Resume

Devon Persing / (206) 395-8062 / dep@dpersing.com / www.dpersing.com /@devonpersing / Capitol Hill, Seattle, WA

An information generalist with experience in UX design, information management and architecture, accessibility, usability, standards and development, and content strategy—with a strong emphasis on documentation, collaboration, communication, and iteration.

Skills and Tools

• User research, product spec, use cases, wireframes, interactions, user paths/journeys, prototypes, live code
• Product scope, documentation, and solution management
• Information design and management
• OmniGraffle Pro, Adobe CS, iWork, Office, TextMate, whiteboards, pens and paper
• HTML(5) and CSS(3)
• Git/GitHub and SVN

Education

MS in Information, School of Information, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, 2006

• Studied library and information services with a generous helping of game theory, information economics, archives studies, programming, and IA
• Participated in student groups for professional development and cultural history

BA in Creative Writing, Susquehanna University, Selinsgrove, PA, 2004

• Had my first paying gig doing what I realized later was UX design, user research, and IA
• Won a couple of awards for fiction and literary criticism
• Edited fiction for one of the earliest national literary magazines for undergraduate writing, Susquehanna Review

Experience

Solo/Contract UX/IA/Developer, 2006 – present

As a contract and freelance information worker, I’ve entered projects at all stages and frequently seen them from start to launch, working in a prescribed role or picking up slack. Often, those gigs have led to steadier employment, ongoing contracts, and/or friendships and future collaborations.

Web Developer, LexBlog, Inc., Seattle, WA—October 2010 – November 2011

• Primary in-house consultant on IA and UX for web-based social media products
• Close work with designers, other developers, backend programmers and systems engineers, project managers, and more client-facing staff to scope, spec, and build custom solutions
• Responsible for spec for our default product
• Responsible for documentation for project managers and client services outlining how to handle or triage technical requests
• Responsible for v1.0 of our internal templates used for developing most of our products

Interface Specialist, Scholarly Publishing Office (now part MPublishing), University of Michigan Library, Ann Arbor, MI—August 2009 – September 2010

• Solo UX/IA within a small, independent, academically-oriented publishing group
• Collaborated with UX staff in other departments to improve products and services across the University Library
• Conducted formal and informal user research ranging from surveys to group and individual card sorting to guerilla paper-prototyping in the hallway
• Responsible for IA and UX for non-traditional collaborative publishing projects
• Updated templates for serving online books and journals to meet web and accessibility standards

Digital Services Specialist, Ross School of Business, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI—May 2008 – August 2009

• Collaborated with librarians and developers to build and maintain systems to support digital research and course management support for business school faculty and students
• Performed content surveys, analyzed use data, and conducted informal and formal user research to overhaul and redesign the business school’s library website, according to web and accessibility standards and style guidelines of the school’s marketing department, working through a beta release

Content Manager, Life Science Institute, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI—December 2006 – May 2008

• Asked to take the position after managing the organization’s content migration from a custom CMS to an open source solution through a contract with a design and development firm
• Instructed content creators ranging from faculty and primary investigators to lab assistants and student interns with a wide range of technical expertise in how to write and manage online content for public consumption
• Collaborated with the Director of Communications to design and distribute online and print marketing materials for the academic community and public
• Maintained and oversaw adherence to the organization’s style guide for the site

Systems Analyst, Office of Community Development, Ann Arbor, MI—September 2006 – May 2008

• Collaborated with a systems administrator to manage a proprietary, web-based database system for data collection, management, and reporting by over a dozen social service agencies serving homeless and permanent supportive housing populations throughout the county
• Responsible for interface design of online forms used to collect data during client intake, discharge, and transfer between agencies, with an eye toward straightforward data entry, minimizing duplication of effort, and low duplication of data
• Responsible for how-to documentation for agency staff ranging from volunteers to social workers
• Primary contact for technical support of and feature requests from agencies

Research Assistant, Center for the Education of Women, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI—September 2004 – August 2006

• Collaborated with information specialists, subject experts, and a third-party web design/development firm to deliver a grant-funded project
• Responsible for the metadata schema and help documentation for a web-based research database
• Maintained and managed work/life resource collections for researchers and the public

University Assistant to the Library, Susquehanna University Library, Selinsgrove, PA—January 2001 – August 2004

• Collaborated with students, librarians, and faculty to develop online tutorials and resources on research methods and library literacy
• Built and maintained interactive guides for general and course-specific research
• Realized the intersection between technology work and traditional information services lay in UX, which extends beyond digital interfaces to interpersonal exchanges and interaction with our environment