"I’m passionate about building experiences that solve real life problems. Do I like long walks on the beach? No I do not."
Ron is a user experience architect and design leader with a proven track record of creating thought out interactions and experiences that target meaningful real world scenarios. He achieves his solutions through clarity and awareness of end user behaviors, striving for simplicity and ultimately an experience that is taken for granted. Ron has experience driving high profile business design partnerships, international cross team design process and collaborative efforts, leading a product and/or service that spans vertically and horizontally across business divisions with an innate ability to persuade a diverse range of customers. He has directed and managed teams of visual designers and design integrators on various projects as well as establishing guidelines that support a broader platform and divisional effort. To date, Ron is responsible for shipping 13 different product experiences across multiple release cycles.
Patents
Using Devices to Link Social Network Profiles
US 20130097233
Issued Apr 18, 2013
Semantic Zoom-based Navigation of Displayed Content
US 20140281868
Issued Sep 18, 2014
Previews of Electronic Notes
US 20140372877
Issued Dec 18, 2014
Education
2006-2008 Seattle Central Creative Academy, AAS graphic design
An intense program condensed into a two year period that concentrates on the skills necessary for immediate entry into the job market. The curriculum is strong on graphic design fundamentals, and allows it's students to explore their abilities and strengths within emerging technologies.
1995-1998 Ballard High School, Diploma
Go Beavers!
References
Donna Wallace
Senior Design Manager at Microsoft
LinkedIn
Rob Strong
Creative Director at Prime Video, Amazon
LinkedIn
Jeremiah Whitaker
Product Design Manager at Facebook
LinkedIn
Greg Hollobaugh
Creative Director at Kindle, Amazon
LinkedIn
Mark Pearson
Senior Director of UX at Oracle
LinkedIn
Chris Edwards
Senior Product Designer at InVision
LinkedIn
Experience
Unity Technologies
Principle Design Manager
2018 - Current
Managing a team of 5 responsible for driving and delivering platform and product initiativeswithin R&D for the core Unity product experience. We provide the broader organization withexpertise to gain and interpret customer insights, define scalable and efficient frameworks, andprovide guidance to developers that result in easy to use and delightful experiences for thecreative professionals that depend on our product.
Amazon Kindle, Subscribe with Amazon
Lead Senior User Experience Designer
2017 - 2018
Brought on to cultivate and grow the base of subscription products in a forward thinking market space, I've leveraged my customer empathy, research experience and design leadership to drive discovery, value recognition and conversion while providing customers with a competitive angle to alternative e-commerce channels. I managed the core teams design resourcing, facilitated design sprints, organized and conducted rapid research studies and influenced planning strategies for the broader business.
Microsoft Developer Division, Visual Studio
Senior User Experience Designer
2013 - 2017
Responsible for leading the visual studio interactive development environment design and planning efforts. I have focused on defining a modern product acquisition story and improving adoption of the visual studio family of products and services, owning all aspects of the developer project model, aligning the product experience to the modern visual and interaction design paradigms that both Office and Windows pursue, defining a cohesive notifications, extensions and updates experience, improving the wizard framework, and partnering with 3rd party services and providers to seamlessly integrate their functionality and grow the base of the development platform.
Microsoft Office Mobile, OneNote
User Experience Designer II
2009 - 2013
Brought on as the first Office mobile designer, I played a key role in driving the design efforts from concept to implementation for the Nokia Symbian and Office partnership. I was responsible for creating mobile experiences for 7 of the main Office productivity apps in close collaboration with Nokia creative directors and production teams. My contributions greatly influenced Symbian UI development and pattern guidelines. After delivering for Symbian, I continued working on various windows phone concept projects and V1 Android product releases for OneNote and Lync. I was responsible for leading V2 of the Windows Phone OneNote release, partnering closely with Windows Phone Studio to align scenarios and experience goals, exploring deep integration of the OneNote feature set and finding common ground between product team and platform perspectives. Our mobile team took lead in defining cross platform interaction patterns and personality alignment, ultimately producing a mobile play book to unify design solutions across development teams. I eventually joined the OneNote platform team where I contributed to the incubation effort for the Capture platform, Surface tablet inking experience, early design concepts for Office Lens and V2 updates to the OneNote immersive app.
Microsoft Office, Excel & Access Services
Interaction Designer
2008 - 2009
I assisted the broader Office UX team with the development and integration of the ribbon control interface and revised file menu architecture. Acting as an embedded product designer, I was tasked with improving the look and feel of the Access product user templates, custom database control set, and the consumer facing blog site. I actively participated in conferences evangelizing the product experience and learning from the customer base to improve the overall quality of the product.
Buena Vista Learning
Lead Interaction Designer
2008 - 2009
I worked on a variety of e-learning projects to design and develop interactive work flows for testing and training applications. Our clients ranged from small businesses such as real estate firms, retail shops and certificate programs to larger corporate entities like Macys, Group Health and Boeing. I was accountable for all aspects of the design process from concept to production.
OnlineShoes.com
Graphic and Interaction Designer
2007 - 2008
I was apart of a small team of designers, copy writers and marketing reps focused on improving the general site look and feel, layout, carting experience, search, filtering and marketing efforts. I was responsible for partnering with several firms to conduct heuristic studies and site wide a/b testing which influenced our design solutions. I also worked closely with product facilities and the internal photography team to define the creative direction for ongoing email marketing campaigns and newsletters.
Thread Design Firm
Graphic Designer
2005 - 2006
Junior position and internship. I worked on a wide range of design projects including print, web, interactive and packaging. My responsibilities entailed creative development, project management, and production. I was also accountable for coordinating client reviews and maintaining client relationships.