Nice to meet you!
Social Cognition researcher turned Social Impact UX Researcher
I am currently do UX Research at Anthro-Tech, a small User-Centered Design Consultancy based in Seattle, WA, focused on government agencies, nonprofits and enterprises with a social-impact mission. We aim at making user experiences more usable and accessible. I specifically focus on conduct end-to-end User Research to understand users, their experiences, and how to improve the products and solutions they use.
I was previously a student in the MHCI program at the
Human-Computer Interation Institue at Carnegie Mellon University.
Additionally, I was a student within UW's HCDE certificate program,
as well at EWU studying social and cognitive psychology.
Check out my ORCID to see the research projects I worked on, published, and presented while at EWU.
I also have worked for Facebook Reality Labs, on contract, on Audio research to redefine human hearing in the context of virtual, mixed, and augmented reality. This work has resulted in many neat reseach discoveries for understanding human hearing and audio-experiences, as well as improvements and innovations to products for AR, VR, and MR uses. This conference paper is just one of them. You can also read more about Facebook's and Meta's work in this article from Facebook.
I firmly believe that as UX practicioners, we have a large power, if not a large responsibility, to use our work to benefit the world and the end-users of the technology we work on, rather than only help company's bottom line. In this thought, I commit myself to working on projects that have some benefit to its end-users and the world in general. This doesn't have to mean solving world hunger or poverty (though that'd be great!), I just wish to have some positive impact in the work that I do.
To learn more about this movement and committment, consider reading this article by Alexa Harrison or looking for job openings on Design Gigs 4 Good.
Other fun stuff
In my spare time, I thoroughly enjoy the struggle to climb mountains for a good view (in the Pacific Northwest) , and 3D art and animation with live VJing.
