education

University of California – Santa Cruz, CA
Masters of Science – Games and Playable Media; 2016 – 2017

University of California – Berkeley, CA
Masters of Information Management Systems/ HCI; 2002 – 2004
Berkeley-Stanford Vertex Innovators Challenge Finalist (funded)

University of Michigan – Ann Arbor, MI
Bachelor of Science in Cognitive Science & Neurosciences; 1994 – 1998

tools and languages

Production/ Workflow Management: Jira, Trello, Asana
Game Engines/ Tool Kits: Unity, UnReal, Google ARCore, Apple ARKit
Prototyping and Graphics: Blender, 3D Max, Maya (model editing), Omnigraffle (wireframing), Figma and Invision (app prototyping)
Standard : Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator
Languages: C++, C#, Java, CSS, JavaScript, JSP, PHP, ASP, XML, XSLT, UNIX

experience

Anita Wilhelm Designs, January, 2011 – present Project Specifics
Product Strategy (Management), Design, & Research;

  • Store No8 (Walmart Ventures & Incubation Lab) – Metaverse Product Strategy & Design (2022)
  • Tornado Tower VR – Producer (February, 2017 – present)
  • Denver Angels Early Stage Startup – Product Manager & UX Designer (2019 – 2021)
  • Pixo VR – VR Game Designer & Product Manager (2019)
  • FrontVu Kitchen Remodeling – AR App Producer & Designer (2018)

  • General Motors – User Experience Strategist, Global Connected Services & Infotainment (2016)
  • RepairPal – UX Strategist (2015)
  • LiteBrite Immersive – Unity UX Designer (2014)
  • Urban Airship – Technical Product Manager/ New Product R & D (2014)
  • DocuSign – Mobile UX Lead (2013)
  • Fig Mobile – UX Director (2012)
  • HP/ Palm – UX Strategist (2011)

Proxi, March, 2018 – Sept, 2018 – Berkeley, CA
Producer

  • Internal production responsibilities of Will Wright (SIMS Creator) new mobile NFT/AI/neuroscience based game.
  • Manage & organize agile development process with team of artists, devs, marketing, & leadership. Coordinate play testing.
  • Game design, ux design, and prototyping in Unity individual contributor.
  • Management of budgets, consultants, and strategic relationships – mainly with Unity and TenCent.

Phase2 Industries – P2UX, July, 2016 – April, 2018 – Santa Clara, CA
Product & Design Manager

  • Managed new product creation of prototyping platform for both designers and developers.
  • Extended platform into compatibility with VR simulations for automobile infotainment screen user testing.
  • Created product strategy docs and involved in investor relations / pitches.
  • Managed visual design direction & created ux wires. Managed new brand creation with an external agency.

Samsung UX Innovations Lab, Aug, 2011 – June, 2012 – San Jose, CA,
UX Lead Strategist : Infotainment

  • Conceptualized new cloud-based infotainment platform which spans phones, tablets, TV, desktop, and scanners.
  • Designed first new mobile games and apps for platform : Children’s Chore Game, Family Emergency Locator; Family Calendar.
  • Product specifications and game logic, business strategy, and UX Wires.
  • Managed design and worked with user researchers, business strategist, and visual designer to define concepts.
  • Family mobile wallet patent drafting and research.

Fjord GmBH, October, 2008 – October, 2010 – Berlin, Germany
Service Design Lead (Manager)

  • Service Design Lead for Fjord GmBH. New products for clients: Nokia Social Location Services, Volkswagen R & D, and Deutsches Telekom R & D.
  • Design Lead : Managed teams of designers and developers (up to 12) for client projects, creative execution, and project implementation.
  • UX Designer (within Nokia) : Designed developers API toolkit and building blocks, as well as internal social services.
  • Responsible for both project creative direction as well as internal project management and budgeting.
  • Involved in hiring visual and ux designers to grow the agency, as well as created new business pitches, deep market research dives, and creative design patterns.
  • Deliverables: product definiton, roadmaps and backlogs, strategic presentations, pattern visualizations, ux wires and specifications, project reports, performance reviews of team members.

scanR, May, 2005 – Jan, 2008 – Palo Alto, CA
Mobile Product Manager

  • Product Manager Jan, 2007 – Jan, 2008; UX Designer May, 2005 – Jan, 2007
  • Responsible for design and development of all mobile clients for new mobile photo based service, including BREW (Verizon and Kddi, Japan), Java (ATT and open-ware), Mobile Web, Symbian (Nokia), and Windows Mobile.
  • Create interaction and visual designs of all mobile products.
  • Develop prototypes and conduct user testing of handset clients.
  • Managed app store submission processes. Coordination of engineering and QA progress to ensure on-time client delivery.

Caterpillar Mobile, Sept, 2004 – Jan, 2007
Co-founder – Product Design & Strategy

  • Designed and created Caterpillar Mobile, with technical partner Jeff Towle, based on mobile social research conducted at UC Berkeley.
  • Drafted all business strategy and product roadmaps for mobile social media sharing and gaming platform.
  • Presented business plans and lead all interactions with outside parties and investors.
  • Created all product design documentation: personas, competitive analysis, information architectures, screen and widget designs for mobile consulting clients.

Graduate Student Researcher, May, 2003 – May, 2004  Old Work Portfolio
UX Design Lead 

  • Lead UX Designer for Garage Cinema Research : Mobile Media Metadata Project.
  • Designed system interface and researched image sharing and meaningful image metadata acquisition based on social network effects and image processing technology on first multimedia smart phones (Symbian – Nokia 3650).
  • Yahoo! – Berkeley Labs and Caterpillar Mobile spun off from this work.

publications/ talks/ advisory/ teaching

Metaverse Worlds Winner 2022. Art gallery and event space in NoWhere was selected as winner in world building competition.
San Francisco State University – School of Design. Lecturing Professor for User Experience Design (627) School Year 2019-2020. Taught fully online studio course teaching fundamentals of User Experience Design. Modified curriculum for additional sections : asynchronous (one section) and advanced topics (one section).

Vice Games 2018. Interviewed as part of Vice documentary on game creators and game making process. Watch Video

Each, Inc – Design Advisor. Creating a system for connecting orphaned children to homes in third world countries. Working with gvm’t agencies and VeryNice Designs.

Mindtoon Labs – Product Advisor. Teaching meditation practices through games and meaningful play. Available in iTunes.

March 7-11, 2008 – SXSW Interactive Advisory Board (Mobile vertical) – Advisory board member for SXSW Interactive Conference. Involved in speaker/ panel selection process for Mobile/ Wireless area.

More Early Mobile Talks and Research Publications