Peter Dillon
A ui/ux designer specializing in the art of discovery, design, prototyping and implementation with html, css and javascript.
View resumé!A cactus represents endurance.
I've helped make useful stuff for over 14 years.
A cactus represents endurance.
I've helped make useful stuff for over 14 years.
Development teams seek me out for visual design, reskinning, information hierarchy, usability, iconography, improving task flow, improving the front end build process and more.
I specialize in creating engaging solutions to solve real world problems while designing beautiful applications that make the lives of users easier. Here is a list of recent prototypes and my Codepen.io profile with some interactive goodness.
Easily my favorite part of experience design. I use whiteboards, post-it notes, Livescribe Smartpen and grid paper to detail, examine, explore and record project specifications. Working remotely for the last 8 years, I've often used a webcam to share the whiteboard so stakeholders feel invested in this crucial process.
Created with Balsamiq to deliver use-case scenario wireframes for approval by stakeholders. Balsamiq creates interactive pdf's to portray a realistic experience without distracting graphic details. Depending on complexity, it is sometimes more effective to skip this and go right to the next two steps.
I create a lean, semantic, accessible HTML document that employs the intended use of elements. For screen readers and developers it can help a lot. I live for CSS, after all it is the web's formatting standard.
PSD's are often necessary for art direction in the design pipeline, especially when generating screen snippets in a style tiles type of way - but prototypes created in-browser with a font-end framework can get you fast results and more relevant feedback - particularly when considering task flow and content displayed on multiple devices.
There are a few css pre or post css transpilers to choose from, I use a Sass/Compass/Grunt workflow. I employ Modernizr to check for legacy browsers and then I'll write the required fallback or polyfill support. I may use Velocity.js with or without jQuery to make complex UI interactions a breeze and because it is optimized for mobile browsers and progressively enhanced.
Just this week I have mastered a Grunt PostCSS build process and have put My Boilerplate on Github.
I spend a lot of time in DevTools (Firefox and Chrome) navigating the DOM, debugging, designing on-the-fly, analyzing performance, testing breakpoints in scripts, 3D view can help with z-index issues, emulating touch devices, checking web animation efficiency - any front end dev knows these are essential tools.
Most teams do not have a usability lab with eye tracking software. To alleviate that, I have found Silverback to be an affordable alternative for basic user test sessions. But most importantly these days, test on "every device you can get your hands on." You'll find your friends and family enjoy handing over their devices for you to fiddle with ;-)
At this point I work closely with developers and QA to ensure that optimized and minified code is released to production and all stakeholders are satisfied.
Aspect is one of the leading international call center software development companies with high profile clients such as Comcast, Southwest, CVS and many others. My first project at Aspect was building an innovative, responsive, mobile first, schedule management system for agents that won Aspect’s internal “2013 Product of the Year” award. This product garnered high returns in part due to the SASS variables theming system I designed to allow for quick reskin-and-resell flexibility.
As customers started seeing results from this product, tens of thousands of dollars began to pour into my department with requests (from companies like JetBlue) for new features. My design choices, prototypes and functional demonstrations to the clients were essential to entice the customer and keep them engaged. All products at Aspect were developed using the Visual Studio MVVM framework. Internally, I directed and developed the front end design and implementation of each enhancement with the core development team. For these new features, I chose Zurb Foundation as a basic CSS/JS framework for many of the UI features needed and coupled it with my standard toolbox of HTML, CSS/SASS/Compass, Javascript and Jquery for unique requirements.
Other products I’ve designed at Aspect include a complete redesign of the internal project management system, an agent management dashboard and an agent schedule trading system for client Comcast. The latter was a great opportunity for me to use progressive enhancement and fallback techniques to keep interactions interesting and still meet Comcast’s IE8 requirement.
More recently, my team built a “shift bid” application for our client Progressive Insurance. After going onsite for a thorough three day requirement gathering session, my colorful whiteboard process sold the product and again, due to a combination of my pleasant personality and innovative design ideas, brought in over $80k to my department. Stepping outside the usual VS/MVVM framework - we built the backend with AngularJS, and the frontend with SASS and Velocity for unique UI animations. The application is IE9 compliant, with requirements to future-proof for all evergreen browsers including IE11. The product features a unique sortable schedule list creation system using local storage for agents to bid on and submit for approval.
Recently I was part of a small team that won a an internal innovations contest that gave a cash reward for the team that conceived the "most interesting way to engage call center employees and managers."
I started my career hand-coding and tinkering with html, graphic design, building websites and exploring the concepts behind user experience.
Now, I work throughout the front and backend development process while creating style guides with code snippets to help the team get projects started quickly and insure that growing applications maintain a uniform appearance.
To do my job efficiently, I regularly use tools such as Sketch, Balsamiq, the Adobe suite, Html, Compass/Sass, Grunt, Sublime, Angular, Ionic, Javascript, jQuery, Bitbucket and Team Foundation Server. For experimenting, I recently created a PostCSS build demo and have put My Boilerplate on Github.
With over a decade of experience, proficiency in CSS3, HTML5, Responsive Web Design, current UI-UX standards, browser compatibility, a pleasant disposition and clear verbal and written communication skills, I have made myself an essential asset to many varieties of software development teams.