Taral R Kulkarni
8201 Memorial Ln, #2121, Plano, Texas 75024.
Cell: 7324911666
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WHO AM I?
I am an interaction designer.

WHAT ARE MY SKILL SETS?
I work across the entire user experience lifecycle. I work with business analysts, system engineers, product managers, the CxOs who are responsible to build and finance the product. I work in Agile mode, Waterfall model and hybrid models of software development lifecycle.

I am involved in these stages and do these activities:
1) Requirements capture – Conduct stakeholder workshops & user interviews
2) Conceptualization & wireframing- paper prototypes, digital prototypes using Axure, FireWorks, Balsamiq, etc.
3) Visual design – Adobe Creative Suite, Sketch
4) Web analytics implementation – Analyzing data from Google Analytics & Omniture, suggesting design recommendations
5) Usability testing – Conducting design tests, iterating design

DESIGNED SOLUTIONS FOR
Portals, Dashboards, iPhone, Apple Watch, iPad, Android and Windows Tablet

KEY PROJECTS
1) Vantiv IQ – Banking solution to deliver Credit, Debit and ATM cards (Domain – Banking, Duration – 6 months)
2) Prognos Pricing & Promotion UI – Portal solution to determine the pricing and promotion of retail products that appear in weekly catalogues (Domain – Retail Analytics, Duration – 4 months)
3) Connectbeam – Social bookmarking application for the enterprise (Domain – Social Enterprise, Duration – 3 months)
4) AT&T Digital Life – Self care portal for customer executives of home automation system (Domain – Telecom, Duration 2 months)
5) CADCAMGURU V2 – Student and teacher learning systems for a skill-based educational institute (Domain: Education, Duration: 8 months)
6) eBay.com – Designed the online customer help channels that reduced the help desk calls by 20% (Domain: Ecommerce, Duration: 6 months)

RECENT WORK (IN PROGRESS)
1) Greens & Olives mobile app – iOS and Android app for a pizza restaurant
2) Conference Call app – iOS, Android and Apple Watch app that helps users to join conference calls
3) GenZe mobile app & portal – An app that gives users upfront information about their electric bike before they drive

WORK SAMPLES
1) www.paperprotos.com – An active blogger on conceptualization and paper sketching
2) https://www.dropbox.com/sh/m7mddjysf2pr858/AADkbkQlPrHR3JYshV0g1hI8a?dl=0 – Wireframes portfolio (Unzip the file, go to individual folders and start with index.html)
3) www.behance.net/taralkulkarni – For visual design, paper sketches and infographics work
4) www.instagram.com/taralkulkarni – For lettering & illustration work

EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND
1) National Institute of Design (www.nid.edu)
Post Graduate Diploma Program in Design (Specialization in Software and User Interface Design), Jun 2004 – Sep 2006
2) Symbiosis International Educational Centre (www.sibm.edu)
Post Graduate Diploma in Advertising & Public Relations, Jun 2004 – Oct 2005
3) Industrial Design Center (IDC), Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Mumbai (http://www.idc.iitb.ac.in/)
Certificate Program Level Course in Credit Mode, Human Computer Interaction, Jan 2004 – May 2004
4) Vishwakarma Institute of Technology, Pune (http://www.vit.edu/)
Undergraduate program – Bachelor of Engineering (Computer Science), Jun 1996 – Jun 2000

WORK EXPERIENCE
Total – 12+ years    |   US Experience – 4 years

LINKEDIN PROFILE
http://www.linkedin.com/in/taralk