Sproost.com

Co-founder San Francisco, CA August 2008 - January 2008

• Co-founded a startup that recommends home furnishings based on personal style.
• Designed the interface, coded much of the HTML and CSS, wrote the executive summary, secured meetings with VCs, sourced technology, and did anything else necessary.

Google

Interaction Designer Mountain View, CA June 2004 - June 2008

• Lead design efforts on Google Talk, Gmail Chat, Profiles, Contacts, and OpenSocial.
• Did smaller projects on Mobile, Mac, Client, Blogger, Adwords, and internal tools.
• One of the first ten design hires. Helped recruit and interview many of the next 70+ designers.

IBM Research, Collaborative User Experience Group

Intern Cambridge, MA Summer 2003

Conducted user research and created design concepts focused on contact management and social networking in larger (enterprise) companies.

Intuit

User Researcher Mountain View, CA October 2000 - June 2002

• Carried out 20+ usability tests and used various user-centered design techniques: ethnographic inquiry, iterative prototyping, personas, cogntive walkthroughs, heuristic evaluation, etc.
• Designed interfaces in QuickBooks, Quicken, assorted websites, and web applications.
• Pioneered new user research techniques for our group, including a Flash-based card sorting tool, remote usability testing via telephone, and use of interest-driven usability tasks.

Achieva.com

Instructional / Interaction Designer, User Researcher San Mateo, CA July 1999 - October 2000

• Designed curriculum, interactivity, and instructional guidelines for an online Study Skills course.
• Co-managed a team of writers for Study Skills content and assessment.
• Conducted usability testing for Study Skills and College Preparation courses.

Carnegie Mellon University Pittsburgh, PA Fall 2002 - Spring 2004
MDes Interaction Design, School of Design

• Coursework in interaction/interface design, user research, design research, design theory, physical prototyping, and information design.
• Thesis paper: Connectedness in One-to-Many Communication Systems. Jodi Forlizzi, advisor.
• Thesis Project: Social Awareness, Presentation, and Connection: Instant Messaging as a Presence Platform. John Zimmerman and Shelley Evenson, advisors.

San Francisco State University San Francisco, CA Fall 2000 - Summer 2001
Courses in Instructional Design, Interaction Design, and Information Design

Pomona College Claremont, CA Fall 1995 - Spring 1999
Bachelor of Arts in Biology
Relevant coursework in education, anthropology, psychology, and music

• Uniball Vision Exact and plain white paper for thinking and designing
• Fireworks and Omnigraffle for mockups at any fidelity level
• Coda for HTML, CSS, JS, and PHP
• Photoshop for detailed graphics work
• Logic, Soundtrack Pro, and a bevvy of synths for audio / sound design
• Final Cut Express for video

Thornton, C. Moraveji, N., Barry, P., and Shiue, K. Apeer: A Peripheral Interface to Improve Social Awareness in Brief, Topical Discussions. CHI 04 Extended Abstracts, Vienna, Austria, 2004.

Thornton, C., Hirsch, T., Gemperle, F., and Kolb, A. Audiocentric Interface Design: A Building Blocks Approach. Proc. International Conference on Auditory Display, Boston, MA, USA, 2003.

Thornton, C. “Got Usability? Talking with Jakob Nielsen”. BoxesandArrows.com, March 2002.