Professional experience

Areas of expertise: from concepts to technical

My time tackling problems spans 20 years: beginning with printing presses, continuing through graphic design, information graphics, architecting startups and now centres on web publishing and design systems.

• Structuring the unstructured
• Maximising content for discoverability and context-aware content
• Reusable content structures
• Storytelling through visualisations
• Utilising social media as a tool for content creation, collaboration
• Tooling abstraction for content editors
• Utilising the fundamentals of web technology and structured content (HTML)
• Documenting systems
• Project leadership
• Content and project governance over time through abstracting content, actions and goals
• Stakeholder consultation and expectation management through roadmapping
• Feature prioritisation and sprint-based project planning
• Training and fostering web content creation from the general public to experienced developers
• Web expertise
• Managing geographically distributed projects with, GitLab, GitHub, Kanban and Slack (and similar)
• HTML, CSS/Sass, JavaScript, browser consoles, Handlebars, D3.js, Mapbox, PHP, Apache, npm, Gulp, Browsersync, Markdown
• Bonus: Strong Web CMS knowledge: Drupal configuration and development, Eleventy, WordPress
• Contemporary techniques Design systems, component and pattern libraries, controlled taxonomies, prototyping, user stories, user research, user-centred design, principles of visualization and graphing, system governance, Kanban, Agile, Google Analytics custom events, responsive design and progressive web apps
• Versatile desktop publishing skills Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign, from Google Docs to Microsoft Office, Linux, Mac, Windows

Professional work history

Lead web design architect (EMBL)

European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) June 2018 – ongoing Heidelberg, Germany

• Continuation of my role for the European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI)
• Grow, evolve projects from EMBL-EBI into pan-EMBL solutions
• Information architecture and component tooling for EMBL web content, design systems
• Architecting abstracted web content platform, navigation
• Facilitate collaboration between UX, developers and content teams
• Foster design system growth, adoption by coordinating with development leads

Major technical tooling and processes: HTML/JS/CSS, Sass, GitHub, GitLab CI, Visual Studio Code, Google Analytics, Gulp, npm, Eleventy, Fractal, Drupal, Continuous integration, Kanban

---

Web design architect (EMBL-EBI)

European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI) July 2015 – June 2018 Cambridge, UK

• Lead information architecture and design tooling for EMBL-EBI web content, design systems
• Facilitate collaboration between UX, developers and content teams
• Foster design system growth, adoption by coordinating with development leads
• Drive for reusable patterns in web interfaces
• Close gap between web analytics and content effectiveness
• Improve intranet information architecture to focus on user activities

Related writing

• The EMBL Triangle Key: From brand structure to information architecture
• Mapping brand structure to support communication
• Introducing the Content-Action Model for Web Systems

Major technical tooling and processes: Content modelling and architecture, HTML/JS/CSS, Sass, Adobe Creative Suite, Atom, MapBox, Google Analytics, GitHub, Gulp, npm, Jekyll, Foundation Framework, Drupal, Travis, Continuous integration, Kanban

---

Web developer, information designer

DRS Technical Solutions February 2011 – June 2015 Stuttgart, Germany

• Manage user-focused efforts (UX, research, metrics) for company web projects
• Website project lead for a Drupal platform to support more than 150,000 user accounts, provide e-commerce tools
• Information architecture and infographics for business proposals, strategic planning
• Numerous intranet-style websites to manage contacts, resumes, documents by consuming JSON and XML feeds for custom dashboards and processing
• Create and implement software projects with multi-company team members in the U.S., Europe and Middle East

Major technical tooling: Drupal, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Bitbucket, Agile, Amazon EC2, Route 53, Google Analytics

---

Technical and editorial lead

TheDigitel May 2008 – February 2011 South Carolina, USA

• Co-founded TheDigitel.com to advance newspaper methodology in the age of websites
• Lead team of eight staff and an array of freelancers and volunteers to report, market and implement web features
• Lead community editor outreach with physical, online, podcast events
• Help our students grow through our intern partnership with the local college
• Pioneer use of Twitter hashtags for local media community reporting
• Dynamic Advertising: a new advertising model powered by social media
• Speak at events for the creative community about code, reporting, startups
• Refine Drupal UX and content editing experience for community collaboration with staff editors
• Raise funding, manage investors, expand TheDigitel to three cities

Major technical tooling: HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Drupal, LAMP hosting optimisation, daily briefing newsletter automations, reverse proxy caching, Adobe Creative Suite, Google Analytics, Google G Suite admin, A/B testing, Google AdSense and AdWords, podcasting

---

Graphics reporter

The Post and Courier March 2006 - May 2008 South Carolina, USA Newspaper infographic design and reporting

• Produce daily deadline-driven information graphics based on news reports
• Create interactive HTML and Flash information graphics for the Web
• Process geographic data to create maps (GIS)
• Design and produce newspaper pages
• Photo management and copy editing

Major technical tooling: Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign, Acrobat, QuarkXPress, Flash, ArcGIS, Modo 3D modelling, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Mac OS

---

Graphics reporter

The Beaufort Gazette May 2003 - March 2006 South Carolina, USA Newspaper infographic and page design

• Produce daily deadline-driven information graphics based on news reports
• Help lead the visual design of newspaper pages
• Work to educate staff on photo cropping, type kerning, general principles of visual structure and directing the reader's focus

Major technical tooling: Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign, Acrobat, QuarkXPress, Mac OS

---

Production manager

The Daily Journal May 2000 - April 2003 South Carolina, USA Newspaper pre-press production, advertising

• Pre-flight and technical management of daily newspaper pre-press production
• Lead production of in-house creatives for advertising clients
• Manage pre-press team of 4 individuals

Major technical tooling utilised: Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, Acrobat, QuarkXPress, Mac OS

Education, collaboration, speaking

• Clemson University, Bachelor of Science in Graphic Communications, May 2003
• Internships: Electric City Printing prepress, Seneca Daily Journal prepress
• Charleston Drupal meet-up and co-working Founding member of the local co-working and Drupal user group
• Co-founder of Fuse843 A regional group of "creative class" individuals, we hosted local networking events, speakers and an online social networking tool
• Speaking events Charleston PechaKucha, Charleston Drupal user group, Create South conference, Startup Stuttgart, various others

Other things

📐 Clean design 🎭 creative approaches 💫 culture 🔰 Japanese eccentricities 💬 puns 🍻 crisp lagers🎾 tennis 🚣 kayaking 😇 exploring where tech meets culture (that's why I've used these seemingly silly emoji, however I'd argue the Noto Emoji font has provided one of the first open source ways to have consistent emoji communication from content creation to consumption... Hello? Is anyone still there?)

Want more about me?

Head to the blog or 📧[email protected]

📧[email protected]  🐦 @khawkins98  🌎 AllAboutKen.com  📇 Online problem solver