Ira Alexandre Email & Phone Number

Pittsburgh, Pa, Us

Washington Dc-Baltimore Area

The National Student Clearinghouse is all about data — and I changed the way they visualize data forever, org-wide, in order to better surface inequities in education, delight our customers, and inform life-changing interventions by educators. I championed a revolutionary storytelling-driven approach by persuading stakeholders at every level and in most departments, from my own UX teammates to Marketing, product owners, developers, researchers, department heads, and all the way up to the Vice President. I delivered engaging presentations tailored to each audience, wrote teaching materials to spread the practice throughout the organization, and created reusable components and templates to marry our branding with rich and nuanced visual communication through data. I became the go-to data visualization resource in the organization, and gave our customers the tools to make informed and impactful decisions. This was work worth doing.I also co-founded the first research-driven UX practice at the organization, including co-creating the first two generations of the Clearinghouse’s design system. As the person on the UX team with the strongest background in HTML and CSS, I also worked closely with developers on the system’s coding implementation. Finally, as the design system continued to mature, I had sole responsibility for planning the third generation, including discovery, strategy, implementation, and sunsetting the previous generation.I have always prioritized accessibility, and in this position I co-led a full accessibility audit of our design system and completely revamped accessibility standards around our data visualizations for both Section 508 and WCAG 2 compliance. Again: Work worth doing.

Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom

Shieldmaiden Studios was making a visual novel-style game with complex interaction mechanics, and I was tasked with outlining the story and writing the branching narrative itself. The game featured seven characters with distinct backgrounds and narrative voices, all of which I had to juggle to make the game feel rich, lively, and entertaining.

Washington Dc-Baltimore Area

As the sole local UX resource on a team spread through the East Coast and the Philippines, I was responsible for on-the-spot decisions and doing whatever was necessary to speed development. The Telos claim to fame was a complex data-rich enterprise-level app that had to be completely responsive even when displaying reams of data — oh, and it had to look beautiful, too. Clean. Crisp. Trustworthy. Gorgeous.To make it happen, I spearheaded an effort to standardize UI details and cover overlooked use-cases, deploying keen attention to detail to discover, discuss, and decide on solutions. Charged with making responsive versions of intricate wizards, I additionally surfaced project-wide mobile UX issues and got right on fixing them. I saw it needed doing, and I did it.Deadlines still had to be met, though. When a particularly tight turnaround came down the pike, I pivoted from the modern, responsive app to a complex legacy project (the mocks were in PowerPoint!), rapidly familiarized myself with it, and closed dozens of issues in three weeks.

Washington Dc-Baltimore Area

I returned to the same branch of NIH years later to see the UX practice I founded thriving. On my return, I led all of the UI/UX design and most of the UI development on 8 full-scale projects with wildly different code bases and audiences. This had me seamlessly switching interfaces and technologies week-to-week, day-to-day, and even hour-to-hour.And while it was just me as the UI resource on this 20-person team, I couldn’t — and shouldn’t — call all the shots. The UX practice I founded had grown and matured, and I had to respect the creative decisions made by designers that came both after and before me. I integrated and extended my design philosophy to work with emerging design systems and prepackaged UIs while always prioritizing the user.But I wasn’t just doing design — I was wrangling all of the HTML and CSS, and most of the JavaScript. As part of this I executed an upgrade from severely outdated jQuery 1.7 and Bootstrap 2 frameworks (yes, this was actually happening in 2018) while managing multiple plugins to retain all the necessary functionality.(By the way, this was the federal government. Everything REALLY had to be 508-compliant.)

Buffalo, New York, United States

I overhauled this school’s approach to accessibility and user experience for its remote students. Using HTML and CSS, I built and modified Blackboard templates to better serve both instructors and students, standardized course material design in Blackboard and Microsoft Word, and converted thoroughly inaccessible scanned-image course materials into accessible HTML-based content.I also taught an introductory technology course for ensuring remote learners had the tech skills to succeed in the school’s then-nascent online learning environment. With my thorough, personable approach, I increased student retention-program-wide by revamping course materials for improved clarity, coverage, and accessibility across a diverse audience.

Akron, Ohio, United States

I think I can say lives depended on me here. I was hired to write and edit procedure and safety documents for an active chemical plant, so the health and safety of employees and visitors depended on clear and precise communication. I took that extremely seriously.Apparently that wasn’t enough for me, though. I improved efficiency from the previous contractor by 400% and used my HTML and CSS skills to improve the appearance, readability, and professionalism of that very important documentation.

Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

I produced a full-page, full-color comic page every week in the company’s distinctive style, as well as additional illustrations on demand, sometimes with very tight turnarounds.

Bethesda, Md

They wanted to hire someone with some aesthetic sense to do their front end coding. They got me. And then, they got a branch-wide UX practice that is still going strong two decades later. I changed their entire minds about web design, showing them the value of having dedicated UI staff and drafting the position descriptions and interview and testing materials that would lead them to my successors. My designs garnered institute-wide acclaim, winning my team awards for our applications and leading to branch-wide responsibilities for me. I was appointed to a UX standards and oversight committee where I developed standards, templates, and review procedures. I wanted to start something real, something that lasted. And I did.In the day-to-day work I designed and coded interfaces for both external and internal users, with a strong focus on form digitization and modernization. Once the UX practice got going, I interviewed, tested, and hired and supervised our first new UI designer, and worked with her to codify practices and standards that would evolve alongside the quickly-changing technology all web design is built on while hewing to timeless design principles. And when I came back years later, I was thrilled to find her still there, and thriving.

Portland, Oregon, United States

While carrying a credit overload at an extremely academically rigorous school, I still worked as a web designer and developer for the school and its affiliates, focusing on CMS integration.

Washington D.C. Metro Area

In addition to writing image analysis routines for solar physics research, I redesigned the branch’s outdated site using the latest design and development standards in HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and PHP.