McLean Donnelly, User Experience Executive
DESIGN EXECUTIVE & EDUCATION LEADER
Currently, I manage The Makery, my User Experience Design firm and teach as an Adjunct Professor of Design.  

Previously, I was the Vice President of User Experience Design for Shutterstock in New York City and a Design Manager for Expedia in Seattle.

I have won a Webbby Award for Best of Use of Artificial Intelligence in Design as well as a UX Magazine Design for Experience Award for nonprofit design work. I've also been a keynote speaker at industry-leading gatherings including: Creative Week, The Art Director's Club, The Digital Summit Series, BitCon and the Design Thinkers conference. I'm also a contributing writer for tech and design publications, including Smashing Magazine.

I've earned a Masters of Business Administration from St. Thomas University and a Bachelor of Arts at Gettysburg College. I am an Adjunct Professor of Design at the University of Minnesota. Starting this summer, I'll also be working towards a Doctor of Education (Ed.D.) in Educational Leadership and Learning.
UX/UI CASE STUDY

EXPEDIA ECOMMERCE

Lead designer and manager of teams who directed the delivery, quality, and success of the user experience for the Flights, Packages, and Things to Do products. This encompassed the entire lifecycle, including optimization and innovation with new features, for our 100 million+ user base across 120 countries, accounting for billions of searches and tens of millions of transactions.
UX/UI CASE STUDY

SHUTTERSTOCK DESIGN SYSTEM

As the Vice President of Product Design & User Experience, I led a 25 person User Experience Design Organization that shaped overall company design for Shutterstock, a creative technology company.  To get a sense of the scale, Shutterstock is publicly traded company in NYC with revenues of nearly $500MM and over 75M monthly visitors. Faced with an outdated UI infrastructure and UX experience, I led a company wide initiative to research, design, test and rollout a ReactJS Design System. 
DESIGN WRITING

SMASHING MAGAZINE

If great design can imbue customers with trust, so removed from product management and the larger business strategy? Largely, it's an educational gap - as traditional BFA, MFA and career pathways for UX/UI designers lack business and financial education. 

​Very soon, I found a workable solution: a part-time MBA program where I would study and learn actionable skills of business frameworks and best practices of management.  
DESIGN EDUCATION

K-12 & UNIVERSITY TEACHING

I’ve built and taught design education as Adjunct Professor of Design at the University of Minnesota. Starting this summer, I'll be working towards a Doctor of Education (Ed.D.) in Educational Leadership and Learning. As the highest degree in the education field, my work will balance academic research alongside K-12 and post-secondary education reform through innovative community partnerships, concentrated on the improvement and expansion of online education for historically underserved communities.

To help launch and scale these efforts, I currently served as an Advisory Board Member to the Minnetonka Public School District, supporting the students through career day speaking,  development of curriculum and connecting the organization with employers in the technology and design industries.

Especially during these challenging times, it's important to have remote-friendly education available for our teachers and students. To keep keep our students learning during the COVID-19 epidemic, I created a free and fun UX design class for all ages. 
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Thanks for visiting my little website :) If you'd like to discuss collaborative opportunities, social impact design or are looking for career or portfolio guidance, please find a time on my bookable calendar.  My website aims to achieve 2.0 World Accessibility adherence, you can check out my accessibility policy with feedback, improvements or to find helpful resources on web accessibility.