Welcome

UX Leadership

Dee (Denise) Sadler

UX Director with years of demonstrated experience in UX and managing teams in visual design, information architecture, interaction design, front-end, and user research. I have enjoyed working in a range of industries including healthcare, finance, telecom, and eCommerce. Strong leader with 14 years of experience managing designers and 9 years as a UX Director. Result-oriented and able to drive successful outcomes for projects and teams.

Open to relocation and yes, I can still design when needed, and enjoy it.

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Case Studies

All Case Studies
DesignOps and Design Systems
Team Management
Creating a Design Studio
My Design Work
User Research and Usability
Speaking and Video Courses

Resume

Work

The #1 rated American academic medical center, Center for Digital Health

Lead/Director for the Design System, Provider vertical and DesignOps

03-2021 - present

Was the XD Lead for a year on the Care Guidance portfolio for the Center for Digital health, then became the lead for the Design System and DesignOps.

Led the first Design System team of 6 multi-disciplinary UX professionals from User Research, UX Design, Visual Design, and Front End Development. Worked with and managed 2 vendors to achieve a v1 of the system.
Managed a Provider/Clinician vertical and the UX team which gave the Physicians fast access to information and knowledge to help diagnose more difficult conditions quicker.
Helped Fundraising understand how better to help their patrons in a digital world by designing new pages for them. Also did User Research to help them understand those users and how best to present what they might be looking for by connecting user data to give them the exact information they need, at that time. It shortened the time to patrons giving by 34%.
Created a human-centered UX process that all of Mayo adopted, vision, and strategy for the UX teams. Ran a weekly event so everyone could see what each other was working on, created UX templates for Researchers and UX’ers to use like personas, and managed tools such as Figma, Sketch, Invision, and the Design System needs.
Was in charge of education and training needs for the entire UX team and created skill assessments to help place the right designer in the right team as well as to help in hiring.

Cox Automotive

Director of User Experience

06/2018 - 07/2020

Cox Automotive is a conglomerate with 25 subsidies like Kelley Blue Book and Autotrader. My work focused on helping UX be a centralized team others could count on and look to for what the future state might look like based on data and the users needs. While responsible for 4 UX teams across the automotive dealership, DMV, and States retail and finance products, the value was working as one UX team rather than just one person per product group.

LLaunched a new series of products which lead to a 43% increase in loan application completion. After relaunch revenue increase for this division measured at 6% with 84% preferring it to the previous version.
Purchased a screen recording tool for better data that UX, Product, and Engineering utilized and allowed Customer Service to have an attached recording to accompany feedback allowing for a 50% quicker response time.
Restructured the UX team as one multi-disciplinary unit so we could build a future state then the designers could take that and help Engineering and Product iterate towards that state.
The DMV product was relaunched and saw a 21% increase in new visitors since April 2020..
Implemented a user testing program to help Product and Engineering participate more efficiently, gather feedback and insights to inform the design and development of new features and enhancements, and decreased the time to launch new features by 3 months.

IBM Watson Health

Senior Design Manager

05/2016 - 06/018

In charge of the consumer health pillar, designed Watson for Genomics (was on 60-minutes) and partnered with companies to design applications with AI and better machine learning experiences into their healthcare systems.

Created and ran the Design Studio at Watson Health headquarters in MA, and a team of 28 multi-disciplinary designers that worked across several of the Watson Health pillars.
Designed the product Watson for Genomics, a late-stage cancer application that used AI and machine learning to find the best clinical trials and drugs that matched biopsied cancer cells that increased efficiency from weeks to minutes.
Worked on the Watson Health portion of the first version of the Carbon Design System that had increased accessibility, and design patterns that fit healthcare software better.
Lead and manage a team of designers, developers, and researchers to execute UX design projects for diverse healthcare clients, ensuring high-quality deliverables and timely completion across 3 verticals.
Teamed with the FDA and other partners to implement a Blockchain product that helped them go from a 2-week manual process getting clinical trial data to a 5-minute all-digital solution.

Highway 22 (a UX Firm)

UX (User Experience)Design Director

09/2015 - 02/2016

UX and product development agency with a diverse clientele.

Directed a team of designers, and developers for a UX agency with a diverse clientele working closely with stakeholders to combine user research, data, planning, and logical reasoning to create a better end-to-end experience for their products.
Used experience strategy, User research, and analysis for a Federal online insurance application to change the idea of who would be using the product so the right tone would be set for the demographics using their website.
Redesign of the Highway 22 website, including user research, current state analysis, content strategy, and contributing the HTML and CSS to the final production code. The updated site has increased traffic and online referrals by 67.3%.

H&R Block

UX Manager | Interaction Design & Consumer Facing Mobile

01/2013- 04/2015

A tax preparation company offering 31+ digital products for consumers and tax professionals. Focused on 3 client facing consumer apps - H&R Block brand app, 1040EZ, and Emerald Card app.

Headed up retail and digital product lines - focusing on Interaction Design product lines such as Tax Pro line, on-boarding flow of apps for both Web and Mobile.
Focused on 3 client-facing mobile consumer applications - H&R Block brand app, 1040EZ, and Emerald Card app and increased user interactions by 165%.
Collaborated across Product and Engineering and managed a team of interaction designers and external UX agencies.
Created a design system, interaction standards, and spec docs and turned 24 different style guides into just 2.
Developed over 15 prototypes using a variety of tools for usability testing to gather insights and make data-driven decisions for improving the user experience of H&R Block’s digital products.
Conducted training in various tools for the UX teams.
Designed various ads, landing pages, and interactive elements for multiple products.
Managed external UX firm relationships and designers.

Sprint Corporation (Now T-Mobile)

Senior UX Strategist III

2007 - 2008 and 09/2010 - 01/2013

UX design for internal applications:Created internal UX products for the marketing team where I took it from 53 pages to a simple 3-page application they could build content for Sprint Zone App .
Helped design an application that saved the company $80 million by addressing top customer service complaints like paying their bill.

Mobile app UX: Agile team creating UX and fake assets for developers. On the Entertainment team for Sprint Zone. Page mock ups for mobile first. CSS Frameworks. Icon design. CSS Sprites. Prototypes. Axure, Illustrator, sketching, Fireworks.

UX Lead: Lead for the CMS for Sprint Zone. Hired team members. HTML, jQuery, CSS Frameworks. IA, site maps, written specs, design brief.
Redesigned the Shopping Cart that saw a 13% increase in submissions.
Proof of Concepts and Innovation team member: Think tank member and POC creation.. Web, and mobile. On a patent for "Method of Accessing Services From a Mobile Communication Device". Used any number of skills and applications. Sketching to Flash Catalyst and everything in-between.

Teva Neuroscience

Senior UX Designer

01/2008- 11/008

UX lead: design and development for Teva’s generic drug companies.
Created dozens of websites using research, strategy, wireframes, visual design and CSS and HTML.

A Box of Pixels, LLC - Glen Cove NY

Founder, Consultant, Strategist, Head of Design/UX

January 2004-Present

Leading UX design, product design, strategy, user research, usability testing, and visual design techniques to get the best user experience for various companies.

Offered UX design, product design, and strategy services to various companies.
Certified CompTia CTT+ Technical Trainer.
Authored four LinkedIn Learning courses on DesignOps, managing stakeholders, working with developers and managing success.
Certified CompTia CTT+ Technical Trainer who worked as an Adobe Instructor and Certified expert in Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Flash, Fireworks, Acrobat, and Dreamweaver for several Adobe training facilities.
Adobe Certified instructor, for ThinqDigital, and did demos across the country for Adobe as well as events and video tutorials for Total Training.
Adobe Freelance Professional doing webinars, training, and speaking at Adobe-sponsored events like Adobe MAX.
Sunflower Dermatology launched their website with SEO in mind before building the website which preserved the budget and reduced implementation costs. SEO was or has been implemented. 277.22% increase in organic traffic within 60 days.
Creative Director of Fusion Authority Quarterly Update magazine from 2006-2010.

Teva Pharmaceutical

Oct 2006 - Aug 2007

Senior Web/UX Designer

UX lead for design and development and created dozens of websites using research, strategy, wireframes, visual design and CSS and HTML for Teva’s generic drug companies.

VML

Jul 2004 - Oct 2006

Interactive producer, UX

Interactive producer using HTML/CSS, JavaScript, Flash, Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Dreamweaver. project management, and initiated conversion of Hills Pet Nutrition web site to a CSS site.
At VML, worked on HTML emails, CSS on websites, branding for clients, tons of flash work for clients like Xerox, Sprint, Phillip Morris and more. Created requirements and standards documents and trained staff in Flash best practices. Standardized creation of Flash files.
Created standards for internal teams, training of internal teams. Branding and web/flash UI work for clients like Microsoft, Sprint, Xerox, KFC, Hills Pet Nutrition and other high profile clients.
Design Briefs, standards documentation, personas, research, CSS, HTML, Flash, branding standards, best practices creation.

See the PDF for more information.

Focus

Summary

As a UX leader my focus is on delivering data-driven design that impacts growth and business needs, but aligns with the users needs. I thrive in working with leadership and stakeholders, product, and engineering while building multi-disciplinary teams and helping build the career of individuals.

My experience encompasses health applications, consumer-side mobile, Fin-tech/financial, eCommerce, B2B, agency, telecommunications, Saas, and web site design.

Community Involvement

Created 4 video courses for LinkedIn Learning on DesignOps
Guest speaker at Harvard Business Extension, SMU and mentoring on ADPList.
Interviewing workshop for Trilogy Education Services
UX Panel: Cross Functional Teams for Tech Circus
Speaker at Adobe MAX 2010/2015 for a full day pre-conference class on UX and UI for everyone
Adobe Community Professional (events, website, forums, writer, webinars, etc.) and freelancer from 2004-2017
Speaker at multiple conferences such Adobe MAX, CF United (Cold Fusion), NC DevCon
Organizer of D2W, a workflow conference for designers and developers for 4 years in Kansas City with speakers from all over the globe
Patent holder from Sprint for “Method of Accessing Services From a Mobile Communication Device”
UX User Group manager - Created and managed 7 web and design user groups and events from 1998 - 2016

Hard Skills

Sketch, Figma, Adobe Creative Cloud (Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Acrobat,), Premiere, Framer, InVision, Microsoft 365, Slack, Github, Asana, Trello, Jira, Mural, Miro, Abstract, Zepellin, graphic design, Mobile UX Design, SaaS design, Enterprise Design, Design Systems, HTML, CSS

Soft Skills

Leading, consensus builder, persuasion, conflict resolution, crisis management, client and stakeholder management, mentor, communicator, self-motivated, adaptability, decision making, planning, budgeting, understanding, teamwork, clarity, confidence, respect, empathy, great listener, non-verbal communication, constructive feedback, friendly, diversity positive, delegate, collaborative, innovative, negotiator, curious, calm, optimistic, organized, persistent, observational, takes initiative, logical reasoning, and lateral thinking, analytical, inspirational, imaginative, integrity, discipline, patient, authentic, enthusiastic

Certificates

CompTia CTT+

Membership ID: COMP001002856951

July 21 2004 (doesn't expire)

Adobe Certified Expert and Instructor

July 2002 - May 2016

19 April 2018