My name’s McKellen and I’m a freelance UX Researcher, pulling from five years of experience in the field.
I was a Sr. UX Researcher at The Wall Street Journal for several years before leaving in 2022 to complete my second degree in Psychology at Columbia University. Prior to the Journal, I freelanced as a UX Researcher, consulting with clients such as National Geographic and Cox Communications.
Below are projects I am able to share publicly, please reach out to see more recent projects.
SELECT PROJECTS
FINALY REDESIGN
CLIENT: ARGA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT
Internal Tool Redesign
My Role: Lead researcher & designer
Problem: Team members were resistant to utilizing their powerful, custom-built analytics tool, citing clunky and unintuitive functions
Approach: I spoke with team members to surface the most important ways team members access data and studied the existing product to identify opportunities to update and simplify the interface and information architecture
Solution: I redesigned the overall experience with the new tool, such as the information architecture and look and feel, as well as streamlined core workflows, especially focusing on filtering for key tasks
Reservation Feature Integration
CLIENT: BIXBY
Feature integration DESIGN
My Role: Lead researcher and designer
Problem: Building managers claimed manually managing reservations of building amenities was inefficient and costly
Approach: I sought to understand all components of managing reservations, via user interviews, to design a digital tool that streamlines the process and is easy to use
Solution: I designed/tested a ready-to-develop “Amenities” feature for the current platform where managers can: manage listings, manage reservations, as well as charge for reservations and track transactions
Impact-Driven News App Design
PASSION PROJECT (CONCEPTUAL)
Anti-Fake News App Design (CONCEPT)
My Role: Researcher and designer
Problem: With the rise of fake news, our team wondered how might we instill confidence in users reading news on Facebook
Approach: I leveraged user interviews and usability tests to understand how news is currently consumed and then how to design the best reading experience on Facebook
Solution: A news aggregator app, connected to a user’s Facebook account, with fact checking scores and each organization's political bias