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amalie barras

data / design

portfolio designed and coded to life by yours truly, using jekyll, github pages, and a sprinkle of imagination

amalie barras

data / design

about

howdy! I'm amalie. [pronunciation]


I use data and design to make things better for humans.

I love data. It tells us what's happening, drives consensus, and sets us up to create things that will have true impact.

I started my career as a data analyst and I quickly fell in love with the process of deeply understanding my users' data needs and creating dashboards that met them where they were at. Over time I began to realize that they had a word for this process -- design.

I doubled down on my design education, both formal and self-guided, and began applying my new skills to volunteer projects with my local Code for America brigade. I landed an amazing full-time opportunity at the City of Austin and spent a year learning how research supercharges the design process. Life brought me to beautiful Colorado in 2017, where I worked at Cognizant Accelerator, bringing a data-informed lens to the design team and advocated for UXR practice, helping it to grow from 0 to 7 researchers. Today, I'm continuing to explore design as a UX Researcher on the Street View team at Google, where I get to help shape the product's direction through the use of data.

When I’m not doing tech stuff, I like to drink coffee, challenge myself with craft projects, and spend time with my partner and our pups in the sunshine.

process

research methods

  • User Segmentation
  • In-depth Interviews
  • Contextual Inquiry
  • Remote Research
  • Unmoderated Studies
  • Usability Testing
  • Literature Review
  • Journey Mapping
  • Jobs-to-be-Done
  • Artifact Co-creation
  • Workshop Facilitation
  • Segmentation Analysis
  • Funnel Analysis
  • A/B Testing
  • Satisfaction Surveys
  • Data Visualization

research tools

Google Analytics

Google Analytics is a great tool I use to get basic web usage stats right out of the box, or lots more with thorough configuration. I've made it collect survey data, dropoff funnels, and a lot more. When paired with a great visualization tool it can offer killer insights.

SurveyMonkey

SurveyMonkey is a fairly heavyweight tool that I've used to collect survey data, but I've used it to prototype forms to test with users, which kept my team from wasting time on a custom tool.

Tableau

Tableau is a visual analytics platform that seeks to help people see and understand their data. It has an public version as well as an enterprise desktop version, both of which I've used to expose insights in an organization and effect big change.

design methods

  • User Stories
  • Concepting
  • Wireframing
  • Low-Fidelity Prototyping
  • Critique Sessions
  • User Flow Diagrams
  • Low-Fidelity Prototyping
  • CSS Implementation

design tools

Sketch

I use sketch for wireframes and mockups, and designing visual components. The navigation of pages and tools like symbols make it super easy to update components across the file and share work collaborators.

Invision

Invision is a way to take your wireframes and mockups and transform them into a clickable, simulated experience. I use it to prove the concepts of my designs before going forward, and it also makes a great tool to facilitate feedback sessions.

HTML5

Sometimes it makes the most sense to just code your prototype, and HTML and CSS make this possible. HTML is the skeleton of an app that enables enables tagging of this content via classes and IDs which lets you assign styles using CSS.

CSS3

CSS3 is how you visually bring a website to life, it's how you tell the HTML pieces how it needs to take size and shape, in order for the user to receive the cues it needs to behave on your site. I use it alongside HTML for rapid protyping.

Sass

Sass (Syntactically Awesome StyleSheets) is a more clean way to write CSS. It includes features variables, nested selectors, inline imports and more. I use it to implement style changes globally.

GitHub

GitHub is version control for code, which allows me to collaborate easily with my dev teams. I also use it to work on open-source projects.

Command Line

A command-line user interface (CLI) just means interfacing with your computer through typed commands instead of clicking around. I use it to make my Git workflow faster.

contact

You've heard my story, now I'd love to hear yours. Let's make something awesome!