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Andrea Flower

I am a results-driven researcher with 10 years of research experience. I come to research and UX research through my work to develop and evaluate accessible solutions, in-person and digitally, for youth with disabilities and the professionals who work with them. My concerns in this research related to accessibility, effectiveness, efficiency, and user satisfaction. A related strand of my research focused on data collection, storage, and privacy, which led to generative and evaluative research of data collection websites and applications. This research examined what users need and how products can meet those needs. 

Working on research to develop solutions–services and tools– pushed me to think about how we provide users with the most efficient and effective solutions for the people who need them, our users. Diligent research to understand user needs, behaviors, and motivations provides us with needed information for design and development. I am a strong advocate for human-centered research invested in learning and translating findings into actionable insights.

Experience

  Qualitative Research

In-depth interviews, contextual inquiry, observation, usability studies 

  Quantitative Research

Surveys, A/B testing, Experimental design

Writing 

Peer-reviewed journal articles, Practitioner papers, Executive summaries 

Storytelling icon Presenting & Storytelling

Conference presentations, Professional development, Stakeholder workshops

Portfolio

My research experience includes studies that resulted in 25 peer-reviewed journal articles and more than 30 scientific presentations and local workshop presentations. The three studies included here are a selected set of studies that I have chosen to include in my research portfolio. 

Portfolio

 

Resume

PROFESSIONAL RESEARCH EXPERIENCE 

Associate Professor | Felician University

  • Developed a course to respond to 4 pain points identified in 12 interviews. 
  • Increased student success and program satisfaction by collaborating with cross-functional partners to analyze existing data which led to development of three paths for students to complete graduation requirements.
  • Communicated actionable insights to varied audiences after synthesizing research findings to improve instructional quality and K-12 student engagement during remote learning.

 

Assistant Professor | The University of Texas at Austin

  • Gained deep understanding of participants’ needs and pain points by leading generative and evaluative projects using interviews, contextual inquiry, experiments, and surveys to develop tools and programs.
    • Established validity and reliability of 2 software programs used for data extraction by extracting 2,008 data points to calculate the correlation coefficient; cited in 44 articles across a variety of fields.
    • Decreased time to complete observations and collect reliability data through interview and usability testing on an application feature designed to enable simultaneous use by multiple users. 
    • Identified gaps and pain points in knowledge and skills of students with disabilities related to their post-school transition through in-depth interviews that led to development of a transition program. 
    • Evaluated the content of 77 teacher preparation programs in the state through administration of a survey using Qualtrics; shared insights with program directors to increase student learning. 
    • Increased time on-task by an average of 62% for 6 students with the use of educational iPad applications allowing staff time to attend to other students’ needs.
  • Earned strong stakeholder engagement in research through workshops, communication, and data-sharing.  
  • Presented research findings in 30+ presentations to audiences of varying research skill levels.
  • Published 25 journal articles in high impact journals by collaborating with numerous cross-functional partners.

Graduate Researcher | University of Washington Behavioral Research Center

  • Executed research activities on a $6M grant. Liaised between stakeholders, coordinated recruitment and screening, conducted interviews, administered surveys, observed, and analyzed data for over 350 participants.
  • Communicated insights from in-depth interviews and usability tests to contribute to the design and development of data collection and storage applications for use internally and at 18 schools. Collaborated with cross-functional teams to integrate findings into development decisions.
  • Supervised, trained, and scheduled 6 graduate student data collectors to assist in data collection from 350 participants resulting in timely data collection and graduate students with strong data collection skills.

EDUCATION

University of Washington Doctor of Philosophy, Education

San Diego State University Master of Arts, Education 

University of California, San Diego Bachelor of Arts, Psychology 

Certificates: Human-Centered Design; UX Research Foundations; UX Remote Research; UX Foundational Research; UX Research Journey Mapping; UX Design Personas