abby kirigin

abigail.kirigin@gmail.com

617.429.7491

Boston & San Francisco

About

Abby is the CEO & co-founder of Tipjoy: simple, social payments for great people, causes and content. Tipjoy makes it easy for people to give money to stuff they love online. Her expertise is in user experience design. Before tipjoy, she worked on UI design for mobile phones, intranets, and government research projects. She received her master's degree in Human-Computer Interaction from Carnegie Mellon University.

Work experience

Tipjoy co-founder, CEO January 2008 - present

Quickly designed and built Tipjoy, a complete micropayments software system designed for digital payments. Responsible for all aspects of the product design and front-end development (HTML, CSS) of the site. Also in charge of business development and product management.

Tipjoy's series A led by betaworks. Participated in Y Combinator's Winter 2008 funding cycle.

Tipjoy

Tipjoy makes micropayments work. It is designed to spread rather than solely on collecting money. Rather than using the model of physical transactions and simply applying it to the sale of virtual goods, Tipjoy is designed from the ground up to support the sale of virtual goods. It is extremely easy for people to sign up and start leaving money for what they love online - so easy that initially, payment is voluntary. Rather than turning people away by gating content, Tipjoy allows people to choose to leave a tip for a content if they think it was valuable. Tipjoy is expanding to support the entire spectrum of digital goods distribution, from voluntary payment for free content, to subscription models, to required payments for high-value, high-bandwidth virtual goods. Tipjoy appeals to the social nature of tipping, buying and selling. People can share their tip history, track what their friends are tipping, and track the most valuable content online. Tipjoy in the news

Nokia User Interface Designer April 2006 - January 2008

Part of the Mobile Solutions software design unit, which developed next-generation cross-platform mobile business software. Lead user interface and interaction designer for several projects, including a major overhaul of the business email service and concept and prototype design for a consumer email offering. Example concept designs

As lead designer for the business email service, delivered detailed specifications of every screen, spanning the design spectrum from the visual design, to the behavior of every element on the screen, to the information architecture of how information flowed. Example of specification documentation

Took the consumer email project from the early concept stages where deliverables included visual walkthroughs using PowerPoint, to fully detailed specifications for the entire application.

Always seeking out places where quick design improvements could have major impact. Proposed easy-to-implement design improvements to existing products, in wireframe and product skin form. Examples: web admin tool | phone-to-web sync tool

Worked with the usability team to define test cases. Responsible for art direction of design team, including producing original designs and also providing direction for a design consultancy.

The MITRE Corporation Senior Human Factors Engineer January 2005 - April 2006

Lead interaction designer for two internal applications, JobJar and StaffPlan, both meant to improve business processes through effective use of the web to foster net-centric, shared awareness paradigms. Responsibilities run the product life cycle: from initial interviews and observations (in order to determine current business practices, gaps, political minefields, etc.), to creating wireframes, comps, HTML & CSS, Information Architecture documentation, user testing, and iterative design improvement. Download PDFs of example deliverables: JobJar | StaffPlan

Co-leader of the MITRE Design Group, a small team of Interaction Design Leads for various internal applications. Our group strove to create unity between our tool suite through shared data, interaction models and interface design.

Part of a team commissioned to evaluate several tools in use throughout the Intelligence Community. Tools are evaluated by experts from various angles including usability, cognitive suitability, and trainability. I was the usability expert for this study. My research was published at the CSCW 2006 conference. Download the paper: Heuristic Evaluation Techniques for Collaborative Software

Called on throughout the year to support interface design for various projects including situation awareness visualizations for mission status, collaborative software libraries, and connectivity of assets over space and time. Example visual design: 'First look' mission status assessment tool

Pursued my own research on culturally sensitive collaboration systems, which included running a brainstorming session at UPA 2005.

The MITRE Corporation Human Factors Engineer November 2003 - December 2004

Published internal whitepaper on how to conduct usability analyses of and provide design solutions to large content-heavy websites.

Generated Usability Analysis of internal news site through customer feedback interviews.

Contributing member of small initiative research team to develop strategies for effective use of large screen displays in command centers. Investigated best practices for and challenges to successful use of large screen displays. Met with experts working on this topic throughout the research community. Generated information visualizations for large screen displays and complementary interface designs for the personal control screens.

Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh Advanced Cognitive Tutor Center, HCI Institute Research Programmer May 2003 - November 2003

Developed cognitive tutors and curriculum builder software for several subjects, including online courses taught at Carnegie Mellon.

New York University, Office of Student Activities Graphic Designer June 2000 - June 2002

Designed all calendars, brochures and posters for student clubs and organizations at NYU. Met regularly with club officers and organization leaders to determine their needs, and consistently delivered well-received designs before deadlines.

Education

Carnegie Mellon University Human-Computer Interaction Institute August 2002 - August 2003

Master of Human-Computer Interaction GPA 3.83

Example interaction design project: smart!meter

New York University Gallatin School of Individualized Study September 1998 - June 2002

Bachelor of Arts: Individualized Study, Concentration in Computer Science and Philosophy: "The Meeting of Mind and Machine" GPA 3.62

Parsons School of Design Graphic Design Summer 1997

Graphic Design Intensive Studies Program Grade: A-

Publications & Presentations

Publications

• CSCW 2006 Interactive Poster & short Paper Heuristic Evaluation for Collaborative Software: paper (PDF)
• CHI 2003 Extended Abstracts Publication Designing an Integrated Review Sheet for an Electronic Textbook: poster | paper

Presentations

• O'Reilly Tools of Change for Publishing 2008 Lightning Talk Monetize your content with Tipjoy: presentation slides | speaker page | photo
• UPA 2005 Idea Market Presentation What is a Cultural User Interface Template, and what can we do with it?: discussion summary
• Boston UPA Presentation, Spring 2005 openWorks: open systems for business
• CHI 2005 Collaboration Workshop Presentation Cognitive Usability of Collaboration Tools: workshop | paper (PDF)
• CHI 2003 Interactionary Team Winner: more info

Methodology

Community involvement

Organized MITRE Employees for two Habitat for Humanity build days - July 2005 in Dorchester and November 2005 in Brockton.

Volunteer teacher for Citizen Schools, teaching Web Design to middle school students, September - December 2005. Citizen Schools is a not-for-profit organization which brings after-school education to schools in low-income neighborhoods throughout the Greater Boston Area.