Kate Winsor: User Experience Strategist & Consultant

Hi, I'm Kate.

I built my first website in 1997. Since then, I've always known that digital was where my heart was. And while development is no longer my primary skill, it is still at the core of my creative process; while the work I do as a User Experience professional should be agnostic to the technology layer, you have to understand how things work and get built in order to design for them.

I do not consider myself a designer, there are certain expectations that come with that label. And while I have many years of experience with the entire Adobe Creative Suite, and have no problem contributing those skills to a project when necessary, it is not my primary skill set. It's not the way I think.

I am an architect: I see the digital world in lines and shades of black and white. My job is to get inside the minds of users and understand how they think and use the platform we are working to improve. I have to make sure a user can successfully complete a task and that their success makes them feel good. I want to ensure that a process a user completes once a year is as easy as a task they complete everyday. I want to make sure that the patterns of interactions established on a digital platform remain consistent so that expectations are managed and met. I have to make filling out forms on the internet just a little less painful for everyone.

SKILLS

UX Strategy

The goal of any project is to put something out in the world, to produce an end product. But to achieve that, you have to have a strategic position. It is the role of the UX strategist to ensure that the proposed digital experience is well researched, understood, and most importantly, validated by the end user. We need to create things that are useful, usable and desirable. UX strategy does the work to provide evidence about customer behavior and therefore eliminate the need to guess about the experience people expect and need. This creates value to both the consumer and the business by knowing before building.

I draft the big picture which then gets broken down in to tactics and execution. I look for trends, for connections, how making tweaks to the status quo can improve the user experience and meet business goals. I emphasize the importance of putting users and their experiences at the heart of all of decisions. My end goal is to make digital places feel meaningful.

Tasks

Facilitate client workshops to uncover business and user requirements
Internal and external stakeholder interviews: this establishes and understanding of users and helps identify opportunities for improvement
Creation of personas, tracking of customer journeys
Best practices research and recommendations, trend forecasting
Analysis of current platforms and competitors

User Research

User Research is the Holy Grail of the UX/IA discipline. It is one of the most important aspects of what we do, yet it is the least sought after deliverable.

Any type of data we can get our hands on about the user base for a particular project is golden. This includes secondary research gathered from the web and primary research ranging from Google Analytics to the ever elusive multi-day User Testing sessions.

Tasks

Creating recruitment guides to identify ideal test participants
Drafting test script/discussion guide consisting of test objectives, scope of the tests, participants tasks and follow-up questions for deep-diving on specific topics
Synthesize research findings into meaningful recommendations and actionable results
Investigate and resolve user experience issues through evaluation and testing

UXA/IA

What happens when I push this button? Where does this link go? What happens when the user encounters an error? Why does Link A go before Link B in the header, and why is it called "Widgets" instead of "Thing-a-ma-bobs?" Those are the things that a UX Architect thinks about. We don't "do" photoshop, and we don't make things work- we love boxes, lines and shades of gray.

The role of an User Experience Architect requires the wearing of many hats. I love creating user experiences through research, feedback, analysis, testing and best practices.

Tasks

Organize information in a meaningful way that can be easily digested by an end-user
Create wireframes, user flows, functional specifications, prototypes and other artifacts to describe the intended user experience
Apply user personas and scenarios to develop relevant process and user flow models
Generate interaction concepts that enable seamless, fluid, relevant and engaging experiences for users (aka the "cool factor")

AT A GLANCE

I am a well rounded user experience professional with UX strategy, user testing, information architecture, wireframing, and prototyping experience. I have B2B, B2C, and Channel experience. Those clients range from Fortune 500 companies to local start-ups. In addition to strategy, I have a strong execution portfolio that includes brochure sites, mobile apps, responsive designs, administrative platforms, and e-commerce sites.

EXPERIENCE

CADENCE STUDIOS (formerly House of Winsor)

JUNE 2013 to PRESENT

President
- Responsible for all business operations including HR, Accounting, and Marketing
- Design and maintain all company wide branding and marketing assets including, but not limited to:
  - Digital Strategy
  - Branding, logo and style guide
  - Content marketing
  - Email marketing
  - Wordpress websites/PHP/MySQL
  - Domain Registration and Hosting
  - Social Media strategy
  - Lead generation and nurturing
  - Search Engine Optimiation
  - Local search
  - Media buying
  - Print marketing
User Experience Principal
- Clients include: Texas Health Physicans Group, Perma-Pier, Chicos FAS, American Airlines Credit Union, Bell Helicopter, Hawk Incentives, Copart, Rehrig Pacific, The Children's Place, Respec, Cheap Caribbean/Apple Leisure Group, Eastern New Mexico University, Staples, Perma-Pier, Compass Datacenters, Calloway's Nursery, Altisource, World Wide Express
- Employ user centered design methods to engage stakeholders and define business objectives and goals that balance with users’ needs
- Heuristic evaluations of existing and competitor’s products
- Information architecture and interaction design presented in the form of site maps, wireframes, user flows and functional specifications
- User testing in the form of user interviews to create personas and usability testing prototypes and scripts aimed at improving the overall user experience
- Mobile app design for both iOS and Android operating systems
Founder, Texoma Bride Guide
- Sold the business in 2021
- Maintain relationships and memberships with over 60 vendors
- Design and maintain all company wide branding and marketing assets including print, web and social
- Design and publish semi-annual wedding planning magazine both digitally and in print
- Write and publish educational blogs 2x/week
- Produce the Texoma Wedding Expo - a twice yearly bridal show
VALTECH

OCTOBER 2014 to MARCH 2016

I started at Valtech as a contractor, called upon to fill a temporary need, but was later asked to join the company full-time. I was on a plane to meet with the client my first day on the job. My title doesn't really reflect the role I play in the organization. I wear all the UX hats: from manager and strategist, execution, testing and managing the day to day during development.

Sr UX Architect
- Clients include: CompuCom, WestconComstor, Allegion, Comcast/Watchable
- Discipline lead for Southern US region, client facing position, managing a small team
- Work with teams across the globe
- Define and revise UX deliverables including UX playbook, site maps, IA outlines, static annotated wireframes and clickable prototypes
- Conduct internal and external stakeholder interviews, heuristic and competitive research and evaluations to draft new user experience strategy
- Work closely with other team members in a collaborative agile environment
HAWKEYE (now Digitas)

APRIL 2007 to APRIL 2013

I like to think that I "grew up" at hawkeye. I started as the project coordinator for the Interactive Department. When I joined the company, I was employee number nine for the Interactive Department. This was at a time when the interactive space was still greatly misunderstood by the "traditional" marketers and it was quite an experience to watch the shift in the agency from the traditional channels to the digital. When I left the company six years later the Interactive Department had grown to over 50.

While I was doing my project coordinator duties, I met a gentleman who had a desk in a dark closet on the second floor. He was the sole IA in the company and I was curious as to what he did. I knew what the art directors did, and what the devlopers did, but what is this IA thing? After a little research and I discovered that I had found my calling- this is what I was born to do! I became his shadow and blame him for my obsessiveness with consistency, alignment and the general perfection I strive for in my deliverables.

User Experience Architect
- Clients include: Lexmark, Peterbilt, ThyssenKrupp Elevators, CapitalOne, AMF, Cisco, American Airlines,Travelocity
- Led and participated in multiple Usability Tests
- Conducted persona interviews
- Responsible for gathering requirements and developing strategies, creating wireframes, process flows, sitemaps and additional usability documents, presenting to clients and implementing architecture with design and development teams
- Spent time onsite working for Travelocity and American Airlines
Interim HTML Developer
- Recognized a need to supplement the development staff to enable them to fulfill larger development needs, had the skill set to take on smaller projects
- Clients include: Alltel, Agilent Technologies, Cisco, Intuit, Dallas Morning News
- Built landing pages, small websites and emails for clients
Project Coordinator
- Responsible for managing day to day operations of the Interactive Department
- Managed a team of 15+, trafficked projects through the agency, responsible for timelines, checked projects for accuracy against requested changes
AUGUST 2006 - JANUARY 2007

APOLLO INTERACTIVE

Account Manager
- Managed 5 accounts, 3 of which were multi-million dollar revenue generators; clients include Eye Care Centers of America, ExtraCo Banks, Big Red, Ltd., and United Supermarkets
- Acted as liaison between company and client, coordinating projects using allotted resources, scheduling meetings, and keeping in contact with clients at all times
- Researched potential clients and partners nationwide for sales/new business development department
MAY 2006 - JULY 2006

MLINK TECHNOLOGIES

Account Manager
- Account Manager in Training, Nokia account
- Administrative duties, responsible for invoicing, meeting with clients and creating work orders, change order memos and status reports
- Wrote and edited storyboards, reviewed and did quality control checks on eLearning before it was sent to the client for review
OCTOBER 2004 - SEPTEMBER 2005

COLLEGE OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION - UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS

Web Developer
- Member of a small team of developers responsible for redesigning College website and implementing new technology to make information accessible on all systems, browsers and special-needs equipment

EDUCATION

University of North Texas
DEGREE: Bachelor of Arts
MAJOR: Art History
MINOR: Marketing

I am lucky enough to have been able to major in something that I love and minor in something useful. Art History taught me critical thinking skills and the ability to analyze. Marketing taught me how to get people to buy stuff. While I was there, I started my career in the industry by working for the College of Business as a web developer.

INTERESTS

I am a Business Operations and Digital Unicorn by day, a mom and Martha Stewart wannabe by night. I love food, wine, fart jokes and being creative. I am addicted to reading; I probably spend more time than is healthy reading.

KATE WINSOR

Founder & Principal UX Consultant

Hi, I'm Kate.

PROFILE

SKILLS

AT A GLANCE

RESUME

EXPERIENCE

EDUCATION

INTERESTS