Cathy Tiritoglu

887 Russet Drive, Sunnyvale, CA 94087
650-248-5963 | ctirit@yahoo.com
Cathy Tiritoglu is a user experience designer for mobile apps, web sites, and web-based applications. She leverages user-centered design principles to provide effective interface designs and information architectures through low- and high-fidelity wireframes and prototypes. Cathy works collaboratively across multi-disciplinary teams to influence and envision product strategies that enable the user and empower the business.

Move, Inc., Campbell, California—1/2009-present

Roles: Lead user experience designer

Led design solutions for Realtor.com (official site of the National Association of Realtors) mobile apps and web site, Move.com (rentals and new construction), and Moving.com. Designed for a complex balance of business goals, customer (real estate professional) needs, and consumer (home buyer/seller) needs.

• Design lead for Realtor.com mobile apps on iPhone, iPad, Android and Windows Phone 7 platforms. Assumed the lead role 7 months after the initial iPhone app launch. Drove the design for Android and Windows Phone 7 launches, which were developed by outside vendors. Worked very closely with mobile product manager to determine features that elevated us above competitors. After his departure, I acted as co-PM with the engineering lead. Recently launched updated iPhone app and new iPad app in April 2011. Currently working on redesign of Android to bring up to parity of iOS apps and exploit more of the native Android UI patterns, such as a context menu and options menu.
• Design lead for Realtor.com redesign. Project began as a sandbox for visualization of newer, more powerful backend technology but quickly grew into a full site-wide redesign. Led a team of 5 interaction and visual designers on the project through to the public beta launch in April 2010. Responsible for design decisions, collaboration with product team, communication with executives and sales teams, and coordination of development efforts with engineering team in Vancouver.
• Design lead for the redesign of Moving.com. Completely dissected and rebuilt the site architecture to eliminate redundant hierarchies and streamline user workflows. Created a site map and wireframes for the new site. Directed a visual designer, set up project schedule and daily deliverable communications.
• Collaborated with two other team members on the design of search suggestions and faceted refinement on the Realtor.com search results page.

Yahoo!, Inc., Sunnyvale, California—6/2002-1/2009

Roles: Senior interaction designer for Yahoo! Real Estate (6/07-present)

Balanced business, product and user requirements to create effective design solutions for the Yahoo! Real Estate site. Contributed to product strategy for development of homepage redesign, promotional pages for engaging listing partners, intranet for partner account management, and editorial content. Developed use-case scenarios, information architecture, flowcharts, wireframes, high-fidelity mockups, and functional Flash prototypes. Worked closely with usability researchers to design studies, create prototypes for testing, and distill findings into actionable design directions.

• Rolled out successful new site navigational structure.
• Redesigned homepage launch in March 2008. Overall click-through rate increased 9% from 86% pre-launch to 94% post-launch, with a home search increase of 15.9%.
• Wrote usability test script and conducted one-on-one interviews with 13 real estate agents to measure effectiveness of paper prototype designs.
• Designed editorially-focused "Guides and Advice" section of the site. Created section architecture, detailed wireframes, high-fidelity visual designs and UI specs. Worked with development team in India to implement.
• Created a template design for various sponsored information centers, including the Refinance Center, Insurance Center and Mortgage Center.
• Redesigned existing intranet for real estate listings providers to upload data feeds, manage listings and view property stats. Project included overall visual redesign, site architecture, and adding statistics and other tools.

Roles: Senior interaction designer, Design manager for Yahoo! Autos (6/2002-6/2007)

Directed strategic and creative initiatives to build effective design solutions for the Yahoo! Autos site. Influenced the product vision for an entire site redesign and major feature additions and enhancements. Deliverables included flowcharts, wireframes, high-fidelity mockups, and click-through prototypes. Managed the design team schedule, providing project estimates for interaction design, visual design and front-end engineering. Worked closely with usability researchers to design studies, create prototypes for testing, and distill findings into actionable design directions.

• Led the team that designed the interaction of the ratings stars commonly used on many Yahoo! properties, such as Autos, Local, Tech and Shopping.
• Managed the design team, provided strategic input, and designed information architecture for Yahoo! Autos Custom—a side site for car enthusiasts who modify and "pimp out" their cars.
• Worked closely with the product team to ideate and scope the Yahoo! Autos Green Center. The integration of user generated network content (Answers, Flickr, Groups, and del.icio.us saved sites) on Green and the new Auto Shows section was widely praised throughout the company.
• Provided editorial content management by building articles and photo galleries, and designing effective partner integration experiences. The fresh content integration earned Autos increased featured placements on the Yahoo! front page and was instrumental in leading Autos to the number one position in online automotive research sites.

Cellmania, Inc., Mountain View, California—3/2000-11/2001

Roles: Senior interface designer, Project lead

Responsible for interaction design and visual design for web sites, web-based applications, PDA applications, and mobile internet applications. Developed information architecture, interaction patterns and graphics for Cellmania's mFinder mobile internet directories, mStore web stores for wireless devices, mEnterprise mobile platform application, Cellmania's corporate website, and wireless product demos. Project manager for mFinder and mStore projects, and managed a junior designer on various web, Flash and print projects. Worked closely with product and marketing teams to develop requirements, developers to implement the designs, and QA to verify intended interaction. Created use models, paper prototypes, wireframes and HTML/JavaScript prototypes during design process.

Developed interfaces for two PDA-based web applications running on Microsoft's PocketPC browser. Studied interaction model and developed preliminary design for a RIM-based mobile application running on GoAmerica's GoWeb browser. Designed interaction for phone-based application to create and edit mobile web (WAP) sites. Worked on various interface aspects of Cellmania's mFinder application for the phone (HDML and WML), wireless device product demos and mFinder desktop simulators.

M.J. Harden Associates, Inc., Kansas City, Missouri—1/1994-4/1999

Roles: UI designer, Corporate communications designer

Designed user experience and graphics for company website and client intranets. In addition to UI design, also designed corporate communications. Redesigned and implemented new corporate identity; designed trade show booth mural graphics; created series of logos for suite of software applications developed by MJH. Planned advertising calendar; worked with ad agency to create ad campaign; designed ads

Design Consulting:

User Interface Laboratory, LLC, Kansas City, Missouri—1998-2001
Roles: UI designer, Print designer
Developed promotions, information architecture, and visual design for various web, print and multimedia projects.

Education:

University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas—May 1993
Bachelor of Science in Journalism (Major-Advertising)

Platforms & Tools:

Operating Systems: Mac, Windows, some UNIX
Mobile Platforms: iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7
Languages & Tools: HTML, CSS, Adobe Fireworks, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Acrobat, Visio, SVN. Basic knowledge of JavaScript and XML to modify code for design.

Languages:

Conversational French

Activities:

Member BayCHI - Bay Area chapter of the SIGCHI-ACM
Member IxDA