Michael Gruen
Product Design & Research



About

DePaul University

M.S., Human-Computer Interaction, coursework including visual design, html/css, ethnography, usability, and statistics, and a practicum in which I led a team of other designers to work with a real client for their website re-design (an LA based non-profit, The Hope After Project). I conducted usability tests at the Bold Insight research lab in downtown Chicago.

While obtaining my master’s I also worked full time as a UX Intern at SpringCM, a document workflow startup acquired by DocuSign. 

Usability Testing: Skype v. Hangouts

Objective
To conduct a quantitative comparative usability research study on Skype and Hangouts focusing on measuring tasks commonly performed by students or professionals collaborating remotely.

Tools & Methods
Usability testing, A / B testing

Responsibilities
  • Create a test plan and moderator’s guide, moderate tests
  • Analyze the data, derive findings, determine the impact and provide design recommendations
  • Work collaboratively to determine the relative severity of each finding

Full presentation available upon request


Contextual Inquiry: Finding Parking

Objective
To develop an understanding of how people locate parking in environments in which parking is scarce. We used three methods: observational studies, interviews and a survey.

Tools & Methods
  • Interviews
  • Observations
  • Survey
  • SPSS
  • Affinity diagram
  • Inductive Coding

Responsibilities
  • Conduct a series of observations, interviews, and a survey
  • Perform data analysis (affinity diagram for observations, open inductive coding for interview transcriptions and quantitative SPSS hypothesis testing for survey data)

Full report available upon request