Skip to content

😌 Humans of User Weekly

Humans of User Weekly is the name of a section in the UX Research newsletter USERWEEKLY. Each week, we will meet a new User Researcher and hear about their experiences at work and beyond.

I hope this brings our community closer together, helps people connect and feel inspired! And I hope you enjoy this new section as much as I do. You find a list of researchers from previous newsletter episodes below.

Spotlight: Nikki Anderson-Stanier
Hi! I’m Nikki Anderson-Stanier, a qualitative user researcher who meandered into the field through a mixture of a background in psychology and attending a party in which someone started talking about this elusive thing called user experience.
User WeeklyJan Ahrend
UXR Spotlight: Carleá Jean
I’m Carleá Jean, UX Research Intern at Buildertrend, a construction project management software company, and the Founder of the Omaha Chapter of The Black In Technology Foundation.
User WeeklyJan Ahrend
Spotlight: Christopher (Kai) Wong
I’m Kai Wong, a UX Specialist, Design Writer, and Data Visualization Advocate. I started in Healthcare UX, but have since transitioned into doing UXR and Design for Federal IT organizations. I write about UXR and Design weekly for the UX Collective publication on Medium, and also write about the int…
User WeeklyJan Ahrend
Researcher Spotlight: Crystal Tan
Tell us a little about yourself. I’m Crystal Tan and UX Researcher at Grab. I’ve been in the craft of understanding humans for as long as I can remember. My first memory is a professor telling me “When you know how anything works, you can deconstruct it” ...and reimagine it,
User WeeklyJan Ahrend
Spotlight: Roberta Dombrowski
Hey! I’m Roberta Dombrowski, a qualitative researcher, and currently work as VP of UXR at User Interviews. Earlier in my career, I worked as a learning experience designer and product manager.
User WeeklyJan Ahrend
UXR Spotlight: Jane Davis
Hi, I’m Jane Davis. I’m insatiably curious, wildly optimistic, and extremely cynical. My day job is Head of UX Research and Content Design for Zoom (yes, that Zoom).
User WeeklyJan Ahrend
UXR Spotlight: Gregg Bernstein
Hello! I’m Gregg Bernstein. I wrote the book Research Practice because I love user research (and user researchers!).
User WeeklyJan Ahrend
UXR Spotlight: Varun Murugesan
Hello, I’m Varun! I really like research that champions the best of people, creativity and technology - so that’s why I do UX research!
User WeeklyJan Ahrend
UXR Spotlight: Babz Jewell
Hiya, I’m Babz Jewell! Working as a Principal UX Researcher based in Atlanta, GA, I have studied and worked around the world across many disciplines.
User WeeklyJan Ahrend
UXR Spotlight: Sofia Linse
I’m Sofia Linse, a Senior UX Researcher at Braze, a customer engagement platform that provides tools for marketers to create personalized, contextually relevant cross-channel communication.
User WeeklyJan Ahrend
UXR Spotlight: Yihan Wu
Hi, I’m Yihan Wu, a cognitive science Ph.D. candidate at the University of Minnesota. I study how to foster creativity with the goal to improve our abilities to solve complex tasks in daily life.
User WeeklyJan Ahrend
UXR Spotlight: Isil Tatlicioglu
Hi! I’m Isil Tatlicioglu. I’m a UX researcher at Next Big Thing AG, a Berlin-based venture building studio that provides long-term support to aspiring founders, businesses, and investors.
User WeeklyJan Ahrend
UXR Spotlight: Obinna Ugwu
I am Obinna Ugwu, a human factors Ph.D. student at Virginia Tech. I got my bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria.
User WeeklyJan Ahrend
UXR Spotlight: George Zhang
I am George Zhang, the director of UXR at Course Hero, an EdTech (education technologies) unicorn that helps millions and millions of students graduate confident and prepared.
User WeeklyJan Ahrend
UXR Spotlight: Jeff Solomon
I’m Jeff Solomon, a cultural and linguistic anthropologist by training. Since graduate school I’ve deliberately focused my work on using qualitative research methods and analyses to address human problems.
User WeeklyJan Ahrend
UXR Spotlight: Smiti Nathan Staudt
Hello! I’m Smiti Nathan Staudt and I started my first official UX Research role in August 2021.
User WeeklyJan Ahrend
UXR Spotlight: Anna Lee Anda
I’m Anna Lee Anda, a UX Research Manager at Zendesk Singapore. I’ve been working as a UX Researcher for over a decade.
User WeeklyJan Ahrend
UXR Spotlight: Tom Abourmad
I’m Tom Abourmad, a UX Researcher at Deezer, a music streaming servicer. My role is to understand the behaviours and intentions behind the relationship that people have with our service and more broadly with music in general.
User WeeklyJan Ahrend
UXR Spotlight: Preeti Srinivasan
I am Preeti Srinivasan, and I am a UX Researcher who recently made the transition to industry after completing my Doctorate.
User WeeklyJan Ahrend
UXR Spotlight: Tarah Srethwatanakul
Hello! I’m Tarah Srethwatanakul, a UX Researcher at WhatsApp, where I’m focused on conversational commerce. I actually discovered this field by browsing a MBA course catalog to choose my electives.
User WeeklyJan Ahrend
UXR Spotlight: Katie John
I’m Katie John, I’m a User Researcher working at Caution Your Blast. We believe in using digital as a force for good.
User WeeklyJan Ahrend
UXR Spotlight: Di’eayyah Boney
I’m Di’eayyah Boney, a Narrative Personality Psychologist and User Experience Researcher with a passion for diversity and inclusion - currently the UX Research Lead at Amazon Game Growth.
User WeeklyJan Ahrend
UXR Spotlight: Sebastian Syperek
I’m Sebastian Syperek, currently working as a Principal UX Research for Kaiser X Labs, the digital factory & UX company of Allianz. Allianz is the leading insurance group in Germany and beyond.
User WeeklyJan Ahrend
UXR Spotlight: Ben Anyasodo
I’m Ben Anyasodo, a multidisciplinary Research Consultant, with core experience in Human-Machine Interaction, User-Centred Design and Cognitive Ergonomics. I particularly enjoy incorporating these elements into developing rounded UX/UCD research Strategies which deliver optimum user experience
User WeeklyJan Ahrend
UXR Spotlight: Sara Chizari
I’m Sara Chizari, a UX Researcher with an academic background in information science and cognitive psychology. I joined Microsoft’s Developer Division almost a year ago after spending a few years at Red Hat (and Google before that).
User WeeklyJan Ahrend
UXR Spotlight: Michele Ronsen
This spotlight was part of USERWEEKLY - a weekly email to understand what is happening in user research. It’s the best way to keep up on trends, methodologies, insights across the industry, and meet new researchers. Each week, the newsletter captures the pulse of our community and answers a simple
User WeeklyJan Ahrend
UXR Spotlight: Shweta Singh
I’m Shweta Singh, a UX Researcher at ADP, working primarily in an effort to reduce the amount of time and money spent on time-consuming and costly human resource management compliance tasks.
User WeeklyJan Ahrend
UXR Spotlight: Tom Devlin
I’m Tom Devlin and run a small user research company called UserLab. As the name suggests, it was originally a UX testing lab which I built (on a shoestring)… before realising the best stuff happens outside the lab.
User WeeklyJan Ahrend
UXR Spotlight: Lesley Crane
Hey, I’m Lesley Crane. I think of myself as a social scientist and sometime ‘bricoleur’ – someone who integrates and applies a range of research methods, tools and theory to describing a problem experienced through the eyes of users as contextually-situated actors.
User WeeklyJan Ahrend
UXR Spotlight: Anuja Kulkarni
I am Anuja Kulkarni, a UX researcher at Uber. I work across the Rider products particularly new bets and Growth. I have nearly a decade’s experience of working in different tech sectors spanning healthcare, transportation, FMCG and B2B products.
User WeeklyJan Ahrend
UXR Spotlight: Lawton Pybus
I’m Lawton Pybus, a research manager at UserZoom. My team delivers full-service research for our strategic customers. I’ve been writing about my perspective on UX research for the better part of a year now.
User WeeklyJan Ahrend
UXR Spotlight: Angie Meltsner
I’m Angie Meltsner and am a user researcher based in the city of Boston, in the US. I work at an awesome research and design firm called Blink UX where I focus on mixed methods research, with a specialty in survey.
User WeeklyJan Ahrend
UXR Spotlight: Keren (Veisblatt) Toledano
I’m Keren (Veisblatt) Toledano. I’m a Staff Product Researcher at Shopify with a focus on messaging apps, text-based communication, and business chat. In short, I study the way that businesses and customers converse with one another.
User WeeklyJan Ahrend
UXR Spotlight: Rachel Abbott
Hi, I’m Rachel Abbott and I’m a Senior User Research Consultant at Hippo Digital, a full service design consultancy based in the UK. We work in the public and private sectors, with a large amount of our work being with government department.
User WeeklyJan Ahrend
UXR Spotlight: Janelle Ward
My name is Janelle Ward. Being a researcher is a big part of my identity. I was in academia for about 15 years. My research started in political communication and later turned to the user experience of dating apps.
User WeeklyJan Ahrend
UXR Spotlight: Lexi Neigel
I’m Dr. Lexi Neigel, a Senior UX Research Lead at Microsoft where I work on Azure Machine Learning. I’ve completely career-hopped between government, academia, and industry over the past decade and it’s been the best decision I’ve ever made.
User WeeklyJan Ahrend
UXR Spotlight: Hayley Camille Morgan
I am Hayley Camille Morgan, and I am a Research Leader and Behavioral Scientist. I would describe myself as undeniably passionate about evangelizing research, shaping strategy, and making meaningful decisions with long lasting business impact.
User WeeklyJan Ahrend
UXR Spotlight: Tiffany Yang
I’m Tiffany Yang, UX researcher at Mercari, a marketplace platform for pre-owned items. My background pre-UX time is in social media marketing, where I used web analytics to quantitatively understand user behavior, optimizing for ad reach, web traffic, and online retail sales.
User WeeklyJan Ahrend
UXR Spotlight: Zohreh Ghasemi
I’m Zohreh Ghasemi, a mixed-methods user researcher. I started my career as a researcher, which was supposed to be temporary. Almost eight years have passed since, and I’m still a researcher.
User WeeklyJan Ahrend
UXR Spotlight: Débora C. Dahas
My name is Débora, I’m Brazilian and I’m 29 years old. I have been a researcher for around 8 years now. Currently, I work with digital products, but - believe it or not - my background pre-UX is mainly in Law and Legal Philosophy.
User WeeklyJan Ahrend
UXR Spotlight: Kris Saber
I’m Kris Saber. I’m from NY and like skiing, playing video games and of course, writing about UX. I’ve always been interested in working with and understanding people, so UX research just seemed like a natural path for me!
User WeeklyJan Ahrend
UXR Spotlight: Tolulope Kolawole
Hello, I’m Tolulope Kolawole. I am a qualitative researcher, a Nigerian living in Lagos, Nigeria. I’m passionate about studying human behaviour.
User WeeklyJan Ahrend
UXR Spotlight: Allaire Welk
I’m Allaire Welk! I’m formally trained in Human Factors; I got my PhD from North Carolina State University - where I studied attention, perception, and decision making - in 2017. Since then, I’ve worked at WillowTree, UserZoom, Peloton, and I’m currently a Senior UXR at Google.
User WeeklyJan Ahrend
UXR Spotlight: Verónica Sofia Ficoseco
I’m Verónica Sofia Ficoseco, a UX Researcher at Treinta, a Colombian fintech startup focused on the digitalization and financial inclusion of microbusinesses in Latin America.
User WeeklyJan Ahrend
UXR Spotlight: Kitty Zhe Xu
I am Kitty Zhe Xu, a quantitative user experience researcher (quant UXR) at Pinterest. I joined Pinterest as its second quant UXR on the Product Research team, and have been defining, building and scaling the discipline for the past 6+ years.
User WeeklyJan Ahrend
UXR Spotlight: Itrat Batool
I’m Itrat Batool, a UX Researcher at Wesfarmers OneDigital. I hold a PhD in Visual Perception of Product Design and Marketing from Australian National University.
User WeeklyJan Ahrend
UXR Spotlight: Sridhar Rajendran
I’m Sridhar Rajendran, the Lead User Researcher at an Edtech startup called Quizizz. I am the first research hire and the past few months went by in setting up processes, tools and conducting research simultaneously!
User WeeklyJan Ahrend
UXR Spotlight: Lauren Isaacson
I’m Lauren Isaacson, a freelance market and UX research consultant based in Vancouver, BC, Canada, by way of Los Angeles, California. I got my start working for digital advertising agencies back in California.
User WeeklyJan Ahrend
UXR Spotlight: Cara Maritz
I’m Cara Maritz and for like many others, my journey to UXR was not linear by any measure. For a long time I wanted to pursue an academic research career, and before that I worked as a freelance graphic designer.
User WeeklyJan Ahrend
UXR Spotlight: Kevin Liang
I’m Kevin Liang, a user researcher, mentor, educator, content creator, pretend astronaut, mediocre golfer, and appreciator of the Oxford comma. I was born and raised in East Oakland, California, and have a background in biology, psychology, and cosmology.
User WeeklyJan Ahrend
UXR Spotlight: Yagmur Erten
I’m Yagmur Erten and am a user researcher with a background in behavioral psychology and business management. I love working at the intersection of data and storytelling.
User WeeklyJan Ahrend
UXR Spotlight: Risha Lee
I’m Risha Lee, a Brooklyn-based qualitative researcher by way of academia. I never thought that I would be featured in this esteemed spread and am honored to share some nuggets of information about my journey here with all of you.
User WeeklyJan Ahrend
UXR Spotlight: Mike Oren
I’m Mike Oren and I built and led a team of design researchers at Klaviyo. Prior to this I built out and led a team of design researchers.
User WeeklyJan Ahrend
Spotlight: Jenny Winfield
I’m Jenny Winfield and I’m a London-based User Research Director. I specialise in research that tackles taboo issues, using trauma-informed...
User WeeklyJan Ahrend
Spotlight: Gillian Bowan
I’m Gillian Bowan, a qualitative researcher based in Sydney, Australia. I have a PhD in Anthropology and have worked in user research and service design for around six years.
User WeeklyJan Ahrend
Spotlight: Céline Lenoble
I’m Céline Lenoble, Director of UX research at brainlabs (opinions are my own). It has become kind of cliché, but I am a lifelong learner. Curious about (almost) everything, I see each step as a learning opportunity.
User WeeklyJan Ahrend
Spotlight: Meltem Naz Kaso
Meltem Naz Kaso here. I’m a Spaniard with Turkish origins who lives in Barcelona for longer than she remembers. I work as a UXR Manager at Glovo
User WeeklyJan Ahrend
UXR Spotlight: Melissa Schmitz
I’m Melissa Schmitz, and am currently an UX/HF researcher for emerging technologies at a mid-size industrial manufacturing company where my work is at the intersection of vehicle automation, data science, and XR.
User WeeklyJan Ahrend
UXR Spotlight: Kevin Madegwa
I am Kevin Madegwa, a senior design researcher at Equity Bank in Kenya. My background includes experience as a digital marketing lead for a Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) company and leading social media efforts for a government organization responsible for the conservation of plants and animals.
User WeeklyJan Ahrend
UXR Spotlight: Marianne Carpentier
Hi, I’m Marianne Carpentier. Like most UXR, I’m an accidental researcher! After studying design for years, I thought a career in design was written in the stars.
User WeeklyJan Ahrend
UXR Spotlight: Gloria Osardu
I’m Gloria Osardu, a computer scientist turned user researcher. I started in software engineering and then branched into applied health
User WeeklyJan Ahrend
UXR Spotlight: Thomas Stokes
I’m Thomas Stokes, a UX Research Consultant at UserZoom. In my work, I develop UXR solutions to help clients improve their digital experiences and meet their business goals. I entered UX with a background in Human Factors
User WeeklyJan Ahrend
UXR Spotlight: Bo Liu
I’m Bo Liu a mixed-methods researcher with a background in psychology and human-technology interaction. I see myself as a psychologist, anthropologist, data nerd, foodie and wanderlust.
User WeeklyJan Ahrend
UXR Spotlight: Nikki Pollina
I’m Nikki Pollina. I currently live in New York, NY and I grew up outside of Detroit, MI. I’m a content creator and career mentor. I’m passionate about technology, design, fashion and education. I am
User WeeklyJan Ahrend
UXR Spotlight: Abigail Plumb-Larrick
I’m Abigail Plumb-Larrick and am currently a freelance User Researcher in Cleveland, OH. I’ve worked across a number of different subject domains – finance and accounting, manufacturing, supply chain
User WeeklyJan Ahrend
UXR Spotlight: Toluwa Awodiya
Hi 👋🏾 I’m Toluwa (TOE-loo-wah)! I live in Toronto, Canada, but born and raised in Lagos, Nigeria. Currently, I work as a Product Research Manager at Momentive, conducting research on SurveyMonkey.
User WeeklyJan Ahrend
UXR Spotlight: Louise Bonnamy
I’m Louise Bonnamy, a French user researcher now based in Montreal Canada. At work I’m passionate about how user research can help teams being in “the flow” state, oiling the cogs with insights about users. After work I would try anything adventurous and fun.
User WeeklyJan Ahrend
UXR Spotlight: Roy Opata Olende
I’m Roy Opata Olende and grew up in Kenya but eventually settled just outside Toronto (Canada) with my wife and three boys. I’ve been doing research of some sort since 2012, now leading the UXR practice at Zapier.
User WeeklyJan Ahrend
UX Research: Feras Klenk
My name is Feras Klenk, and I am a UX researcher with Edward Jones. In a former life, I was an academic and like many of my fellow (social science) PhD holders pivoted toward user research.
User WeeklyJan Ahrend