UX Researcher & Product Designer
Product Designer at SideKix. Twenty years of behavioral research behind it — a PhD in cognitive psychology, a decade as principal investigator, and published work on how people make judgments under uncertainty.
Steven A. Berg, PhD
Steven A. Berg, PhD
UX Researcher & Product Designer
Product Designer at SideKix. Twenty years of behavioral research behind it — a PhD in cognitive psychology, a decade as principal investigator, and published work on how people make judgments under uncertainty.
UX Researcher & Product Designer
Product Designer at SideKix. Twenty years of behavioral research behind it — a PhD in cognitive psychology, a decade as principal investigator, and published work on how people make judgments under uncertainty.
HOW I GOT HERE
I joined SideKix HQ, Inc. as a product design intern in March 2026 and was a product designer by April, responsible for the design system (tokens, components, iconography, type scale, color palette, and motion) of an AI-powered SaaS platform and the audit of its mobile app against WCAG 2.1 AA. I now lead a design team of up to seven designers. I scope design tasks, write acceptance criteria with the rest of the leadership team, and keep the backlog; in weekly stand-ups and design critiques, I give feedback, clear blockers, and bring back guidance from the leadership meetings. I also work daily with engineering on interaction patterns, component specs, and handoffs. My research presentations to executives shaped the roadmap on membership pricing, learning modules, and onboarding.
I came to design through research. For over eight years at The Pennsylvania State University, I served as an assistant teaching professor and laboratory director. As principal investigator, I conducted controlled experiments on how people perceive, interpret, and act on information (3–5 research assistants and ~200 participants per semester). I also directed research operations for the department's participant pool: ~35 research assistants and ~500 participants per semester, under IRB protocols I developed and administered, with data governance and confidentiality controls throughout. Further, I taught, advised, and mentored ~2,500 Penn State students. Advising is one part that transfers: recurring one-to-one guidance, being accountable for other people’s work, and performing the role over many years. So does running the participant pool, where no study went live until I had verified its IRB approval. That’s why leading a design team, from scoping its tasks to running its critiques, feels like familiar territory. Before that, two years as an assistant professor at Arkansas Tech conducting mixed-methods experimental research.
Prior to my time as a professor, I conducted graduate-level laboratory studies at the University at Buffalo beginning in 2006, and ran the lab itself from 2009 — training and supervising its research assistants. I became a researcher through a master’s, a doctorate, and the years of learning to develop a scientific investigation that survives contact with real participants. Designing protocols, recruiting participants, performing analyses, defending the conclusions to people who act on them, and running the team that conducted all of it — that’s user research by a different name.
HOW I GOT HERE
I joined SideKix HQ, Inc. as a product design intern in March 2026 and was a product designer by April, responsible for the design system (tokens, components, iconography, type scale, color palette, and motion) of an AI-powered SaaS platform and the audit of its mobile app against WCAG 2.1 AA. I now lead a design team of up to seven designers. I scope design tasks, write acceptance criteria with the rest of the leadership team, and keep the backlog; in weekly stand-ups and design critiques, I give feedback, clear blockers, and bring back guidance from the leadership meetings. I also work daily with engineering on interaction patterns, component specs, and handoffs. My research presentations to executives shaped the roadmap on membership pricing, learning modules, and onboarding.
I came to design through research. For over eight years at The Pennsylvania State University, I served as an assistant teaching professor and laboratory director. As principal investigator, I conducted controlled experiments on how people perceive, interpret, and act on information (3–5 research assistants and ~200 participants per semester). I also directed research operations for the department's participant pool: ~35 research assistants and ~500 participants per semester, under IRB protocols I developed and administered, with data governance and confidentiality controls throughout. Further, I taught, advised, and mentored ~2,500 Penn State students. Advising is one part that transfers: recurring one-to-one guidance, being accountable for other people’s work, and performing the role over many years. So does running the participant pool, where no study went live until I had verified its IRB approval. That’s why leading a design team, from scoping its tasks to running its critiques, feels like familiar territory. Before that, two years as an assistant professor at Arkansas Tech conducting mixed-methods experimental research.
Prior to my time as a professor, I conducted graduate-level laboratory studies at the University at Buffalo beginning in 2006, and ran the lab itself from 2009 — training and supervising its research assistants. I became a researcher through a master’s, a doctorate, and the years of learning to develop a scientific investigation that survives contact with real participants. Designing protocols, recruiting participants, performing analyses, defending the conclusions to people who act on them, and running the team that conducted all of it — that’s user research by a different name.
HOW I GOT HERE
I joined SideKix HQ, Inc. as a product design intern in March 2026 and was a product designer by April, responsible for the design system (tokens, components, iconography, type scale, color palette, and motion) of an AI-powered SaaS platform and the audit of its mobile app against WCAG 2.1 AA. I now lead a design team of up to seven designers. I scope design tasks, write acceptance criteria with the rest of the leadership team, and keep the backlog; in weekly stand-ups and design critiques, I give feedback, clear blockers, and bring back guidance from the leadership meetings. I also work daily with engineering on interaction patterns, component specs, and handoffs. My research presentations to executives shaped the roadmap on membership pricing, learning modules, and onboarding.
I came to design through research. For over eight years at The Pennsylvania State University, I served as an assistant teaching professor and laboratory director. As principal investigator, I conducted controlled experiments on how people perceive, interpret, and act on information (3–5 research assistants and ~200 participants per semester). I also directed research operations for the department's participant pool: ~35 research assistants and ~500 participants per semester, under IRB protocols I developed and administered, with data governance and confidentiality controls throughout. Further, I taught, advised, and mentored ~2,500 Penn State students. Advising is one part that transfers: recurring one-to-one guidance, being accountable for other people’s work, and performing the role over many years. So does running the participant pool, where no study went live until I had verified its IRB approval. That’s why leading a design team, from scoping its tasks to running its critiques, feels like familiar territory. Before that, two years as an assistant professor at Arkansas Tech conducting mixed-methods experimental research.
Prior to my time as a professor, I conducted graduate-level laboratory studies at the University at Buffalo beginning in 2006, and ran the lab itself from 2009 — training and supervising its research assistants. I became a researcher through a master’s, a doctorate, and the years of learning to develop a scientific investigation that survives contact with real participants. Designing protocols, recruiting participants, performing analyses, defending the conclusions to people who act on them, and running the team that conducted all of it — that’s user research by a different name.
PRODUCT DESIGN MEETS BEHAVIORAL SCIENCE
My research covers two mechanisms that permeate most of product design:
Judgment under uncertainty — My published work shows that uncertain people fail to disregard anchor information even when instructed to ignore it. That unfolds everywhere a product shapes a decision before the person notices making one, such as price anchoring, default pre-selections, and form-field priming.
Word recognition — My doctorate is in cognitive psychology, concentrated in psycholinguistics: how people perceive and recognize words, and how someone’s existing vocabulary competes against new input. Scanning an interface is that task. A nav bar isn’t read, it’s recognized. Every complex product imposes a lexicon (workspace, board, object, epic). Users have to acquire it while their existing vocabulary vies for recognition — the same mechanistic competition, in a different setting. That’s labeling, information architecture, and onboarding.
Together, they cover what a user is likely to do and what a user understands well enough to do it.
PRODUCT DESIGN MEETS BEHAVIORAL SCIENCE
My research covers two mechanisms that permeate most of product design:
Judgment under uncertainty — My published work shows that uncertain people fail to disregard anchor information even when instructed to ignore it. That unfolds everywhere a product shapes a decision before the person notices making one, such as price anchoring, default pre-selections, and form-field priming.
Word recognition — My doctorate is in cognitive psychology, concentrated in psycholinguistics: how people perceive and recognize words, and how someone’s existing vocabulary competes against new input. Scanning an interface is that task. A nav bar isn’t read, it’s recognized. Every complex product imposes a lexicon (workspace, board, object, epic). Users have to acquire it while their existing vocabulary vies for recognition — the same mechanistic competition, in a different setting. That’s labeling, information architecture, and onboarding.
Together, they cover what a user is likely to do and what a user understands well enough to do it.
PRODUCT DESIGN MEETS BEHAVIORAL SCIENCE
My research covers two mechanisms that permeate most of product design:
Judgment under uncertainty — My published work shows that uncertain people fail to disregard anchor information even when instructed to ignore it. That unfolds everywhere a product shapes a decision before the person notices making one, such as price anchoring, default pre-selections, and form-field priming.
Word recognition — My doctorate is in cognitive psychology, concentrated in psycholinguistics: how people perceive and recognize words, and how someone’s existing vocabulary competes against new input. Scanning an interface is that task. A nav bar isn’t read, it’s recognized. Every complex product imposes a lexicon (workspace, board, object, epic). Users have to acquire it while their existing vocabulary vies for recognition — the same mechanistic competition, in a different setting. That’s labeling, information architecture, and onboarding.
Together, they cover what a user is likely to do and what a user understands well enough to do it.
I hold a PhD in cognitive psychology from the University at Buffalo. In 2026, I completed Google’s UX Design Professional Certificate as well as Google's AI Professional Certificate (because moving a research career into design practice deserved formal grounding in the craft, not just the assumption it would transfer).
What I’m seeking: UX research and design roles on products where people learn an unfamiliar system or decide without full information. Onboarding, pricing, defaults, labeling, and the trust signals behind AI recommendations. My published work examines why instructing someone to ignore information doesn’t prevent it from influencing their reasoning and decision-making behavior. I’ve moved from documenting that signal to designing around it.
Google AI Professional Certificate, 2026
(https://coursera.org/verify/professional-cert/UDWWGN5HAT9X)
Google UX Design Professional Certificate, 2026
(https://coursera.org/verify/professional-cert/MBN0NAW4TZC2)
AI-Powered Design & Creative Tools Specialization, 2026
(https://coursera.org/verify/specialization/KCIOLCUMU8AX)
I hold a PhD in cognitive psychology from the University at Buffalo. In 2026, I completed Google’s UX Design Professional Certificate as well as Google's AI Professional Certificate (because moving a research career into design practice deserved formal grounding in the craft, not just the assumption it would transfer).
What I’m seeking: UX research and design roles on products where people learn an unfamiliar system or decide without full information. Onboarding, pricing, defaults, labeling, and the trust signals behind AI recommendations. My published work examines why instructing someone to ignore information doesn’t prevent it from influencing their reasoning and decision-making behavior. I’ve moved from documenting that signal to designing around it.
