Janisa Simmons

An accomplished lead designer with extensive expertise in managing user experience design projects, web development projects and conducting user research. Full understanding of life cycle from definition to release. Consistent record of success in completing highly complex projects for web applications that house over 100,000+ subscribed users and over 20,000 daily users.

  • 14 years of visual & graphic design
  • 12 years of front-end web design and development
  • 9 years of user experience design for highly complex, muliti-user applications
  • 9 years of email marketing, design, development, branding and distribution
  • 9 years designing for 508 compliance
  • 8 years of user research including A/B testing, contextual inquiries, usability testing and analyzing web statistics
  • 6 years of prototyping with tools such as Balsamiq, Axure and Justinmind
  • 4 years designing for mobile
  • 3 years working in an Agile development environment

CAREER HISTORY

 Monster Government Solutions – Lead Interaction Designer (11/2016 – Present)

  • Managed and mentored a team of interaction designers.
  • Lead focus groups, contextual inquiries and prototype review sessions with clients and major stakeholders.
  • Defined the overall vision, strategy and process for the UX team.
  • Established UX design guidelines to provide consistent use of components across MHME Applications.
  • Delivered low-fidelity and hi-fidelity interactive prototypes, designed to modernize legacy system, enhance usability and comply with 508 requirements for accessibility. Design tool: Justinmind.

 Monster Government Solutions – Interaction Designer (3/2014 – 10/2016)

  • Work proactively with Product Managers, UI Developers, QA and Back-end Developers to define and produce comprehensive user experience solutions designed specifically for Government agencies.
  • Delivered low-fidelity and hi-fidelity interactive prototypes using Justinmind.
  • Served as the lead designer on several high-profile projects.
  • Maintained an open-minded design approach, seeking out customer feedback and market research, and remaining flexible to new ideas and data that required design changes.

Turner Consulting Group, Executive Office of the President – UX/UI Developer Lead (3/2012 -2/2014)

  • Led design initiates to improve overall usability, accessibility and Section 508 compliance for MAX Suite of Applications at MAX.gov, a highly collaborative platform servicing all Federal Government Agencies.
  • Organized user collaboration meetings in order to gain quality customer feedback and design better solutions and participated in bi-weekly focus groups as the principal UX representation.
  • Provided Balsamiq mockups, high-fidelity mockups, HTML/CSS and Javascript Development
  • Assertively presented design solutions and innovations to senior executives, managers, and other stakeholders.
  • Prepared presentation materials and helped conduct training on WGAC 2.0 and Accessibility.
  • Provided HTML and CSS support to users with difficulty using Confluence wiki-markup language.

Georgetown University – Web Master, Front-End UI Designer (8/2007-3/2012)

  • Administered updates to public-facing and internal sites managed by the Office of Advancement, including Georgetown Alumni Online, Homecoming, Main Campus Reunion, John Carroll Weekend, and The Office of Advancement Intranet.
  • Administered updates to public-facing and internal sites managed by the Office of Advancement, including Georgetown Alumni Online, Homecoming, Main Campus Reunion, John Carroll Weekend, and The Office of Advancement Intranet.
  • Managed all broadcast email communications and e-newsletters, including design, HTML and CSS, testing across multiple browsers and email clients, scheduling appropriate times for distribution, and assigning email projects to other staff.
  • Coordinate with the design and interactive teams to ensure proper branding.
  • Troubleshoot and resolved technical issues related to broadcast email and content management systems with a turn-around time of three days.
  • Delivered hands-on CMS training to clients on the use of Intranet and broadcast email.
  • Provided direction in the planning, development, testing and deployment of the online events module, broadcast email module, online giving forms, content management system and content migration for the CMS migration project.
  • Led a team of technical contractors. Hired, trained and assigned tasks in order to effectively meet deadlines.
  • Served as a liaison between the Office of Advancement and the PCI vendor.
  • Developed compatible solutions that met business goals and were exemplary to our clients for the CMS migration project.

FREELANCE WEB PROJECTS

Fall for the Welchers fallfortheWelchers.com
Website Design, Word Press Implementation, Web Development, Events form, Photo Gallery
(12/2015-03/2016)

WellSpring Center wellspringcenter.org
Website Redesign, Word Press Implementation, Web Development
(12/2015-03/2016)

Coop Media Films coopmediafilms.com
Website Redesign, Word Press Implementation, Web Development
(3/2016)

Counseling at Dupont counselingatdupont.org
Gather Requirements, Project Estimations, Web Design, Word Press Implementation, Training (5/2015 – 7/ 2015)

Timely Expressions, LLC janisalasalle.com/timelyexpression
Website Redesign, Word Press Implementation, Web Development
(12/2014 – 2/2015)

First Baptist Church of Capitol Heights fbccapitolheights.org
Web design, Web Redesign, Word Press Implementation, Occasional Web Maintenance (10/2008 – 12/2014)

3C’s Advertising Specialties 
E-Commerce Integration, Web Design, Web Development, Graphic Design
(6/2008 – 10/2008)

Sigma Alpha Iota Music Fraternity, Kappa Xi Chapter
Web Master, Web Redesign, Graphic Design, Web Maintenance
(12/2004 – 5/2007) 

VOLUNTEER LEADERSHIP

Vice President, Audio/Visual Team, Peace Baptist Church (8/2009 – 12/2014)

  • Served as backup for the president to ensure outstanding quality in audio and visual technologies for all services, including Sunday worship, weddings, funerals, workshops, meetings and other events hosted at the church.
  • Served as the lead technician for one major dance production and several plays.
  • Responsible for recruitment of new team members.
  • Assisted with website upgrades and maintenance.
  • Teach other team members how to update and maintain the church’s website.
  • Provided training for new members on the proper user of audio equipment and video equipment.
  • Gave recommendations to upper leadership for equipment upgrades and process changes.

SKILLS

High Proficiency
Paper Prototyping, Balsamiq, Axure, Justinmind, HTML5, CSS3, Javascript, JQuery, Responsive Design, Email Marketing, Adobe Creative Suite, WordPress, FTP Programs, MS Office, User Research Methods, Contextual Inquiries, Object-based Techniques, Usability Studies, Confluence, Jira, Agile

Working Knowledge
PHP, Joomla, Linux command line, Subversion, GitHub, IMovie, Media Encoder, Adobe Premier, Windows Movie Maker, Google Analytics

Additional Skills
Excellent communication, Fast learner, Personable, Passionate, Professional

EDUCATION

Masters of Science, Interaction Design and Information Architecture
University of Baltimore, (Expected Graduation: 12/2017)

University of Baltimore – Graduate Certificate, Information Design, 3.75 GPA
(05/2014)

Morgan State University – Bachelor of Arts, Graphic Design 3.16 GPA
(05/2006)

Certification

Certified Usability Analyst  Human Factors International
(11/2016)

TRAINING

Web & Application Design – Human Factors International
(08/2016)

Practical Usability Testing – Human Factors International
(08/2016)

Designing the Mobile User Experience – Human Factors International
(06/2015)

Fundamentals of JavaScript – Westlake Training and Development
(06/2010)