Micah Alpern

www.alpern.org

malpern@alpern.org

408.209.9509

921 High School Way Apt 5

Mountain View CA 94041

 

Experience

2006 - Present

Yahoo Inc. Sunnyvale, CA

 Design Lead for Yahoo Answers  (08.2006 – present)

  • Leading the design of Yahoo Answers, a social search product used to ask over 10 million questions in its first year of service.

 

 

2006 - 2003

eBay Inc. San Jose, CA

 Lead User Interface Designer  (03.2006 – 07.2006)

  • Leading the User Experience team for eBay Mobile and Disruptive Innovation.
  • Consulting on User Experience for corporate strategy and business development.
  • Creating cross departmental processes and tools to improve quality, innovation, & time to market

 

 

 

Senior User Interface Designer  (01.2005 – 03.2006)

  • Designed the next generation ÒSell Your ItemÓ web application used to list over ½ a billion items for sale annually.
  • Collaborated with leaders in business, product management, and development to identify key user goals and develop a global selling product roadmap.
  • Mentored user interface designers on eBayÕs product design frameworks and guidelines.

 

 

 

Staff User Interface Designer  (08.2004 – 01.2005)

  • Developed a new global registration strategy to improve user activation, improve trust marketing, and increase revenue.
  • Redesigned the central selling hub on eBay based on a user centered information architecture to increase seller efficiency and improve new seller acquisition and activation.
  • Developed and documented consistent user interface guidelines for eBay applications

 

 

 

Associate User Interface Designer  (06.2003 – 08.2004)

  • Worked with business and product management partners to design and deliver global UI solutions which increased key business metrics.
  • Coordinated UI design, visual design, content management, prototyping, and user research efforts for multiple concurrent projects.
  • Collaborated on the development of user research strategies and incorporated results from ethnographic and usability studies into successful UI designs.

 

 

2000

Product Manager, Global Food Exchange, Atlanta, GA

  • Defined functional specifications for a food ordering system to allow traders to execute transactions faster, easier, and more cost-effectively.
  • Collaborated with the chief technical architect to document and plan the product.

 

 

1998 - 2000

Research Staff, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ
Neuroscience of Cognitive Control Laboratory

  • Designed and evaluated the user interface of new neuroimaging packages
  • Researched human working memory and cognition using sophisticated fMRI analysis

 

 

Education
2001-2002

Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA
Master of Human Computer Interaction, Dec 2002, GPA 3.90

School of Computer Science

 

 

1994 - 1998

Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY
Bachelor of Arts in Psychology & Mathematics, May 1998, GPA 3.78

  • Phi Beta Kappa; Magna Cum Laude

 

 

Coursework
07.2001 – 08.2002

Team Leader, iWave for General Motors
A car gesture interface to control navigation and entertainment

  • Created an interface that was fun, safe, and easy to use based on extensive user testing and design iterations
  • Identified target customers through field work, market research, and literature review
  • Planned project milestones, assigned resources, and prepared contingencies

 

 

Portfolio

Web application design, social software, speech UI, product management

  • www.alpern.org/portfolio