Erik Ojakaar

Current

Staff Consumer Insights Researcher at Yahoo!

Past

Usability Specialist at Design & Usability Testing Center at Bentley College
Usability Consultant at Staples
Consultant / Researcher at User Interface Engineering (UIE)

Manager, Web Developer, IA at LL Bean, Inc

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Education

Bentley University
Northeastern University
East Carolina University

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Recommended

5 people have recommended Erik

Connections

340 connections

Industry

Internet

Websites

My Company

Erik Ojakaar’s Summary

Seasoned user experience and research professional with a solid track record of successfully integrating user centered design practices into the product development process while helping businesses identify strategic opportunities. I have a passion for translating consumer needs and business requirements into innovative solutions. Published author with a Masters in Human Factors in Information Design.

Erik Ojakaar’s Specialties:

leading research projects, facilitating ideation/innovation workshops, participatory design, ethnographic field research, usability studies, competitive analysis, survey design, I have a broad range of skills in qualitative and quantitative methodologies.

Recognized ecommerce expert.

Erik Ojakaar’s Experience

Staff Consumer Insights Researcher

Yahoo!

(Public Company; YHOO; Internet industry)

June 2003 — Present (6 years 2 months)

* Lead researcher for the redesign of Yahoo! Frontpage
* Development of strategic research plans to identify user needs, pain points and market opportunities
* Collaboration with product management, designers, engineers and marketing to infuse research insights into the development process, spark innovation, and shape business strategy
* Served as User Experience Research Manager for Yahoo! Local Markets and Commerce properties: Yahoo! Shopping, Yahoo! Autos, Yahoo! Travel, Yahoo! Hotjobs, Yahoo! Personals and Yahoo! Real Estate.
* Primary inventor of two patented Yahoo! innovations
Usability Specialist

Design & Usability Testing Center at Bentley College

(Computer Software industry)

July 2002 — July 2003 (1 year 1 month)

* Consulted with clients to provide formal usability testing, user interface evaluations and contextual analysis. Clients included: Monster.com, Banknorth, Cabot Corp., Cisco, Dunlop, MIT, PSI, Sensitech and Staples.
* Led competitive analysis and usability evaluations for Banknorth.
* Developed new techniques for collecting and analyzing user data
* Participated in the landmark Comparative Usability Evaluation study (CUE 4) delivered at the Computer Human Interaction Conference (CHI) in April 2003
Usability Consultant

Staples

(Public Company; SPLS; Retail industry)

June 2002 — August 2002 (3 months)

* Conducted all aspects of an in-depth competitive analysis for Staples.com that was a driving force behind their successful redesign.
* Identified competitive advantages through analysis of design attributes that correlated with user experience and business success metrics.
Consultant / Researcher

User Interface Engineering (UIE)

(Computer Software industry)

September 2000 — April 2002 (1 year 8 months)

* Key analyst for User Interface Engineering e-commerce research. Studied 13 well-known sites and evaluated over 6,000 pages for design attributes that correlated with success metrics
* Co-author of Best Practices report with Jared Spool on designing web content: "Getting Them to What They Want" (October 2001)
http://www.uie.com/reports/what_they_want/
* Instructor for acclaimed courses on web usability and paper prototyping techniques
* Designed and delivered two-day research-based e-commerce usability course, "Designing for Dollars: Discover How People Buy Online"
Manager, Web Developer, IA

LL Bean, Inc

(Privately Held; 1001-5000 employees; Internet industry)

October 1989 — September 2000 (11 years)

* Managed user-focused ten-member LL Bean web development team including developers, designers and content writers
* Chief information architect and designer of eight large intranets supporting LL Bean customer satisfaction representatives and support staff. Through workflow analysis and user testing, created web sites that improved productivity and service levels; reduced transfers and handling time
* Analyzed over 24,000 LL Bean customer emails; suggested site enhancements to save $42K annually and improve customer service productivity
* Participated in redesign and creation of the LL Bean website (llbean.com) noted for high standard of user experience