This document provides a summary of the author's work experience including qualitative research, developing a URL shortener application, simulating technology dispersion, creating a video project, studying information law and policy, and learning about information organization and retrieval. The author has two years of experience conducting user research and has skills in interviewing, analyzing qualitative data, and presenting findings. Notable projects include a URL shortening application built with Python and a technology dispersion simulation involving network analysis algorithms.

1. Overview of Work
• Qualitative Research Experience
• URL Shortener
• Simulating Technology Dispersion
• Filming and Editing video
• Information Law and Policy
• Information Organization and Retrieval

2. Qualitative Research Experience
• Two years of work in design
research at SonicRim, Ltd.
• My involvement in the
research process:
– Writing screeners
– Writing discussion guides
– Creating tools for research
– Assisting in conducting
interviews/focus groups
– Reading transcripts and pulling
out data points
– Analyzing data
– Developing storyline for final
deliverables
– Presenting findings to clients

3. Qualitative Research Experience
Research methodologies I learned at SonicRim
follow the Path of ExpressionSM model (below)
The process enables people to become By combining multiple approaches and
aware of their own behaviors, report on data sources, the Path of ExpressionSM
their current experiences, project an ideal allows the research team to build a more
experience or aspiration for the holistic understanding of the subject of
future, and benchmark client’s ideas study than single methods alone can
against their own desired experiences. provide.

4. URL Shortener

5. URL Shortener
• Partner Project for Web Architecture course
• The project involved:
– Designing and coding a web page (HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript)
– Making the webpage responsive using media queries (CSS3)
– Writing code that would assign user-entered long URLs to a
short URL and store these in a database (Python)
– Writing code to log data about each action taken on the
website and assign cookies to track users (Python, Flask
libraries)
– Analyzing the data generated after a period of use (Python,
MRJobs)

6. URL Shortener: HTML index page

7. URL Shortener: Python code

8. Simulating Technology Dispersion
• Group project for Computing Applications course
• Project included writing code to…
– Create a network of users
– Create a given number of connections between users
– Assign a given number of “early adopters” to be first given
the technology
• Involved creating an algorithm that would assess the
“connectedness” of each user and then choose the n most
connected users
• My group developed an algorithm that borrowed from the basic
concept of Google Page Rank
– Track the number of time steps required before technology
has been assimilated throughout the entire network

9. Filming and Editing Video
Conducted Create storyboard Edit images in Compile
interviews with using qualitative Photoshop, edit sound audio, clips, and
entrepreneurs analysis methods bites in Audacity images in iMovie
• Individual project for Multimedia
Narratives Course
• Tools used: Video Camera, DSLR
Camera, Adobe
Photoshop, iMovie, Audacity
• Final clip on YouTube:
http://youtu.be/9x4GJh6h76I (also on
following slide)

11. Information Law and Policy
• Studied basic cases and statutes that impact technology
products and service design:
– Freedom of Expression
– Privacy Law
– Copyright and Patent Laws
– Consumer Protection and Security
– Information Licensing and Consumer Protection
– Contracts and Terms of Service
– Liability and Secondary Liability
– Access and Authorization
– Trade Secrets
• Sample essay: http://tinyurl.com/205Paper
• Currently enrolled in another information policy course
focused on the implications of policy on technological
specifications.

12. Information Organization & Retrieval
• This course taught us the process of organizing
resources in a way to optimize for later use.
• The theories learned in class:
– Decisions to consider in the design of an organization
system
– Organizing digital vs. physical resources
– Using XML to mark up digital resources
– Methods of classification
– Describing Resources
– Understanding gaps in how computers interact with
resources
– Creating interoperability between models
– Theories of designing search user interfaces