AnnieSanford

I am a current HCI Design masters student at City, University of London. I have made versatility a hobby - having majored in sociology and communication studies with a focus in business & marketing in my undergraduate degree, I then went on to work as a research project manager at a tech company and, three years later, landed in HCl and UX. At the core of everything I do is my passion for working with people and keeping them in the center of it all. My ultimate goal is to become a product design decision-maker - I am currently pursuing internship opportunities that will help me get there after completing my masters program.

An American on paper but a Londoner at heart, I am currently based in London, U.K., where I have the right to work full-time on a Tier 2 spousal visa. I live in Camden with my partner, a software engineer at Spotify, and our 3-year-old dog. I am a fan of long walks through the many parks of West/NW London, exploring the diverse London food scene, watching fantasy, sci-fi, historical fiction, and comedy shows, traveling (pre-covid), and the occasional crafty hobby or two.

See my resume

Showcase

Research

From undergraduate sociology research, to managing survey research projects at Qualtrics, to master’s level user research projects - I have had a hand in a myriad of research activities. Here are some excerpts of my work:

UX Research & Research Deliverables - ParkNav

ParkNav is an app & kiosk concept reimagining the way we interact with technology and information finding in parks. Using Regent’s Park in London as our reference, a small team of fellow HCI Design students and I conducted onsite observation sessions, interviews, and online survey research in order to understand the park users, their needs, and our design goals. After gathering the data, my team and I built out UX personas and user journeys, using the real data as a reference. This research and these research deliverables proved instrumental in our later design of the product interfaces, as we frequently referenced them and asked ourselves,“What would our user do?”

Survey Research - Qualtrics

With nearly three years of experience as a Research Project Manager at Qualtrics under my belt as well as a background in social research from undergrad, I have a strong grasp of survey building software, survey design methodology, survey research project management (including fielding and panels) and the benefits and limitations of online survey research. Here are some of the projects I have worked on:

Information Architecture - Orchestrate

A work-in-progress project is my design of an informative website on community bands’ information architecture structure. In order to get to the design stage, I first needed to conduct research to understand the subject. I did this through semi-structured inteviews with domain experts, which I then used to build a domain model and sitemap.

Design

My design process is very iterative and collaborative - I like to thoroughly brainstorm ideas with my team, then start designing on paper with sharpies and move up from there, improving the design as I get more feedback from users, collaborators, and experts. While I am newer to the design scene, I have nonetheless grown substantially since I first started putting “pointer to pixel.”

Evaluation

Good user-centered design goes hand-in-hand with evaluation. I have experience in:

Conducting in-person usability tests using user tasks and Figma prototypes in order to understand usability issues and get general feedback
Reviewing webpages for accessibility issues and suggesting changes (relying heavily on WCAG 2.1 guidelines)
Conducting card sorting and tree test evaluations on the information architecture design of a website, to ensure that information and page layout is organized in a sensible manner.
Sitting in on UserZoom sessions to evaluate a redesign of Qualtrics’ ticketing dashboard

Project Management

During my almost 3 years at Qualtrics, I gained professional experience in a variety of project management skills:

Owning communication across clients, partners, internal teams, and other stakeholders
Making budget decisions to optimize for project, business, and client success
Sticking to the project timeline, finding creative solutions to make up for lost time when delays are introduced without sacrificing quality
Taking responsibility for every project at each stage of the project cycle
Utilizing my resources to proactively solve issues as they arise,delegating to the appropriate internal parties when necessary
Working as a team with adjacent coworkers on the project, ensuring we are all aligned and that they have what they need to be successful in their respective roles
Maintaining organization

I’ve been fortunate enough to work on several hundred projects, many of which have contributed to fascinating real-world insights. Here are some of the top brands I have worked with:

Education

City, University of London

MSc HCI Design, 2021-2023

*Elected class representative

Courses:

Interaction Design
Inclusive Design
Information Architecture
Research Methods & Professional Issues
Creativity in Design
Evaluating Interactive Systems
Understanding User Interactions
Web Applications Development

Furman University

Bachelor’s in Sociology and Communication Studies, 2014-2018

Focus in Business & Marketing

*Magna Cum Laude

Honors:

Endel Medal for Excellence in Rhetoric and Oratory - 2018
Lambda Pi Eta Communications Honors Society - 2017
Alpha Kappa Delta Sociology Honors Society - 2017
Phi Eta Sigma Honors Society - 2015
Dean’s List - 7 semesters

Contact

If you'd like to get in touch, please reach out to me by LinkedIn or email!