior User Experience Designer, 2006-2007
University of Nebraska-Lincoln, NE, USA.

Worked as the interface design lead for multiple projects such as the university event system and the tour map. Both are used daily by over 30k members of faculty and student.
Responsible for various aspects of the university web applications interface and collaborated with well over 50+ web developers across the university in designing and developing web applications for the university.
Helped to transform university web sites and web applications to adhere to web standards and section 508 compliance. Give talks and seminars about accessibility and usability testing and best practices.
Wrote the javascript library for the event system and interactive tour map.

Visual designer, 2005-2006
Knowledge Marketing, NE, USA

Design and document processes used while developing the user interface of an email marketing system.
Establish user-centred design processes to reduce development life-cycle and increase ROI.
Performed interface design and HTML/DHTML and template production duties for a variety of internal web sites

Information architect, 2004 - 2005
aijalon LLC, NE, USA

Defined site architecture and interface design for a site including interactive gaming, chat, conferencing, and a content management system.
Performed brand analysis and developed user interface design standards and patterns

Education

Bsc. - Computer Science, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, NE 2001 - 2005

References

Available upon request.