She moved to San Francisco, California in 1999 to become creative director at Red Eye Digital Media, which later became Idea Integration.

[4] As creative director she became more interested in the intersection of user experience and design,[5] and was an early proponent of usability testing on the internet.

[6] Goto founded gotomedia in 2001 in San Francisco, which initially focused on user experience on the web, and later expanded to mobile design and to multi-faceted user-design for technology, health care, education and other sectors.

[11][12][13] The book, which has been translated into 14 languages and has used in university curricula,[14] argues that the creation of the ideal user experience is an iterative process, and provides practical advice on project workflow and redesign strategies.

[18][19][20] She was one of the earliest proponents of design ethnography, using methods such as diary studies,[21] and has spoken and written on this topic since the early 2000s.