Jay Kaufmann

Résumé

Jay Kaufmann

Work Experience 

Jan 2010 - present Principal Experience Design Consultant
Synapse Studio • Berlin
I interface with client companies to design ways of working that optimize usability, invite emotional engagement and maximize customer satisfaction. I design interaction frameworks and information architectures to ensure consistent cross-platform user experiences.
Oct 2010 - Sep 2011 Director of User Experience Design
NumberFour AG • Berlin
Designed a UI framework, toolkit and style guide to enable developer partners to deliver industry-specific SaaS solutions for small businesses. Built a User Experience Design team from the ground up.
May 2010 - Sep 2010 Project Lead, User Experience Design
1&1 Internet AG • Karlsruhe
Designed the user interface for a new portal encompassing various software-as-a-service (SaaS) offerings. Coordinated the work of 4 additional conceptual designers and delivered user interface requirements to multiple teams in a scrum-based development environment.
Jan 2008 - Dec 2009 Head of User Experience
Fox Mobile Distribution • Berlin
Founded and directed a central team of usability engineers and designers. Supervised weekly internal and occasional external user tests across multiple brands, media channels and countries. Directed graphic designers in production of screens for all FMD portals. Taught user experience principles to product teams and evangelized customer focus company-wide. Designed information structures, navigation schemes and user interfaces.
Oct 2006 - Jan 2008 Product Manager
Fox Mobile Distribution • Berlin
Built a social network into the Jamba.de mobile entertainment portal. Delivered on Web 2.0 promises by infusing community, UGC and AJAX interface elements into a social commerce solution. Led 4-person project team. Designed work flows, wireframes, and user interaction patterns. Wrote functional specifications and test cases.
June 2004 - Oct 2006 Requirements Engineer
iLove GmbH • Berlin
Designed features for a market-leading dating community. Internationalized the platform and managed rollout into 13 countries and 12 languages. Optimized order flows. Documented business requirements, defined use cases, laid out screens, and wrote functional specifications.
Apr 2001 - Jun 2004 Experience Design Consultant
Synapse Studio • Seattle & Berlin
Designed user interfaces for dynamic websites. Concept development, portal design and front-end programming for various clients, including Taskit Embedded Systems, The Casey Family Program, King County, Intel, Giro and Novell.
Aug 2000 - Apr 2001 User Interface Architect
Vitessa • Seattle
Designed unifying UI and cohesive navigation for a suite of previously disparate web-based B2B applications. Conducted contextual inquiry user studies. Re-designed task flows. Specified UI standards.
Mar 1998 - Aug 2000 User Interface Program Manager
HP (DeepCanyon.com) • Seattle
Coordinated UI design across a marketing resource portal which sold electronic (XML) market research documents. Established interface standards, created information architecture, defined navigation and designed features.
Aug 1996 - Mar 1998 UI Designer and HTML Programmer
ITM Corp. (now ShipLogix) • Seattle
Designed user interfaces, produced graphics and coded HTML templates for a web-based application serving freight forwarders.

Education

Sep 1994 - Jun 1996 University of Washington, Seattle
BFA, Sculpture
Sep 1987 - Jun 1990 Earlham College, Indiana
BA, English
Internship with conceptual artist Agnes Denes, New York
Student Body Vice President
Executive Editor of the student newspaper

Skills

Core Competencies User experience management • Information architecture • Interaction design • Customer experience strategy • Requirements engineering: use cases, workflows, wireframes, mockups, prototypes, feature specifications • UI design • Usability testing and expert reviews • Contextual inquiry • Personnel management
Scripting HTML, XHTML, CSS, PHP, Perl, XML and JavaScript.
Software Visio, Axure, Photoshop, PowerPoint, Morae, Camtasia, Excel, Word, InDesign, Illustrator, PageMaker, Quark XPress, Userland Frontier, Flash, Premiere. Numerous text editors, utilities and content management systems.
Languages English (native speaker)
German (fluent)

Contact

Address James Jay Kaufmann
Sonnenburger Str. 54
D-10437 Berlin
Germany
Phone +49 (30) 44 71 77 71
Mobile +49 171 84 99 771
E-mail jay@SynapseStudio.com