Alexander McIlwraith

Curriculum Vitae

UX Master Certification Badge from Nielsen Norman Group

Alexander McIlwraith

Senior UX Designer ⬤ Senior UX/UI Designer ⬤ Senior Product Designer
alexandermcilwraith.net ⬤  linkedin.com/in/gamcilwraith

Summary

Senior UX Designer with over 10 years of experience specializing in user-centred design and detail-oriented solutions. Proven track record in delivering measurable business outcomes through expertise in design systems, omnichannel customer experiences, design system governance, data-driven research, and cross-functional leadership.

Professional experience

Web Communications Consultant / Senior UX Designer, Agricorp
January 2013 – Present

  • Defined UX strategy for B2B & internal platforms serving 50,000+ external clients; redesigns produced a +20% conversion lift.
  • Built and governed a company-wide design system covering 7,500+ public-facing pages; enabled testers to identify and raise bugs on two new products and achieved WCAG 2.0 AA compliance.
  • Led mixed-method research qualitative interviews, analytics, usability testing that informed redesigns, resulting in a 94% user-satisfaction rating.
  • Mentored 500+ staff through a design-thinking community, raising organization-wide UX maturity and cutting design-review cycles by 30%.
  • Optimized forms by eliminating unnecessary fields, achieving a 75%reduction and a 15% drop in abandonment rate.

Digital Communications Lead, Department of Psychology, University of Guelph
November 2004 – January 2013

  • Implemented a new CMS and trained 30 faculty; programme enrolments increased 15% within one year.
  • Coached 120+ researchers on survey UI design; dataquality errors decreased 40%, accelerating research timelines.
  • Developed a custom resourcemanagement tool (PHP/MySQL/JS) used by 150+ staff and students, generating efficiencies and reducing costs by 60%.

Education

  • 2026 – B.P.A., Communications Studies, Athabasca University
  • 2024 – UX Master Certificate, Nielsen Norman Group (ID #1004329)
  • 2021 – UX Certificate (Research & Management), Nielsen Norman Group (ID #1004329)
  • 2015 – Certificate in Business Communications, University of Waterloo
  • 2002 – B.A., University of Guelph


Technical toolkit

  • Technical Skills: Figma, Balsamiq Mockups, JavaScript, HTML5, CSS3, PHP, MySQL, accessibility
  • Design & Prototyping: Figma, Balsamiq, Adobe Creative Cloud
  • Front End: HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript (ES6+ and jQuery), responsive frameworks
  • Accessibility: WCAG 2.1 AA, ARIA, screen reader testing

Additional experience

Change Analyst (Secondment), Computing and Communications Services, University of Guelph
June 2006– June 2009

  • Reengineered campuswide software distribution from analystsupport to callcenter model; average support response time dropped 30% while handling a 50% surge in tickets.
  • Delivered workshops to 1,500+ staff and authored 100+ support procedures; escalations fell 25%.

Digital Consultant (freelance contract), Flavours of Canada
May 2004 – August 2005

  • Designed the digital experience for a national campaign supporting interactions for nation-wide event generated 2,000+ registrations annually and setting direction for how the organization communicated online.

Volunteering and advisory roles

  • Programme Director, Alpha Central Church (2016 – Present) – grew volunteer team to 20 members; event attendance increased 40%.
  • Director of Communications, Clan Donald (2013 – 2018) – created web assets used at 10+ events annually, boosting member recruitment by 15%.
  • Web Advisor, Central Church (2003 – Present) – shaped content strategy and IA; weekly podcast attracting 50% more listeners in 2 years and online social media viewership and generating worldwide donations.
  • Advisor, IABC Canada (2011 – 2013) – designed communications strategy for event expansion; ensured 100% uptime of web/social platforms.

References available upon request.