Gregory J. Gillis
My Goal
Empower customers to intelligently leverage information technology to accomplish business goals. Create a trusted partner relationship enabling business and technology teams to focus on their core responsibilities, knowing that UE/UX will represent and support their distinct success criteria.
Information Architect / User Experience Designer / Business Analyst
Mr. Gillis has 24 years of experience in IT-professional services consulting, helping clients in the federal/state/local government, financial services, utilities, telecommunications and hospitality sectors.
Providing IA/BA/UX design for complex technology solutions, including internet, intranet and enterprise applications. Expertise includes development lifecycle methodologies (SDLC, Agile), requirements gathering and documentation, information architecture, user experience design, human factors, GUI design, graphic design, user/usability testing & analysis and accessibility & Section 508 compliance.
Recent accomplishments include redesigns for the Administrative Office of the United States Courts Human Resources applications, Travel.state.gov, FAA.gov, GAO intranet, Marriott.com B2B offering, CMS.gov and an application migration strategy (client server to WebSphere) for T. Rowe Price.
Mr. Gillis has worked with many business and development teams, providing solutions for applications developed using SharePoint, Adobe Experience Manager, IBM Business Process Manager, IBM TRIRIGA, Stellent, IBM WebSphere, multiple content management systems, as well as proprietary company-owned frameworks.
SPECIALTIES
- Information Architecture / User Experience / Human Factors Design
- Requirements gathering and analysis
- Research (task analysis, focus groups, JAD sessions, gap analysis, stakeholder management)
- Usability testing & analysis
- GUI Design / Graphic Design
- HTML prototyping
EXPERIENCE
Self-employed: Author/Illustrator, Arlington, VA, August 2019 – Present
- Completed third novel in the “Black Nouveau” series.
- Studied traditional illustration techniques for use in storytelling.
General Dynamics Information Technology (GDIT): Fairfax, VA, June 2017 – August 2019
User Experience Architect
Administrative Office of the United States Courts, Systems Execution Division:
- Stand-up UX practice to support the AO and judiciary.
- Introduce and evangelize UX principles and processes into existing software development activities.
- Work with development and business teams as the “users voice”, ensuring business needs are met by technology solutions.
- Create a consistent user experience across multiple development platforms, including:
- Microsoft SharePoint
- SuiteCRM
- IBM TRIRIGA
Self-employed: Author, Arlington, VA, November 2016 – May 2017
- Wrote third novel in the “Black Nouveau” series.
INCATech, LLC: Reston, VA, February 2016 – November 2016
User Experience Specialist / Senior Information Architect
U.S. Department of State
- travel.state.gov site:
- Responsible for analysis of existing site structure to optimize content management approach.
- Provided business analysis, site mapping, information architecture and future state vision, site migration design, end-state vision and roadmap.
Self-employed: Author, Arlington, VA, September 2015 – January 2016
- Wrote second novel in the “Black Nouveau” series.
Network Designs, Inc.: McLean, VA, July 2013 – August 2015
UX Specialist / Senior Information Architect
Federal Aviation Administration (FAA):
- FAA.gov – IA lead for the Adobe Experience Manager migration project.
- Site and Stakeholder analysis
- Site migration design, end-state vision and roadmap
- Conducted presentations and stand-ups designed to encourage stakeholder consensus and understanding of the project
- Unified Contracting System (UCS) application – Conducted stakeholder interviews and usability evaluation/recommendation for FAA’s Unified Contracting System (UCS) built using IBM’s Business Process Manager software.
Dominion Technical Services: Arlington VA, June 2013 – July 2013
Senior Information Architect
- Provided a Massachusetts-based data service provider with a usability review and recommendations for BPR-CRM software strategy project.
Self-employed: Author / Success Mentor, Arlington, VA, 2012 to 2013
- Writing: Completed novel “Black Nouveau”, developed 32 story treatments, developed and wrote first draft of “Hard Knox” series.
- Fundamental: Success – Developed and conducted seminar to educate individuals and businesses on success fundamentals, designed to promote effective goal setting and understanding of more complex methodologies.
SRA International, Inc.: Fairfax, VA, 2006 to 2012
Information Architect /Business Analyst / User Interface Designer / Usability Analyst
- GAO Intranet Design – Information Architect/Business Analyst. Designed the GAO Intranet Portal, incorporating the content of over 40 preexisting, independently designed websites administered by 28 organizational entities into a single, scalable user experience providing users a clear and coherent user experience.Worked as Information Architecture lead on an interdisciplinary project team comprised of Chief Administrative Officer (business) and Chief Information Officer (technical) staff, and was responsible for; project planning task analysis & recommendations, methodology selection and education, heuristic evaluation of existing tools, stakeholder identification and responsibility assignment, JAD workshops, stakeholder interviews & analysis, employee needs workshops, comparative analysis of best-in-class intranets, content analysis and catalog, development and documentation of non-functional & functional requirements, design & production of low/medium/high fidelity wireframes, conceptual models, site maps, user interaction models, html prototype, visual design (look & feel), usability testing & analysis, phased release strategy (to speed deployment), selection of metadata schema, analysis and refinement of search results, coordinating mission team sub-site development, development and facilitation of Content Management System classroom training for non-technical users. Helped develop writing for the web workshops, and supported the multiple content migration activities for the different phases of the project. To help insure continued success of these projects after his departure, Mr. Gillis helped to develop ongoing governance processes incorporating repeatable, industry best practices to help insure that the solution was adaptable, scalable and able to respond to changing agency & user needs.
- Department of Justice/Office of Justice Programs/National Institute of Justice (NIJ) Web Site Redesign – Information Architect/User Interface Designer. NIJ is the pilot project for OJP’s migration of all agency web content into an enterprise-wide Percussion Rhythmyx Content Management System. The goal is to create a user-friendly, accessible, 508 compliant site that is visually appealing, highly usable and uses web-standard css-based layout. In the role of Information Architect, Mr. Gillis has created the conceptual model, site structure, navigation scheme, page-level layouts and detailed design documentation delivered as wireframes in Microsoft Visio. For usability testing prior to build he has delivered an interactive html prototype, with pages and css developed in Macromedia Dreamweaver and visual elements developed in Adobe Photoshop. As User Interface Designer, he has developed the sites look and feel in Adobe Illustrator, Macromedia Freehand and Adobe Photoshop.
- Florida Health Care Plans (FHCP) Web Site Redesign – Business Analyst/Information Architect. FHCP is a Daytona Florida-based HMO, the oldest federally qualified HMO in Florida, and the 2nd oldest federally qualified HMO in continuous existence in the United States. Mr. Gillis conducted and documented stakeholder interviews, conducted and documented comparative analysis of competitors’ web sites, documented business requirements for the redesign. To help visualize the requirements, he created a draft Information Architecture and site look and feel.
- Business.gov Web Site User Testing – Usability Analyst. Mr. Gillis helped coordinate, conduct and analyze the results of usability testing for Business.gov. The site is the official business link to the U.S. Government, which is managed by the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) in a partnership with 21 other federal agencies. The partnership, known as Business Gateway, is a Presidential E-government initiative that provides a single access point to government services and information to help the nation’s businesses with their operations. The usability test was performed with 27 participants, using the Morae suite of user test capture tools (Morea Recorder, Moreae Manager and Morae Remote Viewer).
Card Sort Activity. Mr. Gillis helped coordinate and conduct topic-based card sorting activity with 24 participants in Charlotte, NC. The activity was designed to determine if the topic language used on the Business.gov site was relevant to small business users. - EPA Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) site homepage redesign – GUI Designer. Mr. Gillis developed look and feel options for the EPA’s IRIS team, to help them in their goal to fully leverage the available space on their homepage.
- American Red Cross blood donation site “givelife.org” – Information Architect for . Mr. Gillis provided User Interaction Design and Information Architecture, documented in Visio wireframes for the donor section of this site.
- Web Enabling the EPA Enterprise Architecture IT / IM Project Manager’s Guide 2.0 – Information Architect. The Project Manager’s Guide is an important tool in the EPA’s Enterprise Architecture program, and to date has only been available as a Microsoft Word document. Mr. Gillis created wireframes detailing the navigation, page layout and content organization of a web-enabled version of the Guide.
- EPA’s Envirofacts Brownfields Query Form – Usability Analyst. Mr. Gillis conducted and documented an heuristic usability evaluation of the Envirofacts Brownfields Query. The purpose of the evaluation was to improve the overall usability of the tool, as well as to identify “quick win” improvements that could be developed without significant alteration to the code.
NavigationArts: McLean, VA 2006 – Senior Information Architect
- Senior Information Architect. NavigationArts is a consulting firm focused on helping clients drive business value by optimizing the online user experience. Providing solutions designed to help clients deliver effortless and engaging user experience for customers and prospects, using user centered design principles.
Mr. Gillis’s primary client was Marriott International, Inc., working with their B2B team developing solutions deployed on Marriott.com using the Vignette content management system. In addition to his primary IA duties of information gathering and documentation, use case creation, wireframe development and functional specification documentation, he leveraged his business process background to help his Marriott team adopt Marriott’s Requirements Framework methodology, which is in the early stages of deployment across the enterprise.
Independent Consultant/Author, 2004 to 2005
Information Architect / Business Analyst
- Mr. Gillis sub-contracted to Informed Financial Solutions, Inc. to provide Information Architecture, Project Development and Deployment Strategy guidance for T. Rowe Price. The client had committed to an ambitious migration of existing mission-critical enterprise applications to an IBM WebSphere development environment. In addition, the firm planned to combine this migration with a redeployment of the corporate intranet, creating a “one-stop shop” enterprise employee portal combining B2C applications and B2E communication. Mr. Gillis provided detailed analysis of the existing business process, client interviews throughout the enterprise, analysis of existing application design & employee training, as well as identification of process duplication within multiple application suites. Mr. Gillis then created an interactive prototype, showing the proposed appearance and interaction design for the final portal vision. Once these analytic and design tasks were completed, Mr. Gillis and IFS worked with the client to create a document detailing the proposed five year staged release development approach and final state vision.
- This period also contained a formal sabbatical for the purpose of writing a novel and revitalizing visual art skills.
CGI-AMS (formerly AMS), 1994 to 2004
Principal – Senior Consultant
- Redesign of CMS.gov (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services) website – Information Architect. . Worked with senior managers to develop a practical approach for new information architecture, content creation, content editing and deployment of the 60,000 page CMS.gov site in a new development environment using Stellent Content Management Suite.Created and facilitated process for requirements gathering and documentation.Created and facilitated workshop content editing process for 30 content owner/stakeholder groups designed to homogenize idiosyncratic development processes.Designed information architecture for new site, and created html prototype used for usability testing.Devised and conducted lab-based and virtual phone-based usability review of existing site with large pool of constituents identified by CMS.
AMS Center for Advanced Technologies, Fairfax, VA
Principal, Usability Program
- Responsible for providing Usability, Information Architecture and GUI design consulting, and support of business development efforts.
- Helped AMS Usability program team transition from a cost center research and development group to a profit center service line.
- Performed usability assessments and competitive analyses of AMS client-server and Web-based Application products. Role focused on delivering high-quality IA and design solutions, within budget and timeline, for numerous project teams serving AMS customer needs.
- Trouble-shooter for projects where usability had arisen as friction point between AMS and clients.
AMS eCustomer Group
Principal, Interactive Design
- Responsible for creating a common approach for Information Architecture and GUI design practices supporting an in-house internet “start-up” focused on eCommerce solutions. This included staffing, creating development methodologies, facilitating requirements gathering workshops with clients, prototyping, and design. Representative clients include:
- Financial Services: T. Rowe Price, Barclays Bank, ANZ Bank, Bank of Montreal, SEI Investments
- Energy/Utilities: Shell Oil, Pepco, Smeco, PSE&G, Verizon
- Internet: America Online (AOL), AT&T Worldnet
- Federal Government: Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), Health & Human Services (HHS), Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Office of Personnel Management (OPM), National Science Foundation (NSF)
- State Government: Virginia Department of Taxation, New Jersey EPA, Illinois Comptroller
Amtrak (National Railroad Passenger Corporation), Washington, DC 1988 – 1994
Art Director, Reprographics Services
- Managed the Graphic Design department of AMTRAK Reprographic Services, providing design and production support for over 40,000 employees nation wide. Responsible for Art Direction, staff supervision, performance evaluations, traffic management, job estimates using Hagen Real-time software, and project assignments. Significant achievements include:
- Conversion from traditional analog production methods to a Macintosh platform (running Pagemaker, PhotoShop, Quark XPress, WordPerfect, Illustrator and Freehand).
- Responsible for the first in-house design and production of Amtrak’s Annual Report. Significant in that all previous reports had been contracted to outside design firms, due to a belief that in-house services could not deliver best-in-class design solutions. The success of this project led to the permanent assignment of the Annual Report to the Reprographic Services team.
- Mr. Gillis was responsible for the complete pre-press of projects assigned, including client meetings, roughs, comps, generation of visuals (type, photographs, illustrations) rendered in both mechanical and classic mediums. Projects ranged from simple one color/single panel to four-color process/multi-page documents.
HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE SKILLS
Expert knowledge in HTML, CSS, Dreamweaver, Photoshop, Visio.
Working knowledge of XML, Visual Basic, Java, JavaScript, C, Basic, WebSphere, MS Project, MS Office, Stellent, Vignette, Illustrator
PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS
Usability Professionals Association
CLEARANCE
No active clearance: Previously held Top Secret, Secret and Public Trust clearances