UX Researcher Internship

During this internship I worked on a variety of PTC products. My primary responsibility was to promote UX research within the organization by teaching and guiding product teams through the usability testing process. I also reviewed designs, created unmoderated tests, and gathered educational and procedural information on our Research SharePoint

My Role

User Experience Researcher Intern

Methods

Usability test facilitation
Unmoderated testing
Miro
Workshop development and facilitation
Recruitment
Qualitative analysis
Test design

Time

June 2021 - August 2021

The Company: PTC

PTC is a Fortune 500 digital technology company focused on creating innovative solutions in a variety of areas including CAD, Internet of Things, Product Lifecycle Management, and Augmented Reality.

Products I worked with:

Windchill is PTC's product lifecycle management software. I worked primarily with this software, working on usability tests and unmoderated tests for Windchill.

Thingworx is PTC's internet of things application. I created an unmoderated test to how users navigated throughout the system.

Servigistics is PTC's service part optimization software. I created several different unmoderated tests to test their grid system, as well as instructed and assisted their development team with usability testing.

Research Fair

The Goal

The goal of the research fair was to promote UX research and teach other teams how to perform usability testing so that they have a better idea of how UX research works, that way they had a better understanding of it can help their product. Further, encouraging them to conduct short usability tests every 28 days to ensure quality products with large amounts of customer feedback.

My Role

I was responsible for creating and implementing workshops to teach others how to conduct usability testing. In this role my responsibilities included:

Creating training materials
Gathering additional resources for workshop participants
Recruiting internal groups to participate in workshops
Guiding trainees through test design and script-writing
Approving usability tests
Recruiting participants for trainees to conduct tests with
Coaching trainees through usability tests
Taking notes and analyzing usability test results

Unmoderated Testing

I performed unmoderated testing using Usability Hub. During my internship I held office hours where teams could request unmoderated tests. I would then design a short unmoderated test and create it for them. During the unmoderated tests I worked with a variety of groups at PTC, including Windchill, Servigistics, and Thingworx. I also worked extensively with the Design System Team, who were responsible for creating the design elements for PTCs software.

After I created an unmoderated test I distributed the tests and assisted teams in interpreting the results if needed.

Reflection

This internship allowed me to have the chance to apply the skills I learned during my graduate program in a professional environment. I was also able to learn from a team of highly skilled UX researchers. The internship gave me the chance to gain confidence in my skills as a user researcher. I was also able to gain experience teaching other teams how to conduct usability evaluations, which greatly increased my skills and knowledge about usability evaluations.

My Tasks

My primary tasks were to work on the research fair and unmoderated testing. In addition to these tasks, I participated in design reviews, recruiting participants, and assisting coworkers with various tasks.