Kathleen Aubrey

Part-Time Lecturer

  • Usability research
  • User experience
  • Qualitative research
  • MS in Information Systems, Northeastern University
  • MSW in Group Work and Community Organizing, Boston University
  • BA in Communication, McGill University
  • Certificate of Graphic Design, School of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston

Kathleen Aubrey is a part-time lecturer in usability and design at Northeastern University, as well as a UX/usability consultant and trainer. She earned her BA in Communication from McGill University and her MS in Information Systems from Northeastern University. In her late twenties, Aubrey switched from social work into the field of technology as a programmer and product designer and concentrated on leveraging qualitative and quantitative methods to learn about the tasks and needs of end users. Aubrey’s goal is to use the direct approach to teach customers user techniques that can be applied to the technology and systems that they create in a way to facilitate understanding for people with less knowledge. Her clients have included the Center for Medicare and Medicaid, Broad Institute, Massachusetts Medical Society, and more.

Aubrey’s independent and under contract work in user experience/UX/usability for over 25 years has led to several research projects with Boston-based organizations such as the iRobot Corporation, Oracle Corporation, Constant Contact, AT&T Unified Communications, and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts's Department of Transportation. These research focuses include usability review and prototyping of user interface, design of a secure portal to manage data collection, review of desktop and mobile versions, and improving integration of social media into newsletter design, and accessibility review with police to improve a GIS-based system to improve public safety, respectively.

She also works as a feature editor for the QRCA VIEWS magazine, a qualitative research journal, and a RIVA-certified Master Moderator and Trainer.

Aubrey grew up in Ballardvale, Massachusetts.