User Experience

Video Games

Saints Row (2022) DLC

Project Role: Principal Researcher

Affiliation: Volition, User Research Manager
  • Contributions: Led and executed all strategic and tactical research efforts, including remote playtests, usability tests, surveys, and heuristic analyses on 3 major DLC releases.

  • Impact: Drastically reduced frictions in onboarding/tutorialization; validated design decisions; identified key metrics for satisfaction and performance; improved accessibility for visually- and vestibular-impaired users by consulting disabled players.

Dead Island 2

Project Role: Research Strategist & Analyst

Affiliation: Volition + PLAION GamesLab, Senior UX Researcher
  • Contributions: Worked with stakeholders from Deep Silver Dambuster to identify and prioritize research needs; collaborated with Lead Researcher and Head of Analytics; developed surveys and participant instructions; analyzed user playtest and survey data; consulted on research insights.

  • Impact: Significantly improved first-hour user experience; refinements to gameplay balance, pacing, usability, player appreciation, and brand trust.

Payday 3

Project Role: Research Strategist & Analyst

Affiliation: Volition + PLAION GamesLab, Senior UX Researcher
  • Contributions: Collaborated with stakeholders from Starbreeze Studios; worked with Lead Researcher to design research strategy, methodology, and analysis of complex, repeated-measures playtests and focus groups early during alpha stage; designed and analyzed survey and focus group data.

  • Impact: Tested design decisions; informed design direction based on single-player vs co-op experience, player appreciation, and brand trust; identified key areas for improvement in usability and tutorialization for new users.

Space Punks

Project Role: User Researcher

Affiliation: Volition + PLAION GamesLab, Senior UX Researcher
  • Contributions: Collaborated with research teammate at Flying Wild Hog to identify and prioritize stakeholder needs; developed surveys and participant instructions; conducted remote playtest via Parsec.

  • Impact: Improved usability issues in affordance, tutorialization, and onboarding for the first 3 missions.

Websites

Volition Games

Project Role: Web Usability Expert

Affiliation: Volition, User Research Manager
  • Contributions: Conducted usability and accessibility tests to evaluate the participant playtest sign-up webpage; redesigned consumer-facing web copy for improved readability and informed consent.

  • Impact: Increased participant sign-up rate (conversion) by 200% in one week.

involveMINT.io

Project Role: Web Design Consultant

Freelance
  • Contributions: Created a CMS and style guide, standardized the CSS, and generated interaction designs for the website; created a CMS, reformatted classes, and diagnosed issue with a custom script.

  • Impact: Saved company $10,792 in 4 weeks, heightened visibility of call-to-actions on 4 web pages and provided technical web design training to developers & CEO.

Hack for LA

Project Role: UX Researcher and Lead UX Writer

Freelance
  • Contributions: Collaborated with a cross-disciplinary, distributed, remote team and LA's Department of Neighborhood Empowerment to design a responsive web resource with online data literacy modules for LA's citizens; guided research direction/analysis, optimized web copy, iteratively designed and tested a responsive website prototype; conducted Tree Tests and Card Sorts using Optimal Workshop to investigate the navigation and menu.

  • Impact: Significantly improved web usability, copy, and design system; standardized research protocols, materials, and scripts.

Namwera AIDS Coordinating Committee

Project Role: UX Researcher Consultant

Freelance
  • Contributions: Performed a customized usability audit and heuristic analysis on the website; defined user needs and journey maps; suggested changes for WCAG 2.0 accessibility; proposed options to improve SEO and UX writing to better reach target audience (medical professionals, educators, and at-risk populations in Malawi); developed Figma prototype to guide designers in making website enhancements; Analyzed and recommended improvements for SEO, privacy & security, and WCAG 2.0 standards.

  • Impact: Saved the organization approximately $7,000 in losses by boosting site traffic, accessibility, SEO, and content organization.