PDF versionUser Experience Methods
Card sorting
Competitive evaluation
Contextual inquiry
Ethnography
Heuristic evaluation
High-fi prototyping
Interviewing
Personas
Paper prototyping
Scenarios
Sitemapping
Sketching
Surveying
Usability Testing
Wireframing
Web Development
HTML
CSS
JavaScript
PHP
Drupal
XML
MySQL
Google Analytics
Google App Engine
Interests
Interaction Design
Information Architecture
Online Communities
Social Media
Taxonomy design
Writing for the web
Languages
French Proficiency
Activities
Crafting
Frisbee
Hiking
Skiing
Education
University of Michigan School of Information
April 2010 | Master of Science in Information | Ann Arbor, MI
- Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) Specialization
- Key course concepts:
- User Experience Design and evaluation methods including prototyping, sketching, contextual inquiry, personas, scenarios, heuristic evaluation, usability testing
- Information Architecture including wireframes, concept mapping, sitemaps
- Online Collaboration: Online community design and evaluation, computer-supported cooperative work (CSCW) principles and literature
Champlain College
2007 | Certificate of Website Development and Management | Burlington, VT
University of Michigan Residential College
2000 | Bachelor of Arts in Social Sciences | Ann Arbor, MI
- Methods: Contextual inquiry, personas, scenarios, paper & hi-fi prototypes, usability testing
- Publication: Gupta, M., McCurdy, K., Potvin, H., Song, E., Zhang, X. mibo: A Mobile Application to Encourage Walking. Extended abstracts of CHI 20010 (student design competition), Atlanta, GA, April 2010.
- Methods:User interviews, mockups, paper prototype testing, hi-fi prototype & testing
- Methods:User interviews, focus group, ethnography to uncover problems older internet users face
Experience
Interaction Designer
2010-present | R/GA | New York, NY
Usability Consultant
2009-2010 | Center for Health Communications Research | Ann Arbor, MI
Planned series of usability talks, trained staff on plain language, rewrote content for the web, planned and conducted usability tests on web-based behavioral health intervention tools, advised on design and information architecture for research projects.
Interaction Design Intern
2009 (May - August) | VMware | Palo Alto, CA
Designed, prototyped and tested an iPhone application that enables IT administrators to manage their virtual machine deployment; won a 'best intern project' award.
- User Research: Interviewed existing product users and distilled findings; tested mockup concepts and final prototype through remote usability testing.
- Design: Developed 40 screen mockups, a clickable prototype, and a design specification.
Interactive Web Producer
2008 (February – July) | EatingWell Media Group | Charlotte, VT
Collaborated with web team on eatingwell.com, a national food magazine website.
- Information Architecture: Educated team on taxonomy best practices and facilitated brainstorming and card-sorting sessions to devise taxonomy for website redesign. Surveyed users and made recommendations that were accepted and implemented. (full description)
- Web and Graphic Design: Created new web content using HTML/CSS. Created banners and mock-ups for sales and advertising. Optimized video clips for web.
- Account Management: Collaborated effectively with content licensing partners to schedule deliveries, strategize content promotion, and troubleshoot issues.
Wiki Project Coordinator
October 2006 - February 2008 | Vermont Student Assistance Corporation (VSAC)
Helped coordinate major project to rewrite, re-categorize, and move existing
departmental intranet content to an enterprise wiki. (full description)
- Taxonomy Design: Facilitated 8 taxonomy design workshops based on methodology learned from Project Performance Corporation consultants and held carde-sorting sessions.
- Usability Testing: Facilitated usability testing sessions.
- Information/Project Management: Oversaw and assisted 15 content managers who reformatted and transferred 4,000 pages; completed project on schedule.
- Training: Trained 50 staff on taxonomy and ‘writing for the web.’ Trained 80 staff on creating, editing, and viewing content on wiki to ensure successful adoption.
Senior Customer Relations Counselor
October 2004 – August 2007 | Vermont Student Assistance Corporation (VSAC) | Winooski, VT
Counseled on student loans; wrote and edited content for corporate and internal website.
Membership
- SOCHI: Student Organization for Computer-Human Interaction [Officer, 2009-2010]
- SCSI: Social Computing at the School of Information
- SIGCHI: Special Interest Group on Computer-Human Interaction
- IA Institute: Information Architecture Institute
- AlliedWomen: women's business networking group