Background
- 18+ years experience designing user interfaces for everything from boutique websites to design systems for large-scale websites and software application UI’s.
- Skill set as a leader, advocate, partner and designer with highly analytical skills that thoroughly understands usability as well as design and the design process.
- Education in industrial design provides a special sensitivity to the end user and how they interface with a digital product.
- Feeds off creative problem solving in a team environment.
- Wants to be in a situation that provides opportunities of consistent learning and growth.
- Strong proponent of ease-of-use, simplicity and user-centered design.
- Strong project and people skills, able to function as a project leader as well as a contributor.
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Skills
UI Design // User Centered Design // User Scenarios // Wireframes // Information Architecture // Experience Design // Software UI // Web UI // Mobile & Tablet UI // Visual Design // Documentation // Competitive Analysis // Workflows // User Research // Interaction Design // Design for Large & Complex Systems // Interaction Specs // Design Management // UX Lead // Iterative Design
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Experience
Zefr, Inc // Venice & Marina Del Rey // Dec 14 – current
UX Director
Description
Build the discipline of UX/UI design from the ground up at a mid-level startup. Zefr had never incorporated a design process into their development of software in the past. Previously, product and engineering just did ‘the best they could’ using opinions and reacting to stakeholder requests. Over the last 4+ years, the company has evolved to incorporate UX as a core tenant of their development cycles and become a user centric software development company.
Projects Include
- Single handedly brought in the concept of user-centered design and helped evolve the product team and how the approach identifying and solving users needs versus just reacting to stakeholder requests.
- Helped build a team of both UX and UI design to become an invaluable part of the product process.
- Worked across multiple product teams on multiple products simultaneously.
- Design has become a key value proposition from sales up to the CEO’s in communicating the value of the company and products to current and potential customers and investors.
- Products impacted included rights management tools, ad buying platforms, inventory management and tools for both internal and external users.
- Changed attitudes about how all users matter, even internal ones.
- Often refer to my role here as a humanitarian effort to help improve the jobs of users on legacy products.
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Yahoo! Media // Santa Monica // May 06 – Sept 14
UX Design Lead
Yahoo! Shine (Women’s Lifestyles)
Yahoo! TV
Yahoo! Movies
OMG! (Celebrity)
Yahoo! Music
Yahoo! Entertainment
Yahoo! Games
Yahoo! News
Description
Over the last 6+ years, worked with various teams across the media group including lifestyles, music, news & finance, games, and entertainment. Daily interaction working directly with product & project managers, user researchers, editors, other interaction designers, visual designers, and developers both locally and globally. Tasks involved working with business, sales, and editorial requirements to help concept, wireframe, create workflows and coordinate creative to improve current and help create next generation features to delight our users. Was Lead UX for Yahoo! Shine, Yahoo’s women’s lifestyle property and Yahoo! TV.
Projects Include
- US & global launches for omg!, TV, and Movies
- Working to adapt existing sites for multi-modal devices
- Music marketing programs for Pepsi Smash, Nissan Live Sets, My Grammy Moment
- Ask America News elections microsite, Games hub pages, Publishing tools and Facebook Apps for Yahoo! Movies and Yahoo! Music
- UX to reinvent how users consume media content through new magazine-type experiences.
- Iterative design to optimize content page ux and monetization.
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Avenue A | Razorfish // Los Angeles // Aug 05 – Jun 06
Senior Information Architect (Contractor)
Description
Experience lead on project teams with tasks that include designing and developing user personas, site architectures, and user experience paths while working with other team members such as designers, project managers, functional analysts and content strategists to develop superior design experiences for users as well as meet primary stakeholder requirements.
Projects Include
- Disney Youth Group Programs: Website re-design which faced the challenge of needing to speak to teens and adults alike, offering each what they are seeking without sacrificing the communication to the other. Site is still in development.
- California Wellbeing Institute: Brochure website with accompanying FLEX interactive tool allowing users to find the right mix of science and holistic offerings to meet their preventative health needs. Site is still in development.
- Ingram Micro: B2B eCommerce website for Fortune 100 company’s next generation reseller and vendor facing website. Concepts for the website assumed the latest technologies, such as flash and flex, to allow for a dramatically improved user experience while allowing for rich features and functionality.
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Independent Contractor // Austin, Los Angeles // Oct 03 – Present
User Interface Design / Information Architect
Description
Brought in as either an on-site/off-site contractor to assist with workflow design, information architecture, wireframes and user interface design for companies including FlipGloss, Tree-Axis, 20th Century Fox, frog design and Orbik.
Projects Include
- Information Architecture and wireframes for websites for Rockband.com, Skate.com, Lithium Software, fashion start-up FlipGloss.com and most recently Triple Scoop Music.
- Mobizzo (Fox Mobile): Information architecture and wireframes for beta version of website for new business branch of 20th Century Fox geared towards selling media (ringtones, wallpapers, games, etc.) for mobile devices.
- Yahoo! Launch: Workflow design, user experience, information modeling, user interface design, wireframes, and interaction design for music media player software.
- Hewlett-Packard: Information architecture, workflow design, user scenarios, wireframes and the creation of a design system for intranet web portal integrating design standards for all divisions within HP.
- Nextel: User workflows, schematics, wireframes and experience design for next generation cell phone user interface.
- Dell: Internal software UI merging disparate sales tools into a single application. User Interface design, application road map, architecture, user scenarios and workflow design.
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Silent Gravity // Austin, Los Angeles // Oct 02 – Mar 06
Partner, UI Guru & Designer
Description
Partner of a small design firm focused on providing high quality brand, user interface and website design. Functioned as the user experience “guru” of the team as well as visual designer and project manager. Created proposals, pitched new clients, and managed client relationships.
Projects Include
- Delta Design: Experience, information and visual design for touchscreen UI for microchip handler machines.
- Harley Davidson: UI for web application to be used internally
- Whole Foods Market: Worked with internal division to help develop brand, user experience for new educational portal “university” for internal trainers and employees to use worldwide.
- frog design: visual and workflow design for web telephony project and UI design for themed cellular phones.
- Texas Highways: Competitive analysis, user-centered design resulting in wireframes, workflow, site architecture and visual design to reinvent the online presence for a print magazine to attract a younger demographic. (www.texashighways.com)
- Cardboard Samaritan: (pro-bono) experience design for a new non-profit that connects individuals with social service providers to get needed items directly to those in need through grass-roots networking. (www.cardboardsamaritan.org)
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Frog Design // Austin // Sep 97 – Nov 02
Senior Designer, Digital Media
Description
For over 5 years worked on numerous web and software user interface projects – working directly with clients, managers, product designers and developers. A background in industrial design provided a solid basis for identifying with user needs and physical aspects of working with software. Focus on design problem solving and specification documentation that translated design and usage into concrete building blocks for developers to implement from.
- Worked on all phases of design from gathering business and user requirements for Phase 0 Investigation documents, to exploration, through project execution.
- Defined functionality, navigation and usage for large-scale software design projects.
- Interaction problem solving through defining design, wireframes and documentation.
- Created and maintained detailed documentation defining usage, scenarios, interaction and specifications for most projects.
- Digital projects included software user interface (for web, java and C++ applications) and large-scale website design utilizing design systems.
- Size of projects ranged from several weeks to a two-year long client relationship.
- Managed designers and developers, reported to creative director. Worked directly with project managers and the client.
Projects Include
- i2 Technologies: Core team member in a 2+ year client relationship focused on uniting i2’s more than 80 application under a single, consistent, branded look and feel. Worked on broad overarching tasks that affected suites of applications, individual applications and improving a specific workflow or interaction within an application. Specific tasks included workflow design, interaction design, usage, problem solving, documentation and education. Responsibilities included working directly with client to understand specific needs then translate those needs into solutions.
- The Newsmarket: information architecture, workflow, wireframes and visual design for online resource providing broadcasters access to a deep repository of aggregated news stories and broadcast quality video assets. (www.thenewsmarket.com)
- Hoovers Online: Information architecture, workflow and wireframes for business web portal that was about to increase its content offering by 10-fold. (www.hoovers.com)
- Nissan: User interface design for in-dash car console for Japanese market.
- VTel: User interface design, workflows, user research, architecture, experience design and detailed design documentation for videoconferencing software. Also worked together with industrial design department to define the range of functionality for the remote-control which was used to control the software.
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Stuart Karten Design // Marina Del Rey // May 96 – Aug 96
Industrial Design Intern
Description
- User research for home business market for office supply manufacturer Avery-Dennison
- Identified broad set of user groups and designed mood board presentation materials to demonstrate the results of research findings in a visual way.
- Ideation sketching for computer accessory storage products.
- Created 3-D signage based on an existing logo design and created physical prototype.
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Education
BS Design, Industrial Design
Arizona State University
College of Architecture and Environmental Design
Minor: Business Marketing
May 1997
Fachhochschule, International Design School
Semester Exchange
Cologne, Germany
Fall 1996
AA Liberal Arts
Los Angeles Pierce College
Los Angeles, CA
May 1993
Ruth Kaufman 