Joanna Zander

The Wilson School of Design at Kwantlen Polytechnic University recently (Fall 2024) launched a new two year program to train front-end developers and UX designers. I chair that program, with the focus on growing industry connections, building a world-class program, and becoming the first hiring choice for local Vancouver tech teams.

• Create a course outlines and syllabi for both front-end and design courses.
• Assisted teachers with developing and revising lessons to more productively reach students of varying skill levels.

UX consulting including strategy, design, human fit, user research and interaction design. Long term clients have included Lululemon Athletica (leadership role for 15 months), USave Lighting, Binkra, and University of British Columbia.

I taught user-centred design and human factors in the Design of Technical Apparel (DETA) faculty. This was a part-time role (taught evening courses).

• Developed and taught a course in user-centred design.
• Developed and taught a course in user research and testing.
• Consistently high student evaluation scores.

Assurance IQ leveraged digital experiences and data science to assist mass market Americans in discovering affordable

medical insurance options. As a pivotal team member, I was responsible for building and leading the UX team, defining the UX strategy, and leading UX research.

• Within a year I built and managed a team of 6 UX professionals including design, research and content.
• Implemented user-centered design methodologies into the product development process.
• Developed and conveyed a comprehensive design strategy in alignment with both product and business objectives.
• Established usability and customer satisfaction goals for consumer-facing products and communications.
• Conducted benchmark studies to establish baselines and track impact.
• Established and executed UI design standards, ensuring alignment with brand strategy and adherence to accessibility guidelines.
• Redefined accessibility guidelines to meet the specific requirements of the target audience (over 65 years old).

Managed a cross-functional user experience team for Amazon Recruiting, responsible for UX strategy, design and research.

Support candidate and recruiter-facing programs and tools, including Amazon's career website.

• Grew UX team from 4-20 UX professionals across North America.
• Responsible for development and communication of UX strategy for both candidate and recruiter facing tools, in alignment with product and business needs.
• Responsible for defining and implementing design operations.
• Supported development and adoption of a design system.
• Led user research study to define the different types of global candidates, including definition of archetypes, personas, experience map and user journeys.

Led UX Research for Move Inc. with a focus on enterprise software, web and mobile. Managed 3 main streams of work

encompassing: UX Strategy; user research and user-centered design; and product validation via beta releases and ongoing customer satisfaction.

• Implemented a user centered design model into the product design team.
• Collaborated with senior management to ensure achievement of usability goals before product release.
• Improved user satisfaction scores by 20% by focusing on user goals and requirements, and usability of the software.
• Integrated rapid prototyping and testing into design lifecycle.
• Integrated analytics into user experience design lifecycle.
• Personally conducted many forms of both qualitative and quantitative user research.
• Designed and implemented monthly cross-functional education sessions on user experience, user centered design and user research.

This course was part of UBC continuing studies: designed for professionals upgrading their user experience skills.

• Wrote and taught course on user experience, user interface design and user research.
• Coordinated and facilitated training, encouraging group participation and ownership.
• Consistently high student evaluation scores.

Emily Carr has both industrial and interaction design programs. I taught 4 courses focusing on human factors in design and how to integrate User Experience into the design lifecycle.

• Developed and taught course for 4th year design students entitled: Human Fit: User Research and Usability.
• Developed and taught course for 2nd year entitled: Ergonomics and Human Factors for Industrial Design. (taught 3 times).
• Consistently high student evaluation scores.

Samsung's Vancouver Enterprise Lab is a research lab that focuses on B2B Enterprise cloud-based services and applications.

• Appointed to help build Vancouver Enterprise Lab (it opened in 2013) where I built and led the User Experience team, with 9 direct reports across multiple disciplines.
• Implemented user-centered design process into the development lifecycle for Samsung, Vancouver.
• Supported all aspects of design for Samsung Knox (mobile and web): creative and visual, information architecture, interaction design, usability, and content creation.
• Recruited and trained new employees to meet job requirements.

Nokia Mobile Phones (Burnaby) was a research and development hub for both hardware and software. The Burnaby site was responsible for many of Nokia's most successful devices and apps, including the N series phones.

• Promoted to Director of UX in 2011, responsible for over 30 people across three continents.
• Advocated for UX within senior management, ensuring the UX team understood business requirements and incorporated user needs into the overall business strategy.
• Managed the UX of multiple hardware and software projects from concept development through to production.
• Created a methodology and best practice for Nokia for including UX as part of the QA process on the production line for hardware.
• Created a methodology for measuring the usability of both hardware and software (and the interaction between the two).
• Received two monetary awards and two patents.

Shearwater Human Engineering (SHE) provided ergonomics, human factors, engineering and design support for both

private and public (government) industry.

• Completed Ph.D. on work completed with SHE: Optimizing the Safety and Performance of Mine Countermeasures Divers (MCM): a 6-year, 3-phase project with a budget of over $300K.
• Implemented a User Centred Design process to understand capabilities and constraints of Canadian Forces MCM divers, then to design usable and useful equipment.
• Designed, prototyped and proposed alternate display and communications systems for the divers.
• Designed and proposed and helped to implement alternate procedures for the divers. Follow-up testing showed 100% adoption of new procedures.
• Designed modifications for the military breathing apparatus used by the divers, which were adopted by both the military and the commercial supplier of the apparatus.

Simon Fraser University, Kinesiology department offers a stream of study in Ergonomics and User Experience. Simon Fraser has become one of the premier user experience schools in Canada.

• Co-wrote and taught Ergonomics in Industrial Design. Including user centred design and total systems design.

BC Research Inc. was a private research and consulting company that had an ergonomics and human factors team. Work included physical ergonomics consulting, cognitive (user experience) ergonomics consulting and human factors research.

• Promoted to team manager (responsible for 7 members) in 1998.
• Projects included clients such as: Microsoft, Canadian Forces, Canadian Coast Guard and Workers Compensation Board.
• Specialized in usability of hardware: gaming consoles, headphones, BC Ambulance patient area, checkout for the BC Liquor stores, and computer workstations.