Shawna Swanson

EXPERIENCE

PICMONKEY  Principal UX Designer
2016 - Present

Oversee IA and UX to address user feedback, improve usability, and increase subscriber conversion in photo editing and design workflows. Identify competitive feature differentiators, define product requirements, and create task flows, UI, and visual design. Mentor UX team to align product vision, and provide collaborative leadership with research, marketing and product management to deliver strategic design solutions from inception to launch.

ALLOVUS  Senior UI and Visual Designer
2009 - 2016

Innovated with interaction and visual solutions that resulted in intuitive user experiences, including competitive product analysis, design proposals, interaction wireframes, icon conceptualization and visual design. Collaborated with product teams to build, test, and deliver detailed specifications.

EDUCATION

UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON 
BFA Graphic Design, 1994

Microsoft Skype
Microsoft Skype for Business
Microsoft Connected Car
Microsoft Lync 2013
Microsoft Research

Windows Azure Active Directory
Microsoft Office
Microsoft BizSpark
Microsoft Server
Microsoft Visual Studio

FILTER STUDIOS  Senior UI Designer, Information Architect
2002 - 2009

Defined and managed implementation of multiple UX projects, including project needs assessment, competitive research and product reviews, IA task flows, interaction wireframes and redline specs. Created conceptual metaphors for hundreds of icons released in multiple Microsoft products. 

Biz Kid$
Microsoft Events Online
Microsoft Exchange Labs
Microsoft FRx

MICROSOFT  Lead Product Designer, Tablet PC
2000-2002

Defined user interface to showcase pen capabilities and support natural computing paradigms for Tablet PC, managing product design from conceptualization through implementation. Identified user scenarios and incorporated data from field trials and usability studies to arrive at task-focused design solutions. Collaborated with research to create a product-independent pen model initiative that was evangelized to pen-enabled applications across the company. Drafted contracts and managed external vendor relationships for the production of icons and print materials.

VIALIGHT  Design Director and Product Manager
1999 - 2000

Collaborated with executives, software architects, consultants and field sales to define product strategy for consumer applications in high-bandwidth fiber-optic communities. Directed a team of designers and developers to create a rich, extensible user interface for personalized lifestyle, merchant and directory services to residential and business consumers. Managed provider relationships to integrate services on the product platform, as well as defined IA and visual identity for the corporate web site.

MICROSOFT  Design Lead, Art Director
1994 - 1999

What began with icons and animations for Windows 95 (recall the ubiquitous paper flying across the screen while copying and deleting files, that was me) quickly evolved to lead product design roles, responsible for everything from defining new user interface paradigms in Internet Explorer and Sidewalk to creating brand and visual identities, art directing webzines, managing FTE designers and production vendors, and evangelizing design best practices to product groups across Microsoft.

Microsoft Technical Education
Sidewalk 3.0
Internet Explorer 3 & 4
Plus! 95  
Windows 95