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Hire Dr. Mel K.

United States

USD 50 /hr

Freelance User Researcher | 10+ years experience aross games and behavioral sciences (ex-Microsoft, Columbia U, Duke U)

Profile Summary

PhD-trained behavioral scientist specializing in the evaluation of user and community experiences. Four years of recent experience leading research projects in the gaming space at Microsoft Xbox. Led 50+ studies across multiple game studios and AAA titles, with deep expertise in various feature spaces: player onboarding, live-service product strategy, monetization flows, purchase UX, and the usability of complex interactive systems. Built and owned Xbox Research's cross-studio benchmark program, with scores feeding directly into launch readiness decisions for flagship titles. Experienced with both qualitative methods (moderated/unmoderated usability testing, interviews, diary studies, workshops) and quantitative (psychometric validation, survey design, statistical inference, segmentation). Built LLM-assisted research workflows for competitor analysis and large-scale thematic synthesis. Former academic (Ph.D. in Neuroscience) with 8+ years in neuroscience, psychology, and economics research experience at New York University, Duke University, and Columbia University. Research foci include consumer decision-making, risk perception, visual preference, and aesthetic judgment. Published 20+ peer-reviewed articles (2,400+ citations) in journals including the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and Nature Communications. Available to consult on: games industry research, UX research methods and strategy, usability studies, survey design and psychometric validation, AI-assisted research workflows, behavioral science applications in product development.

Subject Matter Expertise

• ★ Data Visualization
• ★ Survey Design & Methodology
• ★ User Research
• ☆ Data Analysis
• ☆ Statistics
• ☆ Survey Design
• ☆ Human Behavior & Psychology
• ☆ Quantitative User Research
• ☆ Qualitative User Research
• ☆ Consumer Products

Services

• Writing
• Research
• Consulting
• Data & AI
• Product Development

Writing Technical Writing, Copywriting, Creative Writing

Research Market Research, User Research, Scientific and Technical Research

Consulting Digital Strategy Consulting

Data & AI Predictive Modeling, Statistical Analysis, Data Visualization, Big Data Analytics

Product Development Product Evaluation, Product Validation

Work Experience

User Researcher

Microsoft

November 2021 - August 2025

Postdoctoral Research Associate

Duke University

September 2018 - November 2021

Associate Research Scientist -- Art, Humanities, and Neuroscience

Columbia University

January 2018 - August 2018

Postdoctoral Research Scholar

Columbia University

September 2015 - December 2017

Education

Neuroscience

New York University

September 2011 - August 2015

Psychology

University of Arizona

January 2009 - August 2010

Certifications

• Certification details not provided.

Publications

JOURNAL ARTICLE

Mel W. Khaw, Ronald van den Berg, Luminita Stevens, Michael Woodford(2021). Individual differences in the perception of probability . PLOS Computational Biology. 17. (4). Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Localization.LocalizedHtmlString e1008871. Public Library of Science ({PLoS})

Khaw MW, Nichols P, Freedberg D(2020). Uncertainty-based overestimation in the perception of group actions . Vision research.

Mel Win Khaw and Ziang Li and Michael Woodford(2020). Cognitive Imprecision and Small-Stakes Risk Aversion . The Review of Economic Studies. Oxford University Press ({OUP})

Khaw MW, Nichols P, Freedberg D(2019). Speed of person perception affects immediate and ongoing aesthetic evaluation . Acta psychologica.

Khaw MW, Li Z, Woodford M(2018). Temporal Discounting and Search Habits: Evidence for a Task-Dependent Relationship . Frontiers in psychology.

Khaw MW, Freedberg D(2018). Continuous aesthetic judgment of image sequences . Acta psychologica.

Khaw MW, Glimcher PW, Louie K(2017). Normalized value coding explains dynamic adaptation in the human valuation process . Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

Khaw MW, Stevens L, Woodford M(2017). Forecasting the outcome of a time-varying Bernoulli process: Data from a laboratory experiment . Data in brief.

Bornstein AM, Khaw MW, Shohamy D, Daw ND(2017). Reminders of past choices bias decisions for reward in humans . Nature communications.

Khaw MW, Grab DA, Livermore MA, Vossler CA, Glimcher PW(2015). The Measurement of Subjective Value and Its Relation to Contingent Valuation and Environmental Public Goods . PloS one.

Louie K, Khaw MW, Glimcher PW(2013). Normalization is a general neural mechanism for context-dependent decision making . Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

Chang LJ, Yarkoni T, Khaw MW, Sanfey AG(2012). Decoding the role of the insula in human cognition: functional parcellation and large-scale reverse inference . Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991).

REPORT

Mel Win Khaw and Ziang Li and Michael Woodford(2018). Cognitive Imprecision and Small-Stakes Risk Aversion . National Bureau of Economic Research. National Bureau of Economic Research

Mel Win Khaw and Ziang Li and Michael Woodford(2017). Risk Aversion as a Perceptual Bias . National Bureau of Economic Research. National Bureau of Economic Research

PREPRINT

Bornstein AM, Khaw MW, Shohamy D, Daw ND(2015). Reminders of past choices bias decisions for reward in humans .