Stefan Choo

I am a Qualitative Researcher with interests in designing for mental health and wellbeing of people in everyday contexts. In my PhD, I employed qualitative research to observe and interpret how listeners embody interactions with music in laboratory and train commute (on-the-go) via combinations of wearables- headphones and haptics. I  employed interpretive coding and thematic analyses to unpack relationships between a listener’s lived experiences and wellbeing on train commutes to wearables they use in tuning-in to music to tune out. 

AGL.SG, Singapore                                                                                                                             Oct 22 – Jan 23

UX Researcher

I was a UX researcher with a digital start-up agency- Advance, Grow, Lead (AGL) Singapore.  In my role, I scoped, translated and bridged research findings from market research and similar UX research projects that studied commercial tenants' behaviour and interactions with digital Apps.

• Scoped research questions and conducting desk research for UI/UX projects across 3 phases of design sprints in redesigning a property developer’s mobile Application.
• Conducted field observations of public/ tenant’s registration and entry flows at commercial buildings owned/ managed by competitors to complement/ challenge findings from desk research.

Facebook, Singapore                                                                                                      (Contract) Mar 15 – Aug 15

Product Support Analyst

I served as a contractor to the Facebook Ad Operations Team. My primary duties involved corresponding filed bug reports with known use cases of specific products on knowledge databases. For novel errors, I conducted usability tests in retracing user error pathways before triaging issues to Product Managers. 

• Triaged bug reports filed by sales operation teams from North America (NA) and APAC, and Europe.
• Affinity- mapped trends of bug reports, attributing failure to Advertisement (Ad.) types. For example, 55% of Ad. delivery failures attributed to the Boosted Ads.
• Facilitated training with Sales Ops team representatives. I guided them on walkthroughs of user product confusions and known issues to resolve their clients’ bugs upstream. These interventions correlated with positive behavior change: reduced erroneous bug reports filed due to confusion.

National University of Singapore, Singapore                                                               (Contract) Aug 10 – May 12

Graduate Tutor

I served as graduate tutor for the Department of Mechanical Engineering, NUS while pursuing my Masters. One of my highlights was entailed co-designing Laboratory curriculum and conducting tutorials for the pioneer batch of Design Centric Curriculum students.

• Co-designed and conducted tutorials in 3D Computer-Aided Design using SolidWorks, with scenario-based learning that approximated design briefs and changes from industry clients. Students demonstrated competencies in adapting design for manufacturing, and design for change. 
• Facilitated active discussion for industrial motors laboratory session, with the use of Storytelling techniques. 80% of the students were able to complete the experiments in a shorter timeframe with less operational errors.
• Designed and conducted tutorials for basic 3-axis milling and turning Computer Aided Manufacturing methods with SolidCAM Software. Several students’ feedback that they enjoyed my pedagogy complimented with the software’s real -time visual simulation of user defined machining processes.

Doctor of Philosophy (Creative Industries)                                                                                       Feb 2023

Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia

QUTPRA Scholarship and Tuition Fee Sponsorship (AU $26,682/ year), President of Meditation Yoga Time Club (2019), QUT Student Champion of the Year (Gold Ranking) (2018), QUT Sports Club Award (2018) 

Masters of Engineering                                                                                                                      2013    

National University of Singapore, Singapore

Bachelors of Engineering (Mechanical Engineering) (3rd class Hons.)                                             2004    

National University of Singapore, Singapore

CERTIFICATIONS

Graduate Certificate in Management of Technology                                                                       2011
National University of Singapore, Singapore