# Mitchell Yawitz > User Experience Designer and Design Manager (Retired) Location: Belmont, California, United States Profile: https://flows.cv/mitchellyawitz Innovative User Interaction designer and design manager specializing in the development of digital media products. An engineer with extensive experience working both as team leader and as an individual contributor, applying solid engineering principles to award winning products and interaction designs. • Highly skilled at facilitating collaboration among all parts of an organization - business, design, engineering and marketing. • Built teams and developed methodologies to create successful products that are highly usable and buildable at a reasonable cost. Specialties: Design Team Leadership/Management, Interaction Design, Media Production (Video, Audio), Product Prototyping, Product Definition ## Work Experience ### Principal Product Designer @ MarkLogic Jan 2012 – Jan 2019 | San Carlos, CA • Responsible for UX design of all applications that ship with MarkLogic Server. • Work closely with MarkLogic Product Managers to define current and future products. • Lead periodic customer research and usability studies. ### Principal Designer @ Nokia Jan 2010 – Jan 2012 • Responsible for interaction design of messaging applications for Symbian smartphones. • Led design projects in Nokia's Advanced UX Design group. ### User Interaction Designer @ Jelli, Inc. Jan 2007 – Jan 2009 • Founding employee at this early-stage startup, developing a web service that enables a community of users to control the programming aired on radio stations. • Contributed to interaction design of the service and development of internal administrative tools. ### Interaction Design Engineer @ Lab126 Jan 2005 – Jan 2007 • Responsible for interaction design of Amazon's first Kindle e-Book Reader. • Worked closely with Engineering and Product Marketing groups to identify customer needs, help establish product roadmap, and guide engineering priorities. ### Product Design and User Research Manager @ Roxio, Inc. Jan 2004 – Jan 2005 • Managed group responsible for interaction design and development of industry-leading digital media software, most notably Creator 7 Digital Media Suite. • Worked with Engineering and Marketing groups to ensure designs addressed technical and business needs. • Led new product initiatives based on field research and user needs analysis. ### Senior Media Manager @ Classroom Connect Jan 2003 – Jan 2004 • Directed production of video, audio and Flash assets for all online teacher training courseware. • Developed and directed the implementation of end-to-end design, production and integration processes, and associated tools, for development of new products. Produced time and cost savings of up to 90%, with similar reductions in production and integration errors. ### Principal @ MLodge Interactive Jan 2001 – Jan 2003 Provided product definition, interaction design, and technical direction for a variety of clients, including: • Amova.com: Early-stage startup, developing technologies for media automation and personalization. • Guggenheim.com/Riverbed Media: Online retrospective of director Robert Wilson's early work. • Cygnus, Inc.: Interactive presentation materials describing Cygnus' GlucoWatch(r) Biographer. • Center for Digital Storytelling: Non-profit that teaches the use of digital media tools to create personal stories. ### User Interface Director, Excite Studios @ Excite@Home Jan 2000 – Jan 2001 • Managed group responsible for developing site-wide interaction design standards, improving integration among all Excite products. • Worked with product groups to determine and articulate product-specific goals and requirements, participate in their development, and evolve site-wide standards based on lessons learned. ### Project Lead, Senior UI Design Engineer @ Adobe System, Inc. Jan 1997 – Jan 2000 Led teams in the design of consumer software products that support personal media creation. • Led design of Kodak Picture CD (developed by Adobe), and managed the localization process for this product. • Designed user interface for Adobe ActiveShare. • Developed processes and designed tools for media production on above projects. ### Principal @ MLodge Interactive Jan 1995 – Jan 1997 Provided interaction design and technical direction for a variety of interactive media projects. Clients included: • Computer Curriculum Corporation: Designed an online environment for broadband delivery of courseware. • The Well: Redesigned online conferencing system. • Riverbed Media: Developed storyboarding tools for "Monsters of Grace," a theatrical production by Robert Wilson and Philip Glass. • Holtzbrinck Electronic Publishing: Designed and prototyped "Moving Puzzle," a CD-ROM puzzle game. • Coca-Cola (with Dana Atchley Productions): Designed and implemented the "Digital Storytelling Theater" attraction at the World of Coca-Cola, a location-based entertainment center in Las Vegas, NV. ### User Experience Designer and Technical Director @ daVinci Time & Space Jan 1994 – Jan 1995 • Led teams of engineers, designers, and producers in design and creation of media-rich interactive television programs for children, from prototype to pilot. • Directed overall interface design of daVinci programming. ### Senior Engineer/Designer, Network Services @ Kaleida Labs Jan 1993 – Jan 1994 • Designed and implemented advanced multi-user applications for network and interactive television environments, serving both in-house teams and outside customers. • Designed and assembled Kaleida's digital video production lab. ### Senior Engineer, Human Interface Group in Apple's Advanced Technology @ Apple Computer Jan 1988 – Jan 1993 • Conducted advanced research into media authoring and object-oriented media architectures. • Designed ATG's video research and production lab. • As original member of the QuickTime team: designed key user interface features, wrote UI guidelines, developed authoring tools, and produced a range of video content. • Developed techniques to capture and manipulate Navigable Scenes, controllable QuickTime movies of explorable spaces (precursor to QuickTime VR). Developed and released the Navigable Movie Toolkit. ## Education ### B.S. in Electrical Engineering Northwestern University ## Contact & Social - LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/yawitz --- Source: https://flows.cv/mitchellyawitz JSON Resume: https://flows.cv/mitchellyawitz/resume.json Last updated: 2026-04-13