Ralph Brandi

Web Designer & Developer

Implemented CSS-based design for corporate home page for www.lucent.com. Maintained pages across www.lucent.com and www.bell-labs.com at direction of members of business and marketing communities. Recommended and implemented CSS-based design for customer segment-specific landing pages on www.lucent.com that resulted in top placement in popular search engines for desired keywords. Co-created internal weblogging system from scratch using ColdFusion, supporting multiple weblogs, for use by Employee Communications department. Implemented CSS- and Javascript-based navigation system visually identical to previous table-based system to improve ease of maintenance.

Web Designer & Developer

Designed and maintained front end for two web-based applications at fifteen-person startup. Worked closely with programmers to incorporate design into JSP-based applications. Developed code to incorporate help system into applications. Worked on front-end code for Flash-based application using Actionscript and XML.

Technical Writer

Rewrote corporate web site to accurately reflect new directions company had taken since previous update. Redesigned opening to make content more accessible and easier to find. (Site now offline.)

Wrote HTML-based online help systems for two JSP-based web applications. Incorporated tool-tips within the applications. Wrote hard copy installation manuals for hardware associated with both applications for professional installers and end user consumers.

Created Flash-based presentations to explain to customers how our products functioned and what their benefits were.

Tester

Developed test plans for web-based application and consumer product. Tested application and product, working closely with developers to incorporate results.

Webmaster 1993-2002

Webmaster for Bell Labs internal and external sites. Conceived strategy and defined audiences for sites. Ensured user-focused methodology during design to make sites easy to use; consideration of corporate goals also weighed during design process and balanced with user needs. Troubleshot logical structure of content. Implemented design such that future design changes are relatively simple to apply across the site. Maintained sites through multiple redesigns over many years. Externally available address: www.bell-labs.com.

Webmaster for section of Lucent site. Maintained "Ideas Ideas Ideas" section of www.lucent.com (section no longer available) before content transferred to Bell Labs site.

Usability Specialist for Commitment Register. Usability consultant for corporate-wide web-based tool to connect sales force to development groups. Conducted usability tests and focus groups with users to discover design problems. Recommended solutions and design changes that resulted in significant increased productivity in tests.

Webmaster for corporate publications and training group. Designed, implemented and maintained site for organization of ~1500 employees. Conducted usability tests with users; resulting changes saw ten-fold increases in ability to find information within tested sections. Created SQL-based databases for shared bookmarks and department-wide satisfaction surveys.

Technical Writer 1991-1995

Wrote technical documentation for StarSentry IP network management software, StarLAN Network Ethernet hardware, and StarGROUP file and print server software.

Managed production process for all StarGROUP and StarLAN documentation, interfacing between the writing group and the art and text processing groups.