Thomas S. Duane
San Francisco, CA U.S.A.
Mobile: (415) 310-2091 • email: tduane62@gmail.com • www.ThomasDuane.com
To see most recent work, download PDF portfolio, or download Word version of resume
SR. USER EXPERIENCE DESIGN LEAD / CREATIVE DIRECTOR
User Experience / UI Design / Ecommerce / Marketing Communications / Design / Brand Strategy
Generated over $4 Million in incremental revenue for Shutterfly through the redesign of ecommerce store,
product development, advertising, and direct mail.
For ecommerce travel site; Hotwire.com, stimulated an increase in online partner advertising click-to-purchase
rates generating incremental revenue increase of over $300,000 a month.
As a principal in an Internet professional services agency I helped start-ups raise over $21 million from VC’s
and launched over 240 web sites. In one example, my UE work on behalf of the NHL increased their ecommerce
and online sponsorship revenue from $3 Million to $11 Million annually.
Propelled NYC brand identity start-up to a $3 Million global agency serving Fortune 500 clients and averaging
40 live projects a week. Work on behalf of clients generates over $2 Billion a year in sales.
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
9/09 – Present
Cisco Systems, Inc.
7/05 – 4/06
San Jose, CA
Sr. User Experience Engineer
9/07 – 8/09
SmartZip.com
Pleasanton, CA
Sr. Director User Experience
1/07 – 8/07
Logitech, Inc.
Fremont, CA
WW Creative Director
4/06 – 12/06
Neohatch, Inc.
San Francisco, CA & Boston, MA
Sr. Strategist / Chief Creative Officer
Shutterfly, Inc.
Redwood City, CA
Creative Director
11/04 – 6/05
InterActiveCorp, Inc.
San Francisco, CA
Creative Director
6/88 – 11/04
Various Agencies
Manhattan, NY & Boston, MA
Creative Director
1984 to 1988
Polo/ Ralph Lauren
New York, New York
Director of Special Projects
RESULTS & DETAILS
Cisco Systems, Inc.
9/09 - Present
San Jose, CA
Sr. Lead User Experience Designer
Product Development
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Collaborate with product marketing and product management teams in brainstorming, and definition of Collaboration
software for enterprise end-users and their Org Admins.
Product Marketing
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Designed and directed Flash product demo’s for use in sales presentations and Cisco Collaboration Summits.
User Experience
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Partner with engineering teams in definition of user experience functionality. Create wire-frames and interactive UI
mock ups, and participate in usability testing sessions.
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Design UI for consumer as well as back-end software interfaces for WebEx local server and cloud-based SysAdmin
deployments, collaboration software, directory synchronization, free/busy synchronization and email products.
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Design and produce illustrations and icons for all interactions.
SmartZip.com
9/07 – 8/09
Pleasanton, CA
Sr. Director User Experience
Product Development
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Based on business objectives communicated by senior management, developed product concepts, prototypes,
screen-flow diagrams, wireframes, interactions, UI design concepts, content, and functional specs to achieve goals.
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Based on usability testing and focus groups, developed new product concepts to meet user demand and to generate
new revenue streams.
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Helped executive create investor presentations that succeeded in helping company close two rounds of funding.
User Experience Design
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After designing UI, created and maintained web site usability style guide detailing interactions.
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Lead user research and usability testing.
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Lead usability QA review and maintained QA reporting system to monitor bug fixes and product enhancements.
Creative Direction
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Developed and maintain brand style-guide including color palette, icon sets, button sets, sound effects, interaction
animations, illustrations and copywriting.
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Supervised design team in the ongoing development of new landing pages and CSS templates
Logitech, Inc.
Ecommerce RichMedia
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Created 14 award winning Flash videos to promote new Logitech products stimulating increased click-to-purchase
rates and viral marketing exposure
Photography
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Conducted photo shoots in multiple locations to meet a variety of business objectives.
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Activities generated over $500,000 in company savings
Creative Direction
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Directed package design, print, ecommerce, experiential and email marketing campaigns.
Shutterfly, Inc.
Acquisition Marketing
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Designed companies most successful print ad campaign increasing response rate from 1.3% to 36%.
Activation Marketing
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Redesigned Welcome Kit and online Welcome Center, which stimulated an increase in customer conversion rates
from 9% to 20%. This translates into a projected increase of 20,000 new customers with a projected financial impact
of $1 Million annually.
Retention Marketing
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Designed companies first direct mail catalog (2005 Holiday) including photo shoot, design, copywriting and prepress.
Catalog generated $1.2 Million in incremental revenue at a 139% ROI.
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Redesign of Pre-Paid-Print-Plan website landing-pages stimulated a 32% lift in sales resulting in over 12,775 PPP
purchases in five months. Producing a $1 Million lift in incremental revenue, projected to reach $2 Million in one year.
Business Development
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Led the ideation for strategic business partnerships with Fortune 500 companies including; Best Buy, Hallmark, Ritz
Camera, evite.com, Amazon.com and Home Shopping Network.
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Led the development of the companies Personal Publishing product roadmap presentation for 2006-2007. Developed
and visualized new product concepts to leverage company-wide initiatives.
Ecommerce/Product Marketing
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Redesigned store home page and key landing pages, stimulating a15% increase in store revenue.
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Designed new card borders, which generated 80% of the incremental revenue generated by greeting card sales.
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Designed new photo book layouts and styles stimulating a 28% growth in business.
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Directed the design development of the UI and icons for Shuttertfly’s new desktop photo-organizer software.
InterActiveCorp, Inc. (Hotwire.com)
Creative Services Department
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Increased output by 50% without increasing headcount.
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Implemented a comprehensive creative development and project tracking methodology that eliminated missed
deadlines and improved overall creative.
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Improved performance of all marketing communications by as much as 58% increasing Hotwire monthly contribution
by over $300,000 a month in the first three months.
Database Marketing Department
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Increased online registration metrics 200% by redesigning email capture communications.
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Improved contribution margin for all DBM mailings (specific case studies available on request)
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Developed strategies for obtaining qualified email registrants through viral marketing and affiliate marketing
partnerships.
Online Marketing Department
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Improved contribution margin through redesign of all online marketing communications (ad banners, RichMedia,
Search-A-Quotes, and pop-unders)
Search Engine Marketing Department
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Improved contribution margin through development of content strategies that resulted in superior search engine
search result placement.
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Improved effectiveness of paid search results advertising text links on major search engines including Google.com
and AskJeeves.com.
Affiliate Marketing Department
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Significantly improved click-through-rate, and click-to-purchase rate and overall contribution margin through redesign
of all online ad banners, RichMedia, Search-A-Quote interactive ads and exit app pop-unders.
Online Partnerships Department
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Improved click-through-rate, and click-to-purchase rate and overall contribution margin through redesign of affiliate
branding communications on sites that included; MSN.com, Expedia.com, Orbitz.com, Hotels.com,
CheapTickets.com, among others.
Hotel Product Team
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Conceived of a Hotel Conference invitation strategy that resulted in obtaining the highest RSVP rate in Hotwire
conference history.
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Conceived of, and creative directed award winning RSVP package (we private labeled wine and designed unique
shippers and conference print collateral which generated immediate results stimulating relationship-building phone
calls and industry buzz).
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Creative directed all event collateral including conference branding, program, executive team FLASH presentations,
and micro-event-website.
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Developed an experiential event strategy for annual Hotel Partner Conference to strengthen business relationships,
position Hotwire as discount travel thought-leaders, educate partners about impending IAC split, generate industry
buzz through innovative conference special events including a rock-paper-scissors hotel executives tournament
overseen by the US Rock-Paper-Scissors Association, cocktail parties, golf and winery tours.
Ecommerce Online Store
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Creative directed all web site landing page improvements, and home page merchandising communications. Achieved
primary objective of improving hotel sales as demonstrated by breaking sales records for the past two months.
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Audited competition and recommended specific strategies to improve Hotwire functionality, merchandising and user
experience.
Offline Marketing
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Updated Hotwire Brand Identity and Style Guide.
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Participated in development of new Hotwire positioning.
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Participated in selection of offline advertising agency ad campaign strategy and creative direction.
Agencies (Neohatch, Woolf Associates, Neokom, and SME Design)
Internet Strategy, UE and UI:
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Redesigned the ecommerce web site for Stuart Weitzman. Resulted in an increase of online sales from $1 Million to
$2 Million in one year.
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Developed a concept to help fund spinal cord injury research through the provision of research news and ecommerce
services to the spinal cord injured population. Succeeded in recruiting an executive team and obtaining $21 Million in
funding from VC’s to launch the company.
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Developed the brand positioning, designed and launched a 200 portal network for Vertical Portals, LLC. This was the
largest portal launch recorded at the time.
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Developed, and implemented, a digital communications strategy for Fleer/Skybox which included a re-architecture
and redesign of their web site resulting in considerable savings for Fleer/Skybox and repositioned them as having the
top trading card collectibles web site on the Internet.
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In a “strategy bake-off” I defeated IBM eBusiness Services to capture a $1 Million bowling industry portal project.
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Defeated McKinsey to capture a digital communications strategy engagement for Puget Sound Energy, a $400 Million
Seattle electric utility. My work for them resulted in an annual savings of over $600,000 and established their fiveyear Internet strategy.
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Developed and implemented a global marketing and digital communications strategy for the Monaco based
International Amateur Athletics Federation (the world organizing body for all track & field.) The King of Monaco is the
Chairman of the Board for the IAAF- the organization is housed in one of the countries palaces.
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Positioning, marketing communications strategy and web site for a new sports collectible called Flipp books. Project
included product development, point-of-sale displays, brand identity design and special event development. As a
result, the client, Flipp Sports, successfully launched their new product and have captured significant market share in
the category.
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Web strategy for Abbott Laboratories weight reduction drug- Reductil and antacid drug Prevacid resulting in
increased unique visitors and an increase in consumer-to-doctor prescription inquiries.
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Generated the most click-through’s ever recorded on the ESPN web site with an online advertising promotion. I
designed and executed this $1 Million media promotion on behalf of Career Experience, Inc.
Branding:
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Redesigned Northeastern University athletics identity and developed an entire product line and merchandising
strategy which has stimulated a 150% increase in licensed merchandise revenue for the university.
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Redesigned the oldest minor league baseball league identity (the International League).
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Developed the marketing communications strategy and brand identity for the new independent league baseball team,
the North Shore Spirit. My work included a sponsorship sales strategy. The team recorded the most first season
tickets sold in the Northeastern League and the most merchandise sold in a single year. The project won an IABC
Gold Quill award for best brand identity project of the year.
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Analyzed Woolf Associates competition and repositioned agency for competitive advantage.
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Redesign Princeton University’s athletics identity.
Identity and merchandise line for Heavyweight champion John Ruiz. Project including ecommerce web site.
Brand identities and merchandising designs for professional and collegiate sports clients. These generate over $2
Billion annually in combined merchandise sales annually.
Re-positioning and redesign of the RC Cola brand (which included a full corporate brand book to address building
signage to delivery truck graphics). Our work resulted in RC Cola recapturing enough market-share to stimulate the
sale of the brand for significant profit.
Redesigned the league and team identities for the Australian professional basketball league, Chinese professional
soccer league, South Korean professional soccer league and the Philippine professional basketball league.
Revolutionized how the beauty & fashion industry merchandises their products at retail to drive sales of higher margin
product. At one point, we were providing strategic merchandising services for all of the top brands including; Calvin
Klein, Liz Claiborne, Anne Taylor, Armani, Chanel, Christian Dior, Elizabeth Arden, Estée Lauder, Revlon, Cosmair,
Lancome and Clarins.
Designed the athlete identity for Tiger Woods and Evander Holyfield.
Redesign of employee benefits programs for Viacom (including, MTV, Nickelodeon, Simon & Schuster, Kings
Dominion Action Parks, and Paramount Pictures) resulted in an IABC Gold Quill award (the highest honor a
marketing communications professional can receive.)
Brand identity and licensing & merchandising work on behalf of the Toronto Raptors generated over $25 Million in
licensed merchandise sales in the six months before the team had drafted their first player.
Designed the NY Rangers third jersey, the best selling hockey shirt in the world.
Developed brand books and style guides for many Fortune 500 brands including; NFL, NHL, NBA, MLB, DC Comics,
Triarc Beverages, Viacom, and Colgate-Palmolive.
Polo/ Ralph Lauren
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Centralization of all photographic services resulting in $1.5 Million in annual savings
Developed and implemented a plan to introduce technology into Men’s, Women’s and Home Furnishings Design
departments resulting in improved productivity, increased quality and department budgetary savings.
Developed a new technology to archive over 50,000 design reference photographs. This technology is in use today
at law enforcement agencies across the globe (it is used to track mug shots.)
Applied this technology to track $12 Million in company antiques and store props, resulting in $400,000 reduction in
annual item loss.
I left Polo to start my first brand identity agency, SME Design
EDUCATION
BFA- Pratt Institute, 1984
Brooklyn, NY
Major: Communication Arts
SKILLS
 Trained in iPad, PDA and Tablet UE/UI requirements
 Agile Product Development Process
 ADA Compliance training including JAWS
 Rally project tracking system
 Familiar with: HTML, DHTML, HTML 5, AJAX, DOJO, Ruby on RAILS, Pearl, Flash, and Maya animation
 Expert in Adobe Creative Suite software (Illustrator, Photoshop…)
 Icon development
 UE & UI design
 Usability Testing & focus group moderation
 Illustration
 Graphic design
 Brand and corporate identity
 Brand positioning development & Naming
 Ecommerce merchandising and design