James Liu /

  • Design Methods

  • Survey Development
  • User Interviews
  • Models and Diagramming
  • Persona Development
  • Scenario Development
  • Paper Prototyping
  • Video Sketching
  • Concept Evaluation
  • Participatory Design

  • Technical Skills

  • HTML / CSS / Javascript
  • Flash / Actionscript
  • Arduino Prototyping
  • Processing
  • Unity3D / C#
  • Maya / Motionbuilder
  • Adobe Creative Suite

  • Other Stuff

    Facilitation and Ideation
  • Presenting and Pitching
  • Patent Disclosures
  • Epic Whiteboarding

Experience

  • Strategic Designer

    Microsoft / Redmond WA, Jul 2010–present
  • Designing and communicating the 3-year user experience vision for the Interactive Entertainment Business. Pushing rapid prototyping to explore and define novel user experiences for the next Xbox and beyond. Generating defensible intellectual property.

  • Instructor

    Carnegie Mellon University / Pittsburgh PA, Aug 2008–May 2010
  • Basic Interaction Design (undergradate), Spring 2010
  • Design fundamentals for interfaces, devices, and systems.

  • Intro to Computing in Design (graduate), Fall 2009
  • Prototyping with Flash and exploring the computational medium.

  • Online Information Design Lab (grad/undergradate), 2008–Spring 2009
  • Fundamentals of semantic HTML, Javascript, PHP, and MySQL.

  • Design Intern

    2nd Road, AU / Sydney Australia, Jun–Aug 2009
  • Conducted user-research and facilitated design workshops for PricewaterhouseCoopers and the Australian Taxation Office (ATO). Prepared communication and research materials for strategy sessions with C-level clients.

  • Creative Director

    PhaseSpace Inc. / San Leandro CA, 2005–Jun 2008
  • Led branding and marketing collateral development team; produced visual identity, advertisement, and web-presence. Designed and developed custom software solutions and interactive demonstrations.

  • Provided system integration consulting and support; clients included Digital Domain, Sony Entertainment, Disney Imagineering, and Origami Digital.

Projects

  • Ferucia LLC

    Co-Founder and Designer / www.ferucia.com
  • Developed ThreadAde, a personalized apparel service to enhance the in-store shopping experience. We are planning a beta launch in 2012.

  • Africa Aid

    Collaborator and Designer / www.africaaid.org. Dec 2009–Feb 2010
  • Designed and distributed a printed directory of doctors for the Ghana Medical Association as part of the MDNet initiative. With this service, Africa Aid provides free mobile network calling for doctors. The directory and service are in use today.

  • Fitwits

    Collaborator and Assistant / www.fitwits.org. Aug 2008–Jun 2009
  • Designed and coordinated the launch of fitwits.org with an undergraduate capstone project team from Carnegie Mellon University. Implemented online and offline games that teaches children about health and nutrition. Fitwits is a Pittsburgh-based nutrition program created by Professor Kristin Hughes.

Education

  • Master of Design, Interaction Design

    Carnegie Mellon University / Pittsburgh PA, May 2010

  • B.A., Applied Mathematics, Computer Science emphasis

    University of California Berkeley / Berkeley CA, May 2005

Awards

  • Microsoft Firenze BXT 2010

    Member of Student Champion Team / Mar 29, 2010
  • $20,000 Award prize.