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User Experience Researcher

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Hello! I'm Tiffany Knearem. My research interests include human-AI alignment, product designer-developer UI co-creation, and design tools to unlock productivity and creativity. I center my work through an inclusive, sustainable, and human-centered approach. Currently, I do foundational and UX research at Google on the Material Design team.

I earned my PhD at Penn State's College of Information Sciences and Technology with Dr. John M. Carroll,  where I investigated community innovation through information and communication technologies, with a dissertation focus on online mutual aid as community-based care during COVID-19. 

Prior to earning my PhD, I spent time in industry at Silicon Valley, where I worked in operations & project management. Before that, I taught English abroad in Japan through the JET Program. My educational background is in the humanities, having received dual Bachelor of Arts degrees in Psychology and East Asian Languages and Cultures from the University of Kansas.
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tiffanyknearem at gmail dot com

News
 

  • Nov. 2024: I will attend CSCW 2024 as Accessibility Chair. Looking forward to connecting with the community in Costa Rica!
  • Sept. 2024: Invited speaker and panelist for Reflections | Projections, the largest student-led tech conference in the Midwest
  • Sept 2024: Invited to give two talks to graduate students in HCI at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Thank you, Prof. Sarah Sterman, for organizing!
  • August 2024: I am an AC for CHI 2024 Understanding People Mixed Methods. Looking forward to supporting the paper review process
  • July 2024: Our systematic literature review on bi-directional human-AI alignment is available on Arxiv. It was a wonderful collaboration across academia and industry
  • June 2024: I served as an Accessibility Chair alongside amazing Stacy Brahnam at C&C2024!
  • June 2024: Gave a guest lecture on AI and design for Foundations of Interactive Systems at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. Thank you, Prof. Alexander Mädche for the invitation!
  • ​May 2024: It was my pleasure to give the Google Sponsor Invited Talk at CHI 2024 on AI and Design
  • May 2024: Served as a Social Communications Chair alongside Xiang Li for CHI 2024. It was a lot of fun to keep the community updated on the CHI conference
  • May 2024: Invited as an outside committee member to Manoj Deshpande's dissertation committee - excited to support his journey!
  • Jan 2024: Excited to serve as an Accessibility Chair for CSCW 2024!
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Publication
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Lu, Y., Knearem, T., Dutta, S., Blass, J., Kliman-Silver, C., Bentley, F. (2024). AI Is Not Enough: A Hybrid Technical Approach to AI Adoption in UI Linting With Heuristics. CHI EA '24​.
 
Knearem, T., Jo, J., Alliyu, O., Carroll, J.M. (2024).  Empowering Local Communities for Disaster Relief during COVID-19 through Grassroots Support. Journal of Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW).
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Lin, J., Knearem, T., Giesing, K. (2023). Relay: A Collaborative UI model for design handoff. UIST EA '23
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Knearem, T., Khwaja, M., Gao, Y., Bentley, F., Kliman-Silver, C. (2023). Exploring the future of design tooling: The role of artificial intelligence in tools for user experience professionals. CHI EA '23
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Jo, J., Knearem, T., Tsai, C.H., Carroll, J.M. (2022). Using Local Community to Ease Long Haul Uncertainty during the COVID-19 Pandemic. iConference '22. 
 
Knearem, T., Jo, J., Tsai, C.H., Carroll, J.M. (2022). Making Community Beliefs and Capacities Visible Through Care-mongering During COVID-19. GROUP '22.​
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Knearem, T., Jo, J., Tsai, C.H., Carroll, J.M. (2021). Making Space for Support: An Exploratory Analysis of Pandemic-Response Mutual Aid Platforms. In Communities and Technology '21 
 
Knearem, T., Jo, J., Wang, X., Carroll, J.M. (2021). Seek and Reflect: A Mobile Scavenger Hunt to Develop Community Engagement. Communities and Technology (C&T) '21
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Knearem, T., Wang, X., Carroll, J.M. (2021). Constructing Well-being Together: Older Adults Engagement in Co-production Through Volunteering. Communities and Technology (C&T) '21 
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Jo, J., Knearem, T., Tsai, C.H., Carroll, J.M. (2021) COVID Kindness: Patterns of Neighborly Cooperation during a Global Pandemic. Communities and Technology (C&T) '21 ​
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Knearem, T., Wang, X., & Carroll, J. M. (2019). How Professionals Support Amateur's Creativity Within the Brewing Community. CSCW EA ‘19
 
Knearem, T., Wang, X., Wan, J., & Carroll, J. M. (2019). Crafting in a Community of Practice: Resource Sharing as Key in Supporting Creativity. Creativity and Cognition (C&C) '19 [Link to paper] [PDF]

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Selected Publications
 

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