Quote:
"‘Never say never."
Favorite Moment(s):
Being invited to present my group’s research as the opening keynote talk at a design conference. For more general moments, I love lunches with my group.
What have you done to be a better Yahoo?
My research is all about creating better internet experiences for people. I focus on what works for our users and how we can make their experiences even better. I give talks internally and externally on what’s happening now and on how Yahoo! is leading the way in services of the future that will put people in touch with content and other people, from wherever they are. Also within Yahoo!, I am working with the Women in Technology interest group. Yahoo! is already a great workplace for women and we are well on the way to being the *best* place for technically minded women to build their skills and forge successful careers.
Are you able to think big at Yahoo? How?
Yes, definitely. Everyday I take up the challenge of design applications that will be used by people all over the world.
What specific Yahoo! project has made the biggest impact on you and why?
Whatever project I’m working on at the moment makes the biggest impact on me. I’ve never been bored at Yahoo!, there are just too many exciting and challenging projects to define and contribute to. I work with users to understand how Yahoo! products fit into their lives, what works, what could be better—and then I and design new applications. Last year my group worked with the Personals team to understand how online dating services can be improved. Based on our findings we designed an application called
MapChat for chatting about places to meet. We also worked with Flickr folks to understand how, why and when people share their photos. Right now we are looking at how DJs use
Yahoo! Live, how crafters search for hobby-related information online, and how developers are using our
Developer Network.
What made you choose Yahoo! as a place to work?
I’ve always loved Yahoo! products. I’ve used Yahoo! Mail forever, I always check Yahoo! Finance , I read my horoscope, use Yahoo! Messenger, love Yahoo! Avatars, and have always been a Flickr fanatic. I knew Yahoo! was a place I could keep learning, and where I could combine the aesthetic, person-centered design work I love with learning about the underlying engineering. You’ll never get stale here—the range of things to learn about is fantastic. And, of course, I find it exciting to think I could be the person designing the infrastructure or interface that will be useful to over 500 million people.
