Ideally, if budget allows, everything we've worked toward leads to this point: stakeholder interviews, competitive research, content auditing and strategy, user research, persona creation, data analysis, information architecture, sitemapping, journey mapping, mind mapping, everything mapping, blah blee bloo blah blah.
All of this research and data is used to create the "now what": wireframes and prototypes. I create thoughtful wireframes and prototypes which include nuggets of insights and communication throughout. What did we learn that lead to a certain decision made? How should this element react when a user interacts with it? This approach leads to a more clear communication with business owners, visual designers, and programmers.
Whether you're launching a new website or redesigning your existing website, how information is structured, organized, and presented is of the utmost importance.
I work with my clients to find the common denominator between business needs and user needs while utilizing quantitative and qualitative analysis to help guide us through making decisions on how a website should be structured. Whether it's how your site navigation is structured, how information is presented on a particular page, or what nomenclature you are using throughout your site, I use a data and research-centric approach to ensuring a rewarding experience for both site visitors and owners.
With the amount of website data available to us nowadays, making assumptions about who your website visitors are is easy. However, basing strategy and important website decisions off of general assumptions can lead to the creation of a product that could have a frustrating user experience for your audience.
Instead of informing the design process completely through assumptions and best practices, I utilize research and psychology to learn more about what is at the root of a user's website intentions. I use methods like user testing, behavioral observation, card sorting, and tree testing to learn more about what users need from a website in order to maximize user experience. Ensuring a positive user experience = increasing engagement and conversion = satisfying business needs .
When I hear someone say they are a content strategist these days, it can mean everything from being a writer, to a social strategist, to a content publisher, to a content marketer, to an SEO, to a UXer, to all of the above. When I refer to content strategy and the capacity in which I can and enjoy assisting with, it embraces the process of understanding a user's content wants and needs, logging and analyzing existing content (what should stay, what should go, what should be merged), ensuring content is optimized for maximum findability, and assisting in coming up with a plan of attack on how to move forward. The lens I look at content strategy through is one that leads to a positive user experience and an increase in website engagement and conversion.
I've been working in website analysis and optimization since 2003. I suppose it is the bread and butter of my experience that has lead me to the discipline that I am in today. Whatever you need here, I can help you with: measurement planning, tool selection, tool implementation, data analysis, and reporting. All for the purpose of analyzing what your website users are doing and how to better engage and convert them.
With experience teaching Internet Marketing at Hamline University as well as Marketing & Advertising to high school students through The BrandLab, teaching has been a part of my life since I was 13 years old and I love it!
There are times where it makes sense for a team to engage me for urgent and short-term needs, but not always sustainable over a long period of time. In those cases, I often come in to agencies and businesses to teach internal teams everything I know about website analysis and the related tools like Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager. In special cases I may also do training for SEO, Paid Search, and UX. You know, if you give a gal a fish ... or whatever the saying is.
Carmen’s UX work was based on a thoughtful blend of research and instincts and was well-received by our client. I’d work with Carmen again in a heartbeat!Nick Watts | Senior Interactive Producer, Colle McVoy
Carmen really knows her stuff. She brings a level of rigor and polish to her work that goes beyond the expected.TIFFANY HAHNFELDT | DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS, MARVEL CITIZEN
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Carmen is an amazing teacher and wonderful partner to engage with on any project - large or small - as she always makes the work more meaningful to the user and makes the end product better.Maija Hoehn | SVP, Director of Engagement, broadhead