I’m Sam.
UX Researcher: leveraging my energetic curiosity to generate and deliver impactful insights.
I’m also a lifelong learner; a growth-mindset enthusiast; a music adventure guide; an art historian; and a visual artist.
UX Research & Design
Building the next generation of well-being software
Role: Lead UX Researcher
Company: Healthy Minds Innovations
There is a great deal of scientific evidence indicating that meditation practice can be significantly beneficial for the brain and overall well-being. However, even though the market for mindfulness products is rapidly growing, many people, for a variety of reasons, do not engage with mindfulness programs, let alone on a digital platform. So how might we create new well-being products that engage as many people as possible, yield maximum efficacy, and have minimal barriers to engagement? I led an extensive UX research program to help tackle this problem.
Mobile games and teens’ well-being
Role: Lead UX Researcher
Company: Healthy Minds Innovations
Healthy Minds Innovations developed a series of mobile games to serve as measures for researching teen well-being as well as to act as a means for young people to reflect on and further their well-being. I embarked on an extensive usability study to optimize the user experience of the games and examine their efficacy as well-being exercises. Working under tight deadlines and logistical challenges of working with people under 18, our study produced fascinating findings that played a critical role in the games’ user experience.
Liberating Structures: Making meetings more productive
Role: UX Researcher, UX Designer
Who hasn’t been in an unproductive meeting? Liberating structures is a powerful set of facilitation tools that help make group interactions more fun and constructive. Yet the Liberating Structures mobile app, before my team redesigned it, merely served as a reference guide for facilitators.
My team and I embarked on a fascinating adventure to research and design a revamp of the Liberating Structures mobile app. Drawing upon our research synthesis, we designed a range of additional features to help with facilitation of “structures” as well as the planning and scheduling of meeting sessions. We validated and iterated our designs through usability testing and focus groups. Take a look at the case study to learn more about the project.
ICEBERG: An experiment in human connection
Role: UX Researcher, UX Designer
What if there was a remote communication platform that made it easy to exercise the joy of human connection without the overwhelming media bombardment experienced on conventional social apps?
My team’s research pointed to some major pain points that exist for users in the market of existing communication apps despite the existence of myriad product options. Working with the founder of ICEBERG, my team of three executed user research and designed some of the core features and user interface of this up and coming product.