Meet the PWW Creative Team

Creative Team Spotlight

Meet our User Experience and User Interface creative team members

People often ask, “What exactly is the difference between UX and UI designers?” We thought we’d take this opportunity to answer that question, and introduce our User Experience (UX) and User Interface (UI) designers in this Creative team spotlight.

Multiple perspectives are crucial to designing good solutions. The Portland Webworks/GovWebworks Creative team is highly collaborative, with UX and UI designers represented on most projects.

So, what’s the difference between UX and UI?

  • User Experience (UX) team members are involved in requirements gathering, research, business process analysis, user testing, and low-fi wireframe solution designs.
  • User Interface (UI) designers are responsible for exploring and developing new styles, branding, look and feel, high-fi page designs, as well as logos and other aspects of a site or agency’s brand.

What UX does:

  • Stakeholder interviews
  • User research: planning and execution, data analysis and reporting, site analytics, user testing, and heuristic analysis
  • UX strategy and content strategy
  • Requirements gathering and documentation
  • Content cataloging and mapping for migration and migration planning
  • Information architecture exploration, testing, diagramming
  • Workflow diagramming and business process definition
  • Low-fi wireframe page designs
  • Project and design briefs
  • Accessibility contributions

What UI does:

  • Mood boards and creative exploration
  • Logo exploration and development
  • Graphic design direction, iteration
  • High-fi page designs
  • Style guides including interactive states and mobile frameworks
  • Design quality assurance and testing
  • Accessibility contributions

How we work

The Creative team crafts both low-fidelity wireframes for UX exploration as well as high-fidelity page designs for UI refinement. These deliverables guide the website implementation and accompanying style guide. Our process begins with business analysis and collaborative visioning sessions with stakeholders, followed by a comprehensive content audit, legacy analytics review, and end-user research to inform functionality.

Once discovery is done, we create the information architecture to define the navigation scheme for the site. Next we iteratively explore design concepts with wireframes, prototypes, and mockups. Designs are rigorously tested and validated by end-users, providing data-driven justification. The finalized designs are compiled into a project brief, offering formalized guidance for design, content strategy, and governance.

After the initial design phase, and once the site development Scrum team is up and running, a single Creative team member stays on the project team to maintain design integrity. Project teams can ask the Creative rep any creative question, but depending on the nature of the question, and whether it’s about a low- or high-fi design, they may involve another member of the team for the answer.

Creative responsibilities on the Scrum team include:

  • Attend standups and other Scrum ceremonies
  • Contribute to backlog management and refinement
  • Answer questions raised by the team and collaborate with other Creative team members to address needs
  • Update and add to design deliverables in response to evolving requirements during development
  • React to implementations, provide guidance, and conduct design quality assurance testing

Now that you have a better understanding of who does what on the PWW Creative team, here are some more details about the team members themselves.

We look forward to working with you!

MEET OUR TEAM

Sarah Crossman: Director of User Experience

Sarah Crossman

Sarah started as Director of User Experience in 2019, after almost four years as a project manager, and has worked on several projects including:

  • California Department of Health Care Services, Advocates for Human Potential
  • Colorado Judicial Branch
  • Idaho Child Support (Nexi)
  • Idaho Tobacco Project
  • Minnesota Office of Higher Education (MyHigherEd)
  • Missouri Department of Transportation
  • Mississippi Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks
  • Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office
  • Sappi (D7)

“I love the collaborative approach we take to every project and the way we help one another deliver our best work. In recent months our creative services have involved more content strategy and migration-related work too, so we’ve welcomed short-term content specialists to the team as well.”

Highlights from Sarah’s background include:

  • Certified Scrum Master and Product Owner, through Scrum Alliance
  • Certified Professional for Usability and User Experience – Foundation Level, through UXQB, the International Usability and UX Qualification Board
  • Project Manager, IDEXX Laboratories
  • Project Manager, Spurwink
  • Boston University MS, Project Management
  • University of Maine BS, Elementary Education

USER EXPERIENCE

Brett Kana: User Experience Designer

Brett Kana

Brett started as a User Experience Analyst in May of 2021 and has worked on the following projects:

  • Colorado Avalanche Information Center (case study)
  • Florida Turnpike Enterprise, Sunpass.com (case study)
  • Fermilab News Website Redesign
  • Idaho Department of Health and Welfare, idalink application modernization (details)
  • Inclusiv Financial Data Analytics Platform
  • Maine Department of Labor Virtual Job Center
  • Martin’s Point Healthcare

“I appreciate how close knit and collaborative the Creative team is. We have each others’ backs and are always sharing new ideas and resources with each other to boost our collective capacity. I bring a very analytical approach from my quality assurance and business analyst background, but also enjoy thinking creatively. I try to design with a Product Owner hat on.”

Highlights from Brett’s background include:

Tracy Totman: User Experience Designer

Tracy Totman

Tracy started as a User Experience Designer in October of 2021, and has worked on the following projects:

  • Center for New Energy Economy (AEL Tracker & SPOT for Clean Energy)
  • Financial Authority of Maine (MELendPortal)
  • Idaho Sound Beginnings
  • Maine Department of Education (MOOSE – Maine Online Opportunities for Sustained Education and RREV / EnGiNE platforms)
  • Mississippi Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks
  • Maryland Health Care Commission
  • Missouri Department of Commerce and Insurance
  • North Dakota Department of Health & Human Services and Department of Transportation
  • Washington Public Disclosure Commission

“I love working collaboratively to combine artistic touches with user-friendly solutions to find the perfect balance between looks and functionality, making designs that not only look great but also make the user experience top-notch.”

Highlights from Tracy’s background include:

USER INTERFACE

Peter Clark: User Interface Designer

Peter Clark

Peter started as a User Interface Designer in 2015, and has worked on the following projects:

  • California Department of Health Care Services, Advocates for Human Potential
  • Idaho Department of Health and Welfare, idalink application modernization (details)
  • Maine Department of Labor Virtual Job Center
  • Martin’s Point Healthcare
  • Maryland Health Care Commission
  • Minnesota Office of Higher Education (MyHigherEd)
  • PWW/GWW websites & new business marketing
  • Washington Public Disclosure Commission

“It’s been a pleasure working with our team of creative thinkers at PWW. I think we all bring something unique to the table and accentuate our team’s goals when we are involved on a client project, whether that is detailed business analysis or a thoughtful graphic approach to a UI interface.”

Highlights from Peter’s background include:

  • Co-Founder / Creative Director Fern House Co, branding and illustration for small businesses
  • Freelance Senior Designer, Digitas Health (Philadelphia)
  • University of the Arts BFA, Multimedia

Hunter McPeak: User Interface Designer

Hunter McPeak

Hunter started as a User Experience Designer/User Interface Designer in January 2022, and has worked on the following projects:

  • California Department of Health Care Services, Advocates for Human Potential
  • Colorado Avalanche Information Center
  • Colorado Judicial Department
  • Finance Authority of Maine
  • Idaho Tobacco Project
  • Maine Department of Education (MOOSE – Maine Online Opportunities for Sustained Education)
  • Missouri Department of Commerce and Insurance
  • Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office

“I enjoy working in a small professional group like the PWW Creative team. The design team respects what everyone brings to the table and I feel extremely comfortable with what I can provide. This coupled with everyone’s drive to be better is something that I find extremely refreshing. I’ve found a home and a calling in creating beautiful site designs and I’m always trying to learn where design is heading.”

Highlights from Hunter’s background include:

  • Designer, side sea, Hopsie Inc
  • Graphic Designer, Olympia Sports
  • Project Manager / Jr. Designer Machete Los Angeles
  • University of Maine, New Media, Design and Business

 

Join our team

We’d love to hear from you. We have a variety of remote and hybrid positions available.

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