Brian Christiansen

Medford, Massachusetts

Experience

User Interface Engineering, Inc. 2006-Present

Director of Digital Media

Print and digital media design, Producer of Virtual Seminars and Podcasts, manager of information systems and technology. Research and writing on usability, web design and development.

Apple Computer, Inc. 2002-2006

Mac Genius

Technical Support, Customer Service, Certified Apple Technician.

- Helped people understand how to best use Apple products, solve technical issues and customer service, repair hardware and software. Developed various strategies to improve efficiency in our department. Equal parts technical guru, ambassador, evangelist and counselor. Member of one the highest ranked technical teams in Apple's worldwide retail division. Prior to being a technician I also served as a salesperson, trainer and public speaker. Participated in the rebuilding of an internal news web site, building the site with an open-source CMS, and all valid CSS + xHTML, and including RSS feeds.

rainweb.net - Present

Freelance Web Developer / Tech Consultant

- Co-develop and deploy sites for small businesses. Consult on deployment of web presence. Emphasize the importance of user experience, interaction design, accessibility and W3C web standards. Design, build, host. Co-designed our own dynamic content management system / weblog engine which uses open source and web standards. This system runs our weblog, Recently

University of Connecticut - Instructional Resource Center 1999-2001

Media Specialist

- Taught professors and graduate student in all things digital, from websites to video to digital photo and PowerPoint. One on one consultation on technical issues. Participated in group presentations for technical training. I also built the center's website, which has since been redesigned.

Education

Master's Program in Instructional Design

University of Massachusetts, Boston 2007-current

- Currently enrolled. Looking to discover new ways of integrating quality design (visual and interaction) and web standards to improve the technology used in academia and learning settings.

BA, Visual Communications

University of Connecticut, Storrs 1997-2001

- Individualized major, developed personally to incorporate graphic design, communications science and journalism.

Skills

- W3C-valid XHTML and CSS (code by hand)

- Understanding of most major open source web systems, XML, PHP, MySQL, JavaScript, RSS etc. Knowledge of Flash and many weblog/CMS systems.

- Podcasting: familiar with digital recording equipment, digital audio editing with GarageBand and QuickTime Pro, and familiarity with podcasting formats. Basic video editing and conversion skills.

- Familiar with many operating systems, email systems, all web browsers. Photoshop, Illustrator, Dreamweaver, Acrobat, Page Layout and Office applications. OmniGraffle is my application of choice for wireframes, storyboards and mockups. Intimately familiar with Apple Keynote presentation software. Proficient with Adobe Acrobat Connect Professional.

- Comfortable writing and speaking publicly.

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