HCI   |   Interaction Design  |   Information Architecture   |   Experience Design |   Visualization

Dustin A. Kirk   								
dustin.kirk@gmail.com								
(843) 276-3456

Online Portfolio: www.dustinkirk.com

Summary

As a multi-disciplinary Interaction Designer, my scholastic research and professional focus is on creating systems and electronic interfaces that are both effective and efficient. I am particularly interested in improving users’ experiences through data-mining and context awareness. I bring a depth and breadth of knowledge in people, technology, and design, as well as a passion for business, innovation, and entrepreneurship.

Key Strengths
   · Passion and enthusiasm for designing smart and creative solutions to complex problems
   · Skills to take designs from pie-in-the-sky ideas to a working proof of concept
   · Attention to detail and the desire to create rich user experiences

Employment
   Hewlett-Packard								San Diego, CA
   R&D Software Development (Photosmart) - Interaction Designer			11/2006 - Present
   · Collaborate with multi-disciplinary teams around the world to design HP web & software services
   · Use design skills to balance forces on projects created by business, marketing, and technical restraints
   · Develop innovative solutions to foster positive user experiences around web printing.
   · Increase usability through testing, analyzing metrics, and incorporating preferred HCI/UCD methodologies

   Benefitfocus.com								Charleston, SC 
   Product Management - Interaction Designer					08/2004 - 11/2006
   · Assess business requirements and develop software interface specifications
   · Design and prototype interfaces incorporating new features into the existing software architecture
   · Collaborate with engineers, business analysts, and customers to add new features and increase usability

   MITRE									Bedford, MA 
   Department of e-Services - UI Designer / Engineer (internship)		06/2003 - 08/2003
   · Designed & Developed ICE, a new ubiquitous meeting and collaboration system
   · Documented and prototyped interaction process for scheduling, prepping, and processing meetings

Education
     Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute 						Troy, NY
     M.S. - Human Computer Interaction (HCI)					Graduated May 2008

     MIT Sloan School of Management						Cambridge, MA
     Entrepreneurship Development Program					Completed Jan. 2008

     Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute 						Troy, NY
     B.S. - Computer Science and Psychology 					08/2000 - 12/2003
     Minds & Machines Program							Graduated Dec. 2003

Personal Projects
     Volcanic Blog	  	Designed & developed an original and very efficient blogging tool
     Dantoy Design Strategy  	Conducted ethnographic research to identify potential new product solutions
     Personal Zeitgeist		Innovated on the visualization and utilization of web browser history
     CONTACT			Designed & developed a highly scalable contact management system

Skill Sets
   Modeling, Diagrams, & Prototyping Methods
   · UCD design practices, Observation, Personas, Use Cases, Task Analysis, Flow Diagrams, OVID, Story Boards, Wire frames, Paper Prototypes, Interactive Prototypes, Mock-ups, Physical Prototypes, Low-fidelity, High-fidelity, Composites…

   Research Design, Testing, & Analysis
   · Experimental methods, Statistics, Survey design, Questionnaires, Interviews, Talk-aloud, Walk-through, Observation, Heuristic Evaluation, Focus Groups, results analysis…

   Prototyping Tools, Programming, & Scripting
   · Paper & Pencil, Cardboard & Duct Tape, Cinderblocks & Plywood, White-boarding, Paint Shop Pro, Adobe Photoshop, Macromedia Dreamweaver, Macromedia Flash, Sketch-Up, AJAX, Action Script, Java Script, PHP, ASP, SQL, XML, HTML, DHTML, CSS, DOM, C++, Visual Basic…

   Interest Areas
   · Augmented Reality, Artificial Intelligence, Data-mining, Visualization, Context Awareness, Ubiquitous Computing, Video Game Design, Reverse Engineering, Immersive Computing, Social computing, Mobile computing, Large screen displays, 3D Environments…