Ian Spangler
Verified Expert in Design
Designer
New York, NY, United States
Toptal member since November 10, 2017
Ian is a UX/UI designer, educator, and startup coach with over 12 years of professional experience designing and developing web and mobile products for high-profile and emerging brands. From his tenure as an entrepreneur wearing multiple hats, he has honed a broad, multifaceted skillset that enables him to take projects from concept to launch. Ian holds an MFA in interaction design from New York's Parsons School of Design, where he now teaches.
Portfolio
BikeNYC
The Imagine Film List
Entertainment Marketing Designs
Work Experience
Adjunct Professor (Part-time)
Parsons School of Design
- Taught a course in professional development, including portfolio-building, to graduating students in strategic and integrated design.
UI/UX Designer and Creative Director (Consultant)
Ian Spangler Design
- Led and executed on digital projects with the agencies Designity and Toptal.
- Defined strategy and architecture for brand-elevating website overhauls, managed designer workflows, and provided constructive iterative feedback.
- Collaborated closely with clients, estimating scope and cost, providing regular progress reports, and delivering on key business objectives.
- Laid down the foundation of UX design thinking for an education platform, conducting market research, surveying users, and wireframing solutions.
Principal Designer (In-house Consultant)
ZergNet
- Worked cross-functionally with C-level leaders, engineers, marketers, business developers, and content editors as an integral one-man design department within a high-growth media startup.
- Designed and iterated on CTR-optimized website designs for six editorial and news brands receiving 60+ million visitors per month.
- Defined or elevated visual identities of ZergNet-owned-and-operated properties across multiple channels.
- Devised CSS-driven spec systems, annotations, and brand guides for interdependent sites that help ensure accurate translation of designs.
- Designed traffic-growing widgets for Rolling Stone, Thrillist, New York Post, Hollywood Reporter, and other sites.
Co-founder and Director of Product (UX + Tech)
The Imagine Film List
- Co-designed, and built from scratch, the premiere social platform for promoting books as movie and TV shows, attracting 300+ best-selling authors.
- Translated complex business requirements into a UX architecture scheme and onboarding flow that helped spur an 11% average conversion rate with 100,000 users registered in the first nine months.
- Devised a series of innovative, intuitive forms that inspired users to publish hundreds of thousands of story and casting ideas.
- Facilitated a collaborative design process that included research, user scenario definition, wireframing, prototyping, and user testing.
- Defined visual styles and micro-interactions for the application UI based on branding and input from co-founders.
- Assembled and led a team of two full-time developers and contractors to expand and evolve rich custom features and admin tools.
- Prepared user activity reports from Google Analytics data and SQL queries to inform on progress and actionable plans for improving user engagement.
Interactive Designer
Townsquare Media
- Worked as a UI/UX designer with product managers, art directors, and developers on a vast suite of national music news and radio station websites.
- Devised wireframes and user flows for mobile sites, a streaming music player, and an online auction system for an eCommerce website.
- Designed themed versions of entire sites plus interfaces for editorial features, onboarding, loyalty programs, and a flagship mobile application.
- Helmed a design system that successfully transitioned 300+ websites to a responsive, mobile-friendly framework.
Interactive Developer/Designer
True North, Inc.
- Served national clients such as Disney, ABC, Glamour, and Toys ‘R Us as a creative technologist and digital art director in a mid-sized agency.
- Crafted custom-coded media websites, microsites, animations, desktop widgets, Facebook apps, and games.
- Planned, led, and managed the execution of internal web applications from UI/UX planning through development, QA testing, and launch.
- Provided key contributions to three ECHO-award-winning campaigns.
Interactive Designer and Developer (Consultant)
Sanborn Media Factory
- Designed and hand-coded front ends of marketing sites and emails for high-profile publishers including GQ, Architectural Digest, and Bon Appetit.
Education
Master's Degree in Design & Technology (Interaction)
Parsons School of Design - New York, NY
Bachelor's Degree in Film
Vassar College - Poughkeepsie, NY
Certifications
UX Designer
Interaction Design Foundation (IDF)
Skills
Tools
Microsoft Office, Balsamiq Mockups, OmniGraffle, Sketch 3, Photoshop CC, Zeplin, InVision, Google Analytics, Sublime Text, Illustrator CC, InDesign CC, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, Flash, Sketch, Balsamiq, Adobe InDesign, Canvas, Apple Keynote, Photoshop CS6, Principle, Adobe Experience Design (XD), Adobe After Effects
Languages
HTML, JavaScript, PHP, HTML5, CSS3, CSS
Industry Expertise
Media, Advertising, Marketing, Education, Film & Television, Entertainment & Leisure
Platforms
iOS, MacOS, WordPress, Figma
Other
Mobile App Design, Web Design, Front-end Development, Editorial Design, Consumer-facing Product Design, Product Design, B2C, User Interface (UI), User Experience (UX), Responsive Web Design (RWD), WordPress Themes, Usability, Interaction Design (IxD), On-page SEO, UI Prototyping, Web App Design, Information Architecture (IA), UI Design, UX Design, Bootstrap 3, User Research, Heuristic Review, University Teaching, UX Strategy, SaaS, Mobile UI, Mobile UX, UX Audits, Branding, Learning Management Systems (LMS), Project Management, Human-computer Interaction (HCI), Experience Strategy, jQuery UI, Web Technologies, jQuery, Unity3D, Visual Design, Educational Games, iPhone, Content Management Systems (CMS), Research, Movies, Pop Culture, News, Celebrities & Influencers, UI Specifications, Style Guides, Wireframing, User Flows, TV Shows, Sitemaps, Publishing, Books, Adaptive Design, Mobile Design, User-generated Content, Databases, Fluid Design, Usability Testing, Prototyping, Competitor Analysis & Profiling, Paper Prototyping, User Testing, Interviews, Rapid Prototyping, Content Strategy, Responsive Design, Corporate Branding, Coding, Graphic Design, Template Design, Typography
Experience
- Photoshop CC - 14 years
- HTML - 8 years
- Media - 8 years
- UI Design - 6 years
- Sketch 3 - 4 years
- Education - 2 years
Tools
- Sketch 3
- Photoshop CC
- InVision
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