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Hello, my name is Stu King
I am a User Experience Designer living in Minneapolis, Minnesota. I am also a senior consultant with Magenic Studios. Magenic Studios is the Design and User Experience division of Magenic Technologies, a respected Microsoft Gold Partner operating throughout the United States. Beyond my responsibilities to my clients, I have also researched and developed Magenic’s Social Media strategy, designed and branded our internal SharePoint 2010 intranet and am currently redesigning magenic.com to give us a fresh new look.
I run my own freelance design studio called Design Drifter specializing in web design, branding, user experience, social media and SharePoint consulting. Â
I’ve provided creative, development and strategy for clients such as UnitedHealth Group, Wellington Management, Pacific Gas and Electric, Nikon, Fair Isaac Company(FICO), and Polaris focusing on designing websites that maintain a balance of beauty, usability and, in many cases, included highly customized and branded SharePoint environments. My work takes me all over the country and when I am traveling I try to take time to add interesting pictures to my Flickr page.
An advocate for my clients
With 17 years of experience, I understand how to guide clients through a process wether it be the design process or UX analysis. I also understand that being a true advocate for the client means listening and knowing when to challenge them, when to mentor them and when to modify the process to make it work for them. Each client presents a unique challenge and that is what I find most rewarding about what I do.
Why a blog?
This is the place where I put my latest thoughts, project samples, ideas and any information of value I might have to share with the design and SharePoint communities. You will often find me blogging about design, user experience tools and techniques as well as SharePoint branding and best practices.
I love design.  In addition to design I do a lot of work focused on branding the Microsoft SharePoint technology platform in all its forms. I enjoy teaching classes on planning and building web sites and whenever possible, I like to speak to businesses about SharePoint design, deployment and support. I am a Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP) and a Microsoft Certified Technical Specialist (MCTS) in SharePoint.
Some things you may not know about me
1. I was a volunteer firefighter in the Milwaukee area for three years. I was half-way through my training during 9-11 and the experience taught me much about myself and how important it is to get involved in your community. The experience also showed me that fear can be mitigated by training and preparation. I was required to do things as a firefighter that most would consider crazy but my training always kept me grounded. The experience has helped me in countless ways since then.
2. I was an Eagle Scout at age 16. While I don’t agree with many of the positions of the organization now, I am proud of the accomplishment and still believe that Scouting has a lot to offer kids today.
3. I love to disk golf. I even have my own golf bag with different disks for various distances and situations…yes, there IS a disk just for putting.
4. I am president and founder of my own company called Kikboxes Computer Craft Incorporated. Kikboxes specializes in building one-of-a-kind custom computers. They are all hand fabricated and are a beautiful mix of art and technology. You can see sample pics on my web site and in the workshop section of this blog. I also have my own line of high performance parts for water cooled and air cooled PCs. My parts are sold throughout the US, Canada and even Australia.
5. I still hold my high school’s indoor long jump record at 20′ 7 3/4″ and was an All-Conference sprinter with a best time in the 100 meter dash of 10.9 seconds.
6. I drink a pot of coffee per day…most days.
7. I have a part-time job working of the Minnesota Twins. Working at Target Field is not really like work. Make sure to check out my Flickr stream there are occasionally pictures there!
When I am not working I like hanging out with my family and playing xBox.
