Experience
Professor of Digital Experience Design, University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland (FHNW), Institute for Interactive Technologies. Windisch, Switzerland
Lead of the Design & Technology team and a Board Member of the Institute for Interactive Technologies. Research foci: Design-oriented Human-Computer Interaction, UX and Interaction Design, Communities & Technologies, Sharing & Collaborative Economy, Ubiquitous Computing. Teaching a number of design-oriented courses for the undergraduate students with major in Informatics and minor in Design and Management. Supervising BSc, MSc, and Ph.D. students’ theses work and research projects.
November 2023 – present
Senior User Experience Researcher, University of Zurich, Faculty of Business, Economics and Informatics. Zurich, Switzerland
As a member of the People and Computing Lab, I conducted UX design research at the intersection of the sharing economy and platform/service design: generative, foundational and applied research, field studies, design guidelines, usability evaluations. Efficiently employed a myriad of empirical qualitative research methods (in-person and remote) supporting different stages of (product and service) design processes (incl. of external partners). Involved in teaching Human-Computer Interaction and People-Oriented Computing courses for bachelor & master students. Actively participated in the international research networks COST Action CA16121 (Collaborative Economy) CA19121 (Privacy by Design), and CA21118 (Platform Economy) as a Swiss Management Committee member. Managed internal & external stakeholders. Organized international workshops with domain experts.
October 2019 – December 2023
User Experience Researcher, Università della Svizzera italiana (USI), Faculty of Informatics. Lugano, Switzerland
Planned, executed, analyzed, and reported on eight cross-disciplinary international research in the contexts of personal computing & everyday consumption. Adopted qualitative and quantitative approaches to uncover emergent end-user digital sharing needs, concerns, requirements, and behaviors. Managed full UX project cycles: from developing concepts through design to implementation. Published over 20 peer-reviewed articles, many in the top UX-related venues. Developed & empirically validated a design toolkit for the sharing economy with business stakeholders. In 2016-17 showcased two original market-ready research products at the Swiss Pavilion at CeBIT, the largest computer expo in Europe.
September 2014 – September 2019
User Experience Designer, Metaio GmbH. Munich, Germany
Integrated a User-Centered Design approach into the product development cycle. Ensured consistency of the visual and interaction languages across the product portfolio. Hands-on low-fi and hi-fi prototyping. Designed and conducted lab and field studies of audiovisual augmented reality experiences. Conducted a series of usability tests throughout the company's software products and web-platforms, and provided actionable design recommendations for technical implementation by product development teams. Effectively communicated user research insights to various stakeholders incl. marketing, design and development organizations. Pragmatically prioritized time between multiple projects and proactively adapted to the quickly changing demands of the rapidly-paced applied research and software development environments. Passionately advocated user research culture in the company. Co-created two successfully approved US patent applications.
July 2012 – June 2014
Software Innovator/UX Engineer, Advanced Applications Research Lab, Sony Mobile Communications USA Inc. Redwood City, San Francisco Bay Area, CA, USA
Principle front-end architect for a multimedia content sharing platform vscreens.com (outreach 100k users). Acquired practical experience in an agile product development environment. Designed novel interfaces for cross-device communication using Google Web Toolkit. Conducted research in the augmented reality context to inform future products & services. Supported the system integration of human-mounted displays with mobile devices on the Android platform. Developed proofs of concepts for multiple platforms (wearable, mobile, PC, TV). Strengthened collaboration with the MobiSocial research lab at Stanford University. Co-created a successfully approved US patent application.
January 2011 – May 2012
Software Engineering Intern, Software R&D Group, Ricoh Company Ltd. Tokyo, Japan
Built a prototype that integrated the company’s multimedia content services within an iOS app.
June 2008 – September 2008
Education
Università della Svizzera italiana (USI), Faculty of Informatics. Lugano, Switzerland
Ph.D. in Informatics at the research group for Ubiquitous Computing. Specialization: Design Research in Human-Computer Interaction
Doctoral thesis: “Supporting the design of technology-mediated sharing practices”. Open Access Book
September 2014 – September 2019
Simon Fraser University, the School of Interactive Arts and Technology. Vancouver, BC, Canada
Visiting design researcher at the Everyday Design Studio research lab.
September 2016 – February 2017
Stanford University, Continuing Studies Program. Stanford, CA, USA
Courses in Innovation Management and Design Thinking.
March 2011 – December 2011
University of Rome “La Sapienza”, Faculty of Engineering, Department of Computer and System Sciences, Wireless Sensors Network research group. Rome, Italy
MSc in Computer Engineering with distinction. GPA: 3.9/4.0
Master thesis: “Connecting physical and virtual worlds: design, implementation and evaluation of a solution based on heterogeneous technologies”. Specialization: Software and Services for Information Society.
February 2009 – December 2010
Omsk State Transport University, Faculty of Information Technologies. Omsk, Russia
Diploma Engineering Degree (5 years cycle) with honors. GPA: 4.0/4.0
In 2006 spent one year as an exchange student at Czech Technical University in Prague.
Diploma thesis: “Design and implementation of an augmented reality mobile application to interact with wireless sensor networks”.
September 2004 – July 2009
QUALIFICATIONS
Research skills: Usability Studies, Online Surveys, Contextual Interviews, Thematic Analysis, Focus Groups, Content Analysis, Thematic Analysis, Grounded Theory, Design Workshops, Diary Studies, Experience Sampling, Ideation Cards, Technology Probes, Research through Design, Design Ethnography
Teaching skills: Constructive alignment, planning and delivery of courses and various forms of learner-centered, competence-oriented assessments, cooperative learning incl. project-based learning and large-scale teaching and learning methods, supervising student academic writing, reflection on teaching experience
Programming languages: Objective-C, C/C++, Java, JavaScript, PHP, Python, R
Graphics: Sketch, Figma, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator
AWARDS AND DISTINCTIONS
Czech Technical University in Prague scholarship to support an exchange year. Awarded November 2005. Duration: 1 year
JSC “TransTeleCom” (TTK) scholarship to support studies in Informatics. Awarded November 2007. Duration: 2 years
Erasmus Mundus ECW EU scholarship to pursue MSc degree at the University of Rome “La Sapienza”. Awarded December 2008. Duration: 2 years
The Apple Student Scholarship to attend the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference 2009 in San Francisco, CA. Awarded May 2009
Mobile World Congress 2010 in Barcelona. A winner in category OMTP Mobile Phone Widget Platform for Bike Sharing Eco-friendly Application. Awarded February 2010
Best Paper Honorable Mention Award (top 5% of papers). Conference on Mobile and Ubiquitous Multimedia (MUM) in Rovaniemi, Finland. Awarded December 2016
Swiss National Science Foundation mobility grant to conduct research at the Everyday Design Studio laboratory, the School of Interactive Arts + Technology at Simon Fraser University BC, Canada. Awarded March 2016. Duration: 6 months
Best Paper Award (top 1% of papers). ACM conference on Designing Interactive Systems (DIS) in Hong Kong. Awarded June 2018
COST Action CA16121 dissemination grant to present a research paper at the NordiCHI 2018 conference in Oslo, Norway. Awarded October 2018
Swiss National Science Foundation Postdoc.Mobility fellowship to conduct independent research. Awarded: June 2019
Swiss National Science Foundation Open Access book publication grant. Awarded: February 2020
University of Zurich Forschungskredit grant to conduct an independent research study. Awarded: June 2020
COST Action CA16121 dissemination grant for the Sharing Economy Design Cards. Awarded June 2021
Special Recognitions for Outstanding Reviews: ACM CHI 2022, ACM CSCW 2020
Hightech Zentrum Aargau Feasibility study on Design and Evaluation of a Trustworthy Reputation Review System in the Context of Sharing Economy. Awarded: February 2024
InnoSuisse Feasibility Study (Innovation cheque): Fall detection at home for frail older adults living alone. Awarded: July 2024
InnoSuisse Feasibility Study (Innovation cheque): Geospatial AR viewer for QField. Awarded: August 2024
Languages
English – fluent; German, Italian – advanced; Catalan, French – intermediate; Russian – native speaker