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Joseph J. Grant
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1013 Bradington Court
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Columbia, IL 62236
SUMMARY
Computer interface design professional who combines leadership and
usability experience to create user-focused computing solutions.
Self-starter with outstanding communication and facilitation skills.
Background in systems development, software development, marketing,
management, science, and engineering.
EXPERIENCE
TRIPOS, INC., St. Louis, MO 1997 - present
Usability Specialist March 1997 - present
Responsible for leading project teams through user-centered design
activities to develop drug discovery software.
- Understand customer work practices through Contextual Inquiry
and user interviews.
- Envision new user-computer interactions through storyboards.
- Evolve early interface designs through paper prototyping.
- Observe and track the user experience through usability
testing.
- Facilitate team analysis and responses to usability issues.
- Led planning efforts for new User Experience Center.
CPI INC., St. Louis, MO 1996 to 1997
IS Manager Jan 1996 to March 1997
Responsible for managing marketing systems and introducing
usability to CPI.
- Facilitated usability testing for major redevelopment of
retail systems used at Sears Portrait Studio and CPI/Fox Photo
finishing stores.
- Supervised team of Object-Oriented developers, leading them to
apply user-centered design to create marketing systems.
- Supervised IS development of public Web sites.
EDWARD JONES, Maryland Heights, MO 1992 - 1996
Usability Specialist January 1994 - January 1996
Responsible for ensuring the usability of brokerage systems
development.
- Coordinated usability efforts for variety of business needs.
Due to improvements on redesigned Mutual Funds screens, four
thousand trades worth $10 million were made on the first day of
implementation with few calls to the branch support area.
- Improved existing development methodology by incorporating
usability techniques throughout project life-cycle. Anticipating
25% reduction in time for work associated with system revisions.
- Evaluated designs for PC, Client/Server, mainframe, and
Interactive Voice Response systems. Subsequent improvements
resulted in systems well-received by branches, with significantly
fewer support problems.
- Pioneered rapid, low-cost prototyping techniques for creating
usable designs.
- Created new technique for remote usability testing, allowing
certain small development projects to be tested at very low cost.
Project Leader 1992 - 1993
Responsible for leading all aspects of major new systems
development, as well as supporting existing systems. Led design and
implementation of system allowing 3,000 branches to enter their bill
payments.
- Led the efforts of twenty people, including a team of
late-shift consultants.
- Branches commended the usability of the system, which cut down
entry time by 75%.
- Resolved coding issues pertaining to first use of DB2 in a
major system by IS.
CREDIT SYSTEMS, INC., St. Louis, MO 1990 - 1992
Business Analyst 1990 - 1992
- Responsible for managing product development projects in the
bank card processing business.
- Liaison with bank clients.
- Consulted with clients to define customized systems, including
new credit card programs.
- Managed system-wide projects, such as VisaPhone, which allowed
customers to use their Visa card as a telephone card.
- Created business plans, including price and cost analysis, for
new products and services.
EDWARD JONES, Maryland Heights, MO 1988 - 1990
Project Leader 1988 - 1990
Responsible for leading new systems development. Designed and
implemented new system for tracking security agents.
- Led team efforts totaling 5,000 hours.
- Delivered system one month ahead of schedule.
- Promoted system roll-out, and trained several classes of
end-users.
ANDERSEN CONSULTING, St. Louis, MO 1986 - 1988
Senior Consultant
- Designed functions for large-scale systems.
- Conducted formal client presentations of system designs.
- Managed a project documentation group.
EDUCATION
- University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 1986
- M.B.A., Concentration in Marketing and Management.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 1983
- B.S., Sloan School of Management at M.I.T.,
Concentration in Behavioral Science
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Usability Professionals Association, Public Relations Chair
- 1998 Conference
GatewayCHI ,Founder and Chair- Started a new organization devoted to
improving computer user interfaces. Web site at www.acm.org/chapters/gatewaychi.
Official chapter of ACM/SIGCHI.
Toastmasters - Started several clubs at Edward Jones.