Hello.
I'm Mahsa.
I'm a User Experience Researcher. I turn open business questions into studies teams can act on — and make the evidence outlive the readout.
See my case studies
Quick links
How I work
- 01
Frame the real problem
I start from the growth or trust problem the team is stuck on — an engagement ceiling, an abandoned checkout, an AI feature nobody trusts — and turn it into research questions a study can actually close.
- 02
Triangulate methods
Behavioural and quantitative data locate where things break; interviews, usability sessions and journey mapping explain why. I run them deliberately together, not sequentially, so each one shapes the next instrument.
- 03
Follow the contradiction
The most useful finding is usually where sources disagree — stated privacy concerns versus untouched defaults. I present the contradiction as the central insight instead of smoothing it into an average.
- 04
Turn evidence into specs
Findings land as validated design specs, principles and trust models engineering can build once and configure per market — with limits, scope and the decisions they informed written down.
Selected case studies
How I embedded behavioral research into sprint decisions, and what I found that no dashboard could surface, across a 3M+ user e-commerce platform
Beyond A/B Testing: Building a Real-Time Research Engine for a Live Platform Redesign
A six-month, mixed-methods research programme run alongside a live full-platform migration: a seven-stage continuous cycle that fed funnel data, heatmaps and usability sessions straight into bi-weekly product decisions.
- Mixed methods
- Funnel analysis
- Hotjar heatmaps & recordings
- Usability testing (36 participants)
- Surveys (5,000+ responses)
- Continuous metric optimisation
What 1,500 users across three countries revealed about why ‘more privacy controls’ is the wrong answer
Architecting Trust and Engagement in a Multinational Social Network
An 11-week parallel mixed-methods programme across Canada, the Netherlands and Italy that mapped the cultural architecture of trust and reframed the MVP from “more controls” to “better defaults”.
- Semi-structured interviews (39 total)
- Large-scale survey (1,500+ respondents)
- Trust-scenario usability tests
- Privacy mental model mapping
- Competitive & cultural analysis
How identifying 4 trust failures reduced call center contacts by 31% and increased checkout conversion by 19%
Building Trust in High-Stakes Hybrid Services: The iToll Vehicle Handover Story
A trust-focused research programme on a hybrid digital–physical service: users had to hand a high-value car to a stranger. Call center intercepts, heatmaps and a heuristic audit produced a three-layer handover model.
- Call center intercepts (35 users)
- Session recordings & heatmaps
- Heuristic evaluation
- Behavioral audit
- Literature review
- Concept testing
How a pre-launch ethics foundation kept a conversational AI a self-help companion, not a therapist
Designing a “Step Zero” for Responsible AI in a Mental Health App
A pre-launch, no-users research foundation for a conversational mental health AI: expert walkthroughs of scripted dialogs, simulated user perspectives, an ethical language checklist, and a conversation contract designed into the product.
- Expert walkthroughs of scripted conversations
- Simulated user perspectives (through experts)
- Literature & responsible-AI guidance review
- Public discourse scan (X/Twitter, Reddit)
- Ethical language checklist
A privacy-first HCI study in which methodological restraint was part of the research quality
Researching Trauma-Informed Social Media Without Compromising Participant Safety
A concise academic case study on conducting trauma-informed social-media research through interviews and a bilingual survey while minimising participant exposure and retaining no identifying data.
- Bilingual survey
- Semi-structured interviews
- Iterative thematic analysis
- Low-fidelity prototyping
- Expert walkthroughs
Research toolkit
- Interviews & Usability Testing
- Moderated sessions end to end — from multinational social-network research at Together to validating the One Thing habit MVP against primary interviews.
- Behavioural & Product Analytics
- Live platform data at Okala's real-time research engine, plus Microsoft Clarity, Google Analytics and Hotjar. Certified: Product Analytics Micro-Certification (PAC)™, Product School.
- Mixed Methods & Survey Design
- Quantitative instruments designed and analysed honestly, combined with qual — as in the iToll high-stakes handover study. Course: UX Research — Overcoming Data Anxiety (LinkedIn).
- Behavioural Science & Trust
- Cognitive psychology and human decision-making applied to trust architecture — the thread through my Step Zero AI and functional-friction work.
- CRO & Experimentation
- Conversion research, A/B testing and funnel evidence — applied in the Okala redesign and across experimentation programmes.
- AI-Assisted Research & Prompt Engineering
- Claude and Gemini as analysis partners — from macro-scale social-signal synthesis to iterating research instruments. Certified: Introduction to Prompt Engineering for Generative AI (LinkedIn).
Selected articles
View all articles“When a product outsources the user's decision-making process entirely, eliminating friction ceases to be a design achievement and becomes a product risk.”
When Friction Is Functional: Designing Intentional Boundaries in AI Products
AI products & boundaries · 6 min read
“The first step to becoming a professional researcher is accepting that the player's brain is not a flawless machine — it is an evolved system optimized for saving energy and resources.”
The Gamer's Brain: How Neuroscience and UX Make You a Better Game Researcher
Neuroscience & game research · 5 min read
“Peripheral vision affects our emotions, and our emotions affect our choices — every decision on a screen starts with watching.”
Have You Ever Thought About the Effect of Visual Perception on Your Design?
Visual perception · 5 min read
“User research is where you will uncover or validate the user needs which should form the basis of what you are designing.”
How to Have a Good UX Research
Research practice · 4 min read