Nathan Petts
Portland, OR
Degrees
MS Human Computer Interaction with Distinction - DePaul University, 4.0 GPA
BFA Theater Performance - University of Michigan
On the Web
Writing Sample
LinkedIn Profile
Freelance UX Designer and Developer
September 2016 - Present
- Designing a responsive, dynamic website with Ruby on Rails for a local stand-up comedian, giving her a unique calling card online
- Designed, developed and deployed a Ruby on Rails CRM for a Portland non-profit, leading to better usability, deduplication of data and ease of future development
- Designed and developed data visualizations for MATEC, a former employer, using JavaScript libraries, PHP and SQL to provide a clearer view of their data and goals
User Research and Design Intern @ Basecamp
June 2016 - August 2016
User Research Activities
- Spearheaded a research project to answer the question “Are Basecamp’s premium features solving user’s problems?”; wrote interview scripts, recruited participants, conducted interviews and on-site contextual inquiries, documented workflows
- Compiled and analyzed notes and transcripts; posted a company-wide report on the findings leading to new, research-based ideas about how to proceed with future development
- Completed a heuristic evaluation of Basecamp’s interface for people who are blind; summarized the main issues providing a deeper understanding of accessibility issues for future product development
UX Design
- Advocated the redesign of a user flow that research showed was hidden in the interface
- Sketched ideas of how to make the feature easier to find; discussed ideas with a team of designers to determine the most effective flow; coded a high fidelity prototype using Ruby on Rails
Technologist @ MATEC/University of Illinois at Chicago
March 2014 - May 2016
Website Redesign Project
- Project manager for the redesign of MATEC’s website; stakeholders included healthcare professionals and federal and university IT administrators
- Conducted user interviews and contextual analyses to gather user requirements; translated business and user requirements into vendor specifications; wrote personas and managed feature backlog for the developers
- Delivered a responsive website, under budget, with improved code management and security
Ops & Data Management
- Reverse-engineered and managed a legacy database; improved data integrity by troubleshooting bugs and data errors
- Provided training and documentation to staff resulting in accurate and timely data entry
Technology Support Specialist @ Rush University Medical Library
November 2005 - February 2014
- Solely responsible for library website redesign and content migration to a modern CMS resulting in positive reviews from user community
- Recognized by supervisors and co-workers for empathetic and knowledgeable technology support for clinicians, professors and students
Actor @ Professional Theaters
Ongoing
- Collaborate with many types of people to achieve a single objective: entertain audiences big and small; learned empathy, how to tell a story, read an audience and think on my feet