my approach

Experienced technology leader with specialized expertise in user experience (UX) design, usability, interaction and accessibility. Proven ability to budget and manage diverse teams of software developers and designers, both on and offshore. Implemented design strategies for on-line sites and devices. Demonstrated success in managing enterprise systems, vendor relationships and large global cross-functional teams. Oversight of multi-million dollar projects and budgets, including capital costs. Proponent of technology vision, architectural innovation and leadership leavened with real world expertise. Author and presenter in both the corporate and academic spheres.

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Contact Info

Austin, TX

Mobile: +1 512 627 1247

E-mail: tonya@texas.net

Skype: @tonya.browning

LinkedIn: tonyabrowning

E-mail: tonya@texas.net

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Palimpsest—A parchment or other writing material written upon twice, the original writing having been erased or rubbed out to make place for the second . . .
Oxford English Dictionary

We are all palimpsests, with fragments or remnants of our past experiences rising and falling to the surface of our daily lives. Like many individuals in the technology industry, I have worn many hats—granted, some more gracefully than others. I have been an educator, teaching at The University of Texas at Austin in the Science, Technology and Society concentration for years. I am a leader and manager of people, not resources, at an industry-defining company. I am still a student, learning as much from the people I teach as they learn from me. I have recruited the cream of the crop from my classes and I have a number of former students working at my current and past companies. I have worked at start-ups, universities and corporations and know that while the cultures may vary, resourcefulness and productivity have great value in all three. Intersections between technology and business, like those in academia and technology, continue to intrigue me because the "way we do business" has been fundamentally changed as a result. But the expectations of our customers have not—they want creativity, integrity and commitment; technology is just a bonus.

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Teaching

I designed and taught the courses "Re-imagining the User Interface," "WYSIWYG and Other Myths of User Interface Design" and "User Interface Design Practices" for the Science, Technology and Society Interdisciplinary concentration at UT Austin from 2001-2007 (some in wiki form, some available on the web). The classes were designed for upper division undergraduates and taught in the Computer, Writing and Research Labs (CWRL) now the Digital Writing Lab at the University of Texas at Austin. I have taught for the web since 1994 as a graduate student and adjunct professor, and a number of courses I taught as a graduate student still exist in archive form today. When I was a graduate student, I managed the CWRL as the Assistant Director and taught as an Assistant Instructor. My class work has been featured in three books, The Scott, Foresman Handbook 4th edition, NetSciFi and Learning Literature in an Era of Change.

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Visa and other companies

At Visa I led the User Centered Design and Development group, a large team that designed and developed user-centric interfaces espousing creativity, usability, accessibility and interaction. I have attached an old demo of some of the work. We followed internal development standards (some of which I co-authored), Brand guidelines and best of breed practices for the industry at large. I was the co-founder of the User Interface Center of Excellence for Inovant/Visa and organized the company-wide UI Day (and help present). The UICE promoted standards and communication across development teams. It provided support and review for user interface design, use case development and usability testing within the company. High level design was extraordinarily important to our process. We always recommended user interviews, contextual observations, user personas, thorough use cases and extensive usability testing. When Inovant LLC (the IT wing of Visa) was a separate company, one of our lead developers and myself redesigned the Inovant internet website in cooperation with our marketing team.
At Globeset, I was a lead UI developer and UI manager for a series of wallet projects.  Often referred to as "digital wallet" or "e-wallets," on-line wallets were secure pieces of software that enabled consumers to purchase at a variety of on-line merchants without using the merchant checkout. These on-line wallets were branded for specific customers by my team and later professional services.  Examples include the American Express wallet, the banktone (Brand-agnostic) wallet that was internationalized and localized (I traveled to China for some of this work) and the Globeset Personal Agent. This work led to the development of the Verified by Visa service for Visa USA.
Another startup where I worked was an educational multimedia company called Top Drawer. Three projects from that period include an interactive children's on-line game "What Am I?" and was on Steck-Vaughn’s (now Harcourt) website for over six years.  I was the primary developer for this project and assisted in layout and overall design. I did the Lingo development as well as design for projects like MathMax, a series of CD-ROMs that accompanied math textbooks.

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Developing staff who can make the transition to new technologies while innovating in whatever platform we use is one of my particular skills. You have to provide people with training and support to build the best of class applications. While I am still directly involved in design reviews and strategy, leadership has become an important part of my role. Building a team that can rise to a challenge is one of my favorite activities.

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PayPal

current role Senior Director, PayPal
Leading a large (100+) global design and architecture team, which oversees the design and direction of initiatives driving user experience. The team is responsible for product design (interaction and visual) and production, standards, next generation presentation tier development, content management system operational activities and engineering support for localization (L10N). Overseeing staff in eight countries. Personally authored numerous standards and served as subject matter expert on accessibility for the company. Evangelized user experience in new technology development, supporting the PayPal Global Experience team across all company projects involving user interface design and user experience architecture. Received PayPalian award for top project in Q4 2007. Member of the original leadership team in Austin that opened the PayPal office in 2007. Presented on behalf of PayPal at National University of Singapore in 2009.

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Leadership

because you have a large company backing you inside a small company/start-up feel. I am experienced in recruiting software developers and designers, as well as building an environment where they can flourish. In the global ecosystem we work in today, it's fairly standard to have staff scattered across the world. Building a cohesive team across geographies and time zones is a challenge, but one I have met several times in my career.

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Web Design and Development

Design and development need to work closely together to ensure the best possible product is produced, and in the end, planning ahead, whether for accessibility or localization needs, ensures true extensibility. I have numerous examples from previous work, and PayPal's own front end has undergone major changes since I started with the company. The front end architecture changes have enabled the forward looking design we are launching soon.

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Patterns & Standards

I have contributed or authored various analyses and style guides as part of my work over the years. I function as an accessibility SME for my current company and I'm involved in proselytizing best practices as well. Here are a couple of older samples from an earlier company (I can provide current samples in person): design guide, quick recommendations and standards.