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 transforming stakeholder needs into original, actionable insights through interviews, field observations, surveys, statistical analysis and usability testing.
My work focused on understanding the user experience of emerging technologies, creating tech products & proving their effectiveness, as well as innovating the design of future platforms.
As an instructor of UX research courses at Cornell, I had a rewarding experience mentoring students and junior researchers on a variety of HCI and UX projects. 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.
Six years of experience conducting end-to-end UX studies using interviews, field studies, surveys, experiments, statistical analyses and usability testing.
Expert in analyzing large scale user data qualitatively (thematic analysis, grounded theory) and quantitatively (ANOVA, T-tests, regression).
Skilled at cross-functional collaboration and engaging stakeholders in the research process.
Extensive experience teaching UX research courses and mentoring junior UX researchers & project teams at Cornell University.
Passionate about creative problem-solving based on rigorous research.
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%.