Resume

Jason B. Wishard
User Experience / Information Architecture

Arlington, VA
Mob: +1 (301) 991-4647
E-Mail
Portfolio

Education:

Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree from Shepherd University
Major in Art; Concentration in Graphic Design

Employment:

December 2005 to Present
Experience Architect, Siteworx Inc. (Reston, VA)

November 2004 to December 2005
Senior User Interface Designer / IT Analyst, NCI IS, Inc. (Germantown, MD)

January 2003 to November 2004
User Interface Designer, General Dynamics (Washington, DC and Springfield, VA)

March 2002 to Present
Design Consultant, Self Employed (Arlington, VA)

June 2001 to March 2002
Owner / President, East Coast Street Racing, Inc. (Dulles, VA)

March 2000 - March 2002
Multimedia Developer, Worldwide Technical Resources / PowerStreak Networks (Dulles, VA)

May 1999 - August 2000
Multimedia Developer, Sallie Mae (Reston, VA)

Portfolio:

Limited portfolio available at http://www.periodicdesign.com/portfolio/; full portfolio review available upon request.

Selected Work Experience:

Siteworx, Inc.
Current NDA’s prohibit my speaking of projects. This will be filled with content as it becomes available.

NCI IS, Inc.
I was brought on with NCI IS to help with redesigning a public portal for the National Nuclear Security Administration. The agency was in dire need of a redesign when I came aboard late in November of 2004. Their current site, while rendering well in most browsers, suffered from horrible usability and accessibility issues. The portal was barely built on HTML 3.02 and even with a proper DOCTYPE being used, the site didn’t come close to validating against the W3C standards for the semantic web. With a horrible frame based design and improper mark-up wrapping the data in static form, I knew I had my hands full. In a matter of months, I propelled the agency forward with new ideas and ways of presenting and using data in the workplace. While they are still using document management for their infinite repository of PDF’s, Word documents, Excel spreadsheets and the like, their web presence has become much stronger. The push to XHTML and CSS for structure and mark-up is now being utilized, although not all pages are valid, it is a push in the right direction. I have also helped in implementing a large scale living document demonstrating the proper way of designing and redesigning web sites and web based applications. Along with that documentation, I have also been instrumental in publishing documentation regarding the posting and maintenance of all static and dynamic data for web-use and re-use within the agency.

General Dynamics / Signal Solutions
While with Signal Solutions, I had the pleasure of working with two government agencies, the Federal Highway Administration and US Customs and Border Protection. My most notable accomplishments with FHWA were a medium to large scale redesign of their preexisting intranet (StaffNet). I was responsible for the visual design, implementation and documentation of the project from start to finish. Along with StaffNet, I not only maintained tens of thousands of static web pages, I was responsible for the visual, accessible and usability element of new pages being created. I created a few and relatively small style guides for some of the redesigns I took part in. While with the agency, received many positive reviews from my clients and peers for the outstanding excellent service I provided.

Self Employed
My self employment status is an ongoing portion of my professional growth and career status. I have worked for small mom and pop shops to medium sized companies with multiple office locations. I’ve had full or partial responsibility on many projects over the past few years, including, but not limited too, brand development, logo design and iconography. My most notable project was with First American Mortgage in Vienna, VA. I was tasked with the project of helping to redesign their intranet, stabilize and enhance their SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and secure their intranet for external access.

East Coast Street Racing, Inc.
This company was short lived, yet a growth experience in management and financial responsibility for me. I use to have a huge passion of the automotive industry and had always wanted to try my hand at managing a corporate entity. I knew with my skills in design and communication, and love of automobiles, I had the makings to market and run a great business. The idea for this business was to promote safety for the younger crowd of automobile enthusiasts. Of this demographic, the younger generation is most notorious for causing trouble on the streets. My business model worked with local and state law enforcement and insurance carriers to combat illegal street racing while promoting awareness. In turn, I worked to keep local drag strips open later to deter death, violence and costly accidents. Although a successful start was initiated, the business failed to take off with events of September 11th, 2001. Investors promising money reneged last minute, forcing myself and my colleagues to discontinue business.

Worldwide Technical Resources / PowerStreak Networks
My experience with these two companies ran the gamut. I began work with PowerStreak Networks in March of 2000 while still with Sallie Mae. I diligently worked weekends and evenings to help the emerging start-up get off the ground. I was brought aboard as a web developer and helped establish their online presence from both a marketing perspective and for the tools they were delivering to the public. PowerStreak broke ground as a MSP (Management Services Provider) in the greater northern Virginia and Washington, DC area. I was responsible for implementing interfaces for the tools our customers would use, on a virtually scale, to manage servers and services we provided. Our company was short lived and needed growth in other areas besides management services. In early 2001, PowerStreak was acquired by Worldwide Technical Resources, a premier staffing technical services provider. Once coming onboard with Worldwide, I was responsible for acquiring my own business and bringing in revenues to support my paycheck. I learned a great deal about business and the hardware side of data storage and sharing while with both companies.

Sallie Mae
My employment with Sallie Mae began as an internship and was supposed to foster into full-time employment. I began my time with Sallie Mae as an intern, where I rapidly gained skills in Flash and many other web authoring tools. By the time I left Sallie Mae, due to a corporate merger/buyout that lead to layoffs, I was well versed in many web technologies and was solely responsible for the redesign of their corporate Human Resources intranet portal. Along the route of stardom, I was forced to learn development tools and processes at an alarming rate and had a major hand in CBT development and the visual appearance that went into those learning tools.

Technical Overview:

My focus is on all things data driven and improving the accessibility and usability of data transfer. By doing this, your organization can achieve a more productive work environment and better business-to-consumer and business-to-business relations. I am well versed in the semantic web and delivering accessible and usable interfaces to the masses. I can bring your organization streamlined data flow with a touch of aesthetics.

Operating Systems and Office Applications

  • Mac OS
  • Microsoft Windows
  • Linux
  • Microsoft Office: Mac
  • Microsoft Office
  • Microsoft Visio

Graphics & Web Development Applications

  • HTML, XHTML, CSS and light knowledge of JavaScript, PHP, ASP
  • Netscape, Internet Explorer, MSN Explorer, Mozilla, Mozilla Firebird, Opera
  • Macromedia FreeHand, Homesite, Dreamweaver, Flash, Fireworks
  • Adobe Acrobat, ATM, Illustrator, Photoshop, Streamline, Dimensions, InDesign and PageMaker
  • GNU Gimp, Ulead PhotoImpact and Vecta 3-D
  • Accessibility, Information Architecture, Information Design, Interaction Design and Usability
  • Government Standard - Section 508 Compliance
  • W3C Web Standards and the Semantic Web

Hardware Knowledge

  • Familiar with current and past PC/MAC technologies
  • Familiar with OEM products and systems, such as Apple, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, etc.

Networking

  • Understanding of TCP/IP (IPV4), AppleTalk, subnetting
  • Experience with doing full network implementation; covering planning, design, physical implementation of cabling and workstations/servers, and optimization

Accolades:

Antietam National Battlefield

Flyer contest winner. I designed a flyer describing Robert E. Lee and his contributions to the Battle of Antietam. This flyer is still on display to the public in the battlefield’s Visitor Center.

Macromedia Site of the Day for September 5, 2003

I designed the 2003 Environmental Excellence Awards for the Federal Highway Administration and proved that a site can be both 508 compliant and aesthetically pleasing.

Conferences and Seminars:

User Experience Week - 2005 (Attendee)

Adaptive Path holds a four day conference every year in Washington, DC devoted to workshops on usability and merging technologies. I was fortunate enough to attend all of the events spanning the four day event.

User Experience Week Redux - 2005 (Panel Speaker)

After the conference, I was asked by one of the founding members of DC-IA (DC Information Architects) to speak on a panel of three people about what we learned by going to the event and what emerging technologies are coming to the forefront in the coming months.