University of Michigan, School of Information (Ann Arbor, Michigan)

Master of Science in Information, Human Computer Interaction and Social Computing

• Merit Scholarship Recipient 2007-2009
• Relevant courses: Evaluation of Systems & Services, Contextual Inquiry & Project Management, Interface & Interaction Design, Design of Complex Websites, Online Communities, Recommender & Reputation Systems, Information Architecture, Cognitive Ergonomics

University of Applied Sciences Cologne (Cologne, Germany)

Bachelor of Science in Computer Science & Media Informatics

• Graduated in top 5%
• Relevant courses: Human-Computer Interaction, Programming & Algorithms, Databases, Multimedia Applications, Computer Graphics, Distributed Systems

Yahoo! Inc., Interaction Design Intern (Sunnyvale, California)

• Lead the redesign of the public interaction design pattern library to support scalability
  for more patterns, allowing flexible content and a modular layout
• Evaluated and improved the design pattern publication process by developing an integrated
  tool that supports all phases of the publication process
• Published and revised internal and external design patterns to promote and support
  consistent user experience across Yahoo! properties

Sapient Consulting, Interactive Developer (Düsseldorf, Germany)

• Translated visual designs into completed HTML and optimized development for User Experience
• Established and implemented front-end structures and standards for client projects
• Worked closely with back-end developers to ensure integrity of UI throughout development life-cycle
• Led and worked with teams to manage and execute final concept through completion of project
• Implemented online marketing and ad-serving pilot for multivariate testing

LeanTrak, Inc.,Information Architect (Maumee, Ohio)

• Concept & development of Intranet Information Portal & Content Management System
• Coordinated, designed and developed the launch of corporate website
• Concept & development of project management tool for multi-billion dollar petroleum company
• Design & development of worldwide branding program for multi-billion dollar corporation

New.Media.Design Consulting, Founder (Krefeld, Germany)

• IT consulting and web design for clients in media, legal and IT industry

Eye-Tracking Study, University of Michigan CHCR National Cancer Institute

• Evaluation of website that encourages and supports participants to quit smoking
• Behavioral research and statistical analysis of non-intrusive eye gaze tracking

Financial School Management Application, School Improvement Group

• Concept and development of a financial school benchmarking and management tool
• Leading the user experience and interaction design
• Performing user testing and product feature planning

Ruby on Rails Internship, Ann Arbor based development company

• Agile object oriented programming of a restful open source event management application

CourseNav - Interactive Course Recommendation Tool, UofM Ross School of Business

• Evaluation and design of a prototype using contextual inquiry and usability techniques

Oracle Usability Evaluation, Class Project for UofM Administrative Information Services

• Applying several usability methods like Personas & Scenarios, Heuristic Evaluation, Survey design and Usability Testing

A self-motivated and goal-oriented professional with experience in creating websites from conception to launch, with over ten years of computing experience and a good sense for user centered design.

Software: MS Office Suite, Photoshop, Omnigraffle, Adobe Creative Suite, Visio, Dreamweaver, MindMapping

Usability Methodologies: Personas & Scenarios, Focus Groups, Prototyping, Heuristic Evaluation, Surveys, Contextual Inquiry

Programming: xHTML, CSS, XML, DOM, PHP, JavaScript, SQL, Ajax, Ruby on Rails, SEO, Accessibility

• 1^st Place Social Computing Award by Microsoft.
• 2^nd Place Library 2.0 Design Competition.

• Received 2^ndplace bachelor thesis award at the University of Cologne for research and development of "a web application service for individual user-based sorting and ranking of search engine results".

• 18 months stipend from CDS International/InWent for German-American exchange program.

Fluent in German and English, basic understanding of French.

Photography, Architecture, Triathlon, SOCHI Officer

Executive Board Member of HCI Student Organization (SOCHI), Member of SIGCHI & Information Architecture Institute