Alexander Muir

Current

UX Researcher at Microsoft

Past

Usability Engineer at Microsoft (Excell Data)
Part-time Lecturer in Usability at University of Washington
Senior Usability Specialist at myfamily.com

Instructor: Usability at University of British Columbia
Usability Analyst (Self-employed)
Research Fellow at The UK Open University
Research Fellow at The Open University
User Researcher at Rhythmica Ltd
UX Researcher at Virgin Trains

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Education

Rutherford University
Napier University
The University of Edinburgh

Diamond Mountain University

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Recommended

10 people have recommended Alexander

Connections

93 connections

Industry

Internet

Alexander Muir’s Summary

Driven by a fascination for how we use technology, I bring deep user-understanding into the software development process to produce world class software.

Alexander Muir’s Specialties:

Areas: social networking, Microsoft partner eco-system.

Abilities: emotional intelligence, running usability studies, presenting research and training others.

Alexander Muir’s Experience

UX Researcher

Microsoft

(Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; MSFT; Computer Software industry)

June 2008 — Present (1 year 6 months)

Conducting user research on major public facing Microsoft sites including partner.microsoft.com.
Using a range of qual and quant collaborative techniques to reserach and design next gen experiences.
Usability Engineer

Microsoft (Excell Data)

(Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; Internet industry)

October 2007 — May 2008 (8 months)

Responsible for day-to-day usability coverage for major MSN sites like Autos, Health & Fitness.
Facilitating design sketches and prototyping.
Assisting MSN-wide UX strategy and testing.
Part-time Lecturer in Usability

University of Washington

(Educational Institution; 10,001 or more employees; Higher Education industry)

August 2007 — December 2007 (5 months)

Taught Usability to Masters and Certificate students
Senior Usability Specialist

myfamily.com

(Internet industry)

May 2006 — September 2007 (1 year 5 months)

Drove user research strategy for the Creative Director; implemented research projects (usability labs, focus groups, surveys, customer councils etc) that got a steady stream of great user data - enabling more effective design work.

Also trained staff in UCD methods, to help them develop intuitive, error-tolerant interfaces more quickly.
Instructor: Usability

University of British Columbia

(Educational Institution; 5001-10,000 employees; Internet industry)

October 2005 — 2006 (1 year )
Usability Analyst

Self-employed

(Self-Employed; Internet industry)

2003 — 2006 (3 years )
Research Fellow

The UK Open University

(Educational Institution; 5001-10,000 employees; Higher Education industry)

November 2001 — August 2003 (1 year 10 months)

Research Fellow for Usability: researching best practices for e-learning, conducting usability tests of course websites, and championing usability across the organization.
Research Fellow

The Open University

(Internet industry)

2001 — 2003 (2 years )
User Researcher

Rhythmica Ltd

(Privately Held; 1-10 employees; Entertainment industry)

February 2000 — October 2000 (9 months)

Designed and conducted field trials with our target audience (music teachers) to refine designs for music education software.
UX Researcher

Virgin Trains

(Privately Held; 1001-5000 employees; Transportation/Trucking/Railroad industry)

December 1999 — January 2000 (2 months)

Conducted comparative study of competitor websites.

Alexander Muir’s Education

Rutherford University

PhD , Psychology , 2003 — 2006

Transpersonal psychology for psychotherapy.
Specialisation: Adapting Buddhist theories of perception for emtoional transformation in psychotherapy.
Napier University

MSc , Multimedia and Usability , 1999 — 2001

Activities and Societies:

Thesis (distinction) on usability for online music education.
The University of Edinburgh

BSc , General Science - Computer Science , 1992 — 1995

Activities and Societies:

Minors: Linguistics, Chinese Literature, Artifical Intelligence, Mathematics
Diamond Mountain University