A Bit About Me
👩🏻💻 FROM STORYTELLING & ASKING “WHY” TO UXR
My journey as a UX Researcher and social scientist began from 3 childhood hobbies: storytelling, asking "why," and teaching myself how to code to make my virtual Neopets' storefront more engaging (thank you, Neopets!)
With 10+ years of extensive and rigorous research experience under my belt, I have a demonstrated and proven track record of helping a diverse range of start-ups, charities, and larger organizations and companies realize their full potential through data-driven research and design to deliver empathetic insights with accelerated impact and results. Having refined the art of asking "whys," I enjoy applying my unsatiated curiosity about the human condition and passion for learning to improve the lives of others through thoughtful, human-centered research.
🔎 ETHNOGRAPHY & QUALITATIVE METHODS ARE MY BREAD & BUTTER
As the daughter of refugees and published author, my interest in the social sciences stemmed from my passion for understanding how people from all walks of life and cultures experience technology and how those experiences shape their lives. his became especially clear to me when, the year before my Ph.D. program began, my best friend and I backpacked through various parts of Europe and Asia. As I interacted with locals and befriended fellow travelers at the hostels we stayed in, I was struck by how differently people around the world engaged with technology, and the capacity for various technologies to mediate their everyday lives. As part of my Ph.D. program in Criminology and Sociolegal Studies, I designed and managed an award-winning 18-month ethnographic field research project across Canada, US, and Vietnam on human decision-making and technologies of migration.
🕵🏻♀️ WHAT DOES CRIMINOLOGY HAVE TO DO WITH UX?
As a trained criminologist, I have extensive experience conducting international and cross-cultural research on and with highly complex systems and vulnerable, marginalized populations, from high-security prisons and serial killers to perpetrators of marriage fraud. In other words, I understand the importance of conducting rigorous research in a way that respects the stories and experiences of people from all walks of life and deciphering their needs, wants, and motivations and translating them into actionable insights without judgement. I’ve been awarded over $120,000 in research grants and scholarships by various institutions to support my research endeavors. During my doctoral training, I transcribed 85+ interviews, 1,500+ hours of participant observation, and informal interviews.
💡 So why the transition from academia to UX? My training as a social scientist and researcher on a wide breadth of human-centered research projects helped me develop a strong appreciation for and understanding of the iterative research and design process. I excel in multi-disciplinary, cross-functional collaboration, working across different teams to manage and self-drive projects that cater to and balance both user and stakeholder needs with finesse. UX enables me to leverage my analytical, creative, and extensive research skills to make others' lives better.
What user experience research challenges are you facing? Feel free to drop me a line!
👋🏻 Chat with me about…
Exploring the Mekong Delta on my backpacking trip across Southeast Asia. Fun fact: the incredible Vietnamese woman behind me, who steered this boat, steered it with just her feet! Amazing.
👂🏻 The podcast(s) you’re listening to
I’m constantly multi-tasking at home, and so when I’m doing chores or on my daily commute to work, you can bet that I’ll have a new podcast playing in the background. My podcast-in-progress, Method to the Madness, allows me to host and interview researchers across various industries in a casual ‘coffee chat’ where we discuss the nitty gritty processes behind their research. My go-to podcasts areThe School of Greatness(for self development), UX Soup(for cutting-edge UX insights), the mini-series Articles of Interest by 99% Invisible (for appreciating the history behind fashion trends), andMouthing Off(for indulging my interest in behind-the-scenes work of reality tv.)
📈 Teaching research
I’m extremely passionate about research education and mentorship. Through my teaching and mentorship, I aim to equip others with the tools to ensure that their research is thoughtful, empathetic, well-designed, and actionable. This summer, I’ll be co-leading Cornell University’s first ever Summer Pathways Program, which will provide first generation, documented and undocumented, and under-represented minority students the space to engage in multi-week research training.
📚 Reading of any kind
As a former English Literature Studies specialist, I will read basically anything that I can get my hands on - books, blogs, news articles, movie reviews, the back of shampoo bottles…a staple on my bookshelf is David Levithan’s The Lover’s Dictionary. The way he plays with content and form, mixing poetry with prose is just sheer brilliance.
🥔 Anything chip-related
I’m absolutely fascinated by different potato chip flavours from around the world. Whenever I travel, one of the first things I do when speaking to locals is ask them what their chip flavors. I’ll make it my personal mission to hunt those chip flavors down, then admire the branding behind them, how they’re advertised, and (of course) how they taste. The most memorable flavor I’ve tried? A bag of salted egg yolk chips that I picked up at an airport in Thailand!
🎉 Trivia (the easiest way to make my day - share a piece of trivia with me!)
One of my favorite shows to watch growing up was Jeopardy, which provided fodder for conversation at the dinner table, and also helped my parents learn English (fun fact: I was born in the same province as Alex Trebek: Ontario! 🇨🇦) I’m an ever-curious person who enjoys going to trivia nights with friends, and collecting tidbits of information about random topics. I can’t go to sleep after watching a movie unless I’ve finished reading that movie’s “Trivia” page on IMDB. You can find a list of my top 5 trivia facts here, and I’m always happy to hear more!
🏀 Basketball
I am a diehard Raptors fan (ask me where I was during the 2019 Raptors NBA championship), and love watching NBA games. One of my favorite charities is 9th Wonder Foundation, founded by a former pro-basketball player, which specializes in mentoring youth through providing them with sports skill development and life skills workshops to prepare these youths for adulthood. I volunteered my time to revamp 9th Wonder Foundation’s website, which you can read more about here.