Frank Elbert

Current

Founder & Managing Director at TipSpot.com
Owner at FRANK-STAR | Interaction Strategy & Design

Past

Front-end & services manager at bol.com
Sr. Interaction Architect at Blast Radius Inc.
Interaction Architect at BSUR Concepting

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Education

Haagse Hogeschool/TH Rijswijk

Recommended

18 people have recommended Frank

Connections

500+ connections

Industry

Entertainment

Websites

Frank Elbert’s Summary

At a fast pace interactive technology blends into our environment and increasingly defines the quality of our daily lives. From this perspective it's clear that for making successful products, good technology is not enough. Interactive products and services need to be desirable as well as useful, accessible as well as powerful, but overall they need to fit simply, gracefully, and enjoyable into the fabric of everyday life and culture.

While working with interactive media since 1997, Frank's activities shifted from coding cd-roms and websites to managing multi-disciplinary teams designing interactive experiences based on the intimate knowledge of the brand and business objectives of the company, as well as a deep understanding of the needs, habits, and behavior of the people participating in the experience.

Frank Elbert’s Specialties:

Design research & strategy, concepting, information architecture, interaction design, user interface design, testing & usability analysis, personal drive: always looking for ways to exceed expectations, deep commitment to user-centered design, eagerness to collaborate with other disciplines, highly motivated, independent, commitment to quality, attention to detail.

Frank Elbert’s Experience

Founder & Managing Director

TipSpot.com

(Entertainment industry)

November 2007 — Present (2 years 3 months)

TipSpot - your social event guide - is a new online service that makes sure you always know what's going on in your city. Via the web and your mobile phone, TipSpot offers a last-minute and personalized overview of the most relevant events; such as nice parties, concerts, exhibitions, theater shows or the sale of a cool store. You can 'tip' events yourself or follow the tips of friends and other interesting parties, like your favourite bands, DJ's, artists, magazines, clubs and shops.

As the founder and managing director of TipSpot, Frank is responsible for: 1) Product strategy, design & development of both the website and various mobile clients (iPhone, J2ME, Android, etc). 2) Management of cross disciplinary team. 3) Brand, positioning, marketing & pr. 4) Business development, funding, finance.
Owner

FRANK-STAR | Interaction Strategy & Design

(Design industry)

November 2006 — Present (3 years 3 months)

Independent interaction architect based in Amsterdam that partners with clients to conceptualize and design services for the web, mobile and emerging media.

Services include:
- Strategy & concept: research business-, brand- and user goals, distill and present high level concepts.
- Design & production: design and specify information architecture, user flows and user interfaces.

Deliverables include:
- Personas & scenarios
- High-level architecture maps (sitemaps)
- Screen flow diagrams (flowcharts)
- Screen- & component designs (wireframes)

Recently partnered with:
- Reed Business (via info.nl). Concept and design of new online shop, launch in 2009.
- AEGON Bank (via Eden Design). Concept and design of new self service financial product.
- KLM (via Mirabeau). Concept and re-design of klm.com's main booking tool, launch in 2009.
Front-end & services manager

bol.com

(Privately Held; Retail industry)

January 2006 — October 2006 (10 months)

bol.com is the biggest online media store and market leader in The Netherlands. While winning award after award, bol.com is a source of inspiration and forerunner in the Dutch online retail market.

In the role of front-end & services manager Frank was responsible for the customer experience of the web platform (www.bol.com). His main responsibilities were: (1) defining strategy, setting goals and lying out plans (2) creating and identifying new opportunities for optimizing the customer experience (3) analyze site-, customer- and financial data (4) restructuring, expanding and daily management of a cross disciplinary design team (8 FTE's) (5) aligning business units on common roadmap and product releases.
In this role Frank was also responsible for the high-level interaction- and user interface design of the product offering "selling and buying of used books".
Sr. Interaction Architect

Blast Radius Inc.

(Public Company; 201-500 employees; Internet industry)

July 2003 — December 2005 (2 years 6 months)

Blast Radius (www.blastradius.com) helps businesses deliver innovative and profitable customer experiences by combining business strategy, experience design, and industry-leading technologies. With offices in the US, Canada and Europe, Blast Radius has formed long-term relationships with companies such as Aeroplan, A&E Television Networks, BMW, Fairmont Hotels & Resorts, Heineken, Nike, DIRECTV, Nintendo and Philips.

In the role of Sr. interaction architect Frank was responsible for the information architecture, interaction- and user interface design of web-based products and services. He worked with clients such as World Directories / Yellow Pages, Philips, TomTom, Nintendo Europe, Electronic Arts, Heineken Corporate, Esselte Dymo.
Interaction Architect

BSUR Concepting

(Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Marketing and Advertising industry)

May 2000 — July 2003 (3 years 3 months)

BSUR (‘be as you are’) is an internationally active creative consultancy based in Amsterdam, providing clients with consultative services on brand creation and brand management for today’s connected society. (www.bsur.com)

In the role of interaction architect Frank was responsible for the information architecture, interaction- and user interface design of web-based products and services. He worked with clients such as Royal Ahold, Pensioendesk Nederland, Kras Vakanties, Unilease Nederland, MIVA / oneMen.org, UnieKaas, The Bodyshop, Ernst & Young IF.