Anna E. Cook

Resume

 

Resume

I am a Senior Inclusive Designer that specializes in building inclusive products. With over ten years of experience, I am dedicated to creating scalable systems to support accessible and inclusive practices across digital product teams.

 

Experience

Senior Inclusive Designer at Microsoft | August 2022 - Present

  • Gain a deep understanding of business goals, user needs, technical constraints, the competitive landscape of your product area, and accessibility in the Azure portal

  • Influence product and design directions and deliver a variety of design outputs, from high-level concepts to detailed designs to interactive prototypes, to guide product development

  • Collaborate with researchers, program managers, engineers, and cross-functional stakeholders to create high-quality user experiences with measurable impact

  • Proactively identify and prioritize opportunities that continually elevate the product experience

  • Articulate design strategies and decisions in clear and compelling ways to various stakeholders and audiences

  • Mentor junior designers and contribute to the wider UX community

Senior Accessibility Designer at Northwestern Mutual  | May 2021 - July 2022

  • Advising Product, Design, and Engineering teams (iOS, Android, and Web) on the best accessibility practices and accessibility-related decisions

  • Translating requirements and synthesizing user research into useful, useable, elegant, and accessible solutions

  • Assisting in the development of continuing education on inclusive design practices, accessibility guidelines, and industry standards

  • Contributing to process refinement and providing accessibility perspectives in design thinking

  • Conducting accessibility testing with assistive technologies

Senior Product Designer at Recurly  | February 2020 - May 2021

  • Establishing and defining accessibility standards

  • Creating sustainable and accessible components for design systems

  • Identifying user needs through generative research

  • Generating interview scripts, conducting user interviews, and synthesis

  • Facilitating ideation workshops across departments

  • Improving processes within the product teams

  • Creating low/high fidelity designs and interactive prototypes

Senior UX Designer at Transamerica  | June 2018 - January 2020

  • Establishing and defining accessibility standards for digital products

  • Creating sustainable and accessible components for design systems

  • Identifying user needs, sketching solutions, and building prototypes

  • Testing ideas with the user research team, and refining designs with data

  • Improving processes within the content management system

  • Auditing existing products and sites for accessibility/usability issues

  • Delivering detailed interaction models and specifications to developers

UX Designer at Alloy Magnetic  | February 2016 - June 2018

  • Improving experience within the content management system product

  • Creating and developing user and customer personas

  • Developing strategies with wireframes and information architecture

  • Designing high-fidelity mockups and component libraries

  • Leading design reviews and multiple stakeholder meetings

  • Conducting user interviews, competitive research, and testing

  • Delivering to developers and seeing through the implementation

UX Designer at PR Newswire  | June 2015 - February 2016

  • Creating low fidelity and high fidelity designs for public sites and post-login products

  • Working with stakeholders to adapt websites to user and customer needs

  • Creating and elaborating style guides and components

  • Gathering data and conducting user interviews to iterate designs

  • Illustrating unique promotional content for online distribution

UX Designer at n.io  | September 2014 - May 2015

  • Designing experience-driven web applications for IoT software

  • Designing public web experiences to promote IoT software capabilities

  • Creating digital promotional materials, including copywriting

  • Building the design system, including logo design, branding guidelines, and messaging

Web + Graphic Designer at CU-Boulder  | April 2012 - August 2014

For the departments of ALTEC and OIT

  • Updating website design and experience to align with CU-Boulder’s strategy

  • Creating website designs based on international events and holidays

  • Designing print and digital promotional materials

  • Co-ordinating production and distribution of promotional materials

  • Teaching accessible design and technology workshops for K-12 educators

  • Uploading and managing content in the Drupal content management system

Education

Master’s of Science in Creative Technologies + Design, University of Colorado Boulder

The Master’s of Science in Creative Technologies + Design equips students with skills in:

  • Design — needs assessment, articulating alternatives, selection process, iteration, and developing solutions

  • The business of creativity — communicating work visually and verbally, engaging with industry, networking, and professional skills 

  • Technical fluency — a foundation in contemporary digital skills, including coding and development 

  • Emphasis has been included on inclusivity and accessibility within these subject areas

Bachelor of Art in Studio Art, University of Colorado Boulder

  • Bachelor of Art in Studio Art with an emphasis in digital media and design

  • Minor in Technology Arts & Media with Honors: a program designed to teach students creative thinking, technical skills, and visual communication

Volunteer Work

CU-Boulder Disability Services Peer Notetaker | 2022

As a peer notetaker through Disability Services at CU-Boulder, I took in-depth notes for a peer in my class, ensured the notes were accessible, and sent those notes to my peer through the CU-Boulder “Accommodations” portal.

TechGirlz Instructor | 2018-2020

TechGirlz is a non-profit dedicated to reducing the gender gap in STEM education and careers. TechGirlz’s mission is to inspire middle school girls to explore the possibilities of technology to empower their future careers. As an instructor, I prepared design and front-end development workshops and teach them to girls either in-person or virtually.

Publications

2022

2021

2020

2019

2013

 

Accessibility

  • Strong understanding of accessibility compliance and meeting WCAG criteria

  • Skilled in designing for assistive technologies such as screen readers

  • Experienced in creating accessible components for design systems

  • Familiar with advancing beyond basic accessibility into inclusive design

Skills

  • Content strategy

  • Evaluative research

  • Figma / Sketch

  • Generative research

  • HTML / CSS

  • Illustrator

  • InDesign

  • Information Architecture

  • Interaction design

  • Interface design

  • Photoshop

  • Prototyping

  • User flows/task flows

  • Visual design

  • Wireframing

Want to learn more about how I work?