Projects

UX Research at Google

Throughout my roles at Google, I have exercised many methodologies from card-sorting, to qualitative interviewing, to survey design, that have heightened my skills as a User Experience Researcher. I have learned how to effectively communicate with stakeholders, take ownership of important projects to drive impactful research forward, and evangelize research findings to the larger product teams. Learn more about my projects below!

Masters Thesis

Throughout the second year of my masters program, I chose the Masters Thesis Option Program for my capstone project at the School of Information. Utilizing my background in communication studies, I chose to research computer-mediated communication in online dating settings — specifically, how users interpret the authenticity of their interactions and how third party influence may affect presentation and expression of self.

Usability Research & Assessment Work

During my Winter semester at the University of Michigan School of Information, I worked as a UX Student Researcher for SunPort, a smart-plug device and mobile application used to track solar energy use. Working with four other students under the name "Team Sol", we spent the semester assessing SunPort's current and potential features via an Interaction Map, Competitive Analysis, Qualitative Interviews, Survey, Heuristic Evaluation, and finally, Usability Tests.  

Programming Experience

Throughout my masters program, I challenged myself to a number of programming courses, starting with the basics of Python, and eventually building an entire site using the Django web framework, knowledge of SQL for the database-powered backend, and skills with HTML and CSS to design the front end. I also built a program that scraped and crawled a local museum’s online collection of artwork to create a database of the artwork in the collection, and then represented various visualizations of the artwork represented, using SELECT statements, Plotly graphs, and other techniques. Finally, I worked with a group of students to create a “mobile application for space travelers” in primarily TypeScript using Ionic and Firebase.  

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Information Consulting & Contextual Inquiry

One of my favorite classes at the University of Michigan School of Information was Contextual Inquiry and Consulting Foundations, where my team and I were assigned a client with an information-related problem and tasked to find and work towards implementing solutions over the course of the semester. 

Throughout the process, I learned a great deal about consulting methodologies, the inner-workings of our client's daily office culture through ethnographic research, and crucial interviewing and analysis techniques that I am now able to apply to future projects. 

Interaction Design Coursework

Throughout the semester in Interaction Design, I chose to address a problem I found quite prevalent in the building where I live. In this course, I worked on developing and designing a prototype for a mobile application as a solution to this problem. Alongside many thoughtful readings about the interactive design process, I created a workflow, a competitive analysis, user personas, sketches, and other materials to help contribute to and set a foundation for my final prototype. 

Vehicle Cost Analyses

Have you ever wondered exactly how much you spend on your vehicle each year, or in total? As the Marketing Coordinator at  Vincentric, an automotive data-analytics firm located in metro-Detroit, I used vehicle cost-of-ownership data to determine answers to that question for virtually all small to light duty vehicles in the United States and Canada. During my year at the company, I produced six different analyses in total that each compared hybrid or diesel vehicles to their all-gasoline-powered counterparts in terms of overall ownership costs in either U.S. or Canadian dollars. Using skills with data analytics, Microsoft Excel, and informative writing, I created comparison tables and associated write-ups that were distributed to the public via the Vincentric website. 

Albion College Honors Thesis

Titled, "Albion and its Sister Cities: Communication Accommodation Theory and the Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity Portrayed Through an International Partnership", my thesis examined the context and history surrounding the Noisy-le-Roi/Bailly, France and Albion, Michigan partnership along with the intercultural relationships that form as a result of frequent exchanges. 

I collected data by way of surveys and qualitative interviews, then analyzed my findings using intercultural communication theories as a framework for determining how these relationships came to form. Throughout the research process I learned a great deal about each city while connecting with fascinating people from around the world.