Jay Sylvester
Product Designer at Rockerbox- Claim this Profile
Click to upgrade to our gold package
for the full feature experience.
Topline Score
Bio
Scott Van Der Sluys
Jay is not only a talented UX strategist, designer, and lead, but he is also a wonderful human being. He has the skills that are required of any senior-level UX designer, but also has strengths in writing, front-end development, IA, and an array of other related and unrelated talents that lend to his work and intuition. I worked with Jay for well over a year at Vidyo, and his work was consistent, intuitive, and fluid. He takes great ownership of any product and feature that he works on, and works well under fire. He also has a great sense of humor and a desire to focus on what matters to get the job done over corporate politics. He really understands how to motivate a team, and is a true asset to any company or person that is lucky enough to work with him.
Bradley W.
I first worked with Jay while at Znode. Jay is one of the best managers I’ve worked with in my career. Jay is an exceptional leader, inclusive and involved in the process, without micromanaging. He trusts in his team, and is receptive to feedback. Working on Jay’s team, I felt energized with what we were creating, and that I was delivering my best. He has shown a deep understanding of the UX design and development process. He is open to trying new processes, techniques, and technologies in pursuit of creating exceptional experiences to end users. He is a great asset on any team he is a part of. While both of us have moved on, we still talk daily about design, development, and Game of Thrones. I look forward to working with Jay again in the future.
Scott Van Der Sluys
Jay is not only a talented UX strategist, designer, and lead, but he is also a wonderful human being. He has the skills that are required of any senior-level UX designer, but also has strengths in writing, front-end development, IA, and an array of other related and unrelated talents that lend to his work and intuition. I worked with Jay for well over a year at Vidyo, and his work was consistent, intuitive, and fluid. He takes great ownership of any product and feature that he works on, and works well under fire. He also has a great sense of humor and a desire to focus on what matters to get the job done over corporate politics. He really understands how to motivate a team, and is a true asset to any company or person that is lucky enough to work with him.
Bradley W.
I first worked with Jay while at Znode. Jay is one of the best managers I’ve worked with in my career. Jay is an exceptional leader, inclusive and involved in the process, without micromanaging. He trusts in his team, and is receptive to feedback. Working on Jay’s team, I felt energized with what we were creating, and that I was delivering my best. He has shown a deep understanding of the UX design and development process. He is open to trying new processes, techniques, and technologies in pursuit of creating exceptional experiences to end users. He is a great asset on any team he is a part of. While both of us have moved on, we still talk daily about design, development, and Game of Thrones. I look forward to working with Jay again in the future.
Scott Van Der Sluys
Jay is not only a talented UX strategist, designer, and lead, but he is also a wonderful human being. He has the skills that are required of any senior-level UX designer, but also has strengths in writing, front-end development, IA, and an array of other related and unrelated talents that lend to his work and intuition. I worked with Jay for well over a year at Vidyo, and his work was consistent, intuitive, and fluid. He takes great ownership of any product and feature that he works on, and works well under fire. He also has a great sense of humor and a desire to focus on what matters to get the job done over corporate politics. He really understands how to motivate a team, and is a true asset to any company or person that is lucky enough to work with him.
Bradley W.
I first worked with Jay while at Znode. Jay is one of the best managers I’ve worked with in my career. Jay is an exceptional leader, inclusive and involved in the process, without micromanaging. He trusts in his team, and is receptive to feedback. Working on Jay’s team, I felt energized with what we were creating, and that I was delivering my best. He has shown a deep understanding of the UX design and development process. He is open to trying new processes, techniques, and technologies in pursuit of creating exceptional experiences to end users. He is a great asset on any team he is a part of. While both of us have moved on, we still talk daily about design, development, and Game of Thrones. I look forward to working with Jay again in the future.
Scott Van Der Sluys
Jay is not only a talented UX strategist, designer, and lead, but he is also a wonderful human being. He has the skills that are required of any senior-level UX designer, but also has strengths in writing, front-end development, IA, and an array of other related and unrelated talents that lend to his work and intuition. I worked with Jay for well over a year at Vidyo, and his work was consistent, intuitive, and fluid. He takes great ownership of any product and feature that he works on, and works well under fire. He also has a great sense of humor and a desire to focus on what matters to get the job done over corporate politics. He really understands how to motivate a team, and is a true asset to any company or person that is lucky enough to work with him.
Bradley W.
I first worked with Jay while at Znode. Jay is one of the best managers I’ve worked with in my career. Jay is an exceptional leader, inclusive and involved in the process, without micromanaging. He trusts in his team, and is receptive to feedback. Working on Jay’s team, I felt energized with what we were creating, and that I was delivering my best. He has shown a deep understanding of the UX design and development process. He is open to trying new processes, techniques, and technologies in pursuit of creating exceptional experiences to end users. He is a great asset on any team he is a part of. While both of us have moved on, we still talk daily about design, development, and Game of Thrones. I look forward to working with Jay again in the future.
Experience
-
Rockerbox
-
United States
-
IT Services and IT Consulting
-
1 - 100 Employee
-
Product Designer
-
Apr 2022 - Present
-
-
-
TEH Consulting
-
Norway
-
Accounting
-
Owner
-
Apr 2009 - Present
Portfolio: https://jaysylvester.com I advise organizations on process improvement, user experience design, and web development. I help companies establish and streamline design and development workflows, perform heuristic evaluations of software and web sites, conduct usability studies, and design complete solutions from wireframes to high-fidelity mockups and prototypes. Portfolio: https://jaysylvester.com I advise organizations on process improvement, user experience design, and web development. I help companies establish and streamline design and development workflows, perform heuristic evaluations of software and web sites, conduct usability studies, and design complete solutions from wireframes to high-fidelity mockups and prototypes.
-
-
-
Equinix
-
United States
-
Internet Publishing
-
700 & Above Employee
-
Principal UX Designer
-
Jul 2021 - Apr 2022
-
-
-
Linode
-
United States
-
IT Services and IT Consulting
-
1 - 100 Employee
-
UX Manager
-
Feb 2019 - Nov 2020
Case study: https://jaysylvester.com/case-study/company/Linode I led the UX team at Linode, an innovative cloud hosting provider, where most of our work centered around the Cloud Manager, a browser-based tool for administrating servers hosted on the Linode platform. In addition to supervising interface design for new products such as cloud firewalls and DBaaS, I also drove implementation of the company’s first moderated usability studies and completely redesigned the Cloud Manager based on extensive industry and user research. Show less
-
-
-
Vidyo
-
United States
-
IT Services and IT Consulting
-
1 - 100 Employee
-
UX Lead
-
Oct 2015 - Jan 2018
Case study: https://jaysylvester.com/case-study/company/Vidyo Vidyo welcomed me to their growing UX team in order to build an internal design practice and help transform the company into a customer-focused organization. I established our user experience process and managed a team of designers responsible for the company’s flagship video conferencing systems, which include desktop, mobile, and conference room applications. Case study: https://jaysylvester.com/case-study/company/Vidyo Vidyo welcomed me to their growing UX team in order to build an internal design practice and help transform the company into a customer-focused organization. I established our user experience process and managed a team of designers responsible for the company’s flagship video conferencing systems, which include desktop, mobile, and conference room applications.
-
-
-
Fitly
-
France
-
Wellness and Fitness Services
-
Creative Director
-
Feb 2014 - Jul 2014
Case study: https://jaysylvester.com/case-study/company/Fitly I was tasked with leading the responsive redesign of the Fitly incubator product and making it ready for a public beta MVP (Minimum Viable Product, or as I like to call it, NVP: Not Very Pretty). We did a rapid mobile first design process that started with mobile wireframes and then jumped straight to coding and designing on the fly in the browser. I also produced design comps for the second phase of the product's launch, improving the visual design and proposing additional features. Show less
-
-
-
Hibu
-
Advertising Services
-
700 & Above Employee
-
User Experience Lead
-
Oct 2012 - Jun 2013
Case study: https://jaysylvester.com/case-study/company/hibu While managing a blended UI team consisting of UX designers and front end developers, I promoted a user-centered design philosophy across the organization that established the needs of the customer as the primary consideration in all feature development. We produced wireframes, prototypes, and final production code for hibu web properties. Case study: https://jaysylvester.com/case-study/company/hibu While managing a blended UI team consisting of UX designers and front end developers, I promoted a user-centered design philosophy across the organization that established the needs of the customer as the primary consideration in all feature development. We produced wireframes, prototypes, and final production code for hibu web properties.
-
-
-
Abercrombie & Fitch
-
United States
-
Manager of UI Development
-
Apr 2010 - May 2012
Case study: https://jaysylvester.com/case-study/company/Abercrombie-and-Fitch I led a large team of UI engineers responsible for all e-commerce front end development. Building strong partnerships with stakeholders, UX architects, visual designers, and my IT colleagues, I broke down traditional silos and got us working collaboratively. My team overhauled the front end code base, drastically improving performance and maintainability. Case study: https://jaysylvester.com/case-study/company/Abercrombie-and-Fitch I led a large team of UI engineers responsible for all e-commerce front end development. Building strong partnerships with stakeholders, UX architects, visual designers, and my IT colleagues, I broke down traditional silos and got us working collaboratively. My team overhauled the front end code base, drastically improving performance and maintainability.
-
-
-
WebLinc
-
United States
-
Internet Publishing
-
1 - 100 Employee
-
Sr. Front End Developer
-
May 2009 - Apr 2010
As a hands-on developer, I performed sophisticated front end development on large-scale e-commerce platforms utilizing standards compliant HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Leading several development projects, I mentored junior front end developers and advised designers on appropriate user interface design elements based on their technical feasibility. As a hands-on developer, I performed sophisticated front end development on large-scale e-commerce platforms utilizing standards compliant HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Leading several development projects, I mentored junior front end developers and advised designers on appropriate user interface design elements based on their technical feasibility.
-
-
-
NetPlus Marketing
-
United States
-
Individual and Family Services
-
Lead Developer and SEO Manager
-
Apr 2006 - Aug 2008
I managed the small, but productive, team responsible for all client web site programming, while also assuming responsibility for IA/UX artifacts including sitemaps, taxonomies, flowcharts, wireframes, and HTML prototypes. As SEO Manager, I authored detailed web site SEO recommendations based on extensive reviews of site content and analytics. I managed the small, but productive, team responsible for all client web site programming, while also assuming responsibility for IA/UX artifacts including sitemaps, taxonomies, flowcharts, wireframes, and HTML prototypes. As SEO Manager, I authored detailed web site SEO recommendations based on extensive reviews of site content and analytics.
-
-
-
Ricoh
-
Netherlands
-
IT Services and IT Consulting
-
1 - 100 Employee
-
Web Specialist
-
Oct 2004 - May 2006
I redesigned the human resources intranet site, replacing an outdated and confusing layout with vastly improved information architecture and a contemporary look and feel. I also optimized all Ricoh subsidiaries' sites for search engine rankings, writing meta descriptions and page content and proposing information architecture changes. I redesigned the human resources intranet site, replacing an outdated and confusing layout with vastly improved information architecture and a contemporary look and feel. I also optimized all Ricoh subsidiaries' sites for search engine rankings, writing meta descriptions and page content and proposing information architecture changes.
-
-
-
Panasonic
-
Japan
-
Appliances, Electrical, and Electronics Manufacturing
-
700 & Above Employee
-
Web Producer
-
May 2000 - Oct 2004
I supervised our interactive agency, reviewing and approving all sites within core product lines including TV, Home Theater, and Home Appliances. Through careful planning with product managers and the advertising department, I coordinated site updates with product introductions, promotions, and events. I also designed and coded the Panasonic Premium sales incentive web site. I supervised our interactive agency, reviewing and approving all sites within core product lines including TV, Home Theater, and Home Appliances. Through careful planning with product managers and the advertising department, I coordinated site updates with product introductions, promotions, and events. I also designed and coded the Panasonic Premium sales incentive web site.
-
-
Education
-
1994 - 1998
Penn State University
Bachelor of Arts (BA), English
