My name is Alexei Rebrov. I am Microsoft certified Information Architect and Senior User Interface Developer.

This site represents my skills and recent works.

Since 1993 my experience I has grown from basic programming and animation to Information and Solution Architecture.

I worked for HP, Mars, Labatt, RIM, AARP, DHL.ca, Honda.ca, GM, Microsoft, Staples, Best Buy, Reebok, Lululemon.com, Sympatico, MSN.ca, Cogeco.ca, Barbie.ca, FCT, Yahoo!, Scotia Bank, CIBC, CBC and Sutton Group and many other brands and business in Canada and USA.

I have worked within healthcare, real estate, automotive, banking, insurance and gaming industries just to name a few.

When I work on a project I see it as a business and information analyst & architect, UI designer & developer.

Areas of my expertise sometimes also called as User Experience, Customer Experience Design, Product Management and Product Design, HCI or Pre-sale prototyping

I may be engaged in or already worked as Usability Specialist, Interaction Designer, Information Architect, Human Factors and Ergonomics Specialist or Pre-sale Engineer, User Experience Analyst or Interaction Architect.

According to StrengthsFinder built upon Gallup Organization research and statistical materials my 5 signature themes are following:

This page highlights some milestones in my career, skills and recent achievements.

I will gladly answer all your questions, so please contact me without any hesitations.

Contact Info

Address:
19 Brant St, Toronto,
M5V 2L2 Ontario, Canada
Cell Phone: +1 (416) 902-2869
Email: alexei at rebroff.com
Website: rebroff.com
View Alexei Rebrov's profile on LinkedIn

Alexei Rebrov

Contact Info:

Address:
71 Simcoe St, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Cell Phone: +1 (416) 902-2869
Email: alexei at rebroff.com
Website: rebroff.com

Objective

Position of Information Architect, UX Specialist, Senior User Interface Developer or UI Developers Team Leader.

Skills

Soft Skills

Hard Skills

Architect and UI Designer

UI Developer

Work Experience

2010

Senior Information Architect

Critical Mass - Toronto, Ontario, Canada
(Critical Mass is a full cycle ad agency with an extensive client's list which includes Mercedes-Benz, Rolex, NASA, Dell and others)

Senior Information Architect

Proximity - Toronto, Ontario, Canada
(Proximity is a Toronto and Montreal-based Digital, Direct, eCRM and Promotional Marketing & Activation agency.
Proximity is part of a global agency network with more than 2,000 employees and 60 offices around the world.)

Information Architecture for various HP and Mars projects with social media elements driven by a custom CMS.

Senior Information Architect

Syncapse, Toronto Ontario, Canada
(Syncapse builds technology and digital media applications that give companies a stronger voice on the internet. Well documented and thought through UI is a Syncapse's trademark.)

2009

Senior Information Architect

Syncapse, Toronto Ontario, Canada

Senior Information Architect

Publicis, Toronto Ontario, Canada
(Publicis is a French multinational advertising and communications company. It is one of the big four global advertising holding companies (the others being Omnicom, Interpublic and WPP). Publicis Groupe S.A. provides traditional advertising, media services, and specialized agencies and marketing services SAMS to national and multinational clients. Its traditional advertising services principally involve the creation of advertising for products, services, and brands. It also include strategic planning involving analysis of a product, service, or brand compared to its competitors through market research, sociological and psychological studies, and creative insight.)

Senior Information & Software Architect

Acacia Solutions, Barrie, Ontario, Canada
(Acacia Solutions is a leader in online human resource products and services)

Rich web application architecture for innovative online human resource project.

2008

Senior Information Architect and Team Lead

Critical Mass - Toronto, Ontario, Canada
(Critical Mass is a full cycle ad agency with an extensive client's list which includes Mercedes-Benz, Rolex, NASA, Dell and others)

Tasks:

Senior Information Architect

MacLaren McCann - Toronto, Ontario, Canada
(MacLaren McCann Canada Inc. is a full service, integrated communications company. Agency clients include General Motors, Durex Canada, Hanes Canada, Johnson & Johnson, McNeil Consumer Healthcare, Nestle, Intel, Microsoft and Coca-cola.)

Tasks:

2007

Senior Information Architect

IdeaCouture - Toronto, Ontario, Canada
(Consulting Agency)

Tasks:

Senior Information Architect

Ogilvy & Mather - Toronto, Ontario, Canada
(Canada's leading marketing agency in Automotive, Business to Business, Consumer Products/Services, Education, Apparel/Fashion/Footwear, Financial Services, Healthcare, High Tech, Professional Services, Retail, Telecommunications, Cosmetics/Beauty Products, Pharmaceuticals, Food/Beverage, Household Products, Restaurants, Media, Industrial/Manufacturing, Non-Profit, Agriculture and Government)

Tasks:

Senior Information Architect

Sapient Corporation - Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Full service multinational consulting company

Tasks:

Full site redesign for major US insurance company site

Senior Information Architect

Torstar Digital - Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Full cycle web development company. Digital classifieds, News Content, Local Search, National Advertising, Custom CMS

Information Architecture for:

Close contact to business owners.

2006

Senior Information Architect

Ogilvy & Mather - Toronto, Ontario, Canada
(Canada's leading marketing agency in Automotive, Business to Business, Consumer Products/Services, Education, Apparel/Fashion/Footwear, Financial Services, Healthcare, High Tech, Professional Services, Retail, Telecommunications, Cosmetics/Beauty Products, Pharmaceuticals, Food/Beverage, Household Products, Restaurants, Media, Industrial/Manufacturing, Non-Profit, Agriculture and Government)

Project: DHL.ca - full site redesign

Senior Web Architect & Senior User Experience Specialist

OnX BlueSpark, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
(Canada's leading Web Analytics, Architecture & Development firm)

Tasks:

Senior Web Architect & Senior User Interface Specialist

Vizible - Toronto, Ontario, Canada
(Software development company. Vizible is a pioneer in defining the emerging selfware category, its award-winning software dramatically changes the way people experience, connect and interact with digital content.)

Tasks:

2005

Web Architect & Senior User Interface Developer

Gametronics - Toronto, Ontario, Canada
(Game industry. Games development, Casino Management Systems development, Sportsbook development)

Tasks:

Earlier

Senior User Interface & Web Developer / Business Analyst
April 2003 - February 2005

Navantis, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
(Full circle consulting company. Navantis helps businesses easily manage and publish content online, communicate securely with partners and customers and sell products in highly personalized customer-oriented environments.)

Tasks:

Achievements:

Project Manager, Senior Web Developer
November, 2001 - December, 2002

WebTech Dezine Inc, Mississauga, Ontario, Canada
(Real estate software development company.)

Tasks:

Senior Architect / Project Manager
Sep 1994 - Oct 2000

Venta Ltd
(Wholesale trading company.)

Tasks:


Education/Certificates

Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft Certified Professional
Analyzing Requirements & Defining Solution Architectures
Toronto 2003

Master Degree in Microelectronics and Engineering.
Ukrainian National Polytechnic University
Kiev, 1993

Recent Achievements:

Easy.Staples.ca – Learning site for Staples customers

March - April 2008

easy.stapes.ca I worked with MacLaren team to put together requirements and architecture for marketing and promotional site for biggest MacLaren client, Staples.ca

During this project I led team of designers and copywriters through discovery stage and design stages of a project.

I also had to present client with POV on domain name. We proved that easy.stapes.ca is a good choice for the client as it's easy to get, maintain and it has natural connection with "That was easy" ad line.

I developed sitemap, complete set of wireframes and user flows. It was iterative process of client presentations and team reviews.

Organizing a copy was a big part of this project as well as presenting client with compelling design comps.

This project was a big success and client was very happy. Team was great. Account management played very important role in establishing effective way of communication with the client.

Staples IAeasy.staples.caeasy.staples.ca

Cogeco Canada — Brand new site for Complete Connection marketing campaign

June - July 2007

Cogeco: Complete ConnectionCogeco: Complete Connection
Together with Ogilvy team we developed concept and all visuals to promote Cogeco Complete Connection. Project’s challenge was to deliver message in simple yet compelling way to target audience. Our research indicated that average user will make a decision contact sales office only if one intrigued by visual design and got enough information to start discussion.

Cogeco IAI worked on this project in close collaboration with Ogilvy Montréal office. We had meetings in Montréal and Toronto offices. I made a Information Architecture presentation followed by detailed discussion on functionality and use cases.

This project was a good example of understanding between marketing, account management and architecture teams.

Wheels.ca — complete site redesign & integration with TheStar.com

January 2007 - February 2007

Wheels.ca - Front page IAWheels.ca - Car page IA
This project was about speed and flexibility. There were many people who wanted their opinion counted and there were technical and time constrains.

It was interesting to work within publishing industry with real professionals.

DHL.ca — complete site redesign

September 2006 - December 2006

DHL.ca Homepage
DHL.ca Sign Up
DHL.ca Shipping Form

Most challenging in this project was to grasp complex business logic and reflect it in dynamic yet intuitive information architecture. My previous experience such as building sports betting portal and accounting systems for trading companies was extremely handy.

I put all my knowledge into HTML prototype and extensive cross connected Help system.

Team was wonderful; client was easy to work with. This project is a big achievement.

Getting familiar with Web 2.0

October 2005 - May 2006

List of Media

Working in Vizible Inc I had perfect opportunity to dive deep inside Web 2.0. Just to name some of services I took a close look at YouTube, Pandora.com, Last.fm, Blogger.com, MySpace.com, TagWorld.com, Flickr.com, del.icio.us, Wiki, Google Maps and much more.

I documented, designed and developed HTML prototype of CMS for personal and corporate multimedia "spaces". It was very challenging task as system should combine different levels of complexity depending on user's role. CMS could be used by music channel administrator for one of big record labels or independent musician. System should combine e-commerce features and be intuitive enough for not tech savvy. System needs to be as close as possible to modern trends in UI architecture. AJAX was the must.

In my development as usual I followed principals of separation presentation layer from data layer keeping in mind that system possibly needs to be redesign and adjusted to partners requirements. As result in my HTML code I avoided using tables for layout and any design was done through CSS. Prototype worked in all browsers and was ready for AJAX-Java coders.

This project was very interesting as I went through all steps from features gathering to concept visualization and final development and design at the end.

Online Casino and Sports Betting portal

February 2005 - September 2005

Betting Portal
Order Entry		 It was huge project and I am very lucky that I participated on it from very beginning to the end.

Sports betting industry is very competitive therefore it's very demanding to usability of web interfaces and high speed back-end.

This project consisted of final consumer part and content management system with two major parts casino management system and betting engine with call center functionality.

My role was to define workflow and user stories and as result build user interfaces for portal administration and final consumers. I made MS Visio mock ups and diagrams and final design in Illustrator.

Administrative part included
  • Line Management
  • Order Entry
  • Customer Service
  • Profile Maintenance
  • Horse Racing Management
I also made interfaces for following public site channels:
  • My Account
  • Betting
  • Casino
  • News
  • Horse Racing
  • Help
I delivered fully "clickable through" prototype in SHTM with AJAX.

Sympatico-MSN music channel

January-February 2005
Sympatico.MSN.ca/music

Sympatico MSN Sympatico MSN

Sympatico is one of biggest internet providers and MSN doesn't need any recommendations.

Most challenging in architecture for Sympatico-MSN music channel was to understand all relationship between business parties and all political tensions inside organization and take into account all design and functional suggestions management team had during brainstorming sessions. MSN design style and branding added lots of constrains.

I created Vizio mock ups and Illustrator design for most important pages including branding.

This project was interesting and very challenging in same time.

First Canadian Title

January 2005
FCT.ca

FCT protects home owners by issuing title insurance policies and resolving related claims. In 2004 First Canadian Title issued more than 561,000 title insurance policies and guaranteed services. It’s company with more than 500 employee from coast to coast.

FCT works in close collaboration with government institutes.

Government of British Colombia decided to automate an application process.

Previous process included: New process planned as following:
  • loading PDF forms from government web site,
  • printing forms,
  • manual filling out forms,
  • mailing forms to FCT
  • FCT works with forms and mails them to BC government.
  • Applicant loads PDF form from government web site on its own hard drive. Some fields of a form pre-populated with applicant data (first name, address, …)
  • Applicant enters all required information in PDF and form validates data.
  • Applicant is able to save his/her data without submitting form to the server.
  • Applicant submits form entry to the FCT server
  • FCT officer validates data, signs it with digital signature and submits it to BC government.

FCT came to Navantis Inc. with project of architecture and development PDF related issues of Applicant-FCT-BC document flow.

Navantis charged me with tasks of solution architecture, prototyping and development of entire solution as team leader and project manager.

After examining PDF forms Navantis got from FCT and knowing that those forms cannot be modified in any way I made a decision about pre-populating form’s fields with user data using VB6 and Adobe SDK.

In my charge was make samples of XML, XSD, XSL, PDF form, VB6 code and present fully functional prototype to client.

All mentioned above were presented for FCT review and testing in time and had great success. Full experiment proved my approach and solution was implemented in final product Navantis delivered to FCT.

My role also included incorporation of Navantis product with FCT application and knowledge transfer. In couple of meetings with FCT developers our solution were fully commented and clarified so FCT can maintain it on its own.
FCT developers and managers were very collaborative and we did not have any problems during this not standard project.

Honda Canada - site redesign

October 2004
honda.ca

honda.ca Honda homepage

I participated on earlier stages of this project defining site architecture and functionality. Later my Visio mock-ups and ideas as part of full site documentation were base for site design

On a development stage I was a User Interface Architect & Lead Developer.

As UI architect I defined Flash-XML-CMS solution and Flash-Flash relationship. It was very challenging as some templates were overloaded with multimedia components and interactive JavaScript functionality.

In this project in my charge were also templates development and its implementation control. As a starting point I got some important site screen shots. I decided to make as much as possible through CSS so it would be easier in future change feel and look of entire site section without reprogramming. Especially it was wise because many pages are MS CMS template based.

Incorporating Flash menus and Flash multimedia pieces (video player, advertising rotator) with MS CMS, where all content are stored, wasn't ease task. My experience of previous Flash/CMS projects was very handy and saved us much time.

I have a lot of ActionScript experience so PM (Austin D'souza) of this project relied on me in development of some important Flash elements of new Honda site. I planned, designed and developed video player, ad banner rotator, news rotator. (You can see them on Honda.ca front page and Honda homepage.)

This project was challenging, very efficient in time and development models. I really enjoyed being a part of it. Team was just great!

David Rocco Flash Mini-site

July 2004
www.davidrocco.com
Season 1 | Season 2

This project was all about design.

Challenging navigation system and scenes' boards with different type of information made this project especially interesting for me.

I programmed this site as one solid peace with embedded pictures of background for 7 scenes and 13 episodes. It gives me ability to bring user directly to selected scene avoiding annoying pre-loaders.
In the same time all extensive media files as music, video and photo galleries for characters are external so they may be changed on any minute and and this doesn't effect movie size and loading time.

I am very proud of a final result. Check this out!

David Rocco Mini-site: Season 1
Season 1 | Season 2

My Tasks

  • Site Architecture
  • XML planning, coding
  • Flash development
  • ActionScript 2 programming

Honda Flash Mini sites

May 2004
Honda Canada Motorcycle/Technical

Main purpose of this project was to create a universal flash mini site, which can be used for multiple projects and models or its' features.

Intention was to give client ability to enter content without complex html coding to avoid hiring skilled programmers. And Flash client application was used to give user bright and remarkable experience though content itself is technical or scientific.

Therefore this project was based on MS CMS server which communicates with client-side flash application via XML.

Based on result and good user response client decided to multiply it's success and two more projects for marine products and engines are in the progress.

Honda Minisite

My Tasks

  • Site Mock Up
  • Site Architecture
  • Site design (Adobe Illustrator)
  • Flash development
  • Action Script Coding
  • XML modeling/prototyping
  • MS CMS integration

Scotia Bank

December 2003

Scotia Bank ApplicationThe Bank of Nova Scotia is one of Canada’s top five banks. Navantis developed an innovative and fully-functional prototype solution for Scotia bank which enabled the bank to conduct key focus group studies as a preliminary step to transitioning their commercial account applications onto a web-based platform. This approach allowed Scotia bank to validate their approach and the application prior to moving into full fledged development, thereby minimizing risks and reducing later development costs.

In my charge was to find a way to simulate database functionality to store all data from forms user submit and retrieve that data when user navigate to others forms.

The one major limitation and main challenge of this work was a fact that prototype should be “simple” and absolutely independent application that can be easily restored on any windows box. No installation allowed.

I found a way to build the prototype using XML, XSL and DHTML wrapped in HTA.

Inside HTA environment JavaScript can manipulate with Microsoft .XMLDOM and local file system.

Final prototype version included about 40 forms.

Working with prototype focus group did not recognize that application was not fully functional web site.

Atomic Energy of Canada (Customer Relationship Management Portal)

November 2003

AECL internal Application
Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL) markets and sells atomic energy to governments and crown corporations worldwide. In an effort to streamline its 30 disparate locations, 4,000 employees and sales cycles averaging 10 years or more, AECL commissioned Navantis to construct an intranet-based CRM application enabling AECL to share customer information, documents and sales opportunities. The solution also comprises detailed information captured about key decision makers involved in AECL’s sales cycles. The solution was built in eight weeks using Microsoft Visual Basic.NET. It integrates with an existing Oracle 8i data structure as well as PeopleSoft, both of which previously existed in the customer environment. The solution implements industry-standard permission-based security using Microsoft Active Directory. It is in daily use today.

My Task:

My role was to develop all user interfaces ready for .NET programming. Developers were very much satisfied with my code comments and development process went very quick. QA had just few comments.

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (Merchandising E-Commerce Store)

November 2003

CBC Shop CBC Shop (product view)

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) is Canada’s public broadcaster. Its Merchandising department is responsible for indexing and prioritizing, marketing, and selling merchandise derived from CBC media properties, such as television or radio programming. In an effort to overhaul its online merchandising offering, the CBC commissioned Navantis to construct a more scalable and manageable e-commerce solution. Navantis built a user-centered online storefront using Microsoft Commerce Server 2002; a catalogue management back-end tool based on Commerce Server’s Business Desk management application; and a flexible browser-based order management tool which fully integrates with Microsoft’s RMS POS system, which the CBC uses to manage its inventory and sales in its physical merchandising store.

Advanced features of the online store include coupons; electronic gift certificates; online product reviews and ratings; synonym-based searches; and a wish list.

My Task:

I created all interfaces and coded them in HTML.

Real Estate Portal (custom PHP CMS)
June 2002

When I first met this project it was about selling web sites to real estate agents.

I transformed it into real estate portal on dedicated server with common library of listings and ability to have unlimited amount of pages for every RE agent.

My team developed more than 30 color and layout skins. Client can select banners, presentation photos from prepared libraries.

All potentialities of the project give its managers good opportunity to make it important resource in Real Estate Internet.

www.mm4a.com
customizable presentation
Client administration scenarios: Portal Administrator privileges: User implementation examples:

Beside all, promotion site moneymaker4agents.com has Visual tours in Flash 5 and automated client registration with full account preparation.

Valid HTML 4.01!