Xiaoyan (Shelley) Li

UX Researcher

PhD in Information Science (HCI)

@ Cornell University

Mixed-methods UX researcher with 6 years of experience designing end-to-end UX studies. Expert in in identifying new product opportunities through large-scale qualitative and quantitative data analysis.

As an instructor of UX research courses at Cornell, I mentored students and junior researchers, helping them to employ diverse methodologies and create user-centered solutions. In my spare time, I enjoy running and being close to nature.

UX Projects

This section presents selected UX research projects that I have designed, conducted, and led from incubation to insight delivery, across academia and industry.  Each project has led to tech prototypes, design innovations, news coverages, talks at major conferences and publications.

Improving Non-Native Speakers’ Participation with an Automatic Agent

  • AI agent increased participation of Non-Native speakers by 40% of all words spoken;

  • Insights led to news coverage, talk in ACM conference, publication and podcast.

Facilitating Informal Communication with BlendZoom

  • Exploratory interview study led to a novel prototype integrating “permeable spaces” to video conferencing platforms. 

Understanding User Needs and Innovating Hybrid Meeting Technologies

  • Field studies & interviews led to innovative insights shaping product strategies.

  • Expert in transforming stakeholder needs into actionable insights via interviews, observations, surveys, statistical analysis and usability testing.

  • Experienced in analyzing large scale user data qualitatively (thematic analysis, grounded theory) and quantitatively (ANOVA, T-tests, regression).

  • Skilled at cross-functional collaboration and creative problem-solving based on rigorous research.

  • Extensive experience in teaching UX research courses and mentoring junior researchers at Cornell University. 

Strengths

  • UX Researcher @ Cornell (2019-2024): conducting generative user research, creating prototypes and innovating future designs;

  • UX Researcher @ Center for Community Engagement (2022): streamlined workflow, research results directly provided to grant directors to improve development of future grants, all ranging from $500K to $1M;

  • UX Researcher @ NTT, Japan (2019): created conversational AI agent, conducted quantitative experiment and user interviews, and improved participation by 40%.

Work History