Who am I?

My name is Gilbert Midonnet. I started as a web designer in the mid 1990s when that role involved doing the graphic design, as well as the front-end and back-end coding. As time progressed, I focused more and more on Information Architecture (UX).

I’ve often been hired for one position and then steered in other directions. I’ve primarily worked as a Front-End and UX Developer but have also taken on Technical Project Manager and Business Analyst roles.

IA / UX DEVELOPER (2000 – Present)

My first full-time IA position was for Weight Watchers (UX wasn’t a term then). I created wireframes, user flows and was also involved in requirements gathering and iterative user testing

Beginning with BrokerTec and continuing through until today most of my focus has been on the development and refinement of financial, communication and CMS applications for internal business users and employees.

These problems are distinct from customer facing issues. Customer facing projects require considerably more A/B testing in order to achieve business aims. Internal business applications have the advantage of having motivated users but face the problem of having considerably more information to display and reluctance to change processes. I’ve been fortunate to be able to work on a series of incredibly complex apps.

  

 

FRONT-END ENGINEER (1996 – 2012)

I started as a front-end coder in the 1990s when tables were used for layout and Javascript was limited to form validation and mouseover events. I wrote production code for over 10 years and through all my positions, and roles, I’ve continued to code.

I used Perl at Brooklyn College and ClubMom. I then became a Cold Fusion developer at BrokerTec and at GHCM. First started using Oracle SQL at ClubMom and am comfortable working with both MSSQL and MySQL (BrokerTec and GHCM).

Currently my skills as a developer are used more for creating prototypes than production level code. I currently build prototypes with Vanilla JS, jQuery and have worked with Node and Angular 1.x frameworks. I use SASS and am comfortable with Github, Redmine, Eclipse, Jira.

 

BUSINESS ANALYST / PROJECT MANAGER

Over the course of my career I have fulfilled many functions and roles, including Business Analyist and Project Management Roles, writing FRDs: Use Cases, User Stories, Acceptance Criteria.

 


EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND

MA, City University of New York (CUNY)
BA, City College of New York (CCNY)

While in grad school I fell in love with technology and HCI.

I taught myself HTML, SQL and then PERL in the late 1990s and have continued expanding my knowledge to this day. I am passionate about technology and how it changes the way we experience the world. 

While not working I like spending time outdoors, tracking down micro-brews, reading about cryptocurrencies and being with my family.


In summary, my primary role has been Information Architect / UX Developer.
I excel at working with / leading UX teams and prefer complex and interesting design problems.  
Good UX means one doesn’t hear:
“It’s just what I asked for, but not what I needed.”