Ruth kikin-Gil:// ruth@ruthkikin.com
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My past projects


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Summary

Design strategist, UX expert, and practical dreamer focusing on product innovation for over 15 years.

I spent the last six years in Microsoft thinking about and designing for the future of productivity in its broadest sense; first at Office Labs – a bleeding edge technology + design team, then on a strategy team and now I’m working on creating the next experiences of Office across a variety of devices, input methods and platforms.

In 1999 I co-founded and managed one of the first Digital Product Design Agencies in Israel – Max. Interactive.  Max. Interactive  provided comprehensive solutions to companies -  coupling user centered design methods with business focused approach to create products that people love and companies value.

My career path has also led me to be a leading creative force in Start-up trenches where she happily served, and to the winding roads of designing products and creating product strategies as a solo consultant.
I lived, worked and studied in multiple cultures and places around the world including Israel, Finland, Italy, London, San Francisco and now Seattle. I hold a Bachelor degree in Visual communications from Bezalel Academy of Art and design in Jerusalem, and a Masters degree in Interaction design from Interaction design institute, Ivrea in Italy.
http://www.linkedin.com/in/ruthkikingil

 

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
   
2008-Now

Microsoft, UX designer, design strategist and design lead

  • 2013-Now Microsoft Office. UX design and strategy, Office Word
  • 2012 Microsoft Office. Design strategist and UX designer for multiple products focusing on product innovation
  • 2008-2012 Office Labs: UX designer and design lead in Office labs, a bleeding edge Design+Technology group.
2005- 2007

Consultant, User Experience designer developing and defining future services for the wireless environment .

2004
Nokia Insight & Foresight group. An intern. I focused on Defining and designing future scenarios for the mobile space based on social, technological and business trends.

1999- 2003

Max. Interactive ltd. Co-founder and creative director of a digital products design consultancy, combining user-centred design together with a business focused approach to ensure that the design will increase the end-user's satisfaction while serving the client's business goals. My role was divided between operational work as a manager and professional work as a designer, design mentor and supervisor. I initiated creative processes, managed relationships with clients and supervised production


1995-1998
Zapa digital Arts (Today: Gizmoz Inc.), Multimedia company
  • 1997-1998: Corporate art director. I lead a team of Creative professionals and programmers, being responsible for Zapa's GUI, Company communications and website.
  • 1996-1997: Creative director, Interaction designer and content production manager of Broderbund's "The PrintShop LiveMail": a multimedia greeting cards authoring tool with visual associative search engine (VSE)
  • 1995-1996: Art director and interaction designer for CD titles for News Corp. England. (Including the Frankfurt book fair gold award winning "Makers of the 20th Century" CD ROM title)

1994-1995
Tyrell Multimedia -A CD-ROM Production Company. Graphic and interaction designer.
1993-1994
Baruch Nae Strategic Design Graphic designer at a leading branding studio.


EDUCATION
2004-2005


Masters Program, Interaction Design Institute, Ivrea, Italy

1990-1994

Bachelor of design(B.Des) In Visual Communication,
Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, Jerusalem, Israel

TEACHING EXPERIENCE
2015

Support lecturer at University of Washington, Human centered design and engineering (Capstone - HCDE 593),  Seattle Washington
http://www.hcde.uw.edu/

2013-2014

Microsoft Liaison and Course Mentor at the Media innovation Lab at IDC Hertzeliya, Israel
http://milab.idc.ac.il/.

2012-2013
Microsoft Liaison and Course Mentor at the Media innovation Lab at IDC Hertzeliya, Israel
http://milab.idc.ac.il/
1999-2001
Adjunct Professor at Bezalel Academy of art and design, Jerusalem, Visual communication department.
Bezalel Academy of Art and Design
1999
Adjunct Professor at the Interdisciplinary center, Herzeliya, Digital media program, (a graduate level certificate program)
Developed and taught design course.

OTHER
2013

Juror at Spark Design & Architecture awards – App design competition
http://www.sparkawards.com/


conferences and exhibitions
October 2008 Design Engaged, Montreal, canada
June 2007

Sketching in Hardware 2 , A summit on the design of/with physical computing toolkits , San Francisco, California, US (co-host of the conference, speaker). http://www.sketching07.com/

November 2005
Communicating European Research 2005 International Conference, Brussels , Belgium (Invited to participate in a panel discussing the possible use of web 2.0 in communicating design research) http://ec.europa.eu/research/conferences/2005/cer2005/index_en.html
Sept-Nov 2005

INDEX:AWARD 2005 , An exhibition which presented the top nominated designs for INDEX: AWARD design contest. Copenhagen , Denmark , featuring "Circles of Care" project

September 2005

INTERACT 2005 , Tenth IFIP TC13 International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction, Rome , Italy , featuring BuddyBeads project http://giove.cnuce.cnr.it/interact2005/programme.html#

September 2005
MobileHCI 2005 , 7th International Conference on Human Computer Interaction with Mobile Devices and Services, Salzburg , Austria , featuring BuddyBeads project http://mobilehci.icts.sbg.ac.at/
June 2005
APPLIANCE DESIGN 2005, conference, Bristol, UK
April 2005

CIRCULAR, event and exhibition by Domus Magazine, Salone Del Mobile 2005, Milano, Italy

 

publications
2007

Debate, communicate, educate: New media channels at your service in Communicating European Research 2005 , a series of articles and republished speeches from the Conference, Springer 2007

2006

Affective is effective: How information appliances can mediate relationships within communities and increase one's social effectiveness in Personal and Ubiquitous Computing, , volume 10, Springer-Verlag London Ltd, April 2006

2005

BuddyBeads: Techno-Jewelry for non verbal communication within Teenager Girls Groups in MobileHCI'05 Proceedings , 2005

2005

BuddyBeads: Techno-Jewelry for non verbal communication within Teenager Girls Groups in Interact '05 proceedings , 2005

PATENTS

2014

Opportunity events (Pending)

2014

Invocation Control over Keyboard user interface (Pending)

2013

Using scrollbars as live notification areas (Pending)

2013

Organizing Unstructured research within a document (Pending)

2012

Aggregated view of content with presentation according to content type

2012

Hash tag management in a microblogging infrastructure

2001

Programmable computer graphic objects

 

AWARDS
1996

EMMA Award at Frankfurt Book Fair 1996
- Gold Award for Best CD-ROM of the year for "Makers of the 20th Century" CD-ROM title. It also received the award for best information and reference, and for best visuals.

Contact me: Ruth Kikin-Gil - ruth@ruthkikin.com


My past projects