Yahoo plucks Amazon.com design guru

Internet giant Yahoo has named Larry Tesler, a veteran design engineer at Amazon.com, to lead efforts in shaping its consumer experience.

Tesler, 60, will be vice president of Yahoo's user experience and design group, reporting to Geoff Ralston, the company's chief product officer. He will also be a research fellow in Yahoo's Research Lab, focusing on "human-computer interaction."

Tesler helped craft Amazon's shopping experience over the last three-plus years as a vice president for the Web retail behemoth. He has also held positions at Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center, or PARC, and at Apple Computer, where he worked for 17 years as chief scientist and vice president of engineering, among other roles.

At PARC, Tesler pioneered computing techniques such as "cut and paste" that have become standard to graphical user interfaces.

"Larry has the ability to draw on his extensive knowledge of both computer science and user-centered design to help define and drive product strategy and innovation at Yahoo," Ralston said in a statement.

Tesler joins Yahoo as Irene Au, a specialist in user interface design, is taking time off after seven years with the company. She had replaced Dave Shen, Yahoo's longtime graphical interface chief who left the company last year. Tesler will now head up the department.