Reach Out

Awards

Memberships

Skill Set

User Research (Qualitative and Quantitative)

User Testing (In-person, Remote)

Design Sprints and Engaging Collaboration

Ideation/Sketching, Rapid Wireframing and Prototyping

Mapping Out User Stories and Journeys

Creating Sitemaps and Userflows

Strategic Thinking and Problem Solving

WCAG 2.0 - 2.2, Section 508

Agile and Scrum Methodologies

Tools

Figma/Figjam

Advanced

7 Years Experience

Sketch

Advanced

5 Years Experience

Adobe CS/XD

Intermediate

7 Years Experience

Axure

Intermediate

4 Years Experience

Mural/Miro

Intermediate

5 Years Experience

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HTML, CSS, Web Components

Intermediate

7 Years Experience

Wordpress

Intermediate

7 Years Experience

Webflow

Intermediate

4 Years Experience

Framer

Basic

1 Year of Experience

Education

About Me - Rachel Smith Jahnz (”Jans” = “Cans”)

I’m passionate about learning how people use technology as a tool to achieve desired goals in a wide variety of use cases and physical environments. I take pride in providing a thorough and conscientious user research process, from planning project outcomes and facilitating user testing sessions to assessing feedback trends and presenting findings, and every stage in between. I take pride in fully harnessing effective user research methodologies and building open and honest rapport from users to translate findings to ensure that improved digital and physical experiences, designs, and services are inclusive and accessible.

Work Experience

Web Designer and Developer (Volunteer) | Uniting Distant Stars

June 2016 - Present

• Streamline the current Uniting Distant Stars website design cycle with various Wordpress plugins and web design/development projects, increasing donations and comment activity by 50%
• Collaborating in editing web content, provide expert UX advice with UDS Staff
• Crafting a vibrant, distinct, pixel perfect, responsive Wordpress theme, thus driving traffic and enhanced non-profit growth

UX Strategist I | Sky Solutions

December 2021 - March 2024

• Built empathy with users by planning, coordinating, conducting, and reporting results from User Research initiatives to improve user interaction, business, and additional desired outcomes
• Translated User Research feedback into actionable, consistent, and effective user interface designs to be built, utilized, and replicated within various technical constraints
• Designed human/technical interactions and created highly functional, seamless, user-friendly, responsive, and accessible designs to be used across various teams and changing digital product needs
• Worked closely with other designers, researchers, developers, team leaders, and product management and team members in ensuring that the user experience exceeds business expectations and design goals
• Collaborated with Human-Centered Design (HCD) team members in charting, planning, and implementing objectives and key results (OKRs) of DesignOps (Design Operations) and developed ResearchOps (Research Operations) strategies to grow business impact and outreach

UX Designer and Researcher (Volunteer) | U.S. Digital Response

September 2020 - July 2021

• Crafted user research surveys, moderated remote user tests, edited and synthesized notes using Google Forms/Docs and Miro
• Presented research findings to team members and our county board client, highlighting key user behaviors, areas for improvement and actionable next steps for Phase 2 of the project
• Collaborated with other UX designers on Trello and Slack on UX designs created using Figma

UX Researcher and Designer (Contract) | Optum

August 2019 - February 2020

• Measured and Analyzed multiple heuristics of UX/UI elements on Optum Developer website for improvement
• Recruited users for testing and conducted user feedback sessions
• Compiled and delivered user feedback data and next steps on quarterly research plans to the product manager

UX Designer (Contract) | Wells Fargo

April 2019 - May 2019

• Designed a Wealth Management platform to be used by thousands of Wells Fargo clients nationwide
• Collaborated with various business analyst and marketing teams to uncover user insights and translate business needs into accessible, approachable experience and interface designs that exceeded planned OKRs and KPIs

User Research Lead and Advocate | Literacy Minnesota

September 2017 - August 2018

• Identified the need to redesign and improve Northstar Assessment’s Flash-based modules and presented the project idea to colleagues and partnered with Literacy MN education directors (who owns Northstar Assessments)
• Lead a group of three colleagues in gathering user feedback from three Twin Cities nonprofits and conducted user testing sessions
• Synthesized and rapidly delivered user feedback to Literacy MN, which helped improve the look and feel of skills-building modules taken by tens of thousands of users annually

UX Research Assistant (Contract) | Best Buy

April 2017

• Coordinated and scheduled employee testing sessions, increasing harmonious communication between UX and Best Buy retail teams
• Transcribed and compiled Best Buy employee feedback to distill actionable insights for Best Buy’s research and development teams