Cover Letter
With over eight years of experience working in the Internet and New Media industry, designing and developing Web sites and Web-based applications for both consumers and businesses, my skill set is one of great diversity. Most recently I've spent the past three years designing user interfaces for the financial services industry and the collaborative software development industry. This consisted of overhauling the UI and look-and-feel of their entire suite of Web-based applications. I was also involved in integrating third-party branding (co-branding) with the company's products and services.
I am formally trained in graphic design and have years of experience designing user interfaces for Web applications as well as integrating complex, browser-agnostic, front-end design with a robust, scalable, and flexible back-end (I understand both). My responsibilities also included user experience research, polling users and clients, and working with the engineering team to ensure the user experience was maintained during product development.
A born leader, I am the person who will be able to communicate between your visually-oriented designers as well as your analytically-thinking developers and programmers. My design philosophy is to keep things simple and unfettered and to not deliver a Web application UI that is difficult to use or overly complex. Simplicity and minimalism in design has been proven to work without sacrificing functionality or aesthetics.
My background in telecommunications management, computer science, creative writing, and graphic design makes me the ideal candidate for this position. My mix of technical skills, information architecture knowledge, graphic design skills, and the understanding of how they complement each other makes me a rare find among job candidates. My years of experience as an interactive designer and information architect allows me to wear many hats.
I am a leading pioneer of the "blog" format for news-oriented Web sites. I co-founded the leading mailing list for the discussion and development of content management systems (www.cms-list.org). I was an early adopter and developer of the Mozilla technologies, and am an outspoken advocate for open source technologies.
I am well-known in the Web design and development industry for the work and technical writing I have done. My presence on your team will lend credibility and knowledge to your company.
I look forward to hearing from you.
