Derek Van Oss

UX Director | UX Designer | Prototyper

Los Angeles, CA + Remote

What's my story?

Well, long story, but for 15+ years I've had the privilege of engaging in important, exciting, and challenging work for some really awesome companies, including:

20th Century Fox
Activision (Call of Duty)
Amazon.com
American airlines
BMW
Chevron
Coca Cola
Coach
Delta Airlines
Disney
IBM
Intuit / Turbo Tax
Lexus
Mountain Dew
Naked Juice

NBC Universal
Pepsi Co.
Pizza Hut
Prudential
RED Digital Cinema
Regeneron
Smashbox Cosmetics
Sony PlayStation
Starbucks
State Farm
Toyota
Ubisoft (Assassin's Creed)
US Airforce
Vail Resorts
Verizon

I've got a knack for the agency environment and have found myself crafting award winning work with highly skilled teams at:

AKQA
Ayzenberg
Blitz / AMP
DDB (Tribal Dallas/NYC)
Deep Focus
Deloitte Digital
Five & Done

Kirshenbaum, Bond, Senecal
POSSIBLE
Razorfish
Saatchi & Saatchi
SapientNitro
Team One
VSA Partners

What's my work look like?

There's SO much to share, but for starters you can have a peek at these video walk-throughs I put together of some projects I REALLY enjoyed being a part of:

You can (and should!) reach out to me if there's anything specific you'd like to see or discuss in detail!

dvo@dvointeractive.com

@LinkedIn

Schedule a Call w/ Me!

What's my style?

Keen Listener

I can sometimes seem quiet (i'm an INFJ on Meyers Briggs), but that means the gears in my head are on overdrive listening to understand as much as I can.

Wildly Curious

I ask a lot of questions. I seek to understand as much as I can and begin to strategize with the knowledge I gain from it.

Can-Do Attitude

I approach even the toughest of situations with a positive, level headed outlook - always working to keep things moving forward towards success.

Breadth of Skillset

Wireframes, flowcharts, personas, journey maps, stakeholder/user interviews, presentations and more! I even build prototypes in code (HTML / CSS / JS)

Deep Thinking

I work diligently to understand the problem and potential solution in a clear, concise and thoughtful manner without simply settling for "the easy way"

Leadership

Count on me to take the lead on the tasks at hand, own the outcomes and accept responsibility for the outcomes.

Team Player

I'm a roll up my sleeves kind of guy and will pitch in wherever I can to get the job done. I'm not afraid to ask others for help either - let's do this!

Pressure Tested

It takes a lot to rattle me. I have a unique ability to remain calm and collected in high pressure situations while assuring the work will get done and attacking it with vigor.

Data Driven

Let's not just assume we know it all. I will always push to make decisions based on research and feedback from real users/customers/stakeholders.

Breadth of Experience

From startups to Tech and Media giants. Fashion and Beauty to Healthcare and Finance. I've seen it all. No job is too big or too small. Count me in!

Left Brain / Right Brain

A 50/50 split on left brain / right brain. I enjoy the strategic and analytical thinking AND the creative doing/making equally.

Passionate About Access

I take accessibility and principles of universal design seriously, from the beginning and throughout the process.

Passionate About Prototyping

I started my career as a front-end developer and prototype in code (when it makes sense) for communicating detailed interaction design, motion, data exchange and more...things that wireframes are very limited in communicating well.

I'm fast, accurate, fun, relaxed, flexible, always hungry to learn...and to eat. 🤤

Want to REALLY dig in to how I think/work/make an impact? While at Deloitte Digital I had the fortunate opportunity to take the "Business Chemistry" Evaluation and my results can be seen here (PDF).

What's my process?

An effective UX process is flexible to the specifics and constraints of any project, but in general I approach things with a THINK > DESIGN > BUILD framework:

Resist the urge to dive straight into design...do the thought work! Gain a deep understanding of the problems and challenges involved from both a business AND user perspective.
Competitive Analysis
Data/Metrics Analysis
Stakeholder/User Interviews
Personas
Journey Maps
User Stories
Develop Hypotheses

Armed with knowledge from diligent thought-work, let's start kicking around some possible solutions!
Brainstorming Sessions
Sketching
Whiteboarding
Wireframes
Information Architecture
User Flows
Prototype(s)
UI Mockups

Time to build out the agreed upon solution to validate with users.
Detail Design
Design Documentation
Usability Testing
Shadowing
QA / Design QA
Analytics Analysis

What am I looking for?

A few key indicators of an exciting opportunity for me include:

My resume?

Download PDF

@LinkedIn

You have questions?

You've spent a lot of time moving around in contract work, what's your deal?

Spoiler Alert: It's NOT because I'm "Non-Committal"

See, I started my career as a contractor in the year 2000, when things were new, and also unsure through the "dotcom bubble burst." I didn't have a degree because I started working right out of high school, so exposing myself to different industries/companies/projects/roles/technologies/etc gave me my education right on the job. Over many years growing and learning with the industry in real-time, I honed a unique and tangible ability to adapt and adjust to rapid/high pressure/ever-changing demands of contract work and became a sort of "hired gun" in the agency world that could be called on at any moment to jump right into a project and make an immediate impact with minimal background on the project at hand.

I do enjoy the variety and urgency that contract life affords, but these days I am more inclined and excited to find a permanent home with a unique, exciting, engaging group working on challenging design problems and making a measurable impact. If that's your group, let's definitely talk!

UX Director? UX Designer? Which is it?

I'm a qualified design leader at the director level, though I still very much love to do work as an individual contributor - I LOVE (and will ALWAYS love) to get deep in the weeds on details and specs in Wireframes, flowcharts, prototypes, research, presentations etc. I have a passion for making, building, creating - simply delegating doesn't excite me.

The best metaphor I can use to describe the ideal situation for myself is a hockey metaphor (I'm a huge LA Kings fan - GO KINGS GO!)...I'd rather be the captain of the team, than the coach. The captain is still out on the ice playing the game, but has a pivotal leadership role amongst the group and is looked up to for on ice decisions, team morale, etc.

Makes sense?

A Director level role where I can still contribute individually to the day to day creation of artifacts is ideal, but I'm also not opposed to a role as a dedicated IC in the Senior UX Designer or Lead UX Designer role either.

Where did you go to school?

Well, I didn't.

I started working in the web/tech industry quite literally a week after I graduated high school (May 2000) as a frontend developer, before degree programs existed for web technologies. It was long enough ago to have been on the team that designed v1.0 of Verizon.com when Verizon was a brand new company...has it been that long!?