ABOUT

Self-Starter - Detailed Oriented – Flexible – Communicative – Results Oriented

My niche expertise is in conducting and managing qualitative user experience research (however, I strategically apply mixed methods!), and creating conceptual design solutions (through wireframes or low-fi prototypes). I translate discoveries into tactical solutions to identify gaps or opportunities, and develop strategic plans, set forth by the product owner for new and better products. I have spent a majority of my 20+ years career in creating UXR practices and cultures at growing organizations, offering a way to translate the customer journey or story. I provide strategic value by aligning the research and design with the product vision, while facilitating alignment between stakeholders through improved communication and collaboration. My experience includes working in a variety of cultures (lean startup, agile/scrum, to waterfall), and a variety of domains (from healthcare, enterprise software, to e-commerce & retail), influencing the design of software, hardware, and collaterals (e.g. packaging and branding).

SKILLS, EDUCATION & CERTIFICATIONS

SKILLS

EDUCATION

CERTIFICATIONS

Area of Expertise: User Experience Research & Concept Design

Design: Strategy & vision presentation, User Flows, Concept Sketches, Wireframes & mock ups with Design Pattern Library, Information Architecture

Prototyping: Rapid prototyping using Sketch, InVision, UXPin, Axure, Omnigraffle, Balsamiq

Content: MS Word, MS Powerpoint, MS Project, Confluence, Sharepoint

Research: Research Study Design/Planning, Evaluations, and Analysis: Participant Recruitment, Recruitment Planning, Contract Negotiation; Designing & Writing discussion guides, screeners, test protocols, Field & 1:1 Usability Study Moderation & Interviewing Strategies; Heuristic Evaluation, User Task Flow Analysis, Cognitive Walkthroughs, Story Boarding, Usability Testing, Contextual Inquiry, Ethnographic Research, Comparative Evaluation, Survey, Diary Study, A/B Testing, Persona; Using technologies including: Tobbi Eye Tracking, Morea & WebEx, Loop 11, Silverback, Survey Monkey

Collaboration & Communication: Organizing workshops, Facilitating design discussions & critique; Produce high-quality client deliverables, including utilizing Power Point to communicate client results & recommendations

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, IRVINE

• B.S., Information & Computer Science 1993

oSoftware Engineering

oArtificial Intelligence

oOrganizational Policy

• M.S., Human Computer Interaction 1997

oEthnographic Research

oContextual Inquiry

oTeam Collaboration

SILICON VALLEY PRODUCT GROUP

• Product Management

COPPER U

• Interaction Design

AGILE CORPORATE TRAINING

• Basic Agile Process Management (Lean UX)

WORK EXPERIENCE

I work with companies at all product development stages, grounded in Customer Centered Design, to define the user experience strategy, evaluate exiting solution for gaps or opportunities, articulate design solutions through prototypes, and iteratively validate and verify design options through on-going user experience research. I serve a range of business types, from Business-to-Business to Business-to-Customers.

TIMELINE

Through my career span I’ve held a blend of both full-time roles (as a direct employee or contractor), and a role as a consultant, contributing to start-ups to large IT corporations, in a range of roles from Individual Contributor to Leadership Roles (UX Lead, UX Director, and UX Manager); on a range of technologies including financial services, health-care informatics, e-commerce, educational technology, and digital photography and video conferencing.

Clients Include:

Employers Include:

Illumina, Sony Electronics, Sonos Entertainment, CVS CareMark Pharmaceuticals, SightSpeed Video Conferencing (Logitech), and Microsoft.

Hewlett Packard, ResMed, Bridgepoint Education, Local.com, Experian, JD Edwards, FileNet (IBM).

Domains & Business Types

B-to-B & B-to-C E-commerce & Retail

Financial Services Home Entertainment Medical Device & Health Care Informatics Enterprise Software

Illumina Medical Device

Human Factors / UX Researcher

[Contract]

July 2018 – December 2018

Supported planning & research activities: recruitment plans, creating scripts, for usability testing, running in-house usability studies, and in-field contextual studies, conducting interviews, assessing accessibility for the blind and visually impaired visitors of the corporate site, and gathering eye-tracking data using Tobii software, providing reports that included findings, recommendations, video & eye-tracking clips

Led consumable packaging re-design research efforts, including A/B comparative testing, and baseline studies including customer survey

Performed heuristic evaluation of medical devices and DNA sequencing instrumentation software, and provided re-design recommendations through mock-ups, wireframes, and low-fi prototypes.

Sony B-C Home Entertainment

User Experience Researcher

[Contract]

April 2018 – June 2018

Supported in-lab usability studies on voice-activated home entertainment technology

Shilpa Design

[Consulting Clients]

2017

Navisent User Experience Researcher Home Entertainment Domain

oDesigned and conducted qualitative user research interviews to assess the usability of Sonos’s voice activated home entertainment technology.

CVS CareMark Pharmaceuticals

UX Researcher & Designer

[Contract]

February 2017 – September 2017

Led design initiative to create a new formulary management platform, integrating discrete legacy solutions.

Gathered requirements through heuristic evaluation and stakeholder interviews, while socializing the new solutions to internal stakeholders.

Conduct user task flow analysis, and created end-to-end low-fi prototypes, and created a design pattern library.

Shilpa Design

UX Research & Design

[Consulting Clients]

2016 - 2017

United Capital Financial Advisers, LLC User Experience Researcher & Designer Financial Services Domain

oConducted heuristic evaluation and expert reviews on front-office customer engagement solutions.

oSocialized customer experience solutions to C-level stakeholder

MindFlow Design User Experience Researcher Industrial Design Domain

oConducted user research interviews to gather risk and usability feedback on a medical device transportation instrument.

oAnalyzed research data, and synthesized findings in a report presented to key industrial design stakeholders.

Run Consultants User Experience Researcher & Designer Medical Informatics Domain

oConducted task flow analysis, heuristic evaluation, and created conceptual design mock-ups for a medical supply sales mobile app.

ResMed Health Care

User Experience Manager

September 2014 – September 2015

Managed a small design of Interaction Designers, leading in iterative software updates on existing products.

Led new customer touchpoint initiatives with early user research mandated by FDA Compliance [HE-75], specifically related to B-to-B customer patient care data transmission from instruments to Respiratory Care specialists for daily reports on patient status.

Led in re-design efforts ranging from small projects including the re-design of patient reports communicating patient’s vitals, to larger scale projects including the end-to-end re-design of patient support platform for B-to-C (CPAP customers).

Shilpa Design

UX Research & Design

[Consulting Clients]

2013 - 2014

Alere User Experience Researcher & Designer Medical Informatics Domain

oLed ideation workshop using game storming

oConducted early exploratory research and concept design for a new patient care platform

oCreated a low-fi prototype to visualize conceptual design options

Perficient Information Architecture Research Digital Agency

oConduct analysis of site content to inform the content strategy

Red Door Entertainment Interaction Designer Digital Agency

oCreated early ideation designs for responsive content

Bridgepoint Education Educational Software

User Designer

January 2012 – September 2013

Supported the UX design enhancement and update efforts for Waypoint Outcomes skill assessment software, through scrum-based iterative design mock-ups

Led efforts to create a standalone Minimal Viable Product represented through a low-fi prototype

Conducted regularly customer interviews and usability studies for iterative feedback and validation

Shilpa Design

UX Research & Design

[Consulting Clients]

2011

Answer Lab User Experience Researcher UX Research Agency

oConducted in-lab usability studies for client seeking usability feedback for a campaign to increase user engagement prior to the Super Bowl. Synthesized the data collected and presented the results to the client.

Digitaria User Experience Researcher & Designer Digital Agency

oSupported a range of clients on both UX research and design initiatives:

Southern California Gas & Electric – supported the re-design of their client facing billing and account management site.

Starwood Hospitality – supported the exploratory requirements gathering to bid for a contract to design a touchscreen kiosk for a advertising vacation plans.

Qualcomm Snapdragon – supported a content strategy initiative for socializing the new snapdragon brand.

Local.com On-line Directory Services and E-commerce

Director of Experience Manager

September 2010 – August 2011

Supported the oversight in the end-to-end customer experience, for both B-to-B and B-to-C solutions, through cross-organizational collaboration, to achieve

oImproved customer conversion and retention, and enhanced user registration in terms of discoverability and form completion

oOptimization of vertical products, including improved accessibility to tools that support small businesses relying on directory services

oIncreased customer satisfaction of the branding through increased awareness of customer personas; and improved consistency in the visual look and feel of all customer touch points.

LPL Financial Lead User Experience Researcher Financial Services

2009 – 2010

Conducted contextual inquiry of financial advices to inform internal stakeholder of portfolio management practices

Supported customer insights interviews of a panel of financial advisor customers as a pilot program to integrate a new Customer Relationship Management tool to support improved B-to-C communication.

Shilpa Design

UX Research & Design

[Consulting Clients]

2008 - 2009

Sony Style UX Research & Design Home Entertainment

oConducted persona development research

oSupported design evaluation and solutions using mock-ups

Sight Speed (Logitech) User Experience Designer Video Conferencing Software

oSupported the user experience evaluation and creating a new UI framework

FICO Financial Services

User Experience Lead

October 2007 – June 2008

Led efforts to create new enterprise level suite of products, requiring cross organization stakeholder interviews, heuristic evaluations of legacy products, and proposal of a new UI framework for increased uniformity, consistency and seamless experience across all products.

Hewlett Packard Digital Printing

User Experience Designer

April 2005 – October 2007

Led efforts to innovate an entirely new conceptual paradigm for HP’s digital photo editing solution, HP Photosmart.

Supported vendor collaborations, with Frog and other agencies in the re-branding of the visual design through early & iterative user research

Performed heuristic evaluation, flow analysis, and designed on-going usability studies

Created design solutions including wireframes, UI specifications, and design pattern library

Supported daily project management tasks to for internal and external team collaboration and communication.

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