Research that ships on schedule, on budget, and on target.
Benjamin Gonzalez — Senior UX Researcher, 10+ years across healthcare, academic publishing, and government systems. I scope, plan, and run research end to end — recruitment, timeline, stakeholder alignment, delivery — matching methodology to the constraints a project actually has.
Positioning
Research, planned and run like a project
A study is only as good as the plan behind it. Scoping the right method for the timeline, coordinating the people who need to be in the room, and keeping delivery on track are as much a part of the work as the research itself.
Scoping & planning
Choosing between a two-week RITE cycle and a longer contextual study is a judgment call about the timeline and budget a project actually has, made up front.
On-time delivery
Sequencing recruitment, testing, and design reviews so a hard deadline gets met without cutting rigor — the schedule is part of the deliverable.
Cross-functional coordination
Aligning clinical, technical, and executive stakeholders — and, on multi-team projects, coordinating around each team's own calendar — so findings land and get acted on.
AI-assisted workflow
How AI actually shows up in my research
Not a resume keyword — a step in the synthesis pipeline on current engagements. In my work at ICF/Semanticbits, AI-supported pattern detection and thematic clustering help turn interview transcripts and workflow notes into a first-pass set of candidate themes, which I then validate against the source material before they become design recommendations.
Interview transcripts and workflow notes are gathered across CMS entity models — the unfiltered input to synthesis.
Pattern detection and thematic clustering surface a first-pass set of candidate themes and pain points.
Candidate themes are checked against the transcripts and turned into design recommendations for stakeholders.
Case studies
Three constraints, three research strategies
A hard deadline, a missing metric, and undocumented complexity — each called for a different research strategy rather than a standard playbook.
Want the full portfolio?
The complete case study deck, with process detail and visuals, is available as a password-protected PDF. Email me for access.
Situation
An inherited clinician dashboard had never been tested with real clinicians before a scheduled hospital deployment, with two weeks on the clock.
Approach
Ran RITE cycles — test, review, iterate, retest — with 18 clinicians across 10 days, making design changes between sessions instead of waiting for a full round to conclude.
Outcome
Delivered a clinically validated dashboard ready for deployment inside the two-week window. Clinicians reported the interface aligned with their existing EHR workflows.
Situation
The platform tracked brand sentiment through NPS but had no data on task-level usability for a research tool used across 20M+ articles.
Approach
Introduced the System Usability Scale, partnered with Elsevier's Research & Academic Relations Group to reach existing user panels, and gathered 94 responses against a target of 71 needed for statistical confidence.
Outcome
Established a usability baseline of 69.3 — just above the industry average of 68 — giving the team its first quantitative basis for prioritizing usability work.
Situation
Multiple teams handled overlapping payment rules differently, with the logic living in undocumented, team-specific knowledge ahead of a legacy-to-modern platform migration.
Approach
Interviewed stakeholders across teams, mapped workflows and cross-team dependencies, and translated the findings into process documentation engineering could implement directly.
Outcome
Gave engineering a shared reference for logic that had previously existed only in individual team members' heads, reducing the risk of migration errors touching a nationwide payment system.
Capabilities
Methods, measurement, and tools
Discovery
Validation
Measurement
AI-assisted workflow
Project management
Research log
Founder & Researcher
Designed and built a searchable archive of 150+ Latino and Hispanic figures in American history end to end, from information architecture through deployment.
Senior UX Researcher
Leads qualitative research across CMS entity models, pairing AI-assisted synthesis with Matomo analytics to support mixed-methods, data-informed decisions.
UX Researcher (Contract)
Led RITE testing across multiple Google Maps verticals to inform feature prioritization and UI improvements.
Senior UX Researcher (Contract)
Ran design sprints with attorneys and built personas and journey maps for an AI-powered legal drafting tool.
UX Researcher (Contract)
Led accessibility research with participants 65+, informing a senior-friendly design strategy adopted across three product lines.
UX Researcher / Consultant
Delivered research strategy and prototypes across healthcare, finance, and e-commerce clients.
Senior UX Designer / Researcher
Introduced remote usability testing and diary studies; led qualitative research across North America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific.
Education & certifications
Foundations
Degree
MPS, Human-Computer Interaction
New York University — Interactive Telecommunications Program
Degree
BA, History
Hunter College, CUNY
Certification
UX Research Certification
Nielsen Norman Group — ID 1030194
Certification
Web Analytics Certification
Matomo, via Udemy