About

aboutpic Welcome to my website. I’m a UX Designer and Researcher born and raised in Turkey but now living in Seattle, WA. I’m currently an Interaction Designer at Google.

Before Google, I was at T-Mobile, where I had the opportunity to create innovative mobile experiences for franchise and mass-market devices. Prior to that, I was at Scout Media (a FOX company), working on a new and improved network of sites and mobile presence. Before that, I was at Amazon where I designed the user experience for Kindle periodicals.

For the last few years, I’ve been focusing on mobile interaction design, but I also love doing watercolor and photography. I try to keep developing these skills and interests in my personal projects, which normally act as a more playful counterbalance to the structured work in my day job. These little side projects are also perfect playgrounds for learning and trying out new stuff.

Besides being interested in user-centered design, I also love traveling. I try to go and explore different places as frequently as possible. My favorite saying is one by Mark Twain that “travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness.”

Along with my love for travel, I also have an obsession with learning languages. Someday I hope I can call myself an omniglot. For now I speak English and Turkish fluently with Spanish and French at an intermediate level.

When I’m not thinking about (or actually doing) UX work, I love spending time with friends and family, doing Yoga, going to concerts, exhibitions or for a walk in the park.

 

Resume

Objective

With over 10 years of experience in UCD and a M.S. in Human-Centered Design and Engineering my work is primarily focused on mobile interaction design. I thrive in environments where I can tackle design challenges for various digital mediums working within a team-oriented environment.

Skills

Design Interaction Design Specifications, Wireframing, Prototyping, Personas, User Flows, Information Architecture Diagrams, High level Visual Screens/Mocks
User Research High and low fidelity usability studies, Card Sorts, Surveys and Focus Groups
Software Used Design, Wireframing & Prototyping: Omnigraffle, Visio, Fireworks, Photoshop, Axure, PowerPoint, Illustrator, XHTML (hand-coding), CSS (crossbrowser)

Usability:Morae, Camtasia, WebSort, Paper prototyping

Platforms: Mac OS X, Android, Windows

Experience

04/2011 – Present Senior Interaction Designer | Google
03/2009 – 04/2011 Senior Interaction Designer | T-Mobile

Team lead for franchise and mass market phones on Android OS including touch screen and 5-way navigation.

Accomplishments:

  • Led a team of designers to deliver the latest T-Mobile franchise phone within an aggressive timeline (to be released in the Fall). Worked closely with the design team, product management, product realization, engineering and third-party vendors. Managed, co-ordinated and scheduled workflow ensuring deadlines were met. This product involved very active management of the team workload and excellent communication with the various stakeholders.
  • Successfully delivered designs for three myTouch phone models
10/2006 – 03/2009 Lead User Interface Designer | Scout Media a FOX Company

Hired on and led a UX team to design elegant and functional online user experiences and redesign the existing network of sits. Participated in defining the product roadmap with company executives.

Accomplishments:

  • Successfully rolled out two phases of redesign for a network of 300+ sites
  • Established UX process in developing sites that incorporate e-commerce; social networks; user-driven content and community tools
  • Petitioned for and established a dedicated usability lab
  • Advocated and managed the separation of presentational markup from structural markup resulting in SEO benefits
6/2006 – 10/2006 Senior UI Designer (Contract)| Amazon.com

Determined design process and UX, created graphics, mockups and fully functional XHTML prototypes for Kindle periodicals including newspaper and magazines.

Accomplishments:

  • Contributed to the design of a revolutionary e-reader
08/2005-06/2006 National Web Manager| NPower

Managed the process of rolling out a new web design to 12 different affiliate.

Accomplishments:

  • Rolled out the redesign to all affiliates ahead of deadline
  • Coordinated the redesign customization requests, budget and schedule
  • Provided training and support for affiliates

Early Career

04/2004-08/2004 Web Designer | Island Pacific
7/2003-04/2004 Web Designer | Wilcox Miller & Nelson
7/2002-3/2003 Web Designer | MedPX
3/2002-9/2002 Applications Developer | Interweave, Inc.
1/2000-3/2002 Ottoman Prodigy Designs | Freelancer/Owner

Education

Post College M.S. in Human Centered Design and Engineering Washington, Seattle, WA
College B.S. in Management

A.A.S. in Web Design & Development

Miscellaneous

Favorite IxD Sites Boxes and Arrows, GUUUI.com, A List Apart, TouchUsability.com
Interests Mobile Technologies, Haptic and Audio interfaces, Sensory Psychophysics, Ambient Devices, Collaborative Design, Found Art, HCI, Hacks