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Resume

As a UX Designer & Researcher at Harvard University, my commitment lies in elevating the user experience in our digital products and services by prioritizing digital accessibility as a cornerstone of design.

Work Experience

UX Designer & Researcher

Dec 2022 - Present

Harvard University

At Harvard Web Publishing, I lead cross-functional UX initiatives for HarvardSites Drupal, a next-gen CMS and design system supporting 1,000+ websites for Harvard University.

  • Own end-to-end product design for HarvardSites Drupal, leading discovery, ideation, wireframing, prototyping, and testing, while collaborating with PMs, fellow designers, and engineers to align design with user needs, technical requirements, and product goals.

  • Lead discovery for new feature development on HarvardSites Drupal platform through research, gap analysis, and prototyping. Facilitate cross-functional workshops to define feature requirements aligned with technical feasibility, user research insights, accessibility, and our design standards.

  • Leverage AI to develop and improve our platforms and design system documentation and governance, accessibility operations and UAT operations, content strategy, and user research.

  • Design AI prompt frameworks and templates that standardize how our product team harnesses AI tools for research and discovery, QA, user story creation, design, design governance, user acceptance testing, and accessibility operations.

  • Advocate for ethical AI use, establishing best practices around transparency, accessibility, bias, and human validation.

  • Lead and manage user research and a user research repository to enable our team to make faster and evidence-based design decisions across products and services.

UI/UX Designer & Researcher / Information Architect

March 2020 - Present

Independent Consultant

Independent consultant leading user research and design initiatives for clients across higher education, non-profit, and for-profit sectors, helping them create user-centered digital experiences.

Education

Masters: Library Information Science

University of Denver

BA: History

University of Maryland University College

BS: Art & Design

Towson University

Certifications

W3C

Introduction to Web Accessibility

Skills & Competencies

  • Accessibility Compliance (WCAG & ADA)

  • Agile Collaboration

  • Component Development

  • Design Principles & Shared Language

  • Design System Governance

  • Generative & Evaluative Research

  • Lean UX Methodologies

  • Mobile First & Responsive Design

  • Research Repository Design & Management

  • Usability Testing

  • User-Centered Design

  • Technical Documentation Development

  • Wireframing & Prototyping

  • Workshop Facilitation

Tools

  • Adobe XD

  • Artificial Intelligence

  • Axure RP

  • Balsamiq

  • Basecamp

  • Condens.io

  • Confluence

  • CSS & HTML

  • Dovetail

  • Drupal

  • Figma

  • Jira

  • Looker Studio

  • Miro

  • Optimal Workshop

  • Photoshop

  • Python

  • Qualtrics

  • Tableau

  • Trello

  • WordPress

Publications

2021

"An Intern's Investigation on Decolonizing Archival Descriptions and Legacy Metadata." Bitstreams

2020

"Denver's Historic African-American Community in Photographs." Denver Public Library Blog

"Never Forget the High John Experiment." Library Journal

"Revisiting the Hight John Experiment Through a Contemporary Lens." Journal of Librarianship & Information Science

Presentations

2025

Cress, Laurier, Cabral, Dan, Clinch, Richard and Sims, Janell. “Dealing Aces: Toward an Accessible, Communal, Empowering, and Sustainable Design System” (presented at HEUX Connect Event 2025)

2024

Cress, Laurier, Freeman, Dorian, Horton, Sarah, and Sims, Janell. “Dealing Aces: An Accessible, Communal, Empowering, and Scalable Design System” (presented at Harvard University's 2024 IT Summit)

2021

Bokenkamp, Katie, Callie, Chery, and Cress, Laurier. “The Black Lives Matter Video Project: Building a Digital Collection for the Preservation of Social Justice Materials” (poster presented at the ARCHIVES*RECORDS 2021 Conference)

Bokenkamp, Katie, Callie, Chery, and Cress, Laurier. “The Black Lives Matter Video Project: Building a Digital Collection for the Preservation of Social Justice Materials” (poster presented at the 2021 Texas Conference on Digital Libraries)

Cress, Laurier. “How to Share Your Scholarship: A University of Oregon Research Guide for the Humanities” (presented at the University of Oregon)

2020

Cress, Laurier. "The High John Experiment: An Analysis of Library Outreach in a Historically Marginalized Community" (presented at the University of Denver’s Research Measurements and Library Science Student Conference)

Cress, Laurier. "The High John Experiment: An Analysis of Library Outreach in a Historically Marginalized Community" (presented at the University of Denver's 2020 DU Research & Scholarship Showcase)

Awards

2021

Morgridge College of Education Practitioner Award

American Theological Library Association Diversity Scholarship Award

Medical Library Association Scholarship for Underrepresented Students Award

2020

American Library Association Spectrum Scholarship Award

Community Involvement

  • Harvard University's UX Community of Practice Group

  • Mentor to future UX professionals

  • Part of the Higher Ed Web community

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