Alecia Fowler

• Defining and communicating the UX vision for products and ensuring projects align to it
• Defining priorities and strategy within the product team 
• Collaborating with fellow team members within software development process to assess design tradeoffs and prioritize acceptance criteria before a feature release
• Developing high level and/or detailed storyboards, mockups, personas, conceptual designs, and prototypes to effectively communicate interaction and design ideas
• Conducting user research and usability testing where appropriate, to validate solutions and ensure customer satisfaction
• Contributing to the development, maintenance, and continuous improvement of UX methodology/process

• Working with Product Management in terms of strategy and user research
• Member of the Research and Development team, working in an agile environment for design, validation, and user testing
• Designing and enhancing user workflows
• Leading the user testing program, working directly with users utilizing interviews, paper mockups, low-high level prototypes, and beta releases
• Lead UX designer of a 3D SaaS platform
• Designing for desktop, web, and mobile platforms for scientific applications
• Creation of design specs and style guides to promote UX standards and guidelines

• Lead and supervise staff through mentoring, coaching, and team building
• Lead multi-faceted teams of web developers to produce web mapping applications while handling shifting priorities, resourcing needs, and timelines through project management
• Communicate closely with clients from various backgrounds and personalities
• Work with and influence other divisions to help establish best practices and provide expert consulting on the subjects of accessibility and usability

• Involved in the requirements gathering process of various software projects to produce business requirements and define project scope
• Responsible for the design stage of software projects by taking the business requirements and producing design documents for the web programmers such as paper prototypes, wireframes, interactivity guides and high level prototypes
• Encouraging an iterative, user-centered design practice by scheduling and leading design reviews at different stages of the software development life cycle

• Designed and programmed web applications intended to engage and educate the Canadian public on various environmental issues, using Flash, HTML , JavaScript and CSS
• Collaborated with a team of developers to ensure the software product was delivered on time and met quality specifications

• Assigned to a Women’s Human Rights organization as a CUSO/NetCorps Volunteer Intern
• Worked to enhance The Ark Foundations information and communication technologies capacity (newsletters, website, video), as well as providing computer training to staff
• Worked for sustainable development by teaching the employees and volunteers how to use the hardware and software available to them

Department of Computer Science, University of Toronto

Toronto, ON (2010)

Human-Computer Interaction research focus

Interactive Multimedia, Sheridan College

Oakville, ON (2005) 

Computer Science, University of Western Ontario

London, ON (2003)

Specialization in Software Engineering

I was the project leader for the Canadian federal government’s web mapping solution, which provides developers with a ready-made solution for a web mapping application that is accessible, usable, and interoperable. It is my responsibility to ensure all web development groups across the Canadian federal government are represented and supported through this tool. This involves a great deal of outreach, communication, and promotion in order to gain support from all departments.

I acted as the lead for a working group on best practices in designing accessible and usable web mapping applications. The group, consisting of subject matter experts from Canadian federal government departments, uses the forum to discuss common approaches and challenges faced when creating web mapping applications for people with disabilities. We aim to provide accessible web mapping content to all Canadian citizens. My responsibilities involved gathering the business and technical requirements of subject matter experts across many fields through interviews, surveys, group discussion and case studies to create a best practices document for guidance.