JenStrickland.design listening for the right “it”
before we build it right

Portfolio

Hello! I’m Jen, a UX Lead in D.C.

Currently, I serve the public interest:

• U.S. federal agencies
  Human-Centered Design & Accessibility Engineer with The MITRE Corporation
• Local Government
  Volunteer product lead, designer, researcher, and developer with U.S. Digital Response
• Community
  Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging Chair of the Technologists for the Public Good Leadership Committee
• Standards
  Outside of work, in 2019 I was selected as an Invited Expert with the Worldwide Web Consortium (W3C) and actively serve as Chair of the Equity Community Group and participant of the Accessibility Guidelines Working Group (AGWG) developing the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). As time allows I’m also a participant of Positive Work Environment (PWE), Process, CSS, Web Performance, Immersive Web, and Spatial Data Working Groups, Cognitive Disabilities (COGA) Task Force, and Sustainable Web Design Community Group

Recently, I led design for Fortune 500 clients with a boutique design consultancy and supported the VA.gov modernization as a Senior Designer & Accessibility Specialist.

Previously, I ran my own small business and contracted for enterprise, government, start-ups, and non-profits, such as Fidelity Investments, Akamai Technology, Sabre Hospitality Solutions, Partners In Health, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the State of Massachusetts, Harvard’s National Preparedness Leadership Initiative (a joint effort of the Kennedy School & Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health), and the Boston Area Rape Crisis Center.

I steward best practices for human-centered design, accessibility, and inclusive design through technology products and services. Also, I speak on accessibility, inclusion, design, development, and web performance impact on user experience. Reach out, I’m available for creative consulting, coaching, writing, and speaking opportunities.

I build stakeholder relationships, earning the nickname of “stakeholder whisperer,” while stewarding human-centered design throughout teams, including the C-suite.

Much of my work over the past decade is under N.D.A. Please email me if you’re interested in more case studies or other types of work or skills. I may be able to provide an overview (while respecting my N.D.A.s).

“Jen is the type of Lead Designer that Project Managers hope to partner with on their projects.”

“Jen is an innovative designer who makes bold moves that could easily be risky in someone else’s hands. The best designers I’ve worked with are like that.”

Web Apps

“Jen has a powerful combination of an acute design aesthetic as well as a high-level ability to develop web content using HTML, CSS, and client-side scripting.”

Websites

“ … a talented mediator between design, development, and business stakeholders … Jen is a great team player who strives to do the right thing. They are an advocate for the user.”

Small Sampling of Service Design, Branding, Identity, Logo Design, Presentations, Print

Culture change is my passion.

In modernization efforts, much attention is given to technology and tools. I include the people we aim to serve in solution design — “Nothing about us without us.” Ensuring the human element is considered in modernization projects is crucial to success. An ideal UX process would include thorough discovery to understand the problem space, before considering solutions.

Code = loose sketching!

Just because it’s code doesn’t mean it can’t be thrown away, or that it took a lot of time to create. For digital projects, I often move from whiteboard or paper sketches to sketch and prototype in HTML/CSS/JS to quickly render functional prototypes and get an idea into users’ hands. For responsive projects, this is really helpful. Direct user observation through rapid prototyping is the most valuable method to uncover effective outcomes.

Please email me if you’re interested in more case studies.