Personal & Contact Details
Telephone: +1 404 319 9840
Email: christopher.ledantec@gmail.com
Employment Experience
Senior Interaction Designer
NetBeans was purchased by Sun Microsystems on October 18, 1999. My responsibilities shifted to full-time User Interface design...
Java SE Deployment, Lead Designer:
I was the lead interaction designer for Java SE deployment. I managed all deployment touch points -from the java.com web experience to the rich client Java Web Start deployment technology. Orchestrating work across several functional groups, I delivered complex deployment solutions focusing on improving the transition between technologies.
User Interface Review Board, Brand and Visual Design Lead :
I was the principle visual design and brand compliance designer / on the User Interface Review Board (UIRB). The UIRB started out as a gateway to help ensure Sun’s administration applications met baseline usability and consistency requirements. As part of the team that was first to implement Sun’s revised visual identity, I was invited to join the UIRB and develop the brand review process as well as provided visual design support for products that lacked immediate access to a designer.
Project Buz:
Project Buz [sic] was a look at ad-hoc collaboration. I was involved as the lead designer exploring how to take the project from the laboratory to the customer. Project Buz [sic] focused on integrating many of the established communications services already present and augmenting them with improved peripheral awareness, integration between applications and communication channels, and a shifted focus from how we communicate to with whom and to what end we are communicating.
NetBeans IDE:
My responsibilities started with a range of functional and interaction design for the NetBeans Java Integrated Development Environment (IDE). I created and tested prototypes, authored more than a dozen complete interface specifications, ran two to three usability studies each year, and researched current best practices for design and customer plete update and rewrite of the UI Styleguide.
As the first UI designer to work in the Prague office I was instrumental in bringing a new level of user centered focus to a group of engineers who had no prior experience with methodologies like user centered design, usability studies, interview and heuristic evaluation. This was the first major success I achieved as a UI designer in the Prague office.
More information on the NetBeans project can be found at http://www.netbeans.org
Web, Print, Brand Development
I worked with a study abroad program to establish their presence in the market place. I art directed and implemented all web and print materials. The range of work included a promotional poster for US university campuses, all applications and admittance forms, the web site, and brand elements for business cards, letterhead and t-shirts.
Infrastructure Design Engineer
After completing my degree at the University of Arizona I moved to Prague, Czech Republic, to work for a Java tools startup company. My initial responsibilities included designing and implementing company infrastructure as the chief network architect, designing the user interface for the company's web storefront, and sitting in as a technical writer, customer support representative, and web content developer as the different needs arose.
Student Consultant
I designed, implemented and deployed tools that supported the program of 200+ consultants. The tools were web-based forms with a database back end for time reporting, knowledge sharing, placing orders, and report generating. Everything was based on Visual Basic and Outlook forms.
Program Manager Intern _ Social Computing Group:
I was responsible for developing application and user interface specifications for a network collabora- tion and distance learning application. I worked on an extension that would facilitate "town meeting" scenarios. The only remaining vestige of work I was involved in is Hutch World, found at the MSR web site:
http://research.microsoft.com/scg/ . http://research.microsoft.com/scg/
Has Skills
An abbreviated guide to what I have at my fingertips.
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Education
Bachelor of Science; Computer Engineering
Further Education: Communicating with the Customer
Random Bits
Traveled from 1/2001 to 6/2001 through Australia, Southeast Asia and India.
Lived in Prague from 6/1999 to the present with a short stint in Australia from 2/2004 to 5/2005.
Organization Memberships: ACM SIGCHI
References
Upon Request
Masthead image derived from: Stairs In Memory © Severin Koller for openphoto.net CC:Attribution