JOHN WALKER 

About Me

I’m a collaborative, innovative, and strategic UX & Product Designer specializing in the creation of elegant, usable experiences for everyone—regardless of ability.

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My design leadership focuses on a mix of understanding complex business challenges, coaching team members to high achievement, and problem solving in often-ambiguous circumstances.

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I’ve executed on responsive web and native mobile products, having launched more than 30 traditional and SaaS products for consumer, B2B, and enterprise audiences.

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Over the years, I have developed:

• A deep appreciation for creating accessible designs for large, highly interactive, and dynamic applications—and also for mitigating existing accessibility issues

• A collaborative relationship with product, marketing, design, and engineering teams to deliver and implement superior experiences

• A track record of facilitating user testing sessions in-person and remotely, via prototypes and other tools, to validate design directions

• A sharp visual acumen based on design system/brand standards, contemporary trends, and 20+ years of experience with graphic design

• A strong management background, with 20+ years of hiring, managing, and mentoring team members

• An extensive experience partnering with clients on entire product lifecycles, from scoping product goals and defining overall priorities through successful delivery of design artifacts

 

I’ve worked on products for brands such as Chase, Comcast, MetLife, American Express, and Deutsche Bank.

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I’m also passionate about early 20th century design, from typography to furniture to architecture. Ask me about it!

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Download my resume.

 

Key Capabilities

• Builds consensus across cross-functional teams to align on strategies, priorities, roadmaps, and outcomes

• Iterates and validates user-centered design solutions via whiteboard brainstorming, collaborative mockup sessions, and other design thinking exercises

• Crafts various maps, personas, and journeys to create empathetic understanding of user goals/needs

• Maps out process flows, information architecture, and wireframes

• Creates prototypes for complex, information-heavy interfaces

• Specializes in creating WCAG-compliant accessible new interfaces and mitigating existing accessibility issues

• Delivers problem solutions within fast-paced Agile and scrum frameworks  

• Excellent communication and storytelling skills

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Work History

 

UX & Accessibility Consultant  |  Pearson  |  12/2022 –

• Redesigned Versant, an English Language Skills Testing app

  • Executed a full visual redesign of the product

  • Established a reusable, fully accessible component library for use across all products

  • Delivered a fully accessible application, as required by Amazon (the client) for use in global hiring

  • Collaborated with developers to properly implement accessible components

  • Mentored design team on accessibility standards and design strategies

  • Ran usability testing sessions with general population users and with assistive technology users

  • Consulted with UX writer to modernize the app experience

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Design System Manager  |  Ernst & Young  |  03/2021 – 08/2022

• Created a Global Design System for more than 30 teams at Comcast

  • Designed global library components for the new Design System

  • Tested components via remote user testing sessions to validate designs

  • Consulted with developers on overall implementation

  • Educated designers and developers about accessible standards and implementation strategies

  • Partnered with teams on mitigation solutions based on third-party accessibility surveys

• Developed site maps, information architecture and UX for an iOS/Android B2B app

  • Client increased contractual work 400% based on app work delivery to include creation of a Global Design System

  • Created prototypes to validate designs via user testing

  • Guided offshore team members to deliver visual design within Agile sprints

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UX & Product Design Consultant  |  WalkerUX  |  02/2013 – 03/2021

• Collaborated on a Global Design System at AllianceBernstein

  • Created Design System components and styles for global consumer websites and enterprise software

    • Mentored designers to integrate prototyping and usability testing to validate designs

  • Launched corporate accessibility practice

    • Responsible for evaluating accessibility compliance

    • Coached teams from product, content, design, and engineering to create accessible experiences

• Consulted on highly complex financial software at Deutsche Bank; and on mobile apps and responsive websites for American Express and MetLife

• Other clients include NBCUniversal, Hewlett Packard and KPMG

 

Vice President, UX Design Lead  |  JPMorgan Chase & Co.  |  06/2016 – 06/2017

• Co-led design on Chase Pay iOS/Android mobile app

• Collaborated with researchers to achieve customer-validated design solutions via bi-weekly user interviews

• Coordinated research and UX teams’ workflows so that designs were tested at low, medium and high fidelity

• Mentored team to use design thinking, Lean UX techniques and usability testing as primary UX methods

• Transformed traditional team structures into small, self-managed Agile teams

• Represented UX on the Agile Development Transformation management team

 

UX & Graphic Design Lead  |  Guardian Life Insurance  |  06/2014 – 06/2016

• Created and launched a UX Center of Excellence for user-centered digital product design

  • Consumer products received strong customer engagement, with double-digit increases in interactions

  • Enterprise products allowed employees to work more effectively, increasing productivity by 20%

  • Also often responsible for creating product strategy and managing projects

• Used analytics to help tradition-bound teams better understand how to create successful digital products

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iOS/Android Art Director  |  Popular Mechanics  |  07/2010 – 02/2013 

• Apple recognized Popular Mechanics’ app in the Best of the Year, Editor’s Choice, and Featured categories

• App was a best-seller on the App Store

• Directed the UX, UI, interaction and visual design for multiple iOS/Android apps

 

Creative Director  |  TV Guide & tvguidemagazine.com  |  03/2004 – 12/2009

• Co-founded and launched tvguidemagazine.com

• Managed local and remote design, photo and production teams to produce a Top 10-circulation magazine

 

Education

• Currently preparing for the Website Accessibility Specialist (WAS) Exam

• Certification for Accessibility and Web Design, 2020

• Front-End Web Development certification, General Assembly, 2015

• Agile for Teams certification­, 2014

• BA in Literature, University of California Santa Cruz, 1987

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