Building a personal site in the blog format has many obvious advantages. It’s fast to build, easy to manage, flexible and expandible. If you are using open source content management systems (CMS) such as Wordpress (Blog) or PhpBB (Forum), there are big communities out there that generate enormous amount of resources that allow site owners to choose specific feature sets and implement them quick.

The build-from-scratch approach simply seems a lot less attractive now. If I have enough control over customization, there is almost no reason not to go with this time-saving route, even it means I have to live with a fixed content / presentation structure.

There was a time I thought building a Flash wrapper is more interesting than the actual content. This site could have looked like this:

More history of this site from 1999-2004:

Chi Hsiao (pronounced shao) started his Web career in 2000 as an interaction / graphic designer based in New York City. Received a master’s degree from New York University’s Interactive Telecommunication Program with backgrounds in fine art, interaction design and project management, Chi is a multi-skilled web product designer and producer whose experience ranges from traditional and contemporary fine arts in drawing, mixed media to digital publishing, GUI design, information architecture, web 2.0 and social media technologies.

Chi currently resides in the San Francisco Bay Area as a Producer of User Experience at Electronic Arts and continues his practice in the areas of web technologies and communications. SignOnSign.net is his personal blog covering topics such as web development and technology trends, usability design, art, culture and music, as well as a brief record of his works between 1999 and early 2004.

[Summary]

Senior Internet product designer / web producer with over 8 years of design & production experiences and strong knowledge of visual and user interface design, web development process, Web 2.0 and social media technologies. Educational backgrounds in project management, interaction design and fine art.

[Specialties]

- User Experience, Interaction Design, Information Architecture
- Visual Design, Digital Publishing, Social Media Technologies
- Front-end development and prototyping tools, ActionScript 3.0
- Project and Team Management
- Bilingual fluency in Japanese and Chinese Mandarin

[Experience]

User Experience Producer (Dec. 2007 – Present)
Electronic Arts

• Define feature sets and the overall user experiences for the online casual gaming website Pogo.com (currently serves 11 million registered users with 1.6 million paid subscribers in five countries and four languages).
• Manage communications throughout the product development cycle and resolve design issues with cross-functional teams including production, marketing, engineering and QA.

Lead User Interface Designer (Oct. 2004 – Dec. 2007)
Electronic Arts

• Conceptualize and produce high-level requirements documents, wire frames, use cases, flowcharts and interactive prototypes for web applications on Pogo and major social networking websites.
• Lead the US and the international development teams (London and Shanghai) to produce project deliverables within designated time frames and production constraints.

Producer (Feb. 2004 - Aug. 2004)
Oddcast, Inc.

• Define project scopes, manage client interactions and drive projects from the conceptual and budgetary stages through scheduling, development to final execution and delivery.
• Oversee the design and execution of projects range from online advertisements, websites and interactive demos to commercial videos and mobile contents.

Art Director (Jun. 2001 - Dec. 2003)
MSS New York, Inc.

• Develop creative directions and visual design guidelines for use in advertising and promotional products in a wide range of media from print, website, digital sound/video to interactive DVD.
• Manage client interfaces and provide cross-media production and branding strategies via the latest technologies such as hi-definition video (HDTV), digital publishing and interactive content authoring tools.
• Clients include Japan’s largest telecommunication company NTT Japan, the largest TV broadcasting network NHK and Tokyo Broadcasting System.

Interaction Designer / Instructor (May. 2000 – Dec. 2002)
Independent Consultant

• Designed and developed over 15 commercial/noncommercial websites and multimedia projects for businesses (For-A Japan), schools (Harvard Design School), non-profit organizations and professionals.
• Actively participated in the development of an award-winning online museum ColeccionCisneros.org with the NY-based design studio Cabengo.
• Lectured at L’innovate USA Co., a privately held institution that provides design and web development courses for design professionals.
• Internships in American Museum of Natural History and MTV animation department.

Certificate of Business Project Management (May. 2003 – Jun. 2004)
New York University
School of Continue Education and Professional Studies, NYU

Master in Interactive Telecommunications (Sep. 1998 – May. 2000)
New York University
Tisch School of the Arts, Interactive Telecommunication Program, NYU

Bachelor of Fine Arts in Painting and Mixed Media (Sep. 1991 – Jun1995)
Tung-Hai University
School of Art and Humanity, Tung-Hai University (Taiwan)