i spent most of my 20s in big cities but all I remember are the small towns in between.

I’m Sarah, a researcher living in the Puget Sound.

I am a doctoral student in the Human Centered Design and Engineering Department at the University of Washington. My research focuses on the sociotechnical practices of scientific knowledge production. Or, in other words, i specialize in ux for scientists. Taking the creation of a shared repository for Wild Alaskan Salmon data as a point of departure, I trace the labor of data scientists in making heterogeneous datasets interoperable, design visualizations that reveal the errors, gaps, and inconsistencies in environmental data work, and explore the standards in scientific data production that increase tractability of other forms of knowledge (e.g., traditional or indigenous). My work is featured in journals such as ACM’s CHI, Design Research Society (DRS), and Ecology and Society. I hold a Master of Arts from Georgetown University and have worked as a designer and ux strategy consultant throughout my PhD career. I also make wine, gardens, and cabins in my spare time.

Please visit my publications page for more information on my academic work. You may also visit gnovis to read some of my academic blog posts. For more information about various projects, see below.