RESEARCH PORTFOLIO Josh LaMar
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