Brian Talbot
Web Designer, Information Architect, Amateur Photographer
About
General Information About BrianWhat Others Have Said About Brian
“Brian is one of the strongest web professionals I've had the pleasure to work with. He's a triple-threat: a strong visual designer, front-end coder, and information architect. He's organized, thoughtful, and creative; and most importantly, he's good with people. He's flexible, helpful, and communicative. He's open to new ideas, and open to not doing things his way when the job requires it. I was pleased to work with him, and I'd do it again at the drop of a hat.”
Jim Webb
Technical Design Manager — National Geographic
“Brian is an extremely talented designer. His user interface and information architecture expertise greatly impact every project he works on. He is a valuable team member and a natural leader. His deep knowledge and excellent judgment have elevated the entire team, as Brian is always willing to share knowledge and skills with the rest of the staff. In addition to his meticulous and creative approach to projects, Brian is easy to work with and approachable. He is calm under pressure and very highly regarded by our entire team.”
Katie Parker
Senior Web Designer — National Geographic
“Brian's skills cover a wide range of specialties - UI Designer, Graphic Designer, and "Design Technologist". He's been a tremendous addition to the National Geographic team and brings wonderful skills to all of his projects. He's a very patient listener - makes sure he understands the needs of his stakeholders. He does a very good job in presenting his designs and ideas, ensures they're focused on the stakeholder goals, and is very diligent about schedules.”
Jason Golomb
Director of Program, Project and Product Management — National Geographic
“Brian is an extraordinary web designer: a keen thinker and strategist, with an eye for top-notch, quality design, who can also code and project-manage with the best of them. He's that rare all-around talent (and nice guy) that everyone's looking for. I can't recommend him strongly enough.”
Shaun Gummere
Director, Department of Web Design — Simmons College
“Mies van der Rohe once said that "God is in the details." If Brian had a tattoo bearing this same statement, it would fit. Take a moment to review his work: pixel perfect maps and diagrams, well-formed code, meticulously designed layouts... even his iTunes library is a taxonomic marvel. Details aside, Brian is one of the most likable guys you'll ever meet.”
Jared Cole
Senior Web Designer — Simmons College
Brian Talbot resides in the Washington, DC area and works as a Web Designer for National Geographic. Brian's professional interests and passions center around helping people find information through concepts such as information architecture, accessibility and usability. As an advocate for users, Brian also enjoys discussions on information ethics and the social impact of technology and information.
Academic Background
Brian received a B.A. in Psychology with a concentration in Visual Art. After working as a freelance web designer during and after his undergraduate years, Brian then joined the Simmons College Web Design Team. Shortly after, Brian began an academic track towards a Master's Degree in Information Science where he would eventually study concepts such as Information Retrieval, Human-Computer Interaction, Web Design & Information Architecture, Database Design & Management and Usability Studies & Evaluation. In addition to these concepts, Brian has also studied technologies such MySQL, PHP, XML, XSL, XHTML, CSS and JavaScript.
There is an “IA” in “Brian”
Through working within the Simmons team's processes as well as his graduate studies, Brian honed his information architecture practice and became the lead Information Architect (“IA”) within the team. During his tenure at Simmons, Brian created a standardized set of tools and procedures, created re-usable document templates and continues to fervently research topics related to Web Information Architecture and interface design. Some of these tools and deliverables templates will be available shortly online for others to use.
Brian brings this experience and toolkit with him to National Geographic. Taking a user-centric approach to his work, Brian has organized and designed web interfaces with industry best-practices, business goals and user needs and contexts in mind. Through this work, Brian has set interface and interaction standards and re-usable patterns throughout National Geographic's online offerings.
Web Development and Standards Experience
Having worked alongside the Simmons and National Geographic Teams, Brian is very well versed in using semantic Web Standards and Accessibility guidelines. Brian lead the way in many of the front-end development phases of Simmons' multi-award winning websites and helped adopt technologies such as XSL(T), Microformats and “fluid” layouts. As the chair of the Department's Web Accessibility Team, Brian helped communicate what web accessibility is and how Simmons intends to address it along with maintaining a growing collection of professional resources and best-practices for internal and external development and design teams to use.
At National Geographic, Brian is helping to move the Society's web presences towards supporting modern web standards, usability and accessibility. Brian has educated both the business and web development branches of National Geographic alike on these topics with information sessions, training programs and code reviews. As part of his responsibilities, Brian leads the front-end development team where he mentors team members and creates an environment that fosters collaboration and team-learning. When Brian isn't in the trenches with a CMS or helping his team, he is working on initiatives like global, re-usable front-end architectures and creating best practices on how to technically implement new features into the nationalgeographic.com suite of sites.
Brian also has experience in online marketing. Prior to the creation of an online marketing department at Simmons, Brian designed, produced and tested HTML/graphical marketing emails for various departments within the College. Brian has also created the occasional marketing mini-website and has even helped in print pieces inside and outside of his day-jobs.
Giving Back
Being grateful for having some great mentors and support systems while learning the web design ropes himself, Brian tries to give back to the community that helped him so much. Creating and facilitating training for his peers at National Geographic, leading weekly critiques/Q&A sessions and teaching as an adjunct faculty member for Boston University's Center for Digital Imaging Arts are just some of the ways he tries to help other folks out.
Brian is also a staff member for National Geographic's Photo Camp program where he helps teach youth from underserved communities about the technical and artistic concepts of Photography.
Other Interests
In his spare time he enjoys playing squash and volunteering in the community. Brian was previously involved in SquashBusters where he mentored middle and high school students in squash as well as academics.
Brian also enjoys experimenting with photography and is specifically interested in capturing the intricate details of people, objects and urban fragments that define a city or community as well “messing around” with long exposure and night time shots. When not snapping, Brian can also be found reading fiction and non-fiction, finding new music, concocting recipes in the kitchen and collecting/organizing various useful and not-so-useful things on the internet.
Brian loves cooking and making peanut butter, does not like white condiments (no, whipped cream does not count), has more smart playlists and address groups than static ones, prefers keyboard shortcuts over mouse gestures, is always up for a good game of Mario Kart and knows how to perfectly return a serve in Wii Tennis.
Work
Examples and Explanations of Projects Worked OnBrian has worked on/produced the following pieces of work. Skills, roles, project URLs (if applicable) and other project information are all detailed below:
National Geographic Redesign - Design Charrette
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Homepage: The National Geographic Homepage, reinvisioned with the most common user-requests in mind
Timely Content: A dashboard view of the most popular daily/time-sensitive content that National Geographic Offers
Helpful Footer: Navigational Context and next steps that are potentially helpful to users reaching the end of the page
Photo Browser: A new way of organizing and allowing access to ll of National Geographic's photography
Photo Galleries: A new way of promoting whole collections of Photography
Photography Hub: A front page presentation of all of the photography offerings from National Geographic
Description
As an initial step in an on-going redesign process, National Geographic called upon a small group of designers from both their in-house team and some out-of-house experts to participate in a “Design Charrette”. Meant to be an brainstorming exercise, the Charrette challenged designers, over the course of 2 days, to rethink the global organization and presentation of all of National Geographic's online offerings in whatever process best suited them.
Brian, taking a user-centric design and strategy approach, organized all of the Society's offerings based on global themes (called &lduo;tent poles”), types of content, source of content, and most importantly users' priorities and well as their understanding of National Geographic's publications.
After two days, Brian provided a possible solution for global navigation and way finding as well as a grid for the National Geographic homepage and a Photography hub page.
Concepts/Technology/Skills Used
- Information Architecture/Organization
- Wireframing
- Visual Design
Associated documents
National Geographic Everyday Explorers
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Homepage: Brian's visual representation of the Everyday Explorer Homepage
Video Details: Rating, commenting and other community activity is presented with the promotion of content throughout the site
Category Themes: Each category's appearance can be customizable in several different elements of the site's look and feel
Sitemap and Flow: One of the final information architecture phase deliverables detailing the organization of content as well as the possible interactions with that content.
Description
National Geographic launched a community video site, “Everyday Explorers” asking people to submit videos to various categories related to National Geographic's mission. Brian was involved throughout the entire project, participating in the strategy, design and development phases. As the lead Information Architect on the project, Brian organized the site's content as well as drafted the ways a user could contribute to and interact with this content. Wireframes and annotated documentation were also managed by Brian during this phase.
During the visual stage of the project, Brian created a set of pages for one possible visual and branding theme. Focusing on highlighting the community content through a simple theme and clear grids. Anticipating the editorial need, Brian also allowed for visual skinning of different category pages for business cases when a sub-brand was needed.
Concepts/Technology/Skills Used
- Information Architecture/Organization
- Wireframing
- Visual Design
- Front End Development
Associated website(s) & documents
Simmons Silent Auction
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Online Donation Sevice: An online donation form
Using Microformats: Microformats were used in the contact section of the page
Description
For the past 23 years, the Simmons Silent Auction benefits local charities each year. This form was created to 1) formalize and expedite the business process of allowing people to donate services and goods to the auction and 2) to inform and publicize the information surrounding the spring event. The form and page contain semantically and accessibly appropriate markup. Via CGI form processing, upon successfully submitting a donation using the online form, users received a customized message and email about their donation. At the same time, volunteers received the donation submissions for auction management purposes.
Timeline
April 2007
Concepts/Technology/Skills Used
- XHTML
- CSS
- Visual Design
- CGI Forms
- Microformats
Associated website(s)
Simmons Campus Maps
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Main Campus: The Main Campus view of the Simmons Maps Collection
Initial/Full Campus View: The Global View of the Simmons Maps Collection
In Multi-Site Context: The Simmons Main Campus Map Integrated in the School of Management website
Description
Working within the existing “look and feel” of the Simmons Overview website, Brian translated a set of hand-illustrated campus maps made for a print-specific publication piece into an organized series of online campus maps. These online maps matched the navigation and labeling scheme of the print publication to try to minimize confusion of users using both references.
The maps are organized visually by a series of tabs that divide Simmons by particular campus locations. The number keys on each map's display are color coded and link to further information about each location. Yahoo! Maps technology was also integrated into the online map collection. The maps has been constructed with usability (in print as well as screen), accessibility, and web-standards in mind. They are portable and re-usable throughout the various existing Simmons websites.
Timeline
March 2006 – April 2006
Concepts/Technology/Skills Used
- Accessibility
- Visual Design
- Image Optimization
- XHTML
- CSS
Associated website(s)
MySimmons Portal
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Entire Dashboard Layout: A full page view of the MySimmons homepage layout
Dashboard View: The default MySimmons homepage built out
Common Next User Actions: The near-footer region of the MySimmons homepage layout
Description
MySimmons is an internal website geared towards the faculty, staff and students of Simmons College. In the next iteration of MySimmons, social and portal technology will be implemented to deliver services such as blogs, calendars, groups and contacts to each user. Working with Shaun Gummere's visual mock-up of the new MySimmons homepage, Brian constructed a single static XHTML (containing fluid layout elements, Microformats and best accessibility practices) template with a CSS structure that could accommodate the expanding layout and information display needs while isolating browser display issues.
Timeline
February 2007 – March 2007
Concepts/Technology/Skills Used
- XHTML
- CSS
- Fluid Page Layout
- Microformats
Associated website(s)
Simmons Alumnet – Alumnae/i Portal
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Front-End Templating: The coded-out layout (design by Shaun Gummere) of a sample second-level page within the new Alumnet website
Footer Area: The footer portion of a sample third-level page within the new Alumnet website
Page 1 - Alumnet Site Map: One page of the Alumnet site blueprint document (detailing site structure,content types and interaction paths) created in OmniGraffle
Description
Simmons Alumnet is a community web portal for Simmons graduates. This site provides alumnae/i a variety of free services, access to online resources, and networking opportunties. As the lead informatin architect, Brian has worked to create an information architecture schedule and strategy in the current Alumnet Redesign project. While in this role, he facilitated discovery processes with internal stake-holders, current Alumnet users as well as managed focus groups and card sorting exercises with sample potential users. From these efforts, Brian formally identified the projects internal goals, users and audience personas, and an extensive list of functionality/services that were needed. Lastly, a site blueprint was constructed that represented all the research noted above. This blueprint documented the site structure for the new Alumnet as well as identified what pieces of the site were related to services and functionality.
After the visual design phase was complete by Shaun Gummere, Brian was charged with creating static web standards-based representations. Though production was halted after two templates were completed, these templates contain standards-based markup with separated presentation and behavior.
In addition, Brian has written numerous project/production summaries and has provided detailed packages of assets, documents and templates to external vendors.
Timeline
January 2006 – April 2007
Concepts/Technology/Skills Used
- Accessibility
- Information Architecture
- XHTML
- CSS
Associated website(s)
Simmons Student Chapter of ASIS&T
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The Simmons ASIS&T homepage
A call-to-action from the Simmons ASIS&T Join ASIS&T page
Description
While a student in the Simmons Graduate School of Library of Information Science, Brian worked with Frances McConihe as co-webmasters of the Simmons student chapter of ASIS&T (American Society of Information Science and Technology). Leading a redesign of the student chapter's website, they conducted discovery exercises, created wireframes and a revised information architecture, and delivered visual designs for the chapter to provide feedback on. After one of Brian's visual designs was chosen and the chapter site was built out according to web-standards and that visual design. Note: Brian has since resigned from maintaining the Simmons ASIS&T website.
Timeline
February 2005 – August 2005
Concepts/Technology/Skills Used
- Visual Design
- Information Architecture
- XHTML
- CSS
Associated website(s)
Open Video Tool Kit Cataloging Interface
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Dashboard View: The dashboard/home view of the tool's online interface
Curator's Area: A full view of the Curator's Area/Portion of the tool's online interface
Asset Listing/Management: A tabular listing of the digital assets in a collection managed by the Open Video Toolkit
Description
Working with Gary Geisler, a faculty member at the University of Texas, Brian skinned a beta version of an online digital movie collection tool. This tool is part of the Open Video Project who's aim is to provide a management resource (or “Toolkit”) for small-moderate digital collection owners. The interface that was fleshed out was based upon a “bare bones” series of screens and interaction paths powered by a Ruby on Rails project.
Timeline
January 2007 – February 2007
Concepts/Technology/Skills Used
- Visual Design
- XHTML
- CSS
Simmons Email Marketing
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Alumnae/i Event Newsletter: An email campaign centered around announcing monthly Alumnae/i events
Message to Graduating Students
Graduate School for Health Studies Admission Deadline Reminder
Internal Workshop Announcement
School of Management Admission Event Invitation
Description
Since mid-2003 Brian has designed, produced and tested numerous HTML/graphical marketing emails for both Simmons' internal and external purposes. Working with the office of Online Marketing, Brian created admissions-driven messages soliciting particular demographics of users to specifically designed landing pages and “mini-websites”. These campaigns have often resulted in higher than average click-through rates when compared to educational industry standards. In addition to this, he's also created internal campaigns to announce particular events of interest to the Simmons Community. All of these campaigns have incorporated (at their time) modern day best (visual, technical and marketing) practices.
Timeline
June 2003 – Present
Concepts/Technology/Skills Used
- Visual Design
- Email Marketing
- CGi Forms
- HTML
- CSS
Associated website(s)
Simmons Community Events Calendar & Event Submission Form
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Listing of Events: Simmons Community Events Calendar
Microformats: Microformats (hcards and an hcalendar) are use extensively throughout the lists
Event Submission Form: Simmons Community Events Submission Form
Description
As a vehicle to publicize upcoming events in/around Simmons College to the Simmons Community and general public, the Simmons Web Design office has maintained a “Community Events Calendar” throughout the years. As part of the redesign of the Simmons Overview website, Brian redesigned this calendar to match the existing design template.
After designing the information display for the calendar, he constructed the calendar using web-standards-based semantic markup as well as Microformats for easier extraction into users' personal calendaring solutions.
The other half of the project involved the redesign of the online form where users could submit events to be posted to the Calendar. This involved the construction of the form templates, confirmation messages (to both the user and the recipient of the submission), and translating business/data rules into the logic of the form (i.e. field validation).
Timeline
November 2006 – December 2006
Concepts/Technology/Skills Used
- Accessibility
- XHTML
- CSS
- CGI Form Processing
- Data Presentation Design
- Microformats
Associated website(s)
Personal Photography
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The annual Pumpkin Carving Festival in Boston, MA
Sunset on the island of Oahu, HI
Flags around the Washington Monument in Washington, DC
Will, a cousin, goofing off at a family outting
Sunrise in Taos, NM
Wallow in the Mud: Lottie, one of the funniest kids I've ever met, going face first into the muddiest part of the marshes on Port Isabel in Chesapeake Bay.
A summer Saturday at the Frog Pond within Boston Common in Boston.
The World War II Memorial in Washington, DC at night
The now formally landmarked "Citgo Sign" in Boston, Massachusetts that is forever affiliated with Fenway Park and the Boston Red Sox.
Description
After a hiatus from photography classes in his undergraduate years, Brian has picked up photography as a personal interest and creative outlet once again. Working in mostly digital media and with the help of friends, Brian has revisited some of the fundamental concepts of and lessons in photography. He enjoys using Adobe Photoshop (in a different way than its role in web design) for post-production on his photographs. While he likes to think of himself as “an amateur photographer with much to learn”, Brian approaches his photography with the same level of intensity he provides in his professional work.
There's nothing better to Brian than:
- people living their lives
- objects that have been used, commented and altered by people
- presenting everyday objects from new and unusual perspectives
Concepts/Technology/Skills Used
- Photography
- Post-Processing
- Image Manipulation
- Adobe Photoshop
Associated website(s)
Resume
Professional, Academic and Expertise InformationSummary
Senior Web Designer with both professional and academic experience in producing user-centric, web standards-based interfaces and practicing information architecture. Direct experience in evaluating and developing interfaces according to usability and accessibility measures.
Brian Talbot
2021 Key Blvd #622Arlington, VA 22201USA
Professional Experience
| Title | Organization | Time | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Designer/Developer | National Geographic Washington, DC | July 2007 – Present |
Directs the strategy, implementation and team responsible for front-end development of National Geographic's Digital Media properties including nationalgeographic.com. This leadership is creating a reduction in overall page load time, increasing organic search engine optimization, and accessibility of online content. Builds information architectures and visually designs user interfaces for strategic online initiatives such as user community driven sites, blogs and multimedia offerings. Collaborated in designing a suite of new sites including photography, science and space, field work, widgets and video, helping drive a 25% increase in unique visitors. Develops and facilitates training curricula, mentorship and presentations on modern web design and development practices, such as Web Standards and web accessibility to the Digital and Global Media divisions of National Geographic. |
| Senior Web Designer | Simmons College Boston, MA | January 2006 – July 2007 |
Served as creative director on various projects, led a team of designers and worked collaboratively with web development staff. Co-created the official Simmons College web presence including information architecture, graphical user interface, and visual brand. Since the redesigned presence, the number of qualified prospects delivered to admissions via the web has increased dramatically, with the College realizing a total 43% increase in enrollments during this same period. Determined standards in how information architecture and front-end development were practiced by the entire design team. Planned and facilitated web design training sessions for students and faculty. Led a cross-functional team in setting standards and guidelines for how both internal and external vendor teams address web accessibility when working with Simmons. Produced formal documentation that addressed best practices and worked with institution delegates in communicating and implementing them. |
| Web Designer | Artefact Design Worcester, MA | February 2001 – February 2004 |
Designed visual layouts and developed front-end interfaces for clients including national corporations, academic institutions and non-profit businesses. |
Education
| Degree | Institution | Matriculation Dates |
|---|---|---|
| Master of Science – Library & Information Science | Simmons College Graduate School of Library & Information Science Boston, MA | September 2004 – December 2006 |
| Bachelor of Arts – Pyschology/Studio Art | College of the Holy Cross Worcester, MA | September 1998 – May 2002 |
Technical Skills & Abilities
Extracurriculars
National Geographic Photo Camp
Works with National Geographic photographers to facilitate photography workshops for inner-city teenagers across the United States.
SquashBusters
Mentored middle through high school students in academics, community service and the sport of squash.
Teaching Experience
- Plans and facilitates web design courses as an adjunct faculty member of the Center for Digital Imaging Arts at Boston University.
- Develops and facilitates training curricula, mentorship and presentations on modern web design and development practices to National Geographic staff.
- Planned and facilitated half-day web design training sessions for Simmons students (undergraduate & graduate-level) and faculty.
Note: a printable PDF version of Brian's resume is also available. You may however need to download additional software from Adobe to open/read this document.
You may also be interested in Brian's Linkedin Profile.