User Experience Research
Here you will find a selection of digital products that were created under Gwen’s leadership of cross-functional teams that included programmers, graphic designers, communications specialists, subject-matter experts, and research assistants; Gwen led all aspects of the UX Research components in every case.
USAID Education in Crisis and Conflict Network | Safer Learning Environments Evidence Gap Maps
These interactive maps allow users to explore what evidence exists at the intersection between project interventions and associated outcomes. These were conceived in response to initial research that revealed that international education practitioners, the intended end-users, felt as though they did know where to access contextually relevant and rigorous evidence to design and adapt programs in conflict and crises environments where learner safety was often at risk. Gwen conducted an exhaustive mapping of the literature on school safety and identified that there was much research available, but intended end users were correct that it was not adequately curated and mapped in a way that was easily accessible to them without first doing their own time-consuming literature review. At the same time, it was also true that there were still many gaps in the knowledge, but again, education researchers did not have a resource to tap into in order to know what additional primary research was needed. A tool that would facilitate the end-users pain point in organizing all the available evidence would be most welcome. After much brainstorming across functional teams, and participating in initial design sprints, it was decided that evidence gap maps would be the most appropriate tool for busy education practitioners to have a one-stop-shop to plan their programs and research needs.
As such, Gwen mapped initial wireframes on how the maps would look (namely, intersections of interventions and outcomes, and circles that demonstrated the amount of evidence available at that intersection), and then reached out to subject matter experts to learn about the available evidence and build out the content in the map. Then, designers were brought in to build the prototypes of the maps, which were then tested with twenty education practitioners who were the intended end-users of these maps. They offered their feedback in focus group discussions and key informant interviews (moderated by Gwen with support from her Research Assistants); that feedback was summarized and provided to the designers who prepared interactive prototypes that were shared with the client (USAID). A few final adjustments were made, mainly on content, and the maps were published in 2017 on the USAID-affiliated website alongside dissemination from the communications specialist.
Gwen managed the post-launch research as well by tracking user behavior on Google Analytics that showed highest access and retention rates across the Education in Conflict and Crisis Network website, and she also managed the launch of a global survey that found the Evidence Gap Maps to be one of the most-valued resources (digital and otherwise) across the global membership. They were of such value to USAID and implementation partners that continued updates were funded by USAID until it’s dissolution in 2025, when all USAID-funded resources were no longer publicly available on USAID.gov websites. However, earlier versions of the late-stage interactive prototypes are available in the links below; a webcast presenting a 2023 update to the maps also demonstrates their utility.
Internal Threats to Safe Learning (threats emanating from within the school, e.g. bullying, teacher abuse, gender-based violence)
External Threats to Safe Learning (threats emanating from outside the school, e.g. violence or conflict in the neighborhood or on the way to/from school; target attacks on schools)
Health Threats to Safe Learning (threats from communicable diseases, poor nutrition, poor sanitation, either within the school or in the school community)
Environmental Hazards to Safe Learning (threats from natural hazards such as fires, hurricanes, flooding, heat or other environmental factors that can put the school infrastructure or surrounding community at risk of destruction).
USAID Education in Crisis and Conflict Network | Interactive Evidence Framework
This interactive tool allows users to navigate pathways to find the must-know evidence, as endorsed by global experts across the field, for designing and adapting programming in education in crisis and conflict environments. Gwen conducted initial research to find that education practitioners who worked on large-scale program design and adaptation understood the value of evidence, and knew the many resources that were available, but were consistently without sufficient time to review that evidence as they designed or adapted large programs. A common pain point was that there was more and more evidence coming out all the time, and they could not keep up; meanwhile, they were not sure what was the must-have evidence to inform specific components of their education interventions. As a result, evidence was – as demonstrated Gwen’s detailed review – ignored entirely. For example, for someone designing an early-grade reading intervention among refugee populations, what was one resource that was essential reading to help inform project design? There were 200 results on a Google Search, so the person was compelled to just repeat the basic design they’d always known about, even though there may have been evidence for a more promising practice somewhere in the literature.
In response, Gwen led initial design sessions with a cross functional team of researchers, education practitioners, communications specialists and subject-matter experts to determine what was the best way to curate and present the best evidence for the end user. This process highlighted to the team the importance of doing early prototyping and user testing in order to eliminate ideas early. For example, the team initially envisioned evidence gap maps for topic areas. While these maps could be built, it was found in initial user testing that the structure of a gap map did not lend itself to enabling a busy project designer to build a complex program with multiple topic areas: the user would have had to bounce between multiple gap maps, and this became too arduous and resulted in, again, an overwhelming amount of evidence.
The idea to formulate pathways emerged, and initial prototypes were developed and tested with end users. The research found that end-users appreciated that a single pathway led to approximately ten must-read resources – a reasonable amount of reading it was determined in user research. While this would not turn the end-user into an expert in that field, this was not the intention. Rather, the intention was that the end-user would have a core grasp of the most important evidence, which would then manifest itself in a much-improved and evidence-based program design.
Gwen managed the project team in reaching out to subject matter experts to build out the content of the map, and working with the graphic design and programming team in building the initial prototypes for what became Evidence Pathways. Gwen led user research with a group of intended end-users (education program designers across four continents) of the first interactive prototypes, and associated adjustments were made. Gwen presented the final interactive prototypes during a high-level meeting including the donor and multiple senior-level education practitioners, during which much positive feedback was shared. The tool was finalized by programmers and launched in 2019, where it remained and was updated until the dissolution of USAID in 2025 when all USAID-funded resources were no longer publicly available. However, the tool can be used on a hard drive using Storyboard (available upon request), and screenshots of some evidence pathways within the tool are provided below.
Project Evaluation and Research
Here you will find a selection of work for which Gwen was Team Leader and Methodologist. The collection includes full research reports, research toolkits, and communications products used to disseminate the evidence and recommendations to clients and other stakeholders.