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Our profiles
Amy Varga
Amy Varga has 5 years experience in user interface development and user experience design.
Profile
She is extremely passionate about her career in user experience design for digital interfaces. She has BSc degree in multimedia and 5 years commercial experience designing and developing usable web interfaces for desktop and mobile devices. Her technical understanding and experience in web development allows her to design intelligently and empathise and collaborate with designers and developers. Her user experience skills extend to task analyses, user persona definitions, user interaction mapping, usability specifications, design principles, prototyping, wire framing, usability tests and heuristic evaluations. She is a highly organised, articulate and motivated individual capable of working alone or in a team. Her blog allows her to demonstrate recent skills and best practises in her field.
Skills
- User experience design: User persona definition, task analysis, user interaction mapping, wireframing, prototyping, usability testing and heuristic evaluations.
- Structure and style: An understanding of well architected informattion and semantic strucutre in interface design. Expert in Progressively enhanced CSS utilising CSS 1, 2 and 3 as well as the SASS CSS Meta language.
- Markup: 5 years commercial experience in developing progressively enhanced validating, browser, platform and device compatible web pages in XHTML and HTML using XSLT, JSTL, JSP using Apache Struts and Apache Tiles.
- Programming: Solid experience in OO native JavaScript and utilising the jQuery framework and plugins. Ability to program in PHP and using the Codeigniter framework. An understanding of the MVC prinicples in programming.
- Accessibility: Development of accessible web pages as specified by WCAG 1 and 2 and utilising ARIA.
- Project management and maintenance: Management of projects in an AGILE SCRUM environment maintained with CVS, SVN or GIT.
- Research: Constantly keeping up to date with emerging skills, techniques and technologies in web development.
Experience
Ondemand!, London
User interface developer / User experience designer
I am involved in all aspects of user experience design and user interface development for multiple devices including mobiles, desktop and set top boxes. The techniques I used included persona definitions, task analyses, usability specifications, design principles, wire framing, prototying and in house do-it-yourself usability testing.
I was responsible for the development of the front end for the recently launched 3UK mobile website. The mobile website is built using XHMTL 1.0 MP, CSS 1 and 2 and native OO Javascript. It serves all mobiles from low end to smart phones. The website is built on a Java platform and uses one code base to serve multiple devices using Apache Tiles. The desktop version of the website uses HTML 5 and progressively enhanced CSS and JavaScript.
I have been instrumental in implementing a formal process for new product development and an Agile development culture. Projects are managed as AGILE and maintained using SVN. View showcase
Virgin Media, London
User interface developer
Working with a designer, information architect and lead developer, the objective was to improve the Virgin Media Shorts website so that all submitted videos could be published and viewed by users from the interface. This required a more robust backend, better overall performance, improved design and usability and the addition of social networking functionality to engage the user.
As user interface developer I moved all front end pages to a PHP CodeIgniter platform. Web pages are built in XHML, CSS 1, 2 and 3. I used the jQuery framework, plugins and widgets (validation, UI, countdown, Juitter and SWF uploader) to minimise development time. Minification and combining CSS and JavaScript files optimised performance of web pages. I built the film carousel in jQuery. This was particularly challenging as it was the only way for users to browse and search for films. The project was managed as AGILE and maintained using SVN. View showcase
Big Fish, London
Front end web developer
I worked on the Magento e-commerce platfrom creating custom modules for required e-commerce functionality that did not form part of Magento core. View showcase
BT Library, UK Web Archive, London
User interface developer
The UK Web Archive allocated 5 weeks to redo their website. Their current website was built using tables and was completely unusable. After understanding the website objectives, target market and task analysis, I wire-framed and paper-prototyped the users journey through the website. Using these I designed and approved a set of reusable template pages which I developed in to validating, browser and platform compatible XHTML pages using Freemarker templates (Java) and jQuery. Informal usability studies provided feedback for final improvements. View showcase
BT Fresca, High Wycombe
Front end web developer
Built on the BT Fresca e-commerce platform and working in teams of 2 to 4, I was responsible for implementing XHTML pages that met approved designs (pixel perfect) and functionality with a focus on user centered design. Built on a Java platform I used JSP and Apache Struts to build validating, browser and platform compatible and accessible XHTML pages. Extensive use of jQuery and AJAX improved the user experience View showcase
Rocklands Boulders, South Africa
Web developer
Seeing the opportunity for an online presence I was responsible for all aspects of the website from opportunity analysis, wire framing, mock-up of designs, development of web page templates, content management, search engine optimisation and final delivery of the website.
The website is built on a Codeigniter CMS and uses MySQL. XHTML pages are validating, browser and platform compatible. The booking system makes extensive use of jQuery, AJAX and JSON for improved usability and is integrated with PayPal for online payments. View showcase
Tangozebra / Doubleclick, London
User interface developer
Working in a team of 2 we were responsible for all aspects of interface development on all Tangozebra web applications. We developed interfaces from scratch and I was involved in all aspects of user experience design and interface development including conceptualisation, user task analysis, persona definitions, front end development, usability studies (using Morae software) as well as the ongoing managment and maintenance of the Tambor application. XHTML pages were built using JSTL, JSP and XSLT. We implemented native JavaScript, later jQuery to improve the user experience.
Education
First class Bsc (Hons) Multimedia Productions (76%)
Nottingham Trent University, England
The Multimedia degree builds on the fundamental concepts and principles of producing and managing multimedia projects from conceptualisation of ideas through implementation and development of projects, to final presentation. Choosing to specialise in web development provided me with a solid foundation in front end web development.
Quick contact
Skype: amy.varga
Phone : +44 (0) 207 381 5954
Mobile: +44 (0) 753 227 5361