Mari Ettlinger
Verified Expert in Design
Designer
San Francisco, CA, United States
Toptal member since December 9, 2015
Mari is an award-winning, end-to-end, fully stacked senior product designer who has successfully led small and mid-size projects, including product and design teams worldwide, for over 15 years. She has designed consumer and B2B native apps. She has also worked on web apps for the fintech, healthcare, eCommerce, SaaS, biotech, manufacturing, and transportation industries. Mari has worked with several clients, including Pixar and Adobe, and has excellent references.
Portfolio
Work Experience
Senior Product Designer
Genba Inc.
- Audited and redesigned a business-to-business manufacturing app for an industrial maintenance workforce that monitors the technicians' everyday tasks, including the time, labor, and parts they need to manage.
- Executed directives and iterated visually designed user flows that drive the app's ease of use and consistency of navigation. Created interactions and navigation easy and instinctive and made speech-to-text seamless. Considered large fingers.
- Built a design brand library and system to support the UX paradigms, which will eventually become a scalable design ecosystem. This included a color palette, iconography, components, cards, and typography that served as visual cues for the user.
Product Design Director, Designer, Consultant
Mari Ettlinger Digital Design
- Designed websites and apps for my digital design consultancy for startups and tech companies in California and beyond.
- Worked in the following industries: animation, fintech, fitness, gamification, gaming, healthcare, hospitality, IT, pharma, photography, real estate, telecom, technology, online security, social networking, and video.
- Contributed to the design for Altitude Networks, an online-security MVP web app, including user journeys, annotated mini wIreframes, dashboards, product, and visual design.
- Created the user flows, sitemaps, wireframes, and visual-design strategy for Haus, a real-estate cross-platform web app.
- Redesigned Pixar/Renderman's animation-product website, incorporating design strategy, UX, and visual design.
- Designed and co-wrote Microsoft's award-winning interactive marketing and product demos.
- Created the UX, cross-platform user flows, and wireframes for Toyota's automotive sales iOS app.
- Developed the visual design for BioRad's biotech website and sales collateral.
- Created Wavefront's data-visualization dashboards, including the sitemap, user onboarding flow, UX, and visual design.
- Designed Snapwire's stock-photography website, including discovery, audit with annotations, UX, visual design, and responsiveness.
Senior Product Designer
RealWear - Main
- Took a thorough approach to auditing and redesigning the speech-to-text productivity app, assisting reality solutions for frontline industrial workers. Started by creating a sitemap, capturing screenshots of each stage in the user flow.
- Conducted a detailed audit, breaking down the user flow into three main silos: UX, UI, and visual design/content. Compared each element against the Product Requirements Document (PRD) provided by the PM.
- Identified what was working well and what needed improvement, which allowed me to make specific recommendations on leveraging the strengths of the existing app.
- Prioritized design considerations for the speech-to-text functionality. Ensured the microphone button had enough space around it, preventing unintended commands when pressed.
- Emphasized the importance of incorporating robust Natural Language Processing (NLP) capabilities to understand different dialects in loud environments.
- Recognized the diverse user base and provided options for users to choose their native language; facilitated translation if necessary. This approach aimed to enhance accessibility and inclusivity for all users.
- Crafted the design of the above-mentioned app so that it reflected a comprehensive understanding of the original requirements, user needs, and the significance of thoughtful design choices.
- Aimed to create a more efficient and user-friendly speech-to-text productivity app for frontline maintenance workers by combining these elements.
UX/UI Design Lead
AutoDirt, LLC
- Audited, analyzed, and proposed redesigning their Redfin/Zillow map-like platform so brokers could easily search for land that would meet their clients' investment needs.
- Built flows to find, create, and manage maps, properties, and listings. Enabled users to add widgets and assets like ponds, flood plains, schools, etc.
- Worked with the co-founder to organize and create PRDs, assets, and libraries for dev, logos, and emails, and fully flushed out UX wires and UI high-fidelity screens.
- Testimonial: "Really appreciate everything Mari contributed and enjoyed working with her! Learned a lot and thankful on how patient she was with my insane schedule. Was a lot of fun!" - Stormey Barton, Co-founder, Peregrine Land Investments.
Product Designer
Fennel Markets Inc.
- Consulted and redesigned their onboarding experience. How to entice users to stay on the app through a long process that involves linking their banking information and picking charities they want to align and donate to.
- Worked on the app's main issue, where users were dropping from the app during the process. I audited and analyzed their current process and made recommendations based on competitors' onboarding experiences, their PRDs, and my expertise in this area.
- Identified all their possible pain points and made improvements over features already established and new to come and improved the app's user interface.
Design Lead
Hoag - Main
- Worked for a large memorial hospital. Led strategically and handled business needs, deep dives, and research. Mentored junior designers and managed their career growth. Conducted critiques and provided guidance for more efficient user journeys.
- Executed the design craft and conducted interviews. Carried out wireframing, prototyping, and testing and redesigned their digital experience.
- Advised on better aligning the experience of seeing a doctor remotely with digital devices. With my expertise in healthcare on the patient, hospital, and provider side, I was able to guide them through this transition.
UX/UI Designer
The Whym Group, Inc.
- Designed user flows for a chat shop platform led by real people, namely a dual platform for mobile buyers and sellers.
- Created the buying flow as well as the checkout experience.
- Redesigned their current UI and UX to make it easier to navigate and onboard.
Head of Design
Tinyhood
- Hired as a consultant for a three-month contract to "right the ship." This e-learning platform has classes for pregnant women, new mothers, and their family members.
- Audited TinyHood's process from product management, design system, best practices, and process point of view.
- Redesigned a new website and app starting with a PRD, wireframes, flows, branding, and visual design mockups and templates.
- Introduced governance around design paradigms and systems.
- Worked cooperatively with cross-functional teams to define an experience roadmap and key feature needs.
- Managed, supported, and mentored a team of product, marketing, social media, After Effect video designers.
- Led design reviews and ideation sessions for concepts that test hypotheses with user feedback.
Head of Design
Carecar
- Tasked with taking several platforms (Lyft, Uber, and Tucan) and aggregating them into one seamless platform that will be viewed and used in real-time by dispatchers (agents), vendors, and CareCar team members.
- Created the UX/UI and interaction for the dashboard of current and recurring rides that also encompasses new encounter calls and messaging for this technology and healthcare company serving the non-emergency transportation industry nationally.
- Worked as a part of a larger product team that includes a product manager, front- and back-end dev team, and a PM.
- Owned the design ecosystem that will scale and evolve as more designers are added to the team.
- Managed a junior designer to help create components in our design library system.
Product Design Director and Designer
Titeg
- Led the product design for a cross-platform SaaS enterprise marketplace digital commodity application and website.
- Collaborated closely with cross-functional teammates to set product vision and strategy for the roadmap goals and the digital team process.
- Worked in partnership with the broader development team to capture feedback, develop, maintain, integrate, and iterate design directives.
- Managed illustrators from around the world and writers to capture the tone of the app and website.
- Designed user flows, visual design, and customer experiences and spearheaded the visual integrity of the app.
Senior Experience Design Manager, Product
RelayHealth
- Served as the strategic lead design and was then promoted within three months. Within months of my hire, both customers and users posted unsolicited positive customer feedback of my tactical improvements.
- Tasked with taking a nine-year-old product system and turning it into a seamless UX responsive site, I started by auditing the present system, including segregating the UX, content, and visual design into silos.
- Incorporated new business objectives and devised a strategic and a tactical roadmap for the launch. The result was a native app, a web application, a simplified user flow, and improved features for the patient portal.
- Reduced the customer service call volume by 70% by making user registration and password retrieval more straightforward and entirely self-service. The result was a savings of $10,000 a month.
- Devised new design paradigms, hypotheses, and best practices working with a UX analyst. Created A/B and viability tests.
- Participated and led user-testing research that included prototypes, user flows, use cases, personas, and sitemaps that translated business goals into measurable results.
- Managed the front-end developers on my team as well as several user experience designers (contractors).
Director, UX/Visual Design
Marqeta
- Led a team in the redesign of Marqeta.com, which included segments for SaaS enterprise, small business, and consumers.
- Managed, hired, and led the UX and visual design team in creating a new design ecosystem that encompassed products, responsive web design, native apps, and user experience methodologies to support new business models.
- Mentored junior teammates to take on larger branding projects, including business development decks (investor, new partners, and so on), and hired more designers for the team.
- Designed native app prototypes for our partners in Dubai.
Lead UX Designer and Digital Media Designer
Adobe
- Collaborated closely with product marketing, brand, visual design, content management, and engineering teams worldwide.
- Designed and delivered information architecture documentation, sitemaps, navigation models, user flows, prototypes, wireframes, and design paradigms for the UX pattern library.
- Led the UX team in designing an extensive responsive redesign for the Adobe.com/edu segment that spearheaded a global refactoring project for all of Adobe.com.
- Worked on Creative Cloud SaaS integration involving Adobe.edu as a pilot program.
- Contributed to the pilot launch after which all other segments of the digital marketing platform became responsive.
Lead UX/Visual Designer
Symantec
- Created visual design, design flows, strategy, wireframes, and branding for the UI teams.
- Led the redesign of the Symantec.com global website in 2007 and 2012.
- Created templates and pattern libraries for the design team, international regents, and overseas developers.
- Participated in live usability testing where we would create A/B and viability tests.
- Led and designed microsites such as VISION 2011, Corporate Responsibility, Norton 360, and Symantec TV.
Design Instructor
University of California, Berkeley
- Taught and mentored students in studio theory classes that included Graphic Design Studio 1, History of Design, Color Theory, Typographical Design, and Final Portfolio Review.
- Taught for five years, during which I managed and mentored up to 250 students.
- Wrote recommendations, tutored students, and found internships for qualified students.
Education
Completed Credits Toward a Master of Fine Arts Degree in Communication Design
Pratt Institute - New York City, NY, USA
Bachelor of Science Degree in Art and Design
University of Wisconsin-Madison - Madison, WI, USA
Skills
Tools
Slack, Adobe Creative Suite, Adobe, Figma, Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop CC, Google Docs, Adobe Photoshop
Languages
Visual Design Language
Platforms
Web, iOS, Google Chrome, Android, Apple Watch
Industry Expertise
Healthcare, Education, Fitness
Other
Product Design, Monday.com, Training, Sitemaps, Cross-platform UX, User Flows, Mobile App Design, eCommerce Design, UX Audits, UX Strategy, User Onboarding, Dashboard Design, UX Flows, Product Branding, Native Mobile Apps, Web App UI, Web App UX, UI Branding, Strategic Planning & Execution, Digital Product Design, Software as a Service (SaaS), Platform Design, Holistic Design, Design Systems, Web UX, Web UI, Annotations, Digital Strategy, Wireframe to Product, B2C Marketing, Web Applications, Web Consulting, User Paths, App UI, Dual Portal Platforms, User Journeys, Conversion-centered Design, SaaS Design, Two-sided Marketplaces, Marketplace Design, Enterprise Design, Enterprise System Design, Ecosystem Design, MVP Design, Visual Design, Dashboards, Security Design, UX Design, UI Design, Financial Design, User Experience (UX), Wireframing, Responsive, Apps, Digital Design, Web Design, Branding, User Requirements, eCommerce Web Design, Logo Design, Websites, UIKit, App UX, User Journey Maps, UX Analysis, Healthcare Services, SaaS, Health Insurance, B2B, Leadership, Stakeholder Management, Mobile Design, Workflow, Design Leadership, Business, Workshops, Lean UX, Agile, B2B2C, IU, B2C, Business to Business to Consumer (B2B2C), Small & Medium-sized Enterprises (SME), User Conversion, Conversion Rate, Conversion, Marketing Design, Instructional Design, Presentation Design, UX Wireframes, Layout Design, App Design, Web App Design, Style Guides, UI Components, Best Practices in Design, White Label Design, Gamification, Interviews, Design Workshops, UI Prototyping, User Testing, Product Strategy, Design Consultation, UX Research, System Design, Mobile UX Design, Mobile UI Design, Art Direction, Graphic Design, Brand Strategy, Brand Design, Adobe Acrobat Pro, Design Thinking, Corporate Branding, High-fidelity Mockups, Data Visualization, UX Branding, Stakeholder Interviews, Writing & Editing, Data Analysis, Prototyping, Apple Watch Design, Data-informed Visual Design, Usability Testing, Fintech, User Interface (UI), Product Management, Visual Art, Diagrams, Speech to Text, User Research, Text to Speech (TTS), Augmented Reality (AR), Rapid Prototyping, Research, Interaction Design (IxD), Social Networks, UX Writing, Content Strategy, Communication, Copywriting, Content Writing, Brand Logos, Brand Books, Illustration, CX Strategy, Strategic Design, Food Ordering, Activation, Web Dashboards, IA Strategy, Landing Pages
Experience
How to Work with Toptal
Toptal matches you directly with global industry experts from our network in hours—not weeks or months.
Share your needs
Choose your talent
Start your risk-free talent trial
Top talent is in high demand.
Start hiring