Kevin Hicks

About Kevin Hicks

A 21+ year veteran user experience researcher and designer who prefers working in a data-driven, creative, and collaborative environment. I enjoy uncovering patterns in data, testing hypotheses, finding and solving simple to complex problems by providing data-based insights with actionable recommendations.

Experience

1. Senior User Experience Researcher

   IBM

   Aug 2018 — Present · NC, US

   Plan, develop, built, conduct/moderate, analyze, report, and present user research results with actionable recommendations for qualitative and quantitative user research (formative and summative) performed in the lab or remote as moderated, unmoderated, and hybrid studies across all phases of design research starting with exploratory, generative, conceptual through evaluative. User research methods: Task-based usability testing (benchmark and competitor), design walkthroughs, design validations, card sorting (open and closed), tree testing, first-click tests, structured and unstructured interviews, polls, surveys, focus groups, contextual inquiries, diary studies, A/B testing, and various custom experiments Documentation: User journeys, flow charts, affinity diagrams, requirements (user and stakeholder), user specifications, user research plans, usability reports, user research reports/presentations, user scenarios, use cases, user stories, and user personas Usability inspection methods: Usability reviews, heuristic evaluations, cognitive walkthroughs, task analysis, and competitive evaluations Data Analysis: Statistical analysis (univariate and multivariate), text analytics (structured and unstructured) Design: Paper prototyping, Wireframing, Interactive prototypes, and varying levels of mock-ups from low to high def Design Thinking: Persona research, empathy maps, mental models, user experience maps, user scenarios, playbacks, and stakeholder mapping Working on a multitude of different research projects in this role from organizations across IBM. Examples: API interactive documentation, IBM Cloud, Developer playgrounds, Instructional content (tutorials and learning paths), Interaction model and analysis, Developer Community (Q&A/forums, blogs, groups/communities), Developer advocacy events, Content Authoring, and Product developer sites.

Education

• North Carolina State University

  Master of Science, Human Factors and experimental

  2001 — 2007

• Marshall University

  Bachelor of Arts, Applied Psychology

  1993 — 1998