Research Memo 01
The Invisible Tax
How systems mistake compatibility for competence.
Read Memo 01 →UX Research · Systems Strategy · Cognitive Accessibility
UX research for cognitively demanding systems.
I study how people navigate complex tools, workflows, and AI-supported systems under real-world cognitive, emotional, and environmental constraints.
My work focuses on the hidden translation layer between human thinking and system requirements: the cognitive labor of turning ideas, needs, and intentions into formats that institutions, interfaces, and technologies can recognize.
Research Perspective
The hidden layer: translation work
Most systems are not difficult because of the task itself, but because of the translation required to complete it.
Work often depends on turning ideas into structured formats—documents, workflows, forms, decks, summaries, tickets, and communication that align with institutional expectations. This translation layer is rarely acknowledged, yet it is where a significant amount of cognitive friction occurs.
I’m interested in how we design systems that reduce this hidden labor, and how emerging tools like AI might change who is able to participate effectively—not just how efficiently work gets done.
Framework
Cognitive Translation in Digital Systems
Human Intent
Ideas, goals, messy cognition, lived context
Translation Layer
Converting thought into structured inputs
Institutional Systems
Workflows, databases, enterprise tools, AI
This model illustrates where cognitive effort emerges when human intentions must be translated into structured systems.
Featured Project
Scaffold
Executive function support for cognitive overload
A research-driven support system designed to help adults experiencing task paralysis, overwhelm, or executive dysfunction move from stuckness into the next small actionable step—without shame, surveillance, or coercive automation.
View Case Study →
Research Memos
Making Intelligence Visible
A three-part research memo series exploring how systems recognize, amplify, and reward human thinking.
These memos examine the hidden translation work behind modern knowledge systems, the role of AI in redistributing cognitive bandwidth, and the question of who actually benefits when cognitive work becomes easier.
Research Memo 02
The Real AI Divide Isn’t Intelligence. It’s Bandwidth.
Why cognitive margin—not capability—may determine who benefits from AI.
Read Memo 02 →Research Memo 03
The Opportunity Gap
Who actually benefits when AI increases capacity.
Read Memo 03 →About
I research the gap between how systems are designed and how people actually experience them.
I’m a UX researcher and systems-oriented strategist focused on cognitive friction, accessibility, and complex human-system interactions. I’m especially interested in moments where people appear “stuck”—not because they lack intelligence, motivation, or ability, but because the system is asking for more translation, sequencing, regulation, or institutional fluency than they have capacity for in that moment.
Before moving formally into UX, I spent decades in client-centered roles across wellness practice, education, coaching, interior design, and digital design. Across those contexts, my work consistently involved structured interviewing, behavioral observation, trust-building, and translating individual needs into practical systems, environments, or plans.
That background gives me a deep foundation in qualitative inquiry: listening closely, identifying hidden friction, noticing patterns across context, and understanding how cognitive and emotional states affect comprehension, decision-making, trust, and participation.
I’m most interested in research and product development roles where human judgment, synthesis, ethical reasoning, and complex context still matter—especially in AI-supported workflows, accessibility, training systems, healthcare, education, service ecosystems, and tools for neurodivergent or cognitively overloaded users.