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.