CAROLINA FIGUEROA

carolina.figueroa@asci.us
mobile: (208) 830-4624

PHILOSOPHY
I am a human factors engineer with Masters in Psychology of Human
Factors and Bachelors in Computer Science. I am also a concert pianist
with a Masters in Music Performance. I am a very passionate and hard
working person, with two divergent skill sets from arts and sciences.
My detail- oriented scientific expertise combined with my skill as an
artist converge to provide a unique and powerful foundation for
creating human-usable technology based products.

SUMMARY OF EXPERIENCE
I have worked as a Human Factors Engineer (HFE), a Usability
Specialist and as a Software Engineer. I have worked at Hewlett
Packard as a HFE for 3 years and been responsible of every phase in
the usability process (i.e.: recruiting potential subjects, planning,
conducting and executing usability studies, designing user interfaces
prototypes, gathering analyzing data, reporting results and proposing
suggestion to address the usability issues). I have also worked in the
mobile, robotics and automotive industries as a HFE and user
experience designer.

OBJECTIVE
My career objectives are to work in a company of innovative people
who value the user experience as a basis for product design and whose
products are on the cutting edge of technology. I have implemented
human factors requirements for consumer products, conducted
research and usability studies using product development phase-
specific methods, and evaluated scaled mock-ups and prototypes in
support of new product development as well as design user improved
better experiences. I would like to work for a Fortune 500 technology
development company as I have in the past including, but not limited
to printing/imaging, automotive, mobile technology and social
networks.

WORK HISTORY
ASCI
Experience as a Human Factors Engineer, Usability specialist and User
Interface designer:

• Designed and conducted a variety of usability studies for printer

applications, web applications, windows application for printer/copier
simulators, automotive applications and mobile applications
Type of studies performed:
 Formal Lab based usability studies
Concept usability studies
Heuristic evaluations and walkthrough
Field studies, Focus groups
• Design of low, medium and high fidelity prototypes
• Participants recruitment/ interviews
• Competitive Usability Studies
• Style Guidelines

Hewlett Packard (December 2 2002 – November 30 2005)

Role: Human Factors Engineer, Usability specialist

HP Design Jet Printers are targeted to specific users like

photographers, graphic designers, architects, and mechanical
engineers that use software tools that allow them to create
complicated drawings. This group of users needed printing tools to
help them manipulate their drawings to get the printing finishes that
they wanted. HP decided to create a tool set for this users to fulfill their
needs.
Among the toolset are:
• Windows and Mac printer application for monitoring the Design jet
printers supplies, performance, networking settings, ICC profiles etc.
and,
• a desktop application targeted to professional photographers in their
day to day workflow. This tool was designed to help them manage,
configure and maintain other devices besides their HP printer such as
their displays, digital cameras, scanners, spiders, color profilers.

I was responsible for planning and executing usability studies, as well

as analyze, document and report results to the engineering team
including suggestions and prototypes on how to address the usability
issues found during the studies.

Capella Technologies (January 9 2006 – February 28 2007)

Role: Human Factors Engineer

Capella Tech developed a document management software that

allowed users to install a personalize menu in their printers so they can
enter metadata to their scanned documents, to then have them
identify by the system and place them in the directory that the user
configure to be sent at. The purpose of this tool was to simplify the
document management process so users spend less time organizing
the documents manually.
My responsibility was to design the user experience for the printer
interface as well as the windows application that allowed users to
configure their personalized menus (i.e.: users could set the name of
the menu, select an icon, select the metadata type and folder
destination etc). Users had the option to manage the printer’s control
panel directly from the device or from their workstations.
I performed a couple of usability studies at users workplace, in this
case was at a local check processing company that received different
types of documents that needed to be filed, copied to different
destinations.

UGOBE (August 11 2006 – November 15 2007)

Role: Human Factors Engineer

UGOBE is the creator of Pleo. Pleo is a very sophisticated dinosaur

about one-week old infant that acts just like a living creature. He lets
you know how he feels at any moment; he can yawn, sigh, sniff, sniffle,
snore, cough, hiccup, and sneeze. UGOBE wanted to develop utility (for
Windows and Mac platforms) for Pleo users so they could personalize
their robot.

My responsibility was to design the user experience and interface for

Pleo’s utility for Windows and Mac platforms, as well as perform
usability studies with real users. Additionally, I also led the software
development and testing efforts.

PNCS (June 25 2007 – May 26 2008)

Role: Human Factors Engineer

PNCS is a windows system that allows users make phone calls, play
songs from their iPods, receive and answer emails as well as text
messages from their automobile. This system was intended to be a
portable small frame computer that would be plug to the power outlet
of your car and sync up the information from your phone and iPod to
always have the latest information in regards of contacts, emails,
music, videos. The system was intended to be touch and voice
activated.
I was responsible of design the user experience and perform usability
study for the windows application and mobile application on a real
automobile. I was also responsible for the project management where I
used a user-centered approach to the product development.

OvalPath (April 15 2008 – present)

Role: Human Factors Engineer
OvalPath is a location based social network mobile application that
allows users to take advantage of multimedia blogging as well as the
automatic creation of profiles based on their daily activities. Ovalpath
offers users a web interface as well as the mobile application for
iPhone and Smartphone users. Users will be able to share their photos,
videos, and text and voice messages by documenting their life on
group blogs. Ovalpath users will have also the option to keep their
blogs as private as they wanted it to be, meaning the blogs could be
visible to all their friends or a group of friends only.

My responsibilities were to design the user experience for Ovalpath’s

website where users can configure their privacy settings, account
privileges and administer their group of friends. Also I designed the
user experience for the mobile interface for Windows smartphones and
iPhone. Additionally, I design a test strategy according the user
interface for the web and mobile interface as well as performed 3
rounds of usability testing during the product software development
cycle.

EDUCATION
Masters in Psychology with emphasis in Human Factors, University of
Idaho (August 2004 – August 2007)
Masters of Music Performance, Boise State University (Jun 2002 - May
2004)
Bachelors of Science in Engineering, ITESO University (Guadalajara,
Mexico) (June 1994 - June 1998)

COMPUTER SKILLS
Operating Systems: UNIX, Solaris, Windows, Mac
Languages: HTML, Microsoft Visual C# (windows and mobile UID).
Software: Macromedia Dreamweaver, Adobe Photoshop, MS Office
Suite, Pinnacle Studio, Camtasia Studio

EXTRA CURRICULAR ACTIVITIES

Solo piano performer, piano teacher, salsa dancer, hiker, runner and
weight lifter