Joining the dot.com craze, I worked as the UI Designer at Who2Trust.com, a site dedicated to helping people find a Service Business they can Trust. We did this by allowing consumers to recommend businesses to their friends, neighbors, and groups they belong to. Consumers could read these testimonials, as well as extensive information provided by businesses to make an informed choice on who to use. 

Inheriting a User Interface that was not marketable, I undertook a complete site re-design with ease of use as the primary goal. For the Look and Feel, I chose to use images of people and business professionals along with a conversational writing approach to make the site feel like it was both friendly and trustworthy. Working with an Information Architect we defined the overall navigation system, as well as the complex behaviors involved with maintaining a dynamic Recommendation Network. The site was built using a Java backend application server called SilverStream and an Oracle database.

While Who2Trust failed as a business venture, the site received excellent feedback from Consumers regarding its ease of use, and clean Look and Feel. Inevitably the market was not quite ready for the product concept, but in general Who2Trust was a success because of the amount of functionality we were able to build with little venture captial. It was a truly great experience, bringing me into contact with every aspect of starting up a business - from Marketing, to Strategy, to Business Development, and has prepared me for bigger and better things in the Internet space.