Gordon Montgomery BA MSc
   gordon@gmeta[dot]com    m: (+1) 512 299 3637   w: (+1) 512 377 9691

profile | skills | career | education | interests | references 


Current role International information design consultant

Availability Negotiable

Work type Hourly rate contracts

Location Austin, Texas, USA (GMT-6hrs)

Date of birth November 26, 1968

Nationality British/Irish (Permanent U.S. resident)



Objective

I help modern companies "think like their customers" and identify gaps and barriers in interaction experiences.


Profile

An energetic catalyst for change, an entrepreneur, a customer experience advocate and pragmatic strategist.

Intellectually inspired by the desire to improve the ease-of-use of artefacts and human-designed environments.

Enjoy sculpting my own path and have over a decade of solid international experience.

A member and speaker within the Usability Professionals Association and member of the British HCI Group.

Nominated to speak at the ASIS annual conference in 2000.

Key instigator of the 2004 accessibility initiative ErgoBoston - helping Seniors with the Internet.

Monitor and de-brief facilitator for the 2005 Knowbility Accessibility University conference.

PR/Media Chair for the 2005 Knowbility AIR-Austin event.

Annual guest lecturer for the Master's course in Usability at the University of Texas School of Information .

Speaker on the Design and Social Responsibility panel during SXSW conference 2006.

Web Editor for the Information Architecture Summit 2006.

Sponsor of Austin's first ever Penguin Day 2007 - opensource software for non-proft organizations.

Knowbility AccessWorks board member, 2007, seeking to establish services programs that employ people with disabilities as technology user experience report providers.

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Key Skills

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Career

Sept 07 - present  :  Principal Strategist, Neudesic; Austin, TX.
  • Co-founder of the Austin User Experience (UX) office and oversight for UX strategy.

Dec 06 - Sept 07  :  User Experience Lead, Razorfish; Austin, TX.
  • Responsible for the entire UX process from ideation though to execution of the vision.
  • Key clients: Nokia, Dell, AT&T.


Dec 05 - present  :  Executive Director, Webguides.org; Austin, TX.
  • Web usability project consultancy for mission-based corporations.

May 04 - present  :  International Information Design Consultant, GMETA; Austin, TX.
Aug 02 - May 04  :  Usability Manager, Staples; Boston, MA.
  • Full project lifecycle services for International Web strategy, Information Architecture, Usability research and design.
  • Projects spanned all purchase channels: web, catalog & store.
  • Designed, built and supplied input into several usability lab facilities.
  • Devised simpler, faster and more effective usability methodologies, tools and reporting.
  • Received an outstanding contribution award for my work on the International web site platform.
  • Key clients: Staples.ca, Staples.co.uk, Staples.de, Quill.com, MAP.com, Smilemakers.com, Stapleslink.com.

May 01 - Aug 02  :  Consultant, GMETA; London & Northern Ireland.
  • Web & mobile strategy, usability testing, development and hosting.
  • Key clients: BT Looksmart UK (Genie) - France, Germany, Netherlands; AmberLight usability consultancy; HSBC student & graduate banking services.

Mar 01 - May 01  :  CIO, xtology; Florida. Somerville, MA.

  • Involved at all levels of this marketing communications start-up.
  • Responsible for all internal and client usability and technology development.
  • Key figure in Client presentation, Project Documentation, Marketing and Branding services.
  • Provided strategic web planning services to xtology's sister online order fulfillment company.

Feb 00 - Mar 01  :  Senior Information Architect, Fusive; Florida & Boston, MA.
  • Determined site blueprint and user experience by translating business objectives into functional and usable requirements.
  • Responsibilities included: Analyzing user scenarios and personas, researching competitive analysis, defining site interaction, architecting navigation schemas, usability testing and heuristic reviews, ensuring accessibility and documenting best practices.
  • Deliverables included: wire-frames, sitemaps, content hierarchies and content matrices, usability reports as well as client presentation and strategic thought leadership.
  • Key client contact for IA and e-commerce strategy issues.
  • Evangelized, negotiated and helped build the corporate IA function.
  • Interviewed, mentored and managed IA team staff.
  • Provided input at all levels within the company to help expand the core business.
  • Advocated Section 508 universal accessibility design - to give access to information for all possible users.
  • Attained "employee of the month" for my management and leadership of The State of Florida Portal project.
  • Consulted with The State of Florida, Texaco, Lehman Bros, TISI, Interland, Invesco, TSW, Overnite, Home Shopping Network, Southern Company, MoneySuite, AICPA.

Aug 99 - Jan 00  :  Freelance Consultant.
  • Private client work : strategy, usability testing and Visual Basic [VB] development.

Jan 99 - Jul 99  :  International developer, NCR; London. Nice, France. Ohio.
  • Performed lead information design and usability role for new Sales Force Quotation Tool.
  • Developed portions of the Quotation Tool using VB 6.0.
  • Coordinated fully customized MS Outlook Contacts Management System project.

Apr 96 - Sep 97  :  Freelance Consultant.


Jun 97 - Sep 97  :  Support and Development, Mobil Oil; London, UK.
  • Developed a user-centric call-logging database in Access.
  • Excel VBA spreadsheet automation.
  • Windows and Network: support, administration and development.

Mar 97 - Jun 97  :  R&D Support, Proctor and Gamble; Brussels, Belgium.
  • Developed a user-centric inventory database in Access.
  • Windows and Network: support, administration and development.

Nov 96 - Mar 97  :  Support, Mobil Oil; London, UK.
  • Windows and Network: support, administration and development.

Apr 96 - Nov 96  :  Support Team Leader, Arthur Andersen; London, UK.
  • Managed Support team and acted as issue escalation point.
  • Involvement in the implementation of user-centric time management and billing system.
  • Instrumental in ensuring the smooth post-merger orientation of new staff.
  • Windows and Network: support, administration and development.

Nov 93 - Apr 96  :  Business Analyst / Developer, Skandia Life; Southampton, UK.
  • Developed the first, VB-based, investments portfolio daily fund-pricing application from conception to completion.
  • In-house usability testing.
  • Windows and Network: support, administration and development.
  • Project maintenance using MS Project.
  • Facilitated European launch into Finland, Germany & France.
  • Edited Corporate Management newsletter.

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Education

2002  :  Northern Ireland Business Startup Programme, NIBSP; N.Ireland.
  • The course comprised 10 modules focusing particularly on sales and marketing, financial management, legal and statutory issues, technology and general business practices.

Sep 97 - Nov 98  :  MSc Software Engineering, Napier University; Scotland.
  • Courses included object-oriented software development methodology (UML), project management, hands-on programming and database development.
  • I graduated in first place in Human Computer Interaction (HCI).
  • My thesis was part of the Personas project for the Swedish Institute of Computer Science.
  • I developed a proof-of-concept e-mail client application. This incorporated intelligent software agents based on a central user profile server. An email attachment could be automatically re-saved before sending, such that all recipients received the attachment in their desired format.
  • Designed and built a Task Management database system as a project for Marconi and prototyped a tourist information kiosk for Edinburgh Waverly train station.
  • I was the student spokesman for Faculty liaison.

Sep 87 - Jul 92  :  BA(Hons) French with Linguistics, Southampton University; England.
  • Courses included psycho- and sociolinguistics, semantics, pragmatics, syntax, phonetics, phonology, morphology; French literature, society and politics.
  • This comprised an academic year at the University of Strasbourg, France and a year of Computer Science.
  • I was president of the French Society which entailed Faculty-level interaction.

Sep 80 - Sep 87  :   Portora Royal School; Enniskillen, Northern Ireland.
  • 1987 - Advanced level subjects: French, German, Mathematics.
  • 1985 - Ordinary level subjects: 10.
  • School prefect, food committee liaison officer.
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Interests

Running, Cycling, Judo, Rugby, Reading, Writing, Travel, "Technology access for everybody".
Volunteer organiser with Tsunami Volunteer in Khao Lak, Thailand.
Volunteer organiser with ONE.org, the global campaign to Make Poverty History.
Volunteer organiser with Katrina Support (Austin), post-hurricane relief services.
Volunteer with the City of Austin Community Emergency Response Team, helping the local community prepare for and manage disaster and emergency situations.
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References

Hans Keil
  Director of E-Business, PerkinElmer.com

Colin Hynes
  Director of Usability, Staples.com

Professor David Benyon
  Head of Napier University's HCI group

Grant Sellars
  Chief Web Officer, MyFlorida.com

Margie Schneider
  Director of Strategic Planning & Marketing at The Bahamas Out Islands Promotion Board, myoutislands.com
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