Points of Light Social Media Strategy and User Journey
User Experience Consultant
The Points of Light Institute (POL) own more then 60 websites and social media accounts. Many of them have similar names and content yet they are distinct brands which is very confusing for their many users. According to their analytics their drop rates were high because of the lack of clarity within these properties. Karen’s role was to research their current audience groups by interviewing several users within each group and develop personas and user journeys for their major audience clusters. Recommendations were developed to help POL understand their audiences’ experiences and how their organizations objectives aligned with their audiences wants and needs. This provided a holistic view of the audience touch points to help POL improve the audience experience across the various sites and social properties.
User Experience Consultant
The Points of Light Institute (POL) own more then 60 websites and social media accounts. Many of them have similar names and content yet they are distinct brands which is very confusing for their many users. According to their analytics their drop rates were high because of the lack of clarity within these properties. Karen’s role was to research their current audience groups by interviewing several users within each group and develop personas and user journeys for their major audience clusters. Recommendations were developed to help POL understand their audiences’ experiences and how their organizations objectives aligned with their audiences wants and needs. This provided a holistic view of the audience touch points to help POL improve the audience experience across the various sites and social properties.
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ZulaWorld – 2.5d Virtual World
Creative Director/Designer/Information Architect
Karen had employed a diversity of skills in her lead role on this project. From idea generation to information architecture to creative direction, visual design and project management, her multidisciplinary skills had simplified and streamlined a challenging project. The initial project scope of a simple marketing website soon expanded into a full-blown virtual world. Co-leading the project with the solution architect, Karen had taken on the responsibilities of liaising with the client, directing the Maya modelers, sketching rooms and scenes, creating the GUI for the content management system, and creating and designing widgets and interactions for the virtual world.
Creative Director/Designer/Information Architect
Karen had employed a diversity of skills in her lead role on this project. From idea generation to information architecture to creative direction, visual design and project management, her multidisciplinary skills had simplified and streamlined a challenging project. The initial project scope of a simple marketing website soon expanded into a full-blown virtual world. Co-leading the project with the solution architect, Karen had taken on the responsibilities of liaising with the client, directing the Maya modelers, sketching rooms and scenes, creating the GUI for the content management system, and creating and designing widgets and interactions for the virtual world.
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StarKist – Social Community
User Experience Lead
IBM Interactive designed, developed, and deployed a new drupal customer-facing website for Starkist, a leading American Tuna brand. The new site provides a venue for users to join the Community to learn about new product offerings, find new tuna recipes, print coupons, share, rate and comment on their favourite brand and user recipes. Karen lead the User Experience team by interfacing with the customer throughout the engagement, participating in the visioning workshop with input into the feature catalogue and developing the online personas. She also designed the information architecture, creating 18 unique wireframe templates and oversaw the 2 designers (Richard Smallbone/Taylor Smith) working on the visual mocks and the front-end development and theming for the site. Karen was involved in quality control and UAT testing with the development team.Starkist
User Experience Lead
IBM Interactive designed, developed, and deployed a new drupal customer-facing website for Starkist, a leading American Tuna brand. The new site provides a venue for users to join the Community to learn about new product offerings, find new tuna recipes, print coupons, share, rate and comment on their favourite brand and user recipes. Karen lead the User Experience team by interfacing with the customer throughout the engagement, participating in the visioning workshop with input into the feature catalogue and developing the online personas. She also designed the information architecture, creating 18 unique wireframe templates and oversaw the 2 designers (Richard Smallbone/Taylor Smith) working on the visual mocks and the front-end development and theming for the site. Karen was involved in quality control and UAT testing with the development team.Starkist
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Book Builder – Web Application GUI Redesign
Creative Director/Designer/Information Architect
The original Book Builder application was designed in java and had limited functionality due to it being a first release. After extensive testing, results showed that the application needed to be integrated into the Reading Companion website with no downloadables. It also needed functionality enhancements and a new GUI design. Karen was tasked with the GUI Redesign, which included wireframes for the application owners to review, a new visual layout that gave the user the ability to easily add pages to their books, the ability to access freely available graphics from Flickr (or from their own files), manipulation of graphic sizes within the Book Builder pages, and the addition of the “Create PDF” button allowing the user to print a copy of their book. The redesign of the application is easier to use and has more features appropriate with designing and building a book.
Creative Director/Designer/Information Architect
The original Book Builder application was designed in java and had limited functionality due to it being a first release. After extensive testing, results showed that the application needed to be integrated into the Reading Companion website with no downloadables. It also needed functionality enhancements and a new GUI design. Karen was tasked with the GUI Redesign, which included wireframes for the application owners to review, a new visual layout that gave the user the ability to easily add pages to their books, the ability to access freely available graphics from Flickr (or from their own files), manipulation of graphic sizes within the Book Builder pages, and the addition of the “Create PDF” button allowing the user to print a copy of their book. The redesign of the application is easier to use and has more features appropriate with designing and building a book.
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Under the Microscope – Community for Young Women in Science
Creative Director/Designer/Information Architect
Karen’s role was to work with the Feminist Press to create a social networking site that encourages young women to stay in the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics fields. The site is unique for its focus on the stories of professional women in these fields, encouraging and mentoring young women. Karen designed the brand identity and the website. The site was developed in Joomla, chosen for its powerful back-end ability to allow registered users to submit stories and blog about the STEM field. This setup also allows the Feminist Press to update content regularly.Under the Microscope
Creative Director/Designer/Information Architect
Karen’s role was to work with the Feminist Press to create a social networking site that encourages young women to stay in the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics fields. The site is unique for its focus on the stories of professional women in these fields, encouraging and mentoring young women. Karen designed the brand identity and the website. The site was developed in Joomla, chosen for its powerful back-end ability to allow registered users to submit stories and blog about the STEM field. This setup also allows the Feminist Press to update content regularly.Under the Microscope
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Saudi Stock Exchange – Redesign of a Middle Eastern Stock Exchange portal site
Creative Director/ Visual Designer
Karen was charged with lead the war-room workshop from a creative design perspective. This entailed 10 days of meetings with customers from the Saudi Stock Exchange which involved a branding exercise, a mood board workshop that explored the creative around colour palette, typography, imagery, seasonal themes and user interface trends and best practices. During this time 2 unique creative concepts, and 2 second-level pages were provided to the customer, one direction was chosen and approved. After the workshop ended, 10 unique pages were designed, 3 seasonal theme layouts, and pda mocks were developed based on the creative. A style guide was produced for the customer’s development team for ongoing development and support of the site.
Creative Director/ Visual Designer
Karen was charged with lead the war-room workshop from a creative design perspective. This entailed 10 days of meetings with customers from the Saudi Stock Exchange which involved a branding exercise, a mood board workshop that explored the creative around colour palette, typography, imagery, seasonal themes and user interface trends and best practices. During this time 2 unique creative concepts, and 2 second-level pages were provided to the customer, one direction was chosen and approved. After the workshop ended, 10 unique pages were designed, 3 seasonal theme layouts, and pda mocks were developed based on the creative. A style guide was produced for the customer’s development team for ongoing development and support of the site.
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Service Ontario – Branding of Ontario Government kiosk and GUI design of touch screen application
Creative Director
Working with the branding and marketing department of the Ontario Government, Karen designed the external kiosk branding and the look and feel of the Graphical User Interface. With locations across the province, the kiosk application is used by Ontario residents to renew their driver’s licenses and license plate stickers.
Creative Director
Working with the branding and marketing department of the Ontario Government, Karen designed the external kiosk branding and the look and feel of the Graphical User Interface. With locations across the province, the kiosk application is used by Ontario residents to renew their driver’s licenses and license plate stickers.
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Wells Fargo
User Experience Lead
Wells Fargo bank supported its clients by leveraging disparate functional platforms to satisfy a diverse set of client service needs, including both informational and transactional capabilities. In an effort to streamline the online client experience and the overall client service model, the bank wanted to create a distinct and dedicated client self-service portal that provided a consistent user experience to their clients and their affiliates/delegates. Karen’s role was to define the user experience by interviewing stakeholders, clients and advisors and develop personas for the various users of the site, develop a high level information architecture, create visual mocks, and create a future state blueprint for the solution design phase. Karen also contributed to the implementation plan for the build of the application.
User Experience Lead
Wells Fargo bank supported its clients by leveraging disparate functional platforms to satisfy a diverse set of client service needs, including both informational and transactional capabilities. In an effort to streamline the online client experience and the overall client service model, the bank wanted to create a distinct and dedicated client self-service portal that provided a consistent user experience to their clients and their affiliates/delegates. Karen’s role was to define the user experience by interviewing stakeholders, clients and advisors and develop personas for the various users of the site, develop a high level information architecture, create visual mocks, and create a future state blueprint for the solution design phase. Karen also contributed to the implementation plan for the build of the application.
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Air Canada Vacations – Web Redesign
Art Director
Karen created this mock to help pitch for the redesign of the Air Canada Vacations website. The goal of the redesign was to extend the current Air Canada Vacations brand to the web and give users a landing page where they could easily plan a vacation, check out deals, look at feature destinations and sign into a Travel Account.
Art Director
Karen created this mock to help pitch for the redesign of the Air Canada Vacations website. The goal of the redesign was to extend the current Air Canada Vacations brand to the web and give users a landing page where they could easily plan a vacation, check out deals, look at feature destinations and sign into a Travel Account.
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Blue Cross Blue Shields of Illinois
Visual Designer
This portal mock was created to help IBMi Chicago with a portal demo for BlueCross BlueSheild of Illinois. The objective of the demo was to give BCBS a greater understanding of the complexities and robustness of the Websphere Commerce Suite software.
Visual Designer
This portal mock was created to help IBMi Chicago with a portal demo for BlueCross BlueSheild of Illinois. The objective of the demo was to give BCBS a greater understanding of the complexities and robustness of the Websphere Commerce Suite software.
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Maxwell Design
Creative Director – Visual Designer
Karen’s husband is an metal artist/designer who designs everything from furniture to railings to sculpture. He needed a website to showcase his work to his prospective clients. Who is the obvious choice – Karen Maxwell
To view his site and order his work please go to maxwell-design.com/
Creative Director – Visual Designer
Karen’s husband is an metal artist/designer who designs everything from furniture to railings to sculpture. He needed a website to showcase his work to his prospective clients. Who is the obvious choice – Karen Maxwell
To view his site and order his work please go to maxwell-design.com/
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Air Canada Multi-channel design
Creative Director
Karen led the Airline’s check-in re-design to align the customer experience across all of the self service channels. By creating a seamless user experience across the kiosk, web check-in and mobile phone applications, the end-user has the ability to check in on any of the channels quickly and easily. Karen’s role was to direct the creative, while ensuring the messaging, design and navigation elements were consistent across the channel, yet optimized for the specific platform/application. Karen worked with a team of usability specialists, information architects, and front-end/back-end developers to ensure the human benefits were more visible then the technology.
Creative Director
Karen led the Airline’s check-in re-design to align the customer experience across all of the self service channels. By creating a seamless user experience across the kiosk, web check-in and mobile phone applications, the end-user has the ability to check in on any of the channels quickly and easily. Karen’s role was to direct the creative, while ensuring the messaging, design and navigation elements were consistent across the channel, yet optimized for the specific platform/application. Karen worked with a team of usability specialists, information architects, and front-end/back-end developers to ensure the human benefits were more visible then the technology.
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Hermitage Museum Shop Redesign
Visual Designer
The previous online Museum Shop was rich in graphics, yet slow to download. One of the primary concerns of the client was ensuring the online shopping experience closely simulated the feeling and experience of being in the actual gallery space. Karen’s role was to redesign the Shop keeping the rich and seamless user experience, while giving the user the speed and bandwidth required to purchase online. Results far exceeded customer expectations and the redesigned shop is a clear reflection of the onsite experience.
Visual Designer
The previous online Museum Shop was rich in graphics, yet slow to download. One of the primary concerns of the client was ensuring the online shopping experience closely simulated the feeling and experience of being in the actual gallery space. Karen’s role was to redesign the Shop keeping the rich and seamless user experience, while giving the user the speed and bandwidth required to purchase online. Results far exceeded customer expectations and the redesigned shop is a clear reflection of the onsite experience.
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New Jersey Courts
Visual Designer
Karen led the redesign of 14 applications into one portal to facilitate a seamless online experience with the ultimate goal being ease of use. Karen’s role was to lead the design of the user interface for the public-facing web site, Internet applications, and employee intranet as well as the detailed user interface style guide which included design guidance on colour, typography, graphic elements, layout, navigation patterns, and form design. Karen also developed the high-level interface and standards guideline for the US Municipal Courts System. They encompassed both print and electronic media, bringing together a consistent user experience for the state’s constituency across all judiciary channels.New Jersey Courts
Visual Designer
Karen led the redesign of 14 applications into one portal to facilitate a seamless online experience with the ultimate goal being ease of use. Karen’s role was to lead the design of the user interface for the public-facing web site, Internet applications, and employee intranet as well as the detailed user interface style guide which included design guidance on colour, typography, graphic elements, layout, navigation patterns, and form design. Karen also developed the high-level interface and standards guideline for the US Municipal Courts System. They encompassed both print and electronic media, bringing together a consistent user experience for the state’s constituency across all judiciary channels.New Jersey Courts
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Caterpillar Dealer Network Design
Creative Director
Karen successfully led a multi-disciplinary creative team of five people, which included creative direction and design of a multilingual templated storefront web site for Caterpillar, a leading equipment manufacturer’s 204 dealers. Using content management software, Vignette V.5, the site was designed to enable its dealers to manage its own content, as well as add third party components and applications. The site offers its customers a personalization feature that pushes dynamic content that is pertinent to that customer’s profile of business. The site was a success with unanimous user acceptance and a green light for corporate rollout. The product was delivered on time with significant additional functionality beyond original scope.
Creative Director
Karen successfully led a multi-disciplinary creative team of five people, which included creative direction and design of a multilingual templated storefront web site for Caterpillar, a leading equipment manufacturer’s 204 dealers. Using content management software, Vignette V.5, the site was designed to enable its dealers to manage its own content, as well as add third party components and applications. The site offers its customers a personalization feature that pushes dynamic content that is pertinent to that customer’s profile of business. The site was a success with unanimous user acceptance and a green light for corporate rollout. The product was delivered on time with significant additional functionality beyond original scope.
