Melissa Shimada
Verified Expert in Design
Designer
San Diego, CA, United States
Toptal member since October 23, 2017
Melissa is a strategic design leader skilled in cultivating and guiding cross-functional design teams, collaborating with Business, Product, and Engineering to drive UX strategies and solutions. Her experience spans consumer and enterprise products and emerging technologies across startups, agencies, academia, and big tech companies like Meta, Amazon, Microsoft, Dell, and HP. Melissa is committed to fostering strong relationships, effective communication, and delivering top-notch craftsmanship.
Portfolio
The Hawking Effect: Movie Ad Campaign Responsive Web Data Visualization
Work Experience
UX Consultant
Self-employed
- Advised clients and created deliverables pertaining to UX strategy, research, information architecture, data visualization, UI, product design, and interaction design.
- Coached agencies on how to approach clients with consideration to design, development, and budget constraints.
- Directed stakeholder meetings and workshops.
UX Lead
Appetize
- Directed UX vision and strategy for mobile ordering SDK and POS apps for retail, restaurants, and concessions stands.
- Established how UX design integrates with product, engineering, and quality assurance.
- Balanced short-term agile/scrum deliverables with long-term UX strategy.
- Managed and mentored a team of designers.
UX Designer
Deutsch
- Led UX and strategy on multidisciplinary teams to build responsive websites and apps for clients including Anthem, Target, Foster Farms, Taco Bell, and Volkswagen.
- Evangelized usability testing and rapid prototyping to expand client services.
UX Designer
HYFN
- Executed UX and UI design for mobile apps and responsive websites for clients such as Behr, Cornerstone, CyberU, Fandango, FritoLay, Philosophy, and more.
Web Developer & Researcher
Qualcomm Institute at Calit2
- Directed and presented HCI research on museum technology, virtual reality, and health trackers.
- Published and presented findings at conferences.
- Managed social media, wrote articles, and coded websites for UCSD’s technology-enhanced learning and online course development initiatives.
Education
Design Media Certificate in Visual Design
UC San Diego Extension - San Diego
Bachelor of Science Degree in Cognitive Science – Human Computer Interaction
UC San Diego - La Jolla
Skills
Tools
InDesign CC, Adobe Photoshop, Apple Keynote, Adobe InDesign, Balsamiq, Tableau, OmniGraffle, Affinity Diagrams, Kik Bot, Figma
Languages
JavaScript
Platforms
MacOS, Axure, Mobile
Industry Expertise
Film & Television, Automotive, Security
Other
Information Architecture (IA), User Flows, User Interviews, Personas, UX Design, Visual Design, Mobile UX, UX Research, UX Strategy, iOS UX Design, Stakeholder Interviews, eCommerce, Ad Campaigns, Content Management Systems (CMS), Web Applications, Taxonomy, E-learning, Annotated Wireframes, Workshops, UX Flows, Apps, App UX, Chatbots, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Task Flows, Responsive Web Design (RWD), UX Branding, Cars, News, Blogs, Bike Rentals, Bike-share Systems, Voice Recognition, Digital Kiosks, Tablet UX, User Experience (UX), Data Mining, Mockups
Experience
- UX Design - 11 years
- Information Architecture (IA) - 11 years
- User Flows - 8 years
- User Interviews - 8 years
- Personas - 8 years
- Adobe InDesign - 8 years
- Adobe Photoshop - 8 years
- Visual Design - 6 years
Tools
- Adobe Photoshop
- Adobe InDesign
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