I turned my research into published chapters, university lectures, and four questions anyone can use to review a design.
I have run experiments, interviews, field evaluations, and focus groups, written the results up for scientists, engineers, and designers, and taught the methods in university labs, lecture halls, and continuing education webinars. This page gathers that work in one place, along with the card I drew to carry the lessons into everyday design reviews.
Client
Universities, publishers, and professional learners
My role
Researcher, lecturer, and author
Focus
Research methods, human factors, and statistics
Result
Work published in medicine, engineering, and computing
A finding helps no one until another person can read it, trust it, and act on it.
I started as an anthropologist. For my undergraduate honors thesis at a large public university, I designed my own ethnographic study, won a foundation research grant to fund the fieldwork, and interviewed people about how a yoga practice balanced individuality with belonging.
In graduate school I moved into human factors and systems engineering. My master's thesis was a two-by-two experiment that tested whether working alongside another person changed perceived mood and muscle tension before and after a mental arithmetic stressor. Social support and timing both changed perceived mood. A flaw in my design limited what I could say about buffering stress, and I reported that limit plainly in the thesis.
Every study after that taught me the same lesson. Results sit in a drawer unless someone writes them up clearly, teaches the method behind them, and turns them into something a team can use on an ordinary workday. So I have kept writing and teaching alongside the research ever since.
I choose the research method to fit the question, the people, and the stakes.
These six methods carried my research from a university lab to a federal health system and a state public health campaign. Click or tap a card to turn it over.
I write for scientists, clinicians, engineers, and working designers.
My writing follows my research into whatever field the work needs. Some of the writing is formal, such as book chapters, a journal article, and a conference paper. Some of the writing is plain spoken, such as columns that explain a method or an ethical problem to people who build products for a living.
In my columns I made the case for ethics as a daily practice, like washing your hands, rather than a rule you learn once. I wrote about dark patterns, about women in science and engineering, about what my mobile usability tests kept finding, and about the double standard women researchers face over something as small as what they wear to a study session.
- I contributed a chapter on videoconferencing technology for mental health care to a 2013 telemental health textbook from a major scientific publisher, and I served as an assistant editor of that book.
- I contributed to a 2012 organizational behavior textbook from a university press.
- I contributed to a 2015 journal article on the technology behind real-time telemental health care for children.
- I co-wrote a 2011 systems engineering paper on a student-built plug-in hybrid vehicle for an engineering society's energy conference.
- I wrote a 2015 column for a computing society's magazine on where research ends and design begins.
- I wrote columns for my university's student newspaper while I was in graduate school.
In my own words
We research to understand the world. We design to change the world.
Ashley KarrFrom my 2015 column on research and design
I teach research and design to students, engineers, and working professionals.
My design immersive teaching and my mobile prototyping workshops each have their own case study. These four kinds of teaching fill in the rest of the picture. Click or tap a card to turn it over.
Review a sample sign-up page with my four questions.
Years of usability tests, field studies, and interviews kept pointing to the same four things people want to know before they commit to a design, so I drew them as a one-page card. I rebuilt the card as an interactive review tool under the sample name Haven Library, with AI writing the code from my design. The sign-up page and every price and time on it are sample content.
Things to try
- Open each of the four cards to read what the question asks and how to check for it.
- Choose Review a page, then mark each question as answered or missing on the sample page.
- Select a question to highlight where a visitor looks for that answer.
- Open the report card to compare your calls with mine and read the fix for each gap.
- Choose See the revised page to watch the four answers appear on the sample page.
Paper, ink, and one library red make the tool feel like a well-kept notebook.
I gave the review tool the calm of a reading room: a warm paper background, ink text, a serif for the four questions, and one deep red saved for actions and the current selection. Status always comes with a word and an icon, and every text color passes current contrast standards.
Color
- Library red
#9A2A22Primary buttons, the selected tab, and the highlight on the sample page - Ink
#1E1A16Headings, body text, card outlines, and line icons - Graphite
#5C554DSecondary text, captions, and labels - Paper
#FAF6EEThe page background behind every card - Answered green
#22663AQuestions a page answers, always with a check and the word Answered - Missing amber
#8A5A00Questions a page leaves open, always with a mark and the word Missing
Type
Wordmark and card titles
Be honest about money.
Fraunces
Body
People want to see the price before they decide.
Work Sans
Labels
Question 2 of 4
Work Sans
Components
Question card
Each card pairs one line icon with one short sentence in the voice of my original card, and opening a card shows the question to ask and how to check for the answer.
Review row
Each question has two equal choices, Answered and Missing, so the reviewer makes a call instead of grading on a scale.
Page highlight
Selecting a question outlines the part of the sample page where a visitor looks for that answer, so a reviewer learns where to look as well as what to ask.
Report card
The report lists the four questions in order with your call, my call, and the fix, so the gaps read as a short to-do list.
Principles
- Show the design instead of describing the design.
- Put the price and the time where people look first.
- Say what the product does for people in words they would use.
- Ask the four questions in order, because each answer earns the next one.
40+
semester-long undergraduate design projects I oversaw at an aeronautical university
My research became chapters, lectures, courses, and a checklist built for everyday design reviews.
The thread through all of this work is simple. I help people get along with the complicated systems around them through what I design, what I write, and what I teach. Click or tap a card to turn it over.
I keep researching, writing, and teaching side by side.
As a principal designer offering AI-native product research and design, I teach working professionals, including continuing education classes and webinars, and I am available for workshops, trainings, and speaking. If your team wants to learn a research method by using the method on your own product, I would be glad to plan a session with you.
There is plenty more where this came from.
Names, brands, and data in my case studies are changed to protect my clients.
Tell me about your project.
Tell me a little about it on my contact form, and a real person will get back to you soon.