20 Years Experience in UX/UI Design & Testing

I have over 20 years experience in UX/UI design with a passion for the relationship between effective user experience and brand-building creative across the spectrum of digital marketing channels. I have built and led teams of UX and UI professionals as large as nine members to produce award-winning and effective digital  products for clients from start-ups to large, global brands.

I also have deep passion for turning identified business requirements into powerful digital marketing strategies that span the most effective digital channels. While a well-performing website is the hub of digital marketing, effective strategies extend to search and paid search, social, content, mobile, apps, and marketing automation, to name a few.

I have developed the strategies behind dozens of award-winning, but more importantly, effective integrated campaigns for clients from start-ups to large, global brands. I have also been the person responsible for presenting these concepts to both clients and internal teams as well as proselytizing the importance of digital in every marketing effort. My social strategies and pitch secured a $1 Million Farmers Insurance budget for my agency. More recently my integrated marketing strategy developed for Generac increased sales of backup generators to both homeowners and small business owners significantly, utilizing a unique multichannel approach

Having worked my way up from a web designer in the mid-90’s, I am well-versed in every component of the digital design process. I am also deeply experienced in user experience testing and conversion optimization.  The site revisions implemented as the result of my one year UX testing and design contract with the Gap.com brands elevated conversions on the sites nearly 3%, a number that translates to millions of dollars of sales.

What I Do

  • Apply more than 20 years experience in creative digital marketing to create compelling and effective digital marketing products
  • Ideate high-level integrated marketing strategies from the digital perspective
  • Distill complex content requirements into digital applications that are powerful, but simple to use
  • Conduct client and user research and interviewing
  • Develop persona, user story, user-goal and use-case definitions and strategies
  • Direct and participate in teams as large as 9 to create the IA, UX and UI of hundreds of effective websites, e-commerce sites, responsive, mobile, apps, social, e-mail and marketing automation for major global brands
  • Effectively build, lead and mentor teams of UX and UI professionals
  • Design e-commerce systems from 35 to 700,000 SKU’s
  • Design criteria-based, user-centric navigation systems
  • Significantly elevate the conversion rates of digital initiatives using 15 years experience in UX testing and conversion optimization
  • Increase cart and other conversion rates
  • Eloquently communicate integrated strategies, concepts and designs to internal teams and clients including new business pitches and presentation of work
  • Direct and create award-winning UX, creative and branding

Where I’ve Done It

2016 – Present
Creative & User Experience Director
Nelson Schmidt – Milwaukee, WI

2014 – 2016
Executive Creative & User Experience Director
IceFrog Technologies – Milwaukee, WI

2011 – 2014
Creative & User Experience Director
Top Floor – Milwaukee, WI

2009-2011
Executive Creative & User Experience Director
TMP Directional Marketing/15 Miles – Milwaukee, WI

2005-2010
Director of Digital Design (UX & UI)
Nelson Schmidt – Milwaukee, WI

2005
User Experience Consultant
Gap Brands – San Francisco

2000-2005
Senior Digital Designer
Nelson Schmidt – Milwaukee, WI

1996 – 2000
Senior Web Designer
Northwoods Software – Milwaukee, WI

1990-1996
Creative Lead/Owner
Clay Elliott Interactive – Milwaukee, WI

Skills & Expertise

I believe in knowing the platforms we design for:

  • HTML, HTML5, CSS, SASS, Javascript, Jquery
  • Drupal, WordPress, Magento, XCart, Sitecore, SharePoint and other CMS
  • Apache Solr, Oracle Endeca
  • Adobe Creative Suite including Photoshop, Fireworks, Illustrator,InDesign, Dreamweaver, After Effects, etc.
  • Version control and project tools including Git, GitHub, Source Safe, BaseCamp, LiquidPlanner, BugHerd, PivotalTracker, etc.

UX Testing

  • Morae UX testing
  • Moderated
  • Unmoderated
  • A-B-N
  • Multivariate
  • Card sorting
  • Quantitative
  • Qualitative
  • Behavioral
  • Attitudinal

UX & MA Tools

  • Axure
  • Omnigraffle
  • Balsamiq
  • UXPin
  • Optimizely
  • Google Experiments
  • Pardot
  • Hubspot
  • Marketo

Select Clients

What They Say

Clay is a rare designer who blurs the line between strategy, user experience and visual design. That perspective makes him an invaluable resource on digital projects. His creative leadership on key Honeywell projects produced sites that exceeded business expectations and have had a much longer than usual shelf life.
Dane Hartzell, Dir. of Digital - Honeywell
I have had the pleasure of working for Clay Konnor for several years. He demonstrated his passion for design by fostering not only the creativity of the designers and developers at Top Floor, but also by encouraging collaboration, and seeking new techniques and technologies to achieve the best possible results for our customers.

His expertise in design and passion for user-experience on the web is inspiring. His approach to teamwork is driven by working together with every department to produce the best possible outcome thereby adding the greatest value for the client and end-user.

Sabrina Karani, Top Floor
Clay’s ability to connect with and inspire clients is something to be admired. While I worked with Clay he was the keystone in bringing on numerous projects from our biggest interactive clients. Clay has many talents which definitely set him apart from the rest.
Elise Georgeson, GMR Marketing

A Swiss Army Knife of creative and digital skills.

Jeff Ericksen, Group Creative Director, Nelson Schmidt

Clay has the unique ability to visualize large, sophisticated and abstract digital marketing concepts in their complete fruition right from the incept of a project, and communicate them effectively. He has what it takes to see those concepts become reality.

Dan Nelson, Jr., CEO/President, Nelson Schmidt

Clay is one of the most gifted people I have ever worked with. His talents extend into brand development, graphic design, user experience and interface expertise, human-centered design, and team-building. Working with Clay taught me that the user is the center of every experience.

Robert Cohen, President, ICO Software