Kristen Bowen
User Experience Researcher
Kristen Bowen is a contract UX researcher in product research at Reddit. She is currently on the job market, seeking full-time employment opportunities in industry conducting user research and/or user experience research. She has strong expertise in Social Media connected research with a focus on inclusive design.
Her research experience spans six years with a background in providing research services to faculty, staff, and students in various colleges. She engages in a user-centered approach to investigating the social media & technological experiences of various populations. She employs surveys and qualitative research methods to explore topics such as the following: the best practices for integrating remote work into the future to support diversity & inclusion; research into the online information behavior of those who have experienced pregnancy loss; a critical examination of the level of diversity within disability studies; exploring the information behavior of racial minority youth & developing services to support; and determining the information exchange experiences of Black adults, who have had concerns for their mental wellbeing in connection to rape.
She is affiliated with the Center for Critical Race & Digital Studies and the Center for Information Technology & Public Life. Summer of 2021, she completed an internship with Microsoft Research, where she designed and implemented a study on the remote work experiences of Black adults. From her research findings, she developed a guide to be published on Microsoft’s New Future of Work Initiative website, “Research-backed Guide: Basic Tips for Fostering Inclusion of Black American Employees.”
She conducted her dissertation research on the information exchange experiences of Black young adults (18-39) related to their mental well-being regarding sexual violence they have experienced. This study utilized an innovative approach (using written-only focus groups within Discord to preserve anonymity and privacy) to participatory design to envision what this population needs from a space created to support their mental health.
