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Hi, I’m Kyle.
I design and craft
Kyle is a UX design leader and agile product owner.
Kyle Blythe works in tech, but will always be a humanities major at heart. Having received both his undergrad and Master’s degrees in English Literature, he has always been fascinated by narrative journeys and the interaction that authors create between a work and its audience, a fascination that translates directly into his work. He currently lives in Brooklyn, where he works as Assistant Director of User Experience for IT at New York University.
Kyle is passionate about web design and UX. Good UX design isn’t just about how a product, tool, application, or website looks; it’s the way that all aspects of it work together, and the way that the resulting product feels when you interact with it. As Therese Fessenden of the Nielsen Norman Group notes when defining the “delight” that one feels when interacting with good UX:
“Deep delight is holistic, and is achieved once all user needs are met, including functionality, reliability, usability, and pleasurability.”
— Therese Fessenden, NN/g
In his current role, Kyle leads the design and development of innovative enterprise product solutions for higher education. He has 10+ years of experience as a UX designer, and incorporates usability and accessibility best practices into every product he designs. He’s worked on academic applications, accreditation systems, end-user support portals, and website development.
Want to get in touch? Connect with Kyle on LinkedIn or contact him below.
Projects
Below are some highlights from recent projects Kyle has worked on.
Experience
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November 2021
Assistant Director, User Experience Design
New York University
- Serves as the head of User Experience Design within NYU IT, designing and driving the development of innovative, highly usable enterprise applications that reach a global audience of approximately 70,000 faculty/staff/students
- Represents and advocates the value of UX to key stakeholders in IT, the Provost’s office, and University leadership
- Designed and oversaw the development of a custom Evidence Inventory application used to collect and manage the thousands of documents required to support NYU’s continued accreditation
- Designed a mobile-first application for students to find and locate printing stations across the University
- Designed the end-user experience for the University’s self-service help portal and knowledge base, developed authoring kits and best practices to support it, and provided extensive resources to University service owners to support the transition to the new system
- Gathered user needs for, designed, and guided development of a high-profile analytics dashboard portal used by organization leadership to guide critical budgetary efforts
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August 2018
Product Lead, Academic Applications
New York University
- Served as product owner for and drove the ongoing agile development and UI/UX design of the university’s academic applications
- Responsible for the configuration/deployment of, as well as the overall faculty and student experience within the university’s Learning Management System (LMS)
- Interacted with, gathered requirements from, and provided weekly updates to key project stakeholders
- Coordinated with the university’s usability and accessibility teams to conduct testing, gather feedback, and implement best practices throughout the development lifecycle
- Designed and worked with developers to implement critical solutions in response to COVID-19. These include seating assignments capabilities used by all in-person and blended courses (5,500+ in spring 2021) and a corresponding contact tracing solution used to identify potential exposures
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October 2017
Product UX Design Specialist
New York University
- Oversaw the design of new features / capabilities in the university’s academic applications, including the LMS and the university’s web publishing platform
- Guided a team of 5 LMS functional experts in QA testing efforts for enhancements and new functionality in the system
- Represented the university in interactions with the broader LMS community and worked with developers to incorporate NYU-developed functionality into the open-source LMS codebase, where it continues to be supported and continuously developed by hundreds of institutions worldwide
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May 2012
Product Analyst
New York University
- Designed the user experience for a new university-wide grading tool, which was subsequently contributed to a global open-source community of 4 million+ users
- Wrote and produced high-quality videos and documentation to advertise, promote, and support new IT functionality
- Provided technical support and training to support partners across the University, as well as functional trainings / demonstrations / instructional design consultations for faculty
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August 2010
Consultant, Academic Technology Services
New York University
- Provided training and support for faculty and staff
- Troubleshooted clients’ technical issues, worked with technical teams, and responded to incoming service tickets
Presentations
2019
Blythe, Kyle, & Kim, M., (2019, June). User Experience and Agile Development. Presentation delivered at the 2019 Open Apereo Conference in Los Angeles, CA.
Blythe, Kyle, Maddox, B., Pasch, J., & Shirky, C., (2019, February). Helping Faculty Create Different Student Interactions with a New Online Conversation Platform - Sponsored by CirQlive. Presentation delivered at the 2019 Educause Learning Initiative Annual Meeting in Anaheim, CA.
2018
Blythe, Kyle, Buttendorf, K., Menegus, C., & Pasch, J., (2018, November). Developing an Online Social Architecture for a Dual-Campus Degree. Presentation delivered at the 2018 Technology Summit hosted at New York University.
Blythe, Kyle, Kim, M., Pasch, J., & Shirky, C., (2018, November). Facilitating Different Types of Student Interactions with a New Conversation Platform. Presentation delivered at the 2018 Technology Summit hosted at New York University.
Blythe, Kyle, & Pasch, J., (2018, June). Redesigning the Resources Tool. Presentation delivered at the 2018 Open Apereo Conference in Montreal, Quebec.
2017
Blythe, Kyle, Pasch, J., & Severance, C., (2017, June). Sakai Community Update 2017. Presentation delivered at the 2017 Open Apereo Conference in Philadelphia, PA.
2016
Blythe, Kyle, Macavilca, J., Pasch, J., & Triggs, M., (2016, June). Piloting a New Integration Between Sakai and Google Apps for Education. One of four presentations that Kyle delivered at the 2016 Open Apereo Conference at New York University.
Blythe, Kyle, & Pasch, J., (2016, June). A New Gradebook for Sakai 11. One of four presentations that Kyle delivered at the 2016 Open Apereo Conference at New York University.
Blythe, Kyle, & Pasch, J., (2016, June). Improving the Sakai Resources Tool. One of four presentations that Kyle delivered at the 2016 Open Apereo Conference at New York University.
Blythe, Kyle, & Pasch, J., (2016, June). The Future of the Forums Tool. One of four presentations that Kyle delivered at the 2016 Open Apereo Conference at New York University.
2015
Blythe, Kyle, & Pasch, J., (2015, June). Gradebook Enhancement Project. Presentation delivered at the 2015 Open Apereo Conference in Baltimore, Maryland.
2014
Blythe, Kyle, Monat-Jacobs, N., & Pasch, J., (2014, June). Delivering Course Evaluations with EvalSys: A Light Implementation with a Rich Future. Presentation delivered at the 2014 Open Apereo Conference in Miami, Florida.