RESEARCH PORTFOLIO Josh LaMar

About This Presentation

  About Me   Experiences   Methodologies   Summary of Qualifications

About Me

  Current UX Researcher supporting Zune at Microsoft   5 years UX Research experience   Web junkie – experience in all things web-related:

  Usability   Technical Writing and Editing   Content Management   Social Media   Development   Localization

  Education   M.S. Technical Communication, Dept of Human-Centered Design and Engineering,

University of Washington   Technical Editing Certification, Bellevue College   B.A. Music and B.A. English, Westmont College

  Online portfolio: http://joshlamar.com/portfolio.html   LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/joshlamar

Experiences

Experiences: Microsoft

  User Experience Researcher (Nov 08 – Present)   Zune/TVM Research Team June 09-Present, Studies completed:

  Lynx 4.0 Usability (July 09)   MSN Entertainment and MSN Video Nov 08-Jun 09, Studies completed:

  MSN Video Tool Benchmark (Dec 08)   MSN Money Benchmark (Jan 09)   MSN Entertainment Internal Card Sort (Feb 09)   MSN Entertainment External Card Sort (March 09)   MSN Entertainment Superfan Cognitive Walkthrough (March 09)   MSN Entertainment Metacritic/Packages/Parallel Universe Usability Study (May 09)

  Site Manager/Localization PM (Jan-Dec 2005), MVP website   Managed MVP Global Website in 9 languages   Highest online VSAT   Developed global SharePoint site for collaboration with stakeholders and internal business

partners

  Usability Engineer (Dec 2004-Jan 2005), Hardware Group   Extension of coursework from Qualitative Data Analysis research group at UW   Analysis of survey data and photos of how customers use technology in their homes   Utilized Atlas.ti and Strauss and Corbin’s Grounded Theory methodology of QDA

Experiences: WaMu

  User Experience Specialist II (Dec 05-Oct 08)   Internal UX Research, supporting corporate intranet for 50k employees

  Managed internal user feedback group, WaMu.net Users Group

  Managed Usability Reading Group

  Example Studies   Solutions Center Online Heuristic Evaluation

  WaMu Personas

  Policy Research Field Study

  Retail Banking My Place Usability Study

  Information Architecture of corporate intranet

  Feedback surveys

  Guerilla Usability

Methodologies

Methodology: Usability Study (Zune)

  July 09

  Task-based usability of Zune.net in test environment

  Goal: Find UX issues before release of Lynx 4.0

  UX Wins: Search results, navigation, playing music from the website

  Key Recommendation: Improve the interaction of the Dashboard / Pop-out player experience

Methodology: Benchmark (MSN)

  December 08   Task-based usability study in UX

lab   Goal: Assess overall UX issues

with Video Tool and get feedback on proposed redesign

  Key Finding: System Feedback, defaults and consistency are major issues to be addressed

  Key Recommendation: Tailor future versions of the tool to actual users of the tool who are less technical than it was initially designed for

Methodology: Survey (MSN)

  February 09   Follow up from IA issues

raised in MSN Video Tool Benchmark

  Goal: Test navigation and assess user preference and frequency of use

  Key Finding: User expectations for the Media bucket were right on; “Widgets” and “Performance” weren’t as strong

Methodology: Card Sort (MSN)

  March 09   Open card sort using

content from MSN Entertainment site

  Movies, TV and Music card sorts conducted separately

  Goal: Simplify the navigation

  Key Finding: Browse bucket needed so content can ‘live’ in the navigation

Methodology: Cognitive Walkthrough (MSN)

  March 09   Interview and cognitive

walkthrough of design comps   Blog/Wiki hybrid Social

Media fan site   Goal: Initial user response

and assess UX issues   Key Finding: Users liked the

concept but will only participate if it’s something they’re interested in

  Key Recommendation: Make sure each page has a clear purpose

Methodology: Personas (WaMu)

  Longitudinal research conducted 2007-2008   Interviews   Online surveys

  Based on job role   Partnered with HR to

validate roles with WaMu population

  Personas used by communications teams and corporate intranet team in agile development cycles

Methodology: Field Study (WaMu)

  September 2007   Interviews conducted with 55

employees in 6 locations across the country

  Goal: Understand issues with locating policies needed to do their jobs

  Key Finding: Silos in the content creation process lead to user confusion when trying to locate policies

  Key Recommendation: Single-source the content creation process

Summary of Qualifications

Summary of Qualifications

  Over 5 years User Experience Research experience   M.S. Technical Communication, Dept of Human-Centered Design and

Engineering, University of Washington   Advocate for making the lives of users easier   Passion for making the world a better place through technology   Experience in UCD methodologies, qualitative and quantitative data

analysis   Ability to translate business needs into solid research plan   Ability to create actionable recommendations from UX issues

observed   Strong presentation skills   Passion for Music and Multimedia – I’m a composer and currently

working on a certification in Electronic Music Production