I'm a user experience designer originally from North Carolina. My bachelor's degree is in Information Science, from the School of Information and Library Science University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Sharon Austin's picture

These days, I currently work as a User Experience designer for the Northrop Grumman Corporation. The team I belong to is based out of Huntsville, AL.

In my present role, I focus largely on the following:

  • Information architecture, including cardsorts, site (in some cases, software) mapping, and content inventories
  • Interaction design, including creating artifacts such as task models, task flows/task analysis diagrams, and user personas
  • Developing and conducting user research interviews and expectancy tests
  • Creating wireframes, design documentation, and other visual design work as needed on projects

Much of my work week is spent in Adobe Illustrator. As of late, I have been working to learn more traditional design material in order to improve my visual design skills.

During previous jobs and projects, I have also held more development focused roles with the following technologies:

  • WordPress, including plugin and theme development, as well as general WordPress backend work
  • Django, the Python web framework
  • SQL (specifically, MySQL) and relational database theory
  • Omeka theme development (using Subversion, PHP, HTML and CSS)
  • JavaScript development
  • Playing with web servers, because it makes me feel like I'm cool

When I'm not working on the computer, I can be found gushing over dogs (a lot) and all varieties of cats, playing piano, running or lifting weights, and trying my hand at developing my Photoshop skills by messing with cute puppy photos.