Recap: Affinity Labs
In November, I resigned from my position as a product manager at Affinity Labs. I really enjoyed the time I spent at Affinity Labs – the team there is incredible, and I’m grateful for the opportunities I was given there to learn and expand my areas of expertise (during my time there, we grew from 6 sites to 13 sites, and were acquired by Monster.com). I left Affinity to take a position at Zynga producing games for the iPhone.
With the exception of a few small side projects, most of the design and product management work I did in 2008 was for Affinity’s sites. Here’s a rundown of some of great projects I was able to work on during my time there, and the part that I played in each project.
Affinity's flagship site.
During the time I spent at Affinity, I worked first as the primary UI designer and product manager for our community sites, and later moved towards more creative direction as Milan Phan took over the hands-on design responsibilities. Our approach was very collaborative – the executive, marketing, engineering and editorial teams all deserve credit for helping the product team to create the best communities possible.
New Site Launches:
- AllHealthcare – product management
- AdminSecret – creative direction, product management
- HRGuru – creative direction, product management
Site Redesigns
- InsideTech (relaunch of TechCommunity.com) – colorscheme and logo concept development, creative direction, product management
- Tickle.com (redesign) – creative direction, product management. Tickle was shut down at the end of 2007.
- WomenCo (redesign) – creative direction, product management
Channel Redesigns: Affinity sites have similar structures, so each of these channels exists on most of the Affinity sites. The best place to see examples of all channels in one place is Affinity’s flagship site, PoliceLink. In general, many of the projects I worked on at Affinity were about bringing a cohesive, intuitive user experience to their sites. We focused on standardizing styles and interaction patterns to speed development and improve the flow for users.
- News Channel – UI design and product management for channel homepage, browse pages, article pages
- Benefits, Education and Training – UI design and product management for channel homepages, browse pages, article pages
- Discussion Forums – UI design and product management for all pages in channel
- Photos (best seen on ArtBistro) – design direction and product management for all pages (interaction design by Milan Phan)
I’d like to thank the team at Affinity for making the time I spent there one of most interesting and challenging experiences I’ve had. You guys are awesome!
