Last week at Pixo’s last staff meeting of the year, we took time out from the goofy (favorite Slack of the year) and serious (our most memorable client moments) to recognize eight team members for upholding our values throughout the year. We call these our Core Value Awards, and every year various teams at Pixo select one of their peers to recognize. Top row: Lindsey Gates-Markel, Joanna Troutman, Matt Fotzler, Emilee Noh.
Author Archives: Melinda Miller
Melinda Miller and Jason Berg are Pixo’s new owners
Melinda Miller and Jason Berg became the new owners of Pixo in July after buying out founder Lori Gold Patterson. Before the buyout, Melinda and Jason had been effectively running the company since January 2019 and have been part of Pixo’s leadership team since 2013 and 2015, respectively. Melinda serves as the company’s General Manager, where she focuses on managing and organizing Pixo’s consulting team.
Congratulations to our 2019 Core Value award winners
It’s become a Pixo tradition to reflect on our values at the end of every year by honoring eight Pixonauts who embody those values. Which means every December, there is a mad rush to collect the awards from the last year’s winners, organize small groups of Pixonauts to choose among their colleagues for a category, and prep for the ceremony. In our last meeting of the year, we share reflections about the year — both funny and serious — and cap it off with the Core Value awards.
Celebrating our values — 2018 edition
In what is now an annual tradition, Pixonauts gathered for our last staff meeting of the year and celebrated 2018. In addition to a slideshow recapping our year with both laughter (oh, the GIFs and Slack spoofs!) and serious reflections (Kleenex, anyone?), we recognized members of the Pixo team who exemplify our values. .
Sometimes, the solution is in the cards
I spent a lot of time as a kid playing with Legos. Arguably, I think it was the perfect toy for someone who grew up to be a user experience architect/closet librarian/newspaper page designer. * I started thinking about my own history with organizing when I was reviewing a recent project and reflecting on how user research informed our recommendations.
Melinda Miller
"The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug." - Mark Twain
Melinda Miller
General Manager, co-owner
Melinda, a.k.a Mel, joined the Pixo staff full-time in January 2012 after finishing her Master’s Degree in library and Information Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. After serving in various user experience (UX) roles at Pixo, Melinda took on her first company-wide leadership role as Director of Consulting in 2018.
She is currently the General Manager and a co-owner of Pixo where she focuses on nurturing and challenging the consulting team. Her goal every day is to contribute to a healthy, human-centered work environment that helps Pixo provide excellent service to its clients.
A native of Macomb, Illinois, Melinda attended the University of Illinois and earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism. She moved to upstate New York, where she worked for 12 years in the newspaper industry in Elmira, Ithaca, and Rochester. In 2005, she joined Illini Media, a non-profit student media newsroom. She later earned a Master’s Degree in Library and Information Science.
In her spare time, Melinda enjoys genealogy, photography, Legos, and hiking. She lives in Champaign with her wife and pet menagerie — 1 dog and 3 cats.
EXPERTISE
Information architecture, user experience design, content strategy, user research, usability testing, wireframing
EDUCATION
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign – M.S. in Library & Information Science
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign – B.S. in Journalism
EMPLOYMENT
Pixo, 2019 – present – General Manager
Pixo, 2018 – Director of Consulting
Pixo, 2013-2018 – Director of User Experience
Pixo, 2012-2013 – User Experience Designer, Information Architect
Illini Media, 2005-2010 – Editorial Advisor
Gannett Newspapers, 1993-2005 – Assistant managing editor, presentation editor, designer, copy editor
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