Laura Hamilton
Front-end Design and Development
Silicon Valley
Saratoga, California
Phone: (408) 315-9431
Email: mslaura@theportablebaby.com

SKILLS SUMMARY
  • Design and development of web-based user interfaces
  • Social and interactive media: Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest
  • HTML and XHTML development and cross-browser/platform optimization
  • Rapid HTML mockup and prototyping
  • Marketing: Google AdWords, AdSense, Facebook Ads
  • Customer product and technical support: in person, by phone, by email, FAQ page creation
  • CSS (Cascading Style Sheets)
  • JavaScript
  • XSLT/XML expertise
  • Clean, straightforward visual design
  • Image editing, optimization, and manipulation
  • Team player: work across departments with Marketing, Engineering, Product Management, Professional Services, Sales, Customer Support
  • Superb oral and written communication skills
  • Photography of products and personnel
  • Fluent in French and Spanish
  • 10 years of design/development experience


PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE & WORK HISTORY
June 2005 - present
Owner/Web Architect

The Portable Baby
http://www.theportablebaby.com/

  • Owner, founder and web designer/developer for this successful online retail store. Focus is on high-quality parenting gear that makes it easier to travel with babies and children. Site is 100% hand-coded HTML, CSS and Javascript, not a template.

    Great customer reviews on the look, the feel and the content.

    Purchasing, inventory, copywriting, customer support, product research, sales, website updates, marketing, everything but processing and shipping orders (I have employees for that, but sometimes I still do it to stay current and test the shipping system). I love it!

Big Corporate Jobs
November 2001 - May 2005
Yahoo! UI Architect/Designer

Yahoo! Resumix
HG Recruiter clickable mockups: http://www.viviente.com/resumix/genie/
HG Hiring Manager clickable mockups: http://www.viviente.com/resumix/hmw/
Resumix 7 Flash presentation: http://www.viviente.com/resumix/flash/resumix7.swf

  • Interaction design, UI design, and front-end programming/development for the award-winning series of Hiring Gateway enterprise software products: HG Recruiter, HG Hiring Manager, HG Relationship Manager, and HG Profile Manager.
  • Hiring Gateway was chosen as the Top Human Resources Product of 2003 by Human Resource Executive Magazine, who called it "an applicant tracking system so intuitively designed that an operating manual is unnecessary".
  • Process: HTML Wireframes were created to determine proper workflow, then working XHTML/JavaScript mockups were used to develop visual components, perform user testing and correct any further workflow issues. XSLT templates were made from the XHTML to create the working product. Final step was my review of the working UI, and correction of any errors or changes to the UI inadvertently inserted by the back-end developers.
  • Customized HG Relationship Manager and HG Profile Manager software to match the look and feel of client websites, and played a key role in implementation. Customers include nVidia, ChevronTexaco, City of Seattle, Park Place Entertainment and many more. Close relationship with Professional Services team members.
  • Created scripted static HTML demos for software products, used by Sales and Marketing teams in customer presentations.
  • Updated and maintained Yahoo! Resumix corporate website
Yahoo! HotJobs
Yahoo! HotJobs Job Search prototypes:
Checkboxes: http://www.viviente.com/resumix/naples/set1/01searchresults.html
(Click on "more locations >>" in left navbar, then check "White Plains")
Highlighting: http://www.viviente.com/resumix/naples/set2/01searchresults.html (Click on "more categories >>" in left navbar, then "Submit" in the resulting selection box)
  • Created clickable scripted XHTML prototypes for Yahoo! Hot Jobs Job Search redesign.
  • Process: Visual Designer sent image files to me with his general vision for the new search pages, gave me background on project, goals, target audience, history, etc. I then created the working XHTML prototypes linked above to show my refinements to the interaction and UI design, which were used for in-house and user testing.
  • Clean, optimized, front-end code used directly by Web Development/Engineering, saving an extra cycle of code production by that team.
October 2001 - November 2001
Freelance UI Designer/Developer
CAM Systems
http://www.viviente.com/camsystems/userconsole1_11.html
  • Redesigned the internal IT Help Desk system for maximum usability. Interaction design and UI design.
  • Extensive JavaScript programming to add new workflow processes and customize existing ones.
  • Project completed on time and under budget.
March 2001 - April 2001
Contract HTML Designer
Yahoo!
Yahoo Book Reviews redesign:
http://www.viviente.com/yahoo/reviews/review1top.html
http://www.viviente.com/yahoo/reviews/review2all.html
http://www.viviente.com/yahoo/reviews/review4detail.html
  • Visually designed sections of Yahoo! Shopping such as Book Reviews, Author Interviews, Hot Video Games, International Cuisines, etc.
  • Developed hand-coded HTML pages to meet strict Yahoo! guidelines for maximum user download speed and minimum document file size.
January 2001 - March 2001
HTML Guru & Usability Consultant
seeUthere.com (contracted through Visuals Agency, San Francisco)
Website Workshop: http://www.viviente.com/seeuthere/homepage.html
seeUthere website: http://www.seeuthere.com
  • Evaluated and rewrote HTML for 200+ pages, resulting in greatly increased cross-browser functionality and download speeds. One heavily used page previously took 65 seconds to download on a DSL line and would only load in MSIE. My changes resulted in a download time of 5 seconds in all common browsers for that same page.
  • Redesigned nav bars and other commonly used features for greater usability.
  • Recommended further changes to visual design, information design and copywriting to improve overall usability of site.
  • Educated web team (GUI Developers, ASP Engineers) on HTML 4.0 standards and future use of XHTML. Educated Product Managers on usability issues.
  • Created Website Workshop to act as a reference point for web team after my departure.
January 2000 - January 2001
Staff UI Designer/Developer
eCompany Now (a publication of Time Inc.)
What Works:    http://www.viviente.com/ecompany/WWHome.htm
User Registration:    http://www.viviente.com/ecompany
Web Weekly:    http://www.viviente.com/ecompany/WebWeekly.htm
  • Designed and built the front-end user interfaces for magazine sections including What Works, eCompany Conferences, Web Weekly, the Web Guide, and others (see portfolio). All interfaces created in Vignette Story Server 5.0 using HTML, JavaScript and SS Tool Command Language (Tcl).
  • Created and developed Web Weekly section of magazine to help readers navigate to collected web articles on the site.
  • Part of core interactive design team for User Registration section of site.
  • Created Web Team Guide online directory to improve internal communications among team members
  • Trained and supervised junior developers and contract developers.
  • Optimized and corrected HTML and graphics sitewide to eliminate browser issues and bugs.
  • Created advertisements and banner ads for both on and off-site advertising (see portfolio).
  • First staff designer/developer hired at eCompany.
June 1999 - January 2000
Staff UI Designer/Developer
Business Development
Testbid.com
http://www.viviente.com/testbid.htm
  • Installed and configured OpenSite auction software on host servers, customized page templates with handcoded HTML. Added HyperNews message board capabilities with CGI scripting.
  • Designed and created corporate logo. Created banner advertisements for web use and print ads for both newspaper and magazine use.
  • Wrote detailed business plan for site funding.
  • Copywriting and technical writing for website, including the "New User's Guide", which instructs first-time users in site rules and regulations and explains Testbid auction features and capabilities.
  • Personally handled Business Development with major accounts such as Agilent, Anritsu and Tektronix.
January 1998 - January 2000
Staff UI Designer/Developer
Sales Manager
Trek Equipment Corporation
http://www.viviente.com/trek
  • Designed and constructed corporate website for test equipment sales and leasing.
  • Designed and created corporate logo.
  • Maintained site with frequent updates and changes.
  • Managed domestic sales team.
  • Personally handled international equipment export sales for Europe, Asia and South America.

Independent Freelance Jobs
November 2003
Freelance UI Designer/Developer
Gilfix & Associates
http://www.viviente.com/gilfix
  • Redesigned and developed the corporate website for Gilfix & Associates, an Elder Law, Estate and Tax Planning firm in Palo Alto.
Gilfix & Associates
April 2003
Freelance UI Designer/Developer
Capella Photonics
http://www.viviente.com/capella
  • Designed and developed the corporate website for Capella Photonics, a leader in dynamically reconfigurable optical subsystems.
Capella Photonics
August 2002 - November 2002
Freelance UI Designer/Developer
Hilary Duffy Photography
http://www.viviente.com/hilaryduffy
  • Designed and developed a multimedia Flash portfolio to showcase Hilary Duffy's large-scale photography projects in Cuba, Haiti, Costa Rica, Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Maine.
Hilary Duffy Photography
August 2001 - October 2001
Freelance UI Designer/Developer
Riptide Recruiting
http://www.viviente.com/riptide
  • Flash multimedia development with sound.
  • UI and interaction design of high-tech recruiting firm website.
  • Hand-coded JavaScript rollovers and form validation.
  • CGI scripting using Perl for form processing.
Riptide Recruiting
June 2000
Freelance UI Designer/Developer
Andrew Habeck Photography
http://www.viviente.com/andrewhabeck
  • Designed and created web portfolio and gallery for European fashion photographer Andrew Habeck.
  • Scanned all photographs and magazine tearsheets from photographic portfolio.
  • Optimized images for minimum file size without sacrificing quality.
  • Update and maintain site with new images upon request.
September 1999
Freelance UI Designer/Developer
Caribbean Star Villas
http://www.viviente.com/caribbeanstar
  • Designed and constructed website for vacation villas on the island of St. Martin, French West Indies.
  • Copywriting in English and French.
  • Traveled to St. Martin for consultation with villa developers.
  • Photographed villas and surrounding area for display on website.
Caribbean Star Villas

Other Jobs
May 1997 - January 1998
Regional Sales Manager:
France, Spain, Italy, Greece, Turkey & Latin America
EuroVentures
  • Managed sales of hard disk drive cables and enclosures in the above regions.
  • Communicated daily with customers in English, French and Spanish.
  • Increased sales by 30% in the above territory during my tenure.
July 1996 - May 1997
Founder/Web Designer and Developer
Planet Shopper
http://www.pshopper.com (no longer online)
  • Founder of company for online export of popular American goods, including electronics, designer clothing, and cosmetics.
  • Designed and constructed website for the above company.
  • Processed email orders from customers.
  • Procured desired items from a variety of sources and handled export of those items to customers in over 15 different countries around the world.

FORMAL EDUCATION

San Francisco State University Multimedia Studies Program
2000 - Internet Design & Technology Certificate

Adobe Photoshop I and II
Adobe Illustrator I
Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)
Databases and the Web
HTML I and II
Information Design I and II
Interaction Design
Java Programming I
JavaScript
Macromedia Flash I and II
Principles of Graphic Design
Principles of Programming
The Production Process
Typography
Understanding the Internet
Unix I
Web Design I and II

San Francisco State University
1997 - M.A. Systematic and Evolutionary Biology (coursework completed)
1995 - B.S. Biology (Ecology), cum laude

You can see my old, outdated but still flashy Flash portfolio just for kicks at http://www.viviente.com/viviente.html
Email me with any questions at mslaura@viviente.com.

Thank you!
Laura Hamilton

Laura Hamilton