Urszula Pruchniewska is a Senior User Experience Researcher at Benefits Data Trust (BDT) where she leads the development and execution of qualitative and quantitative research through all stages of the product life cycle. She is the co-author of the textbook, UX Research Methods for Media and Communication Studies: An Introduction to Contemporary Qualitative Methods.

Previously, Urszula was an Assistant Professor of Communication Studies at Kutztown University of Pennsylvania, where she designed and taught a UX Research and Design course. She holds a Ph.D. in Media and Communication, with a focus on user experience and gender on social media, from Temple University in Philadelphia, PA.

Some topics she has studied and written about include:

• the experiences of women who use secret Facebook groups for support, community, and career advancement
• how women strategically use Bumble the dating app to simultaneously find love and avoid sexual harassment
• how female entrepreneurs use social media to promote themselves

Watch Urszula discuss her research on Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and her unique use of Instagram for politics at the International Symposium on Online Journalism:

∗Photo Credit: Jonathan Harris (2017)