I received my UX Certification from Nelson Nielson Group in February of 2023.

This certification was only awarded after attending an intensive series of seminar courses, in both lecture and workshop settings. My knowledge of the information and experiences shared there was tested before certification was granted.

Related coursework includes:

UX Basic Training

Effective Ideation Techniques for UX Design

User Interviews

Usability Testing

The One-Person UX Team

Certification ID: 1071426

I’m a UX & Product Designer and Researcher with a background in art, theatre, and finance. Currently living in Saint Louis, MO, I’ve been pursuing a refined design aesthetic via self-education. I have collaborated with teams of developers at Chingu.io as well as with other UX professionals in design sprints.

I am striving to design human-centered products, systems, and interfaces which help people get things done more efficiently and with greater joy in the process.

My most recent projects include designing a research tool to allow anyone with internet access to view source data on any recorded meteorite landing from the last 400 years. (https://team27-skyfall.netlify.app/)

I also redesigned a system at the Sam Fox School (Washington University in St Louis) to allow users to use QR codes and NFC chips to record and track data for various processes while on the go.

In all aspects of my professional and personal life, design is central to most of my decisions. Whether it’s finding new ways of organizing and maintaining a busy household with two children, two pets, and an elderly parent, or devising better processes in an accounting office at a major university, design plays a major role.

I appreciate you taking the time to read a little about me.

To give a quick summary, I am UX researcher and designer with a background in finance and accounting, primarily in a university setting.

My education is in theatre and the fine arts, particularly in computer generated images.

Before transitioning into User Experience, I’ve held positions in a boutique investment planning firm and at the Sam Fox School of Design and Visual Arts, Washington University in St Louis.

I have been developing my portfolio for the User Experience field for the last two years, working on a number of projects at Washington University and with Chingu.io, an online UX Development community.

UX Consulting

Portfolio

Related Skills:

Creative Problem-Solving
Creative Ideation
Qualitative and Quantitative Research
Human-Centered Design
Wireframing
Usability Design
Data Analysis

Other Projects of Note:

Skyfall App

Array Game App

Outside of Work

I am a father of two, Amalia (7) loves dance and gymnastics, and playing soccer, basketball, and softball, and Tycho (4) who loves everything on wheels, in addition to puppies and kitties. My wife works in corporate giving for a major metropolitan museum. We also recently adopted two kittens from the same litter, Ash and Raven. As a family, we love to travel and go to parks, the zoo, or the botanical gardens.

In my spare time, I enjoy going to St Louis City SC matches with my family, and watching all kinds of sports including football, soccer. I try to play the occasional round of golf when family and work life allows.

I'm also a passionate tabletop game enthusiast, collector, and player, owning over 250 board games ranging the full spectrum of theme, mechanics, and difficulty. I'm also a hobbyist astrophotographer, using one of several telescopes to photograph the night sky.

TOP

Figma

Qualtrics

Google Slides

Sketch

Usertesting

Camtasia

Workday

PeopleSoft Products

Qualitative Research

Competitive Analysis

User Interviews

Literature Reviews

Card Sorting

Evaluative Research

Survey Compilation

Please reach out if you have any questions about how I may be of service to your organization.

GoToMeeting

Google Sheets

Excel

Powerpoint 

Word

InVision

ChituBox

Tools

Creating Surveys

Accessibility Studies

Highlight Videos

Usability Testing

Heuristic Evaluations

Slide Report Building

Data Synthesis

Skills

Applicable Knowledge

Biography and Personal Info

I have engaged in various forms of research on a range of projects in my career. In most cases, the research is performed informally, without a structure but also with low standards for gathering actionable data. This is usually due to my intense desire to find solutions to problems as they come up. For example, in the Sam Fox School (at Washington University in St. Louis), I have taken many opportunities to improve upon existing systems (from tracking and reporting travel expense reports, to revising the school’s process for collecting digital signatures using off-the-shelf software.)

One thing I have in abundance is initiative. When I see problems or systems which I feel could use tweaking, I move forward by asking questions to see how other users are reacting to those systems.

Formally, I have provided research services in collaboration with back and development teams at Chingu.io, an online community of developers, UX professionals, and stakeholders, who are working together to practice their UX and programming skills.

Last year, I worked with a team at Chingu.io designing a math game for kindergarteners. Part of my research for that project was done with a card sorting exercise to see which color palettes were most favored by this age-group. Later in the process, our team conducted user interviews and usability testing once we had an Minimum Viable Product to show to the test group.

Research

Design

Certification

John Foughty