User Experience Design and Quality Assurance for products & tools
I bridge the gap between development teams and end users — designing tools and experiences that make complex systems approachable.
FEATURED WORK
Providing definition to Star Engine’s Editor User Experience
I served as a UX Designer within the Core Technology Group at Cloud Imperium Games. I established a UX process where there was none and delivered workflow improvements for the Star Engine Editor and its tools.
The Star Engine is utilized by over 800+ developers globally to power the space sim, Star Citizen.
Collecting Bugs and providing context to Quality Assurance
Utilized by thousands of players, the MMO Ashes of Creation Bug Reporter was in need of minor and major adjustments to help both players and developers gain context to reported issues.
As a Senior member of the Intrepid Studios QA Team, I stepped up to devise an improvement for our in-game reporter aiming to resolve QA’s lack of context issues.
Nice words from others
“Chris and I worked together on Ashes of Creation, on the Systems team. I knew I could always count on him to investigate and surface issues, no matter how obscure. We had more systems under our ownership than I could count and over the course of two years Chris incrementally developed test suites and documentation for many that both he, other internal, and external QA analysts leveraged heavily to ensure our systems' ongoing stability - to this end Chris was essential in our ability to maintain product stability.
- Jake Burdecki, Gameplay Engineer
“Chris is the kind of Senior QA everyone hopes to have - passionate about UI/UX, deeply invested in tools design, and always thinking about how to make things better for the people using them. I worked closely with him on the Systems team while leading embedded QA and managing external testing support. His attention to usability, combined with strong testing instincts, helped streamline test documentation, reduce inefficiencies, and increase overall quality.
- Hector Melendres, QA Manager
”It was a pleasure working with Chris. He is always eager to learn new skills and pro-actively proposes major tool improvements and potential new workflows. Iteratively working together with Chris on new tools feels seamless and is a lot of fun. He was always a highly valuable part of the team and respected across the board. His fast way to adapt, his always positive attitude and his growth into the UX designer position over the years was really impressive.”
- Sascha Hoba, Lead Engineer
“Christopher was an excellent tester who transitioned seamlessly to a Senior role during a very difficult time in development. Personable, professional and accountable, I relied upon Christopher in a variety of capacities on a small test team where he was forced to wear many hats at once. I have full confidence that he would be an asset to any team moving forward given his commitment to hard-work and his dedication to his craft.”
- Vincent Sinatra, QA Manager
MY WORKFLOW
Phase 1
Integration and Discovery
Meet with production and stakeholders to establish initial approaches
Become embedded within a team
Read technical documentation and use team tools
Learn from team members by scheduling individual and group sessions
Record observations to create journey and dependency maps
Evaluate sessions and surface user friction and bugs
Report findings and validate analysis with team
Phase 2
Concept and Development
Concept with Miro, Prototype / Design Systems in Figma
Align with production and stakeholder
Collaborate with production on tasking and implementation
Test changes with Team on secure branch for stability
Absorb feedback and adjust
Test changes with team until determined to meet acceptance criteria
Construct testcase suite with QA for test Automation
Create and distribute user guides
Phase 3
Iteration
Iterate and resolve issues based on wider distribution needs
Evaluate what worked, what didn’t, improve UX pipeline
Move to next team or new tools
Want to work with me?
I am open to US Remote roles, roles in Los Angeles, or roles in Tokyo / Osaka.
Please use my contact information found in my resume or connect with me on LinkedIn and message me!
