Nicole Hennig
User Experience Professional
- e: nic@hennigweb.com
- w: nicolehennig.com
- w: hennigweb.com
- p: (617) 440-4679
Professional Profile
Teaching and inspiring educators and librarians about mobile technologies and the user experience of e-reading. Specialties include: instructional design, user experience research, web design, emerging technologies, information architecture, social media strategy, mobile strategy, iOS apps. I enjoy teaching, presenting and inspiring creative people to use technology effectively.
Work Experience
January 2013 - present
Independent User Experience Professional
Boston, MA
- Author of the popular website, Apps for Academics.
- Online course designer and instructor: Apps for Librarians & Educators, and The Book as iPad App.
- Co-founder of Feedwelder: the best way to display fresh RSS feed content in your site. Learn more about Feedwelder at EasyRSSMashups.com.
June 2010 - December 2012
Head, User Experience Group
MIT Libraries, Cambridge, MA
- Manage the user experience team. Design and lead ethnographic studies, usability tests and surveys, in order to understand the needs of the various communities at MIT.
- Strategize about which innovative products and services to develop, based on user research. Collaborate with other departments in order to bring the voice of the user to strategic planning.
- Manage the production of web sites, web application interfaces, mobile web sites and mobile apps.
- Create and offer training to MIT students on mobile apps for enhancing academic work. Apps4Academics: http://libguides.mit.edu/apps .
- Lead social media marketing efforts and collaborate with the marketing team in order to market effectively to diverse communities.
- Use Google Analytics and statistics from other library catalogs and databases to aggregate and present relevant data for decision-making.
- Find ways to integrate virtual and physical services in order to create a seamless experience for users.
1999 - May 2010
Web Manager & Usability Specialist
MIT Libraries, Cambridge, MA
- Led teams for the design and creation of web applications and interfaces for MIT Libraries research tools.
- Served as front-end web developer for the redesign of MIT Libraries research interfaces. (XHTML, CSS, JavaScript)
- Implemented Wordpress as a content management system for several MIT web sites.
- Designed and led continual cycles of usablity testing and user needs studies.
- Implemented the MIT Libraries Betas site, a public web site for experimenting with and evaluating new technologies and services.
- Trained staff in use of web authoring tools, including Dreamweaver, Wordpress, and LibGuides.
- Served as project lead for web design projects involving coordination with outsourced graphic designers, internal information architects and developers, and content experts.
1996 - 1998
Systems Librarian & Information Architect
Bose Corporation, Framingham, MA
- Designed and managed the company's intranet home page.
- Consulted with intranet authors on web design and information architecture.
- Designed and conducted usability tests of corporate intranet pages in order to improve their design.
- Designed and taught web research classes for Bose employees.
1982 - 1996
Reference Librarian, Assistant Professor, Music Librarian
Previous positions
- Reference & Systems Librarian, Emmanuel College, Boston, MA, 1995-98
- Librarian, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Cambridge, MA, 1992-94
- Freelance pianist and piano instructor, Oak Bluffs, MA, 1990-92
- Assistant Professor of Music, Stonehill College, Easton, MA, 1986-90
- Reference Librarian, Boston Conservatory, Boston, MA, 1985-86
- Music Librarian, Longy School of Music, Cambridge, MA, 1982-86
Technical Skills
Product Management & Evangelism
The ability to translate end-user needs and balance them with product objectives. Taking products through an interative process, including ethnographic research of users, building wireframes and prototypes, managing priorities, conducting usability tests, revising the product, creating and adjusting timelines, and evaluating for continual improvements. Skilled at keeping user needs central through the process. Excellent ability to evangelize the product, inspire users and customers, and keep the product aligned with real-world needs.
Instructional design, teaching, public speaking
Excellent at evaluating the needs of a group of learners with various learning styles, and customizing learning for those styles. Experienced with both in-person and distance learning, including current technologies for both. Skilled at writing supporting documentation, working with international students of all ages, writing cross-culturally relevant content, and managing across time zones. Recent training classes have focused on iOS applications: Apps4Academics: http://libguides.mit.edu/apps and Apps4Librarians: http://apps4librarians.com/. Experienced speaker for national and regional conferences, including virtual events. Slides available: http://www.slideshare.net/nic221/ and http://www.hennigweb.com/presentations/.
Social media tools, blogging, and tagging
Deep knowledge of social media, blogging, and tagging. History of collaboration with marketing teams on social media strategy, listening to users via Twitter and blogs, creating video tutorials and blog posts, using Flickr for bringing archival photo collections to the world, and using QR codes to integrate physical and virtual services. Extensive experience with tagging and social bookmarking tools, such as Delicious.
Content management systems: Wordpress & LibGuides
Extensive experience with Wordpress both as a blogging tool and a content management system. This includes installing, configuring, experimenting with plugins, customizing themes, and dealing with security issues. Experience with setting up and using LibGuides content management system for libraries.
Front-end web coding & wireframing tools
Working knowledge of XHTML, CSS, JavaScript, using tools such as Dreamweaver and BBEdit. Knowledge of tools for creating mockups and wireframes, such as Photoshop, Keynote, and iMockups for iPad.