Kris Bell

User Experience Architect Ascentium Corporation Bellevue, WA

"Information Architects" or "User Experience Architects" provide user research, information architecture, interface and interaction design, and usability testing. They conduct primary research, often in the form of interviews (in-the-field, in-person, and via telephone), to understand the goals, attitudes, and behaviors of users of the web sites and applications. This understanding is expressed through personas, scenarios, mental models, and task flows. These deliverables are shared with clients and project team members and are used to inform strategy, prioritization, messaging framework, taxonomy, information architecture, and design (including visual design).

IAs/UXAs create site maps, user flows, and wireframes to define logical grouping of content and features, navigation systems, labeling, elements per page/screen (and their layout), and interaction behavior. IAs/UXAs evaluate the usability of the designs via heuristic evaluation (using the Forrester Scorecard), paper prototyping, and clickable/interactive studies in the field or in the office. This work is collaborative with Editorial, Taxonomy, SEO and Visual Design.