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About Me

Designer > Who Is a Future Thinker

About ClowardDesign

Usability — Goals — Collaboration

"Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it."

"Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works."

—by Steve Jobs

Some of my Accomplishments—

  • Mobile App— At OmniMetrix collaboraton - wireframes - custom prototypes. (*App is providing live helpful data saving customers valuable dollars.)
  • Style Guide— At Nordson created Style Guide at Nordson. (Saves teams and worldwide branches time and money. *$16K / month.)
  • Icon Library— At Nordson created custom Icon Library — SVG & PNG formats to assist branding. [250+ icons] (Saves worldwide branches time and money. *$16K / month.)
  • Mobile App— At GA Department of Revenue collaboraton - wireframes - custom prototypes. (*App helps GA residents check their tax refund status.)
  • Websites— At Rubbermaid chose Cloward, to be a freelance UX-UI Designer, who created wireframes and designed prototypes, and designed a custom website template. (*Usability is 30% better from a cleaner, more user-friendly website.)
  • Websites— At NFL chose Cloward, to be the freelance UX-UI Designer or Web Designer. He made major updates to the User Interface or UI (layout) of the Arizona Cardinals website. Major updates were completed on their main website.
  • Websites— At AT & T chose Cloward, to be a freelance UX-UI Designer, to design better flow and usage on their website. Templates completed for advertising purposes. (*Page time, retention and usability is much better.)
  • Websites— At Donated Dental chose Cloward for new website and shared limitations. We appreciate his guidance every step of the journey and his attention to detail. We appreciate his creativity & flexibility on adjustments. [Outstanding results] Websites in English and Spanish!
  • Web-based Apps— At FedEx created three (3) internal websites tracking server information for more uptime and valuable information. (*Saves $32K / month.)
Successful UX Research
Seven Top Benefits to Adopt UX Research:
  • Increases revenue
  • Reduces development costs
  • Saves time (designing, developing & deploying)
  • Provides competitive advantage
  • Increases customer satisfaction and loyalty
  • Increases conversion rates
  • Uncovers customer's PAIN points
Value of UX Research
Successful UX Research

UX [User Experience] Design

  • UX Design (User Experience)
  • UX Research including data analysis
  • Usability Testing
  • Wireframes and Brainstorming
  • Low & High Fidelity Prototypes
  • Custom Graphics & Font choices
  • Information Architecture (IA)

UI [User Interface] Design

  • UI Design (User Interface)
  • User-Centered Design (consistent & intuitive)
  • CSS 3 (branding styles)
  • HTML 5 (structure)
  • Font Awesome (Icon font design)
  • Bootstrap/ JQuery Library (Framework)
  • SEO Design (page 1 & 2 of Google)


Design Formula—

1(User Experience) The users want a 'Good - User - Experience.' The users want to understand, [what are your services or products] and use them with ease or have a very user-friendly experience from step-A to step-B and to step-Z.
2(Navigation) The navigation must be easy.
3(Content) The content must be understood by the average Joe. The content should be written simply, and never complicate your visitors or future customers. (*Do not make the user think.)
4(Speed) The pages or sections, must download fast.
5(Aesthetics) The website and/ or app, must be attractive.

In summation, the user experience must be a 'Satisfied - User - Experience.' The wording on your website should be bold and powerful, not complex and hard to understand. For example, your list of services or what your company is about should be easily read on the homepage. (The user should not click 2-3 pages, to understand the companies services or products.) The navigation and flow must be very easy, for the user. And, the site or app must be fast, engaging, and intuitive.

I am your UX-UI Designer (Web Designer) to design your app, software, or website. Many companies want a custom solution. Fact is, only about 50% of websites are responsive. This means, they should fit or scale to fit the device . . . your SmartPhone or Tablet. (*55% of website traffic is from a SmartPhone. This could mean companies are losing potential customers.)

Successful Products Start with UX

Usability

Yes... we all want the users of our software or customers of our apps or websites to use our products with ease and have that good user experience. One of the main user goals and company goals is for the products to be user-friendly. Customers and potential customers must know what to click and where to go. They must get from step-A to step-B and also from step-A to step-Z.

Good usability starts with UX design principles. This starts with understanding goals and requirements. Then the next UX steps are to think like the user and design the wireframes. This tells us designers where the components can be or should be. Then the next UX stage is prototypes. These are visual and the components now live in the grid. Now we can keep the collaboration that we started with in building a good user experience and a satisfied user experience for the end user. *Yes... once the beta versions or test versions are complete we can do some test runs or usability testing by using test results, data or analytics that will provide some insight on how to fine tune and make adjustments to the prototypes. These adjustments are necessary for the success of the end product.

Portfolio
UX and UI know the difference

Crafting Good UX

1) Goals — This involves including the company’s goals of the product with clear objectives. This also involves ideas for the expectations of the end user or “user goals.” (This must be well defined.) This relates to the customer journey or user experience and should include their possible emotion or behavior. Yes, we want to design and establish a good and [satisfied] user experience.

  • Understanding the Product (and its related requirements)
  • Company Goals
  • User Goals

2) Discover — This involves the meat and potatoes of User Experience Design from the starting line. This means interviews and specific questions asked to the product owners, stakeholders, and if possible the end user or customers. This means performing and documenting user research and details of competitor analysis. This also involves designing the journey map or “screen map” that includes the big picture or taking a product from step A to Z. And just importantly user stories are created and requirements are defined. The requirements provide the necessary details for wireframes and custom prototypes.

  • Documented User Research (UX Research)
  • Q & A Sessions
  • Competitor Analysis
  • User Journey or Screen Map
  • Wireframing

3) Define — This involves adjusting and refining the wireframes and prototypes. Presentations and ideation is constant for designing the best possible user experience. After collaboration and stakeholder approvals, the final prototypes are combed and presented to development for functionality. Collaboration is constant now to provide a smooth transition from the design stage to the development stage. Now development will add the code-of-choice for the software, app or website.

  • Define the IA (Information Architecture)
  • Adjust Wireframes
  • Ideate Prototypes
  • Design the UI (User Interface) which includes layout, component placement, typography, icons, images, videos, etc. [*The branding is applied to these prototypes.]
  • Collaboration
  • Transition to Development

Portfolio
Data and Analytics


Crafting UX Design vs Creating UX Design

User Experience & User Interface Design Stages

The user experience is mainly defined by the UX designers. However it is a collective team effort. Content is finalized and presented in visual prototypes and sometimes clickable prototypes. Upon iterations and approved prototypes this UX design stage moves to the UI design stage. Now prototypes are developed in specific frameworks like Angular, React, Vue, PHP, JAVA, Python, Node, .NET, etc. Then code is applied for functionality. There also must be a smooth transition between design and development. This ensures the end product portrays the approved prototypes and the UI or user interface is professional, clean, modern, and functioning properly for the success of the product.

‘UX Design’ stage:

  • UX (User Experience) Research
  • IA (Information Architecture)— Flow, Navigation, Menu Structure
  • Wireframes and Prototypes
  • Optimization of Graphics
  • Color Scheme
  • Font Usage (why em’s and sans serif typeface)
  • Interactivity
  • Personas
  • UX Journey
  • User Friendly Experience
  • Satisfied User Experience
  • Testing

‘UI Development’ stage:

  • UI Development Research
  • Functionality
  • Responsiveness
  • HTML5, CSS3
  • Sass and LESS
  • Javascript
  • JQuery LIB, Bootstrap LIB
  • JSCompress and Javascript Minifier
  • Angular JS, React JS, Node JS
  • JAVA, PHP, .NET
  • Debugging
  • Testing

Portfolio
Wireframes and Prototypes

Accomplishments

1999

Marriott International/ Marriott hotel chose Cloward, as a freelance Graphic and UX-UI Designer to create custom rug designs and to edit their main website.

2000

Aquent chose Cloward, to be one of their many talented freelance Graphic Designers and UX-UI Designers. He created multiple brochures, posters and websites.

2000

Actus Lend Lease chose Cloward, to be a freelance Sr. Graphic Designer. He helped create an extensive long useful catalog with other Graphic Designers and a Marketing Director.

2007

NFL chose Cloward, to be the freelance UX-UI Designer or Web Designer. He made major updates to the User Interface or UI (layout) of the Arizona Cardinals website. He also updated many pages of the website.

2007

High-Tech Institute chose Cloward, to be the SME or Subject Matter Expert, to create the Multimedia curriculum. (He was chosen from a pool of 40 people.)

2010

Rubbermaid chose Cloward, to be a freelance UX-UI Designer, who created wireframes and designed prototypes, and designed a custom website template.

2011

Fruit of the Loom chose Cloward, to be a freelance UX-UI Designer, who created wireframes and designed prototypes, and designed a custom website template.

2011

AT&T chose Cloward, to be a freelance UX-UI Designer, who created wireframes and designed prototypes, and designed custom website templates. Templates for the home page and the internal pages and another for landing pages for advertising purposes.

2012

FedEx chose Cloward, to be a UX-UI Designer, who created wireframes and designed prototypes, and designed three custom websites with PHP Developers.

2017

OmniMetrix chose Cloward, to be a UX-UI Designer, who created wireframes and designed prototypes, and a custom mobile app.



Portfolio
Wireframes and Prototypes

data visualization charts

contactless or touchless Pay

Biography

(Short Biography 50 words or less)— I design interfaces for sites and apps. I love to design and develop Responsive Websites and Applications. I am known for being very detail oriented and proficient. I would like to share my 10+ years of experience and a breadth of knowledge in Multimedia. - -


This talented individual is a Native of LaGrange, GA. Jade Cloward graduated from Auburn University Montgomery with a major in Fine Art (with emphasis in Graphic and Web Design), and a minor in marketing. Principal works include custom logos, brochures, Flash files, websites, and mobile apps. Recent years' explorations have incorporated both Graphic and Web Design creations. [He is very versatile in the field of Graphic Communications or Multimedia or I.T.]. Seasoned, competitive, and a breadth of knowledge describe some of this UX-UI Designer. In early 1996, Cloward founded 'CLOWARD DESIGN.' Cloward creates 'Cutting-Edge' custom graphics, websites and mobile apps. And, Cloward still loves to design websites and mobile apps, with collaboration from the team.

A Graphic/Web Designer for over twenty years, Cloward has designed many custom logos, over 100 websites, developed curriculum for LaGrange High School and High-Tech Institute. Cloward, also created a Style Guide manual and Style Guide website, while at Nordson. Cloward also created a custom Icon Library with over 250 custom icons, while at Nordson. Some affiliations include Adobe, Aquent, Actus Lend Lease, FedEx, Liz Conces, Marriott International, NFL, and OmniMetrix.net.

Throughout his career, Cloward has been active in Graphic and Web Design. In 1999, he started teaching Graphic and Web Design out of his home. Web Design came into play during 1999 as a Sr. Graphic Designer at LaGrange Daily News. He has developed static, interactive and e-commerce websites.

He has worked in the Multimedia/ I.T. industry since 1996 until the present. He started his career in the newspaper industry as a Graphic Designer, taught as a Design/Animation Instructor at High-Tech Institute, completed freelance as a UX-UI Lead and his most recent role was a UX-UI Designer at SNAP INC.



Portfolio
UX & UI Designer

UX & UI Designer

Intangibles

  • Proficient
  • Reliable
  • Mentor
  • Leader
  • Compatible
  • Likes Learning
  • Goal Oriented



Portfolio
UX & UI Designer [intangibles]

Measure the ROI of UX

You may have heard of usability testing or user experience. Design and Development teams are turning to user testing to improve the holistic customer experience to ensure a [good-user-experience].

  • FACT: Measuring the ROI of UX is important to gaining stakeholder buy in and key to a successful product. (Part #1 = analyze the data. Part #2 = update the competitor analysis.)
  • FACT: Improve user experience to decrease the number of questions that support teams receive will also streamline internal operations. (Part #1 = an easy navigation menu. Part #2 = user-friendly software, app or website.)
  • FACT: Investing in UX improves customer satisfaction.



Portfolio
Surveys & Usability Testing


User Experience Design
User Experience Design
"Don't Make The User Think."



Services


Projects Completed
Cups of Tea
Pixels Created
Happy Clients