Michael Baynger
BFA from Queen's University. 25+ years of experience in technology and multimedia projects. Currently working as Founder, Entrepreneur, Usability Specialist at The User Advocate Group.
| Headline: | Service Provider |
| Skills: | AJAX, C/C++, HTML / CSS, Javascript, Languages and Platforms, PHP, Software Engineering, SQL, Web Development |
| Groups: | FOSS Factory |
| Interested in: | Consulting opportunities, Meeting new people, Offering Expertise, Professional opportunities, Providing services to startups |
| Schools: | Queen's University |
WORK EXPERIENCE
| Employer: | The User Advocate Group (www.theuseradvocategroup.com) |
| Position: | Founder, Entrepreneur, Usability Specialist |
| Time period: | August 2006 - Present |
| Description: | Working with a growing network of technology professionals on a wide variety of projects to help them achieve Profitability Through Usability.
• Primarily focused on web applications built on the Drupal open source platform • Strategic plan to apply years of technical knowledge and usability expertise towards helping improve usability of Drupal’s administrative interface and content management system • Contracted for usability expert review, usability testing, user interface systems design and Drupal theming, (both internal and external aspects) • Clients include: 76 Design, CNW Group, Travelpod, PagesBooks and Magazines, POV Magazine, Public Works Canada, Mighty Digital, Global Live, Dynamex, Openject Consulting • Participation on various usability panels |
| Employer: | March Networks- Kanata, Ontario |
| Position: | User Interface Systems Architect |
| Time period: | June 2000 - August 2006 |
| Description: | Working closely with both product management and engineering teams, contributed significantly to the shaping of March Networks’ core products since its start up in 2000.
• Conceptualized and designed a comprehensive role-based user interface system for the R5 flagship product suite • Contributed insights and visions for future directions of Broadband Multimedia Applications • Invented and guided implementation of several key user interface controls. • Prepared two patent applications for innovative user interface systems • Designed user interfaces for large scale networked DVR management systems • Built working prototypes for usability testing and business development using both active code and PowerPoint • Conducted numerous usability trials both in house and on site • Designed and built CSS/HTML ‘configuration settings viewer’ using MAPL and JavaScript |
| Employer: | Televitesse / Telexis Corporation - Hull, Quebec / Ottawa, Ontario |
| Position: | Director of Software Development: User Interface Specialist |
| Time period: | October 1997 - June 2000 |
| Description: | Reporting to the Vice President of Research and Development, responsible for the production of world class user interface designs for all products within the Consumer, Enterprise and Telco branches of Telexis/Televitesse software division.
• Designed interface system for the DVR, ViaNet 3100,3200 and 3300 enterprise network video products • Designed interface for the Viewlink Pro consumer level security product. • Established stringent standards in level of acceptance for user interfaces of all products. • Worked with customers and product management personnel to identify usability needs for key products. • Upgraded the user interface design for several existing network video products. • Identified opportunities for innovation and feature design. • Supervised the implementation of user interface designs. |
| Employer: | Corel Corporation - Ottawa, Ontario |
| Position: | Usability Engineer/Designer |
| Time period: | February 1997 - September 1997 |
| Description: | Founding member of a new Usability Engineering team responsible for revitalizing the user interface for all of Corel’s major applications.
• Critical re-factoring of the UI for Ventura 8. Brought measured usability success rates from 50% up to 100%. • Pioneered radically new method for approaching the software installation process. Test results of the existing software were at 100% failure rate. Working model of new design reached 100% success rate. • Conducted a market analysis of usability needs for Corel Paradox. Succeeded in refocusing the strategy taken by senior management towards a more Web oriented approach. • Devised and carried out usability tests for CorelDRAW version 7. |
| Employer: | Flaming Dog Productions - Ottawa, Ontario |
| Position: | President: User Interface Design Consulting Service |
| Time period: | November 1996 - June 2000 |
| Description: | Working freelance with a variety of corporate clients to solve user interface design problems in a wide range of applications areas. Client list and applications included:
• Taske Technology, various applications focusing on Call Centre management and Workforce management. • E-Cruiter.com - UI Design for web based recruitment application. • Export Development Corporation, design of GUI front ends for mainframe applications. • Tierra Communications Inc, “Tierra Highlights” - Web monitoring utility. |
| Employer: | Corel Corporation - Ottawa, Ontario |
| Position: | Producer/Lead Engineer: “The Art of Playboy” CD Rom |
| Time period: | December 1995 - January 1997 |
| Description: | Leading a team of six engineers and artists, responsible for the overall production of a highly advanced multimedia title featuring over 600 illustrations by 200 artists. Succeeded in building a reusable multimedia display engine for presentations of collections of visual art material. The engine preceded Flash
• Designed and built in C++ a data driven display engine for the dynamic presentation of artworks. • Invented a method of producing ‘algorithmic content’ based on a non-repeating presentation sequences of highly structured data. • Developed a variety of methods to help convey the deeper meaning of the artworks to users. • Designed an innovative user interface which exceeded the stringent requirements of the client, Playboy Enterprises. • Built auxiliary WYSIWYG tools for embedding metadata content to images. |
| Employer: | Corel Corporation - Ottawa, Ontario |
| Position: | Lead User Interface Designer: Corel PrintHouse version 1 |
| Time period: | April 1995 - November 1995 |
| Description: | Responsible for pioneering a new user interface paradigm for a new graphics product aimed at a broad market of inexperienced users. The application made extensive use of embedded, interactive help tools yet also provided powerful graphics tools in the tradition of CorelDraw.
• Designed the user interface for this brand new product which became a number one seller in North America in its first year. • Pioneered new paradigm for providing dynamic user assistance. • Succeeded in producing the UI design in record time and meeting extremely aggressive deadline. |
| Employer: | Corel Corporation - Ottawa, Ontario |
| Position: | Team Leader: Common User Interface Team, CorelDraw 6 |
| Time period: | December 1993 - November 1995 |
| Description: | Responsible for supervising both the technical and graphic design elements of a common user interface engine which was used by all the main applications in the CorelDRAW 6 suite.
• Identified the need for and built a User Interface Team. • Adapted CorelDRAW’s interface to new Windows 95 paradigm. |
| Employer: | Corel Corporation - Ottawa, Ontario |
| Position: | Special Effects Engineer: CorelDraw 2.01, 3, 4, 5 |
| Time period: | December 1989 - November 1994 |
| Description: | Responsible for envisioning and building a variety of unique special effects which gave CorelDraw unprecedented power for the production of rich, vector based graphics. Some key accomplishments were:
• Invented PowerLines - dynamically editable, variable width lines. • Invented PowerClips - a means of placing graphical objects ‘inside’ other graphical objects. • Innovated a system of dynamically rebuilding effects such as ‘Blends’, ‘Extrusions’ and ‘Text on a Path’. |
| Employer: | Baynger Northey Associates Inc. - Toronto, Ontario |
| Position: | President |
| Time period: | December 1985 - November 1990 |
| Description: | Owner/operator of a computer graphics service bureau which both produced custom software and utilized it directly in the production of computer graphic architectural renderings. Some of the more outstanding achievements were:
• Developed a custom paint package which tightly integrated raster and vector technologies. • Innovated a variety of means for producing naturalistic effects in computer graphic imagery. • Developed a means for producing ultra high resolution images on a desktop system. • Invented and developed a script parser engine for automatically painting from vector data. • Received coverage in Computer Graphics World, June 1989 and produced front cover illustration for Canadian Architect, April 1990. |
EDUCATION
| University: | Queen's University |
| Time period: | 1978 |
| Degree: | BFA |
