Steve LaFrance's Portfolio

Executive Summary

• Intuitive designer with 10+ years of experience; leverages industry knowledge, creativity, and AI-driven tools to streamline workflows and guide projects to innovative and successful solutions.
• Highly organized and productive, consistently delivering solid designs and specifications within established timeframes.
• Flexible and able to adjust to changing priorities, harnesses insights to find the most valuable product elements and maintain focus on key objectives, even when project directions shift.
• Mentor and product specialist, able to field technical and process questions to help team members understand products and reasons behind design solutions.
• Notable project management abilities, supporting projects through each development stage, leveraging AI to streamline processes and decision-making during high-paced sprint phases.

Core Proficiencies

Branding | Client Engagement | Content Development | Illustration | Logo Creation | Prototyping Presentation and Public Speaking | Time Management | User Testing | Wireframing | Brainstorming Industry Research  | Accessibility Best Practices 

Experience

Daimler Truck North America (DTNA)   Portland, OR     2022 – Today
A heavy-duty truck manufacturer, DTNA provides a web-based application, the CHEC tool, that enables customers to quickly and easily customize vehicle functions based on specific customer needs.

Sr. User Experience Designer

• Initially chosen to design and oversee the vehicle virtual dash area of the application. Within a year was a Subject Matter Expert (SME) for most of the tool’s functions and workflows through hands-on involvement.
• Deliver 3–6 Product Backlog Items (PBI) each 5-week sprint. Engage with Product Owners and Development teams to align core goals and key objectives. Negotiate potential solutions with the teams, integrating feedback and modifying concepts to address technical constraints.
• Create Figma wireframes, interactive prototypes, and final high-fidelity designs for each PBI. Publish detailed annotations to ensure seamless implementation, highlighting all core requirements and potential stretch-goals.
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Key accomplishments

• Streamlined complex custom logic creation workflows. These changes improved user understanding, reducing the volume of requests to Product Servicing for assistance.
• Introduced a QR-code-based process for the manufacturing facility, eliminated the need to manually review DOS based content and streamlining custom assembly processes.
• Updated the graphic design of old but highly visible areas of the tool. The improvement allowed users to quickly identify vehicle content at a glance, eliminating the need to review dense tables of content.

Tektronix   Beaverton, OR     2012 – 2018
An industry leader in the development and production of Test and Measurement devices; globally supporting the research, design, and troubleshooting of electrical devices.

Graphic Designer, User Experience Designer, Industrial Designer

• Originally contracted to design and manage device graphics for approximately 30% of company’s products, within two years entrusted with the coordination and development of graphics for 90% of Tektronix’ product portfolio.
• Collaborated on the design of new products and applications. Delivered specifications for physical products and new user interfaces used across a wide range of specialized software applications.
• Annually managed the design, production, and printing of all content for Technical Excellence, an event recognizing employees for their achievements. Designed customized printed collateral ranging from invitations to booklets and posters along with digital collateral including email graphics and event presentations.

Key accomplishments

• Based on past successes was assigned to a multimillion-dollar product development program, updated previously developed concepts for the user interface to focus on usability and visual clarity. The product surpassed expected user adoption and sales goals, setting a new standard for future devices in that market space.
• Made desktop and in-product applications approachable by refactored their user interfaces to improve usability specifically for novice and middle-tier users. This new design approach removed barriers that had been blocking widespread adoption in both college and entry-level user markets.

LaFrance Graphic Design   Portland, OR     2008 – Today
Independent creative working with clients ranging from sole proprietors to Fortune 500 companies.

Graphic Designer, Illustrator, UI Designer, Design Lead

• Specialize in communicating with clients to identify core needs, prioritizing primary and secondary requirements. This guidance ensures that projects are in alignment with goals and budget.
• Streamline highly unrefined requests, coach clients through discovery phases to clarify wants vs needs, reduce unnecessary rework and improve the working relationship.
• Led a team of illustrators for a year-long project, mentoring junior designers to maintain quality and consistency, negotiated change requests to keep rework within the contract guidelines.

Technology
Figma – Adobe Suite (Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Audition, XD) – G Suite – Azure – Jira – Microsoft Office Suite – Zeplin – Asana – Monday.com

Education
Art Institute of Portland – Bachelor of Graphic Design
Interaction Design Foundation – UX track

Patents
US-11231444-B1 – Jan 2022
US-D894024-S – Aug 2020
US-D839115-S – Jan 2019
US-D786107-S – May 2017