Hi, I’m Grace
I’m a graphics designer,UX design researcher, & storyteller.
💡 I create better experiences for users
people.
👋🏼 I’m a qualitative UX design researcher with 10+ years of experience delivering rigorous, insightful results for complex projects with accelerated impact.
👩🏻💻 I'm at my most comfortable when I'm working on data-rich, complex systems in fast-paced environments that challenge me to go outside of my comfort zone. I love applying my insatiable curiosity about the world and passion for learning to improve the lives of others through thoughtful, human-centered UX research and design.
Recent Projects
Increasing Ease of Use of the Canadian Government’s Online Spousal Immigration Application Platform
What happens when the only pathway for Canadians to be reunited with their non-Canadian spouses is through submitting an application via a government platform that is not easy to navigate, and which puts applicants at risk of being flagged for fraud or misrepresentation?
I was funded by the Canadian government to conduct research for this high stakes project. I use ethnography, usability testing, survey design and analysis, in-depth 1:1 interviews, and affinity mapping to explore ways of increasing ease of use of the Canadian government’s online spousal application platform and offer actionable insights to bridge educational, language, and income barriers to accessing one of Canada’s largest, most convoluted online immigration platforms.
Increasing Conversion Rates
InkbyMi’s founder made a post that went viral. Overnight, the company experienced rapid, unprecedented growth. I worked cross-functionally with InkbyMi’s sales and marketing, design, and photography team to conduct a competitive, cross-comparative analysis between Etsy and Shopify as e-commerce providers, and concluded that Shopify offered InkbyMi the scalability, customization, and resources to ensure customer loyalty that would match InkbyMi’s ever-growing consumer base and product line. My research insights ultimately helped to increase InkbyMi’s conversion rates by over 50%.
Optimizing Charity Platform Usability*
In 2016, Remi Yusuf, a former professional NBA player, founded Be a 9th Wonder Foundation — a non-profit that provides youth with crucial mentorship, life skills, and sports skills development. I was honoured to have been approached by Remi to lead the user research for his charity’s platform, which has not been updated infrastructurally since the platform was first launched several years ago.
Working with various stakeholders and board members, my research for this project draws on rigorous UX methods to explore ways to optimize the charity platform, making the charity’s mission statement clearer for those who wish to be a part of it.
*Project currently in progress, with identifying details withheld until launch of website redesign. Please email me for further details.
My Approach
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Everyone Has a Story
I believe that everyone has a story to share. Unpacking these stories with empathy is really important to me as a researcher. From crafting user personas to conducting in-depth 1:1 interviews, I pay attention to the nuanced details in people’s narratives. I read between the lines to translate their motivations, fears, and aspirations into actionable insights.
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Cultivate Curiosity and Creativity
I’m compelled by an unsatiable curiosity to ask questions and explore answers. With a Ph.D. in Criminology and Sociolegal Studies, I’m an expert in human decision-making, and excel at researching the human mind using creative and innovative methods. Through rigorous training, I’ve refined the art of asking ‘Whys,’ and have a proven track record of surfacing high-level themes that shape and inform product features and company strategy.
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Learning is a Lifelong Process
I value education in any shape and size that it may take, whether it be formal, informal, or via digital spaces…life is too short to not make learning a lifelong and multidisciplinary process. I’m constantly looking for ways to share and expand knowledge in collaboration with others. I love reading books and blogs, attending conferences, going to Meetups, taking online classes, and dabbling in trivia nights that challenge me to constantly expand my horizons!
👍 Testimonials
“Hiring Grace as our team’s UX Researcher was one of the best decisions that I ever made. She’s unbelievably creative and intelligent, and super cross-functional- everyone from our sales person to our design lead to our photographer just loved working with her! Within 2 weeks, she’d drafted personas and conducted usability studies to evaluate different prototypes for our selling platform, giving us data-driven comparisons between selling on Etsy versus Shopify. Within 3 weeks, she had design solutions ready-to-go: her research boosted our product and company’s sales by over 50%! Thanks so much, Grace, for your amazing work!”
— Aimi Tran, Founder of InkbyMi
“Grace is a tenacious, inventive, and thoughtful researcher. I have modelled my own research projects after hers, having learned first-hand from having read her work that she is able to ask deep, meaningful questions and draw important conclusions using qualitative research methods. Beyond being an excellent researcher, Grace is also a gifted writer who is able to package her findings in a way that is both clear and informative as well as inticing.”
— Giancarlo Fiorella, Senior Researcher and Open-Source Investigator/Research Trainer for Bellingcat
“As a start-up, it was essential that I hired someone who understood my visions and goals for my company. Grace knew how to translate my abstract visions into concrete, actionable steps. She paid attention to both the bigger picture of what I wanted, and the finer details. Her thorough understanding of the UX research and design process is insane! Watching her work her magic with her user research really set the successful foundations for my start-up. I now have a much better understanding, through the personas she created, of who my target user is. I look forward to working with her again, and highly recommend her to anyone.”
— Jason Luu, Salesforce Consultant at NuBik/ Founder of Bounce Apparel
“It’s no surprise that Grace is such an in-demand researcher. She is brilliant, and has advised me on several high-stakes research projects. Each time I work with with her, I’m reminded of how she embodies what every exceptional researcher should be: thoughtful, dynamic, empathetic, and able to think outside the box. She has a truly collaborative spirit and goes above and beyond in advocating for users and participants’ experiences. Grace can lead projects, manage them, and engage with different teams while providing mentorship and advice to those who need it. I have learned so much from her expertise - plus she’s fun to work with!”