Brian Byrne Research Analyst
Hi, my name is Brian, and I’ll be analyzing your usability and design survey data, your user testing results, your competitors’ websites, and pretty much anything else that needs to be ruminated on. Once the analysis part is done, I’ll even tell you what I found out in a clearly worded, mostly non-boring, and attractively formatted report.
You might run into me again during the content migration portion of your project; when I’m not frowning at spreadsheets for hours at a time, I’m generally knee-deep in a CMS and massaging existing content into the best possible version of itself, then giving it a little pep talk as I deploy it onto its freshly redesigned new home.
There was a lot of back-and-forth about what my title should be back in 2009 when I joined mStoner; at one point Patrick and I were both sold on “utility infielder,” though ultimately we abandoned that one due to how much time I spend in left field. Nomenclature notwithstanding, I knew mStoner was the best possible place for me to work within about three seconds of entering the building. It wasn’t just that the things they needed done—data reporting, content migration, and usability analysis—were perfectly suited to my background in design, editorial, and content management. It was also the half-hour conversation we had during my interview about which nickname I’d pick from a list they read to me, and why. (It was also the fact that, pursuant to that conversation, everyone in the office was willing to refer to me as “Spud.”)
I was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and lived there for just over three decades before moving to Chicago with my wife, who is a librarian/novelist, and our young son, who is Batman or Wolverine, depending on what day it is. My bachelor of arts in English Literature from the University of Tulsa prepared me for analyzing qualitative and quantitative data in ways my professors might not have foreseen. When I’m not punching the clock, I’m writing for This Land Press, playing my guitar, drinking coffee and/or Scotch, catching up on soaps, making up elaborate stories about my cats, keeping my son from pulling large objects over on himself, and apologizing to the clock for punching it.
