Chris Carvey is a UI/UX director, designer and developer that has extensive experience working with an array of brands from ambitious NYC start-ups to blue chip corporations. View his contact information.
Start It Up
His career got it’s start when he graduated from the High School of Art and Design in the early nineties, and immersed himself in the professional design world- first in the fashion industry, then at Scholastic Inc. while studying full-time during college at the School of Visual Arts.
A veteran of the Internet industry, he landed his first “creative” new media job at Creating Media, Inc. soon after leaving Scholastic, Inc. where he enhanced identity systems and created new graphic concepts for their Website and client sites such as AT&T (UK) and Mitsui USA. In addition, during a re-design process that was ahead of it’s time, he refreshed the UI, graphics, and animations of the company’s innovative Web presence during the second iteration- helping produce one of the earliest Websites to experiment with dynamic JavaScript-based navigation and content.
The core of Creating Media’s services however, was the development of “Salesforce”-like desktop Applications that ran on Windows OS Intranets, all in the Netscape Internet browser based on ActiveX, and JAVA Applet technology among others. Chris served as UI designer and creative lead for the development of these products.
Big Media
In 1998, Christopher moved to FOXsports.com/News Digital Media, where he served as a Web designer while the company made its first ambitious push into the online world. He oversaw several redesigns and UI enhancements, establishing styles and interface components. He also developed advertisements, including assets for premium-sponsored feature packages for the editorial site. The design team’s work was sited for excellence several times by the Sports Business Journal.
When News Digital shifted their online operations to Los Angeles in 2000, Christopher chose to stay in the city he loves and was promptly picked up by Major League Baseball Advanced Media L.P. (MLB.com), where he worked as Senior Visual Designer until September 2011. What started out as a bare-bones, one person design department in December 2000 blossomed into a fully-functioning and forward-looking design team, a transition Chris helped facilitate through his creative work and by assisting in the hiring of staff members. He was involved in major redesigns of the MLB.com UI, and extensive branding campaigns. In addition, he worked on numerous strategic partnership deals including LL Cool J, XBOX, and iTunes. He also contributed to satellite sites for Major League Soccer and DerekJeter.com.
Change Of Pace
Chris has since gone on to work with Queens Library as Director of Interactive Customer Experience on awarding-winning projects after a period of contracting and a short stint at E9 Digital, Inc. a small boutique creative agency in Hell’s Kitchen, NYC in 2011 – where he took a dive into “the deeper end of the Web development pool” and front-end engineering. He worked daily with technologies such as XHTML, CSS, RUBY, HAML, SASS, JQUERY, and GIT executing client projects and aiding in the development of E9’s custom CRM/CMS product. Christopher also served as “user advocate” and spurred discussion during UI/UX meetings and “use case” discussions, as well proposed UI/UX enhancements to the range of projects under his responsibility.
Personal Development
Chris’s shift to a UX as a professional focus was inspired by a confluence of events where he went from interacting with freelance visual design clients, writing front-end code and CMS themes, and briefly working for an online eye-tracking research firm. All of which, feed an increased interest in the root issues around user engagement and user-centric conversations that the UX process addresses. Taking this holistic approach to the full product development cycle has increased Chris’ passion for his work.
Christopher loves networking, and learning “by doing” and has served as a freelance consultant to a range of companies spanning fashion labels, community organizations and small businesses.
In that spirit, he continues to engage in small personal homework projects to keep his skills sharp and expand his knowledge of Web development, content management systems (e.g. WordPress.)
He is also known be an avid consumer of information that relates to Website building, user experience, blogging, social media, monetizing Web traffic, SEO, and building brands online. He also is a regular attendee and supporter of various meetups.
Eye To The Future
Chris enjoys interacting with stakeholders during work hours, and he’s personally drawn to intellectually curious people in every day life. Down the road, he hopes to leverage this interest in people, coupled with his problem-solving nature into teaching at the University level. In addition, he looks forward to collaborating with creative arts mentoring programs in the N.Y.C. area.
Right Now
As mentioned above, Chris currently works with the Queens Library in a Director role that deals with some amazing client-facing products. More about what I’m up to on my LinkedIn profile. Chris Carvey is a proud husband and father, and when he’s not being a family man, he consults with friends, associates, and discerning clients via @DSGNRUnlimited. View some samples of his work.
@Chrisdigital Around The Web:
1. Twitter
2. Facebook
2. Github
3. Dribbble
4. Treehouse
5. Codecademy
6. Skillshare
7. Meetup.com
8. Stackoverflow
9. Email Chris Carvey