Graduate work in design strategy and innovation
During my graduate studies in Bentley University's Human Factors program, I augmented my decade-long experience in visual and web design with coursework in research, design strategy, leadership and innovation.
The details
Highlights included:
- Working as a graduate research assistant at the Bentley User Experience Center, providing usability testing and prototyping expertise for the Center's clients and running the usability lab;
- Traveling through France to learn about innovation in a global context, which culminated in a research study on the relationship between French language/culture and open source contribution in the Drupal project;
- A comprehensive study on the challenges of contributing to Drupal, which included literature review, interviews with dozens of contributors, survey research and ethnographic observation at half a dozen Drupal contribution sprints;
- Research and design strategy projects for Intuit, Solium Shareworks and the Drupal project.
Highlights

Experience Strategy for Intuit
I worked with a team of Bentley HFID students to organize research, synthesize findings and create customer journey maps and a set of design principles to create emotionally transformative product experiences at Intuit.

Mobile Strategy for Solium Shareworks
I worked with a small team of graduate students to conduct competitive analysis and create a mobile strategy for Solium Shareworks.

Ethnography of Drupal contributors
As part of my graduate studies at Bentley, I elected to do a Master's thesis on the experiences, motivations and frustrations of Drupal contributors.