# Aura B. > Senior UX Researcher at Canyon GBS Location: Oakland, California, United States Profile: https://flows.cv/aura Results-driven UX Researcher with 5 years of experience in crafting inclusive digital solutions. Passionate about leveraging data-driven insights to influence stakeholder decisions and enhance user experiences across diverse user groups. 🔍 Expertise: Conducting in-depth user interviews and usability testing sessions Analyzing quantitative and qualitative data to uncover actionable insights Developing user personas and journey maps to guide product strategy Facilitating workshops to align cross-functional teams on user-centered design 🛠️ Skills: User Interviews, Usability Testing, Surveys, Data Analysis, Stakeholder Management, Workshop Facilitation, Prototyping 🎓 Education: Bachelor's in Interdisciplinary Studies - Computer Science, Design, Sociology, UC Berkeley Certificates: Data Analytics, Human Centered Design, Entrepreneurship & Technology 🌟 Passionate about: Bridging the gap between user needs and business goals through ethical and inclusive research practices. Advocate for accessibility and diversity in tech. 📩 Open to: Collaborating on innovative UX projects that push the boundaries of user-centered design. Interested in mentoring aspiring UX researchers and speaking opportunities at industry events. ## Work Experience ### Senior UX Researcher @ Canyon GBS Jan 2025 – Present ### User Experience Research Consultant @ Unknown Jan 2020 – Present | Remote Helping small organizations and start-ups establish user-centered design practices. Defining success metrics, goals, and testable hypotheses, then planing research activities based on those definitions. Inspiring change by translating research findings into usable and actionable design tools (e.g., personas, design principles, design considerations, etc.) ### Bilingual UX Researcher @ U.S. Digital Response Jan 2024 – Jan 2025 Creating and supporting research plans, developing and leading interviews, synthesizing findings, and conducting desk research in English and Spanish. ### Experience Researcher @ Vercel Jan 2022 – Jan 2023 Leading research with executives, employees, and teams to understand employee needs and shape the future of how we work at Vercel. Analyzing and evaluating the employee experience through mixed-methods research across the employee lifecycle including recruitment, candidate experience, onboarding, engagement, training, and exits. Co-founder in Vercel's first Latin/Hispanic ERG ### User Experience Researcher @ Root Inc. Jan 2021 – Jan 2022 Designing & executing more than 15 tests to explore ideas, validate hypotheses, & pinpoint issues leading to direct product improvements & changes in product strategies. Enabling other teams to conduct rigorous research by educating them on user research best practices, training them to define problems, understand existing knowledge, & design tests, & embedding in their teams as needed. Identifying blind spots (demographic & behavioral) in our existing research processes & finding ways to get those people/situations into our processes ### Product Design Fellow @ Department of Illusions Jan 2020 – Jan 2020 The Department of Illusions is a global, designer-run distributed school. Each semester a small group of students and faculty come together to form a micro-community working together to explore the intersections of design, technology, society and ethics in order to develop themselves and their design practice. Students are taught and mentored by design professionals from Google, Lyft, InVision, Loom, Deloitte and MixPanel. ### Design Researcher @ Dropbox Jan 2019 – Jan 2019 | San Francisco Bay Area Worked with a cross-functional team to determine the goal and research questions then collaborated with a product designer to create Figma prototypes for testing. 
Conducted 12 hours of 1:1 interview with users in-person and remote then synthesized interviews into actionable product recommendations. ### Design & Research Fellow @ Fung Fellowship for Wellness & Technology Innovations Jan 2018 – Jan 2019 | Berkeley, CA Worked on a project sponsored by the Moffitt University Library, University Health Services, and the Student Tech Fund to analyze user
feedback to find tangible ways to promote inclusivity and community.
 Partnered with Reimagine Lab and Blue Shield of California Foundation to promote healthy relationships for a target audience of 11-14-year-
olds by creating a collaborative video game concept and wireframe.
Worked with the Smith Group and San Francisco Campus for Jewish Living to develop a prototype of a memory care engagement stations. ### Code Instructor @ theCoderSchool Jan 2017 – Jan 2019 | Berkeley, CA Teaching children ages 10+ coding concepts in a broad array of languages such as Scratch/Snap, Python, Javascript/HTML or Java in a customized way. ### Researcher @ CITRIS and the Banatao Institute Jan 2018 – Jan 2019 | Berkeley, CA Undergraduate Researcher at the CITRIS Social Apps Lab working on analysis and measurement of outcomes and impact of Vallejo's Participatory Budgeting process using the AppCivist platform. ### User Experience Designer @ Intel Corporation Jan 2018 – Jan 2018 Performed research and analysis to establish new processes, usage models and standards. Redesigned internal Hiring Website to improve user interface (UI), content organization, content flow, and navigation and long-term sustainability. Learned Perl and documented Perl Scripts. Outlined a plan and approach to convert Perl Script to Python to improves performance and reliability. ### Research Fellow @ Center for Technology, Society & Policy (CTSP) Jan 2018 – Jan 2018 | Berkeley CA Working on Accountability in the Information Age: A Study of Data Transparency in Local Governments. ### Google Student Innovator - Vaco @ Google Jan 2017 – Jan 2018 | San Francisco Bay Area Working closely with local Google Cloud Platform teams to host and organize events to bring awareness about Cloud Platform, spread the word about competitions, training opportunities, scholarships and other events, test products and provide feedback on products and features. ### Technical Classroom Assistant @ Black Girls CODE Jan 2017 – Jan 2017 | Oakland, California Assisted in curriculum development for app development camp, included lessons in Android Studio, HTML/CSS,JavaScript, Git and Python.Facilitated learning around coding and programming to ~40 girls. ## Education ### Bachelor's degree in Multi/Interdisciplinary Studies University of California, Berkeley Jan 2016 – Jan 2019 ## Contact & Social - LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/aurabarrera --- Source: https://flows.cv/aura JSON Resume: https://flows.cv/aura/resume.json Last updated: 2026-03-25