Resume:
Julie Young
EXPERIENCE
Self-Employed Consultant — 2016 - Present
Gathered requirements for and specified the user experience for an events platform that serves more than 60,000 meetups, golf events, luncheons, and conference-style events per year for a professional association. Identified opportunities to reduce admin user time by 34% through data analysis. Deliverables included requirements, wireframes, usability testing, data analysis, and user interview findings.
Identified opportunities for a national nonprofit to improve engagement with their monthly e-newsletter while reducing staff effort through competitive analysis, usability testing, and stakeholder interviews.
Conducted user research for a Kentucky hospital system to inform their marketing strategy for an outpatient surgical service. Deliverables included personas, web analytics analysis, and customer journey maps.
Analyzed the registration flow and website content for a health condition’s nonprofit fundraising websites and made recommendations to improve the participants' experience. Provided recommendations for a new content structure and created wireframes to implement the changes within the existing website design.
Provided user experience strategy services for several CPG client projects for a full-service ad agency. Delivered content strategies, information architecture, and wireframes while working asynchronously with the project team.
Researched the new-to-opera customer experience for Pittsburgh Opera by conducting a survey and one-on-one interviews, resulting in findings and personas used to map the customer’s journey and inform future marketing efforts.
Recommended an improved layout and information architecture for Dignity Period’s website, and wrote website copy supporting their capital campaign.
Conducted web accessibility investigations and screenreader testing for a consumer protection law firm.
Blooms to Bees LLC, Owner — 2021 - Present
Wrote a weekly email newsletter, blog posts, and social media posts, building awareness for and educating people about gardening with native plants. Email subscriptions increased by 70% from 2024 to 2025.
Applied on-page and off-page Search Engine Optimization techniques to increase visibility in local search queries and better reach prospective customers. Web traffic increased by 256% from 2023 to 2024.
Created landscape designs and coached clients to garden with native plants, presenting clients with a guidebook to their new garden that includes plant profiles and photographs, and written instructions to make their garden dream a reality.
Sparkbox, User Experience Strategist/Project Manager — 2017 - 2023
Planned and led client discovery efforts, including stakeholder and user research and on-site and virtual client workshops. Techniques included interviewing, observation, and analytics, resulting in personas, user journeys, and an experience strategy for clients ranging from startups to Fortune 500 companies.
Created wireframes and interactive prototypes that solved complex web and mobile app interactions for clients in manufacturing, logistics, and digital business services.
Conducted moderated and unmoderated usability testing for clients, both formative and evaluative. An improved user experience design and iterative usability testing tripled self-service portal usage for one financial services client.
Managed teams of developers and designers for application development projects using Agile methodologies. Responsible for budget and client communication.
Collaborated with Business Development to conceptualize and write thought leadership and lead-generation articles that routinely would garner more than 15,000 unique visits per article per year.
Highmark, Senior UX & Design Analyst — 2011 - 2016
Performed user research, iterative prototyping, and usability testing for enterprise health insurance applications. Products included applications for customer service, provider, care management, and benefits areas. Acted as a UX consultant to cross-functional teams in an Agile environment throughout the project's lifecycle.
Conducted time and efficiency studies to validate design decisions. In a time study for a provider search tool, a proposed redesign was found to save 90 seconds per customer service call, a significant savings.
Performed a heuristic review of a care management application and provided recommendations to improve workflows and UI consistency. Based on these recommendations, the project team reduced vendor costs by 50 percent.
Created standards for inclusive usability testing and ensured that designs were WCAG 2.0 AA compliant.
Managed assignments, schedules, and estimations for a project team of 4 UX analysts.
Elliance, User Experience Architect — 2011 - 2012
Improved the user experience of higher education websites by conducting qualitative and quantitative user research.
Created information architectures, site maps, content strategies, and wireframes to illustrate the user experience strategy.
BarkleyOKRP (formerly BarkleyREI and Ripple Effects Interactive) — 2004 - 2011
Senior User Experience Architect — 2007 - 2011
Developed content strategies and wireframes for websites and mobile apps for higher education, non-profit, and tourism clients.
Planned and conducted moderated usability tests and card sorts. Directed the user experience for a proprietary content management system.
Promoted to Senior User Experience Architect in 2010.
Content Manager & Web Copywriter — 2004 - 2007
Wrote web copy, marketing emails, sponsored searches, and banner ads for clients.
Planned and managed the content migration process into content management systems for large-scale website redesigns while supervising a data entry team to ensure on-time delivery and user-friendly page layouts.
Wrote user guides and conducted client training on writing for the web, SEO, and content management systems.
EDUCATION
Master of Business Administration, Duquesne University — 2015
B.A. English Literature and Creative Writing, Seton Hill University — 2004
Certifications
Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO)
Certified SAFe Agilist (Scaled Agile Framework)
Tools
Adobe InDesign
Adobe Photoshop
Axure
Figma
Jira
Usability testing tools from Optimal Workshop, UsabilityHub, and UserTesting.com, among others.