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.

Yihan Wu

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 question: What mattered in User Research this week?

Hi Yihan Wu, tell us a little about yourself!
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. My bachelor's degrees are in anthropology and psychology with a minor in neuroscience. I also have been working as a freelancing UX researcher and I’m looking forward to joining the UX research force after upcoming my graduation. In my free time, I dance International Latin and love to sketch.

What skills or mindset do you plan to bring from your PhD program to your first full-time UX Research position?
I plan to bring the ability to synthesize and utilize the accumulated collective knowledge and detect promising directions to further advance the field. The vigilance of biases and limitations of different methods to guide evaluating trade-offs of different options. And the faith in that we can be wiser if we genuinely communicate and learn from each other and solve the problems better.

What do you look forward to most in your first full-time UX Research position?
After publishing my first manuscript, I felt a moment of anticlimax -- is this how much I can push the field forward? Publications are great, but I want to see how my research can actually help people to solve problems they are facing. I’m looking forward to the fights and the joys of delivering the impacts. I’m also looking forward to working with other UX researchers and cross-functional stakeholders, and learning about how to turn good thoughts into good products and services.

Thank you, Yihan!