UX Researcher at Microsoft
Greater Seattle Area
- Current
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- UX Researcher at Microsoft
- Past
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- Research Assistant at University of Washington's Laboratory for Usability Testing and Evaluation (LUTE)
- Instructor/Teaching Assistant at University of Washington
- QA Engineer/Usability Researcher at Flock, Inc.
- Sr. Software Test Engineer/Accessibility Analyst at America Online
- Sr. Software Test Engineer at Sun Microsystems
- Senior Software Test Engineer at Eazel, Inc.
- Software Test Engineer at Netscape Communications Corporation
- Software Test Engineer at Apple Computer, Inc.
- Education
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- Universiteit Twente
- University of Washington
- Carnegie Mellon University
- Recommended
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9 people have recommended Eli - Connections
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220
connections
- Industry
- Computer Software
- Websites
Eli Goldberg’s Summary
UX Researcher at Microsoft.
Eli Goldberg’s Specialties:
Design and execution of high-impact laboratory-based usability tests, heuristic & expert usability analyses, eye-tracking methods & study design, accessibility validation, documentation usability.
Eli Goldberg’s Experience
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UX Researcher
Microsoft
(Public Company; MSFT; Computer Software industry)
August 2008 — Present (1 year 4 months)
UX researcher for Windows User Experience team.
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Research Assistant
University of Washington's Laboratory for Usability Testing and Evaluation (LUTE)
(Educational Institution; 10,001 or more employees; Computer Software industry)
April 2007 — September 2007 (6 months)
As an employee of the Laboratory for Usability Testing & Evaluation, I served as the primary consultant to the Washington State Employment Security Department (ESD), for a major redesign of their main external website. Performed heuristic and expert evaluations of iterative design mockups for the ESD website, offering research-based and empirical recommendations for changes to the design direction. Responsibilities also included designing, recruiting for, and conducting a mid-sized card sort, and co-authoring a report of the results.
For a second client, I delivered an extensive heuristic review of a social website under development for family caregivers, and documented issues observed in usability test sessions. Completed the employment contract by evaluating emerging methods in recent (2002-2007) eye-tracking research and application. -
Instructor/Teaching Assistant
University of Washington
(Educational Institution; 5001-10,000 employees; Higher Education industry)
September 2006 — March 2007 (7 months)
Independently led a section of the department's TC 231 class for two quarters, teaching effective technical and workplace communication practices to second-year engineering students. Responsibilities included conducting three hours per week of classroom sessions (lecture & facilitated discussion), performance assessment, and individual coaching/tutoring. Final quarter evaluations by students were in the top decile.
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QA Engineer/Usability Researcher
Flock, Inc.
(Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Computer Software industry)
January 2006 — August 2006 (8 months)
While awaiting the start of graduate school, I accepted an offer to help as a test engineer and usability researcher at this social web browser start-up. Co-led Flock’s first in-house usability study, and produced an internal video of the highlights. Our results led the company to shift its focus away from blogging/bookmark sharing and towards social networking and photo sharing.
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Sr. Software Test Engineer/Accessibility Analyst
America Online
(Public Company; twx; Computer Software industry)
May 2004 — November 2005 (1 year 7 months)
Responsible for accessible design and accessibility validation on AOL’s main DHTML applications: AOL Webmail and AOL Pictures. Assessed usability issues under the JAWS screen reader, and rewrote all spoken interface elements for AOL Pictures to comply with best practices in auditory interface design. Conducted an accessibility audit of AOL Radio for Mac (AOL’s first accessible application for Mac OS X.)
In this role, I realized that my passion for usability warranted a transition into a full-time user research career, rather than pursuing usability through a QA practice. This resulted in my relocation to Seattle for a full-time masters program, and transitioning into temporary work at Flock prior to the start of the program. -
Sr. Software Test Engineer
Sun Microsystems
(Public Company; SUNW; Computer Software industry)
May 2002 — January 2004 (1 year 9 months)
User interface test lead for the successor to the Cobalt Qube web-based server management platform. Technical and style editor for all Intel/x86 QA test documentation. Led user interface testing for the Sun Streaming Server’s web-based administrative interface. Technical and style editor for the Sun V60/V65x Linux Installation Guide.
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Senior Software Test Engineer
Eazel, Inc.
(Privately Held; 51-200 employees; Computer Software industry)
August 2000 — May 2001 (10 months)
Recruited by Eazel’s UI designer to lead testing for Eazel’s Nautilus file manager, a core component of the GNOME desktop for Linux. (Eazel was a company formed by the original creators of the Macintosh dedicated to bringing consumer-level usability to Linux; e.g. I worked closely with Andy Hertzfeld as the test lead for his features.)
Organized and led open source community “bug hunting” days, to mentor Nautilus users in submitting developer-friendly bug reports and performing thorough bug verifications. Recruited and mentored junior software testers. This start-up ultimately closed after exhausting its funding in the dot-com crash; I ended up being both the initial and final QA team member. -
Software Test Engineer
Netscape Communications Corporation
(Public Company; 1001-5000 employees; nscp; Computer Software industry)
October 1997 — June 2000 (2 years 9 months)
Tested the Mozilla web browser front-end, with focus on copy/paste, imaging, help, drag & drop, and selection. Pre-screened, decomposed, authored, and verified hundreds of bugs. Cited in New Architect magazine for jump-starting open source QA participation. Wrote the Mozilla Bug Writing Guidelines, which has since become a standard bug reporting tutorial adapted and recommended by hundreds of software organizations, such as NASA, Sun, SGI, and the Apache project.
QA lead for Netscape Communicator 4.5’s rewritten User Profile Manager utility, with an emphasis on improving user experience polish. Authored and updated several top-ranked tech notes for Netscape’s public technical support knowledge base. -
Software Test Engineer
Apple Computer, Inc.
(Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; aapl; Computer Software industry)
June 1996 — March 1997 (10 months)
Responsible for testing the Mac OS 8 Appearance Manager, as a member of the Human Interface Technologies team. Discovered hundreds of visual appearance bugs, resulting in bug fixes and/or third-party developer notifications. Successfully advocated for improvements to the Mac OS 8 user interface through heuristic evaluation.
Eli Goldberg’s Education
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Universiteit Twente
MS , Exchange student , 2008 — 2008
Student researcher at Telematica Instituut via Universiteit Twente in Enschede, Netherlands. Conducted & published methods-oriented pedestrian safety research among dementia-affected senior citizen users of a prototype mobile cognitive prosthetic, as part of the EU COGKNOW project.
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University of Washington
MS , Technical Communication , 2006 — 2008
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Carnegie Mellon University
BS , Information and Decision Systems , September 1991 — May 1995
Concentration in User Interface Design
Additional Information
Eli Goldberg’s Websites:
Eli Goldberg’s Interests:
Own and operate Prometheus Music on a hobby basis. Prometheus is an award-winning publisher of space and science-fiction themed music used in planetariums, museums and classrooms worldwide. Tracks from our most recent release, To Touch the Stars, were licensed by NASA for their Emmy award-winning SCI Files television series, and were played by NASA/JPL as wake-up music on Mars for the Opportunity rover (Sol 20). Astronaut Buzz Aldrin endorsed the album after being moved to tears on national television, quoting from the album. The press campaign I conducted for this release yielded dozens of instances of radio, television, newspaper, magazine and Internet press coverage reaching tens of millions of people. Media outlets highlighting the album included MSNBC, The Discovery Channel, SPACE.com, and CBC Radio One (Quirks & Quarks; Here & Now). Magazines featuring the project included Sky & Telescope, Popular Science, BIS Spaceflight and Smithsonian/Air & Space. And, uh, I study Dutch.
Eli Goldberg’s Groups:
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ExMozilla -
Carnegie Mellon Alumni -
Apple - Current and Former Employees -
Puget Sound SIGCHI -
Microsoft - Current and Former Employees
Eli Goldberg’s Honors:
Henry L. Gray Fellowship recipient, 2007-2008
Eli Goldberg’s Contact Settings
Interested In:
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- reference requests
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