City of Chicago Design

“Tait’s grit, empathy, and smarts coupled with his marketing, design, tech, and UX skills make collaboration with him fun and productive. Tait’s varied work & educational experience informs his presentation, facilitation, and research style for the better. In short, he’s a multifaceted designer with an upbeat attitude and easy communication style well on his way to being a great design leader.” – Jason Kunesh, Design Director, City of Chicago

Chicago.gov

After over a decade of repeated attempts through two different administrations to secure a DotGov exemption, I was able to research, apply for, and successfully secure the Chicago.gov domain name exception for the City of Chicago.

Chicago Design System

The City of Chicago has never had a unified brand identity or style guide. Even the shape and color of the iconic city flag varies depending on the department, vendor, and project, resulting in wasted time, uneven execution, and poor accessibility.

To begin to solve the issue, I designed the initial style tiles of the Chicago Design System, and worked with various departments, vendors, and stakeholders to begin building accessible, consistent, and flexible elements for all City of Chicago digital products.

311 Chicago

I consulted with the City of Chicago Department of 311 City Services and its vendors to ensure the upcoming 311 redesign and relaunch in 2019 puts citizen needs and usability first. During the internship I produced Figma wireframes, design elements, and research to support user interface decisions.

For example, when it became clear that a vendor wasn’t taking into account user needs in its development of the service request status process, I brought up the issues with the vendor managers, collaborated directly with their designers, helped direct user research on the topic to prove out the need, and built consensus with the primary stakeholders to make changes.