Endorsements
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KEVIN KVALSTAD - FORMER LEAD UX/UI DESIGNER
RESPAWN ENTERTAINMENT "I worked with Ed during my time at EA/Respawn Entertainment on the STAR WARS: JEDI FALLEN ORDER project for a few months in the summer of 2019. Ed quickly integrated into the UI/UX team and used Adobe XD-based interactive prototypes to define our PC/Console game configuration screens and "First Run" startup flows. These front-loaded important accessibility features so players with impairments wouldn't have to struggle to find game UX options to suit their needs. Additionally, Ed worked closely with our Producer to support localization efforts and to ensure our UX flows followed first-party certification standards and other legal requirements. Many of these features are not always the most exciting ones to design and implement, but they're essential to ship and complete AAA game projects. Ed was always organized, enthusiastic, and collaborative in his efforts. His support came at a crucial time for the project and enabled me to lead other UX aspects of the game to completion. He's not only knowledgeable about accessibility standards in game projects; he's also passionate about making sure as many players can enjoy games as possible. We need more of this perspective in modern game development."
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FERNANDO SOSA - ROLE/TITLE
M6+ "At M6+ we were looking to develop the first world-class virtual reality training simulator for the Central American region. We had the challenge in finding top tier professionals with at least 10 years of experience working in the field of VR. At first, we had doubts about hiring a remote team but after our first interview with Edward, we knew he was the right fit for us. He demonstrated experience in spatial awareness and implementing VR UX designs that would make it easy for our first time VR user to navigate flawlessly in our simulation. He also helped us build a team of experts to deliver the experience we had envisioned while also keeping track of the work pipeline through sprint planning. Ed also organized a remote, COVID-safe usability testing and UX research protocol that revealed insight on how to improve the effectiveness of the VR simulation, which is now ready for market with one of Guatemala's biggest companies in the construction industry."
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MELISSA FORMAN - OWNER
IMPAKT PRODUCTIONS "We hired AMPED-UX for UX design services on the "STACKS!" live streaming game show app as Ed was recommended by a very trusted friend. This was my first app project, and I found Ed amazing to work with because he knew how to prioritize based on our overall goals and to work within our budget. He was incredibly communicative and patient since we were unfamiliar with mobile app development, and he showed us interactive mobile prototypes using Adobe XD so we could get a real, rapid feel for the flow of the project. He improved the UX design of previous versions of the app and supported a rebrand by sourcing relevant back-end tech solutions as well as audio and visual design freelancers, which was a huge help! He kept the important pieces of the business application at the forefront of every discussion to ensure that conflicting points of view were resolved. He worked closely with the app developer to navigate concerns over legal and technical constraints and incorporated them into the design strategy, and he kept us up to date, on schedule, and honest by creating and managing an approval and review pipeline in Google Sheets for 120+ screens under tight deadlines. Ultimately, AMPED-UX was integral in driving the design of a compelling, entertaining use-case of the SeeWin Streaming technology, so I would use Ed's services again and would recommend AMPED-UX to all."
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"I hired Ed from AMPED-UX because I needed a Unity developer with some experience in VR to work on a narrative-driven Daydream project. Ed not only became lead developer on the project, but he was also the technical director coordinating with the producer, the creative director, the animation team, the sound team, the environment artists and the three other developers. He handled prototyping, version control and builds, he engineered our art and sound pipeline, and his UX background helped pushed the game design in the right track. He understood quickly the VR medium and its limitations, and he never lost his cool, not even while dealing with challenging clients and tight deadlines. In short, Ed is a one-man army and your bridge between technology, creative and fun."
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"I took part in assessing and recruiting AMPED-UX onto the WORLD WAR TOONS project at Reload Studios due to Ed's emerging experience and passion for Virtual Reality (VR) and his expertise in creating successful multiplayer user experience designs. During his time there, Ed took it upon himself to construct test environments in Unreal 4 to establish standards for three-dimensional VR user interface conventions. He outlined UX designs showcasing innovative takes on traditional multiplayer user interfaces and feedback elements. He served as a collaborative partner with other consultants to integrate our monetization strategy into the UX design. Most importantly, the usability research AMPED-UX provided us disproved some our internal assumptions and enforced others, thus enabling my team to prioritize efforts and pivot quickly towards improving our end-user experience, menu flow, navigation and controls."
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"Before partnering with AMPED-UX, my team at Vyndica had a rough idea of what our user-to-user trading platform would be capable of, but we had no specific idea who it was for and were lost when it came to designing an immersive, engaging, and natural feeling application. Ed performed a competitive analysis, provided gamification guidance, and built our entire application’s user experience flow, expertly translating our clunky requirements into a rich, customer driven experience for a targeted market segment. Without AMPED-UX's guidance over our user experience strategy, we would've aimlessly pursued a mobile user experience for an ill-defined target market and risked wasting our money, our time, and that of our customers' as well. AMPED-UX saved us on all counts, so I fully intend on working with Ed once we’re ready to design the next immersive experience for our customers."
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"Our team at Redbird has worked with Ed on gamification strategy and copywriting for the Quick Wins app we developed for Staples and on digital strategy for the Youtube channel we developed for Kaiser Permanente. We continue to use AMPED-UX's services for a variety of needs including user experience research, persona formation and competitive website UX analysis. Ed is versatile, analytical and collaborative. It is always a pleasure for my team to work with him."
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MATT SOPHOS - SENIOR NARRATIVE DESIGNER
SONY COMPUTER ENTERTAINMENT AMERICA - SANTA MONICA STUDIOS "As the Creative Director for Lost Planet 3, I brought Ed onto the team because of his strong background in user experience design, gamification systems, and project management. Ed created the majority of the UI wireframes, recruited, built, and managed the UI and Multiplayer design teams, and partnered with our engineers to define and maintain our product roadmaps. He drove usability research processes and the development of an innovative UI product across multiple platforms, keeping in mind the particular needs of a global audience and a major Japanese game publisher. He kept the project on-schedule on multiple fronts and mitigated significant production challenges, so I'm confident that AMPED-UX is a great partner for anyone seeking strategic UX or UI project solutions."
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DANIEL CABUCO - PRINCIPAL ARTIST
SONY COMPUTER ENTERTAINMENT AMERICA - SAN DIEGO STUDIOS "As Art Director, I worked with Ed from AMPED-UX extensively on UI design on Lost Planet 3 to achieve a great looking, intuitive interface that was easy to understand and navigate. Ed provided design leadership and collaborated with my art team to tackle these challenges. He helped us think about UI from many different angles, and provided clear, well designed user flows. Ed was also very open to suggestions regarding changes and didn't hesitate to adjust the design if we found a better iteration as a team. He enthusiastically helped us bridge the gap between design, engineering, and artistic implementation. This was especially challenging as our UX design had to work across multiple platforms and languages, including Japanese. He understood the strengths and limitations of Scaleform and Flash within Unreal, crafted solutions within those boundaries, and was quick to discard anything that was overly cumbersome, in some cases simplifying the design into a more elegant solution. With his leadership and coordination, we were able to hit all our goals for the UI on time and budget, avoiding huge pitfalls that had plagued previous projects. I'd recommend AMPED-UX for everyone that needs strong UI solutions from planning to execution."
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"Ed is a proactive technical problem solver and an adaptable UX designer. Prior to getting a dedicated UI artist on our projects, Ed jumped in and learned the Flash/Actionscript UI pipelines to address our UI needs. He then recruited key UI and production hires while overseeing our UX/UI implementation and systems design strategies and helped to coordinate the integration of all the translated text and dialogue assets which helped us ship worldwide builds on-time and within budget. I'd recommend AMPED-UX for any software project that needs to navigate complex UX and production challenges."
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SCOTT WARNER - GAME DIRECTOR
UBISOFT "Ed is a great developer and has a very effective combination of experience, creativity, versatility and professionalism that allows him to come on to a project and immediately start contributing in positive ways; he was a huge help for me during some of the most challenging times I've had in game development. During the last project we worked on together, he transitioned from design to production without missing a beat and became even more helpful, utilizing his design skill set to compliment his new responsibilities very effectively. I loved working with Ed and would do so again if the opportunity became available!"
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DANIEL SLAWSON
INDEPENDENT GAME DESIGNER "I hired AMPED-UX as a developer to get my independent strategy game concept off the ground. Ed from AMPED-UX researched potential middleware tech options, trained me in our source control pipeline, and guided us towards using Unity3D, C#, and NGUI. During development, Ed excelled at regular, detailed updates on programming challenges and ideas, and because of his communication style, I never felt out of the loop, even though we were working in different states. Ed's level of industry knowledge, persistence, and enthusiasm impressed me, so I highly recommend AMPED-UX to anyone looking for an independent Unity3D developer with a well-rounded and professional skillset."
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MATT POWERS - SENIOR PRODUCER
RELIANCE GAMES "I've worked with Ed at AMPED-UX many years ago; he can cover all the technical bases and design requirements and execute a quality user experience design for you. I was able to delegate much of the design oversight and implementation to him with confidence, knowing I could rely on him to juggle the numerous expectations of publishers, engineers, outsourced team leads, and a vocal user community."
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