FEATURED WORK

MyFamily.com

UI design lead for the redesign of a social app I'd use with my own family? Sign me up!

Classmates.com

UI and UX design for this well-known social network with 40 million members

I hired Dak at two companies successively because of his design polish and demonstrated initiative in crafting beautiful and usable interfaces.

Anthony Colfelt

Creative Director, MyFamily.com

SOCIAL APPLICATION DESIGN

MyFamily.com

Family dashboard design concept greets members with a summary of most recent activity – the 'family dinner conversation'

MyFamily.com is a family-focused social network service of The Generations Network (Ancestry.com). Facing a new wave of Web 2.0 rivals on the eve of the site’s tenth anniversary, a strategic redesign effort was launched. MyFamily 2.0 would be run “like a startup” as a satellite office in order to incubate fresh talent and ideas.

When creative director Anthony Colfelt approached me to be lead designer, I couldn’t say no. This was an exciting, rare opportunity to design a site with serious viral loop potential – one that I might be proud to share and enjoy with my own family.

My Role

Lead user interface designer
Experience strategy & feature ideation
User experience design for one of three Agile teams utilizing User-Centered Design methods

The Challenge

Appealing to families means designing for users of every age and proficiency level. A family site needs to be simple but not simplistic, since grandma has to understand and enjoy using it as much as her computer guru grandson. We approached this challenge through iterative design: Research, design, test, repeat.

Aesthetics and usability aside, making the space dynamic enough to encourage daily use was our most fundamental challenge. Without fresh content, there’s just not much to do on most family sites. They seemed more like online museums – something people would visit occasionally but not regularly. To create a sticky experience “that users visit often,” we needed to understand and develop an experience strategy centered on how families communicate, interact, and play together.

Our biggest competitor? Email and cell phones. Both are fast, efficient, and everyone knows how to use them. To be successful, MyFamily’s features needed to be just as easy to use, but offer something more valuable. The solution? Use phones and email to our advantage. For example, we allowed people to use their computer with any phone to create narrated slideshows from photos they uploaded or emailed to their site.

Elevating the Concept

To truly capture the market, I considered it vital for MyFamily.com to provide a one-stop destination that was more "experience" than "product." I proposed ideas to transform our site into an interactive family resource center. Specific proposals included a live chat feature that persists on every page, a dynamic bulletin board members can link to from their cell phones, an emergency alert service to connect family members in times of crisis, and a dynamic family calendar synced with online retail partners to enable members to access gift registries and make purchases for special events.

Dak's attention to detailed design ensures he produces work of the highest quality. With a keen eye for product development opportunities, he is able to envision how features and interfaces should work.

Anthony Colfelt

Creative Director, MyFamily.com

SOCIAL APPLICATION DESIGN

Classmates.com

I led the redesign of the Reunion section. There were at least a dozen user states to design with multiple points of entry.

As a user interface and user experience designer at Classmates.com, I worked on a wide variety of projects, from full-on feature development as creative lead with shared project management responsibilities, to purely production-oriented needs for Classmates' self-promotion and sponsored campaign efforts. I also frequently coordinated with business development managers to align business requirements with established brand guidelines.

Dak designed large-scale products and carried them from inception through usability and development. ... He would be a valuable addition to any design team.

Bob O'Keefe

VP Creative Services, Classmates.com

WEB, PRINT & PRESENTATION DESIGN + PROJECT MANAGEMENT

Callison

I created Flash-based templates for rapid development of microsites – sometimes launched same-day.

Seattle-based Callison is one of the world's largest architectural design firms, with high-profile projects spanning the globe. As the sole Marketing Communications designer, my role was diverse and demanding, requiring broad design expertise and resourcefulness.

With style guidelines already established, I ensured consistency in brand application and coordinated the firm's front-line client pursuit and presentation items. My role emphasized project management and team coordination, and my proven ability was rewarded with responsibility and autonomy.

What I Did

Improved the overall quality of printed marketing collateral and streamlined production cost and time, by changing established practices to incorporate better technology and standards
Completely overhauled all digital presentation methods, simplifying and customizing them to greatly improve the firm's client presentation capabilities
Managed freelance designers and handled relationships with printing companies, including sign-off authority on press runs

Dak demonstrated a creativity and dedication to detail that drove many of our firm level presentations and set a tone of professionalism for the communications team.

Bill Karst, FAIA

CEO, Callison

IDENTITY & BRANDING

Various Clients

Logo design for SONO contemporary furniture

I've designed a wide variety of logos and identity systems. More samples are coming soon.