Must-Follow Twitter Accounts For UX Research and Research Ops
Finding new people to follow on Twitter is one of the best parts of using the platform. Unfortunately, finding new people to follow on Twitter is also one of the worst parts of using the platform.
Twitter’s recommendations can be a decent starting point, but they often favor authenticated accounts — those accounts with a coveted blue checkmark that indicates Twitter has confirmed the user’s identity — with large followings. For professionals working in UX and research ops hoping to find new folks to follow, Twitter’s suggestions might not be all that helpful.
That’s why we’ve put together this list of 50 must-follow Twitter users for UX and research ops practitioners.
The researchers, designers, information architects, advocates, writers, artists, and scientists who make up this list (which is in no particular order) come from an incredible range of backgrounds and professional disciplines — but they all share a passion for making better products that improve the lives of users everywhere.
👉 Here’s a Twitter List you can follow to stay on top of great content. It follows everybody mentioned below.
Holly Burroughs Cole
Holly Burroughs Cole is the research and research ops manager at 15Five. Holly frequently posts about a variety of research ops topics, including workshops and other professional development opportunities for research ops practitioners.
Kate Towsey
In addition to working as a research ops manager at Atlassian, Kate Towsey is one of the most visible members of the research ops community. Kate is also a curator at Rosenfeld Media and is a founding member of TeamReOps. Speaking of which.
Team ReOps
While there’s a great chance you’re already following them, TeamReOps really is a must-follow account. Representing a global community of research ops professionals, this curated account posts the best research ops articles, career advice, job vacancies, and event listings.
Rob Whiting
Rob Whiting is the founder of Merlan, a user-centric product design and research consultancy based in the United Kingdom. Rob is very active on Twitter, where he shares his insights into accessibility, strategy, and other topics.
Daniel Burka
Daniel Burka is a product manager and designer who works primarily in the health care sector. A former design partner at Google Ventures, Daniel now works as director of product and design at Resolve to Save Lives, a nonprofit that manages the open-source Simple project that aims to help patients and clinicians manage hypertension.
Josh Brewer
Josh Brewer is the co-founder and CEO of Abstract, a collaborative workspace platform aimed at designers. Josh is certainly no stranger to Twitter, having served as the platform’s principal designer, and Josh also co-created the 52 Weeks of UX project, among many other accomplishments.
Andrew Maier
Co-founder of UX Booth and Civic Quarterly, Andrew Maier sits on TeamReOps’ board. Much of Andrew’s work focuses on helping government agencies improve their design practices. As a result, many of Andrew’s tweets address topics adjacent to user research in civic design, such as user-centered policymaking.
Spydergrrl
Tanya S — better known as Spydergrrl — is unique in this list, in that she’s the only research ops practitioner to go by a badass pseudonym. Spydergrrl is the founder and co-chair of Canada’s largest and most affordable UX conference, and her Twitter feed is packed with UX and design-related goodness.
Andréa Crofts
Andréa Crofts is director of design at the health care benefits platform League. Many of Andréa’s tweets focus on the ethics of design, mentorship in UX, and recently, getting to grips with remote work.
Suzy Sharpe
In the world of research ops, Suzy Sharpe is a grizzled veteran, having worked in the field since 1998 — long before research ops had a name. Suzy is the founder of CastingQual, a SaaS platform that connects researchers with participants for virtual qualitative testing.
Dan Brown
Not to be confused with the author of The Da Vinci Code, this Dan Brown is a designer and co-founder of development consultancy EightShapes. Author of three books on UX, Dan enjoys helping new and established designers and UX practitioners.
Fabricio Teixeira
Fabricio Teixeira is a designer and co-founder of UX Collective. Fabricio also serves as design director at Work & Co and tweets prolifically about a wide range of design and UX-related topics.
Emma Boulton
Another member of TeamReOps’ board, Emma Boulton is a leading expert on design research. Much of Emma’s work focuses on how managers can support their teams more effectively, which makes her a great follow for new design managers and other professionals hoping to become better leaders.
Brigette Metzler
Brigette Metzler is one of the research ops community’s most active members. Brigette launched the ResearchOps Podcast and tweets frequently about leadership, best practices in research, and other fascinating topics.
Hugo Froes
Cofounder of the UX Discuss conversations on Twitter, Hugo Froes is a strategist and design evangelist based in Portugal. Hugo is very active on Twitter and often shares articles, tutorials, and other helpful resources for designers and researchers.
John Henry Forster
JH Forster is VP of product at User Interviews and cohost of the Awkward Silences podcast. JH tweets about everything research and also shares content about the broader tech ecosystem and the importance of research and design in modern product development.
Alexis Lloyd
Alexis Lloyd, VP of product design at Medium, is also co-founder of the Ethical Futures Lab. Alexis often tweets about user-centered design but isn’t afraid to ask for binge-watching recommendations or crack the odd joke about the realities of remote work.
Alison Rand
Alison Rand is head of design operations at InVision, as well as the co-founder of the NCommon podcast and a curator for Rosenfeld Media. Alison is particularly interested in and frequently tweets about the importance of inclusive communities in research and design.
Veevi Rosenstein
Veevi Rosenstein — who tweets under what must be the highly coveted @uxresearch handle — is head of the global UX team at Zendesk. Veevi is passionate about leadership in design, and she frequently tweets about how designers can become better and more compassionate leaders.
Katy Arnold
Katy Arnold is deputy director of design and research at the Home Office, in the United Kingdom. The Home Office (and the British government as a whole) recently embarked on an ambitious design initiative that has been recognized as a leader in digital governance, and many of Katy’s tweets focus on the value of design in civic engagement.
Sara Wachter-Boettcher
Sara Wachter-Boettcher is the author of Technically Wrong: Sexist Apps, Biased Algorithms, and Other Threats of Toxic Tech. Many of Sara’s tweets focus on the intersection of technology, UX, feminism, and racial justice, and Sara also runs workshops to help designers become better leaders and communicators.
Kate Crawford
Cofounder of the AI Now Institute, Kate Crawford is principal researcher at Microsoft Research and a distinguished research professor at New York University. Kate’s work examines the ethics of technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning, which makes her Twitter feed a fascinating glimpse into the potential future of design.
Joy Buolamwini
Joy Buolamwini is the founder of the Algorithmic Justice League (AJL), a nonprofit that aims to make applications of machine-learning technologies more equitable and accountable. The AJL uses art and research to raise awareness of the social implications of AI.
Boon Sheridan
Boon Sheridan is a design and research practitioner at Automattic and is the author of the forthcoming Getting Started in UX, due to be published by Rosenfeld Media in 2021. Boon tweets about design, vinyl records, and good cocktails, among other topics.
Dan Ramsden
Dan Ramsden is creative director for UX architecture & UX writing at the BBC. Dan’s tweets offer a glimpse into how the BBC handles UX across its many digital properties, as well as how organizations of all sizes can start to think more deliberately about information architecture.
Tomomi Sasaki
Tomomi Sasaki is cofounder of Design Research Tokyo. Based in Paris, Tomomi works as a strategic designer and partner at AQ and regularly contributes to Enterprise Design Associates.
Lisa Maria Marquis
Lisa Maria Marquis (née Martin), who tweets under the handle @redsesame, is one of the best-known personalities in the UX industry. Lisa Maria authored Everyday Information Architecture, published by A Book Apart, and tweets about a wide range of topics beyond design, research, and IA.
Ben Garvey-Cubbon
Ben Garvey-Cubbon is user research practice lead at OVO Energy. Ben regularly tweets about the importance of inclusion in design, and he often shares updates from other research practitioners seeking to improve how user research is conducted.
Erika Hall
Co-founder of Mule Design, Erika Hall is the author of Just Enough Research. Erika’s tweets run the gamut from hilarious to thought-provoking, and her insights into running a successful design agency will be invaluable to designers and researchers working in any industry. Truly a must-follow account.
Louis Rosenfeld
The eponymous founder of Rosenfeld Media, Louis Rosenfeld is another celebrity of the design world. Rosenfeld Media’s blog posts, podcasts, conferences, and workshops have inspired countless designers and researchers, and Louis is as generous with his advice as he is knowledgeable about design.
Leisa Reichelt
Leisa Reichelt is head of research and insight at Atlassian. Leisa often tweets about management, the role of design, and — of course — the importance of UX research.
Samira Matan
Samira Matan is a sociocultural anthropologist who works as a user researcher at Ample Labs, a nonprofit that aims to reduce homelessness. Samira is also partnerships experience lead for UXRC and tweets about how to conduct better, more useful user research.
Maria Rosala
A researcher at the Nielsen Norman Group, Maria Rosala frequently tweets about research that any UX or research ops practitioner will find fascinating, from better understanding the discovery phase in UX projects to the implications of ethical maturity in user research. A must-follow for UX practitioners looking for cutting-edge research about their field.
Vivianne Castillo
Vivianne Castillo is an experienced user researcher whose work focuses on cross-cultural user research and the implications of race and identity in the design field. Vivianne has presented at several major UX events, including the Business of Design Conference held at MIT in 2019, the CanUX conference in Toronto in 2018, and the Talent Innovation Summit in San Francisco in 2017.
Maggi Mitchell
Maggi Mitchell is co-founder and chief operating officer of the UXR Collective. Maggi frequently shares research, data, and content about working in UX and also loves to help new and established UX practitioners find new opportunities and share knowledge.
Basel Fakhoury
Basel Fakhoury is co-founder and CEO of User Interviews. Basel is a frequent contributor to many UX and SaaS blogs and podcasts, and he often shares tips on how to conduct better user research. He is also a prolific retweeter, making Basel a great follow for UX folks looking for more reading material.
Tom Gilbert Scott
There’s certainly no shortage of opinions about the role of design in software and app development, but few are as insightful as those of Tom Gilbert Scott. Based in Bristol in the United Kingdom, Tom serves as experience principal at cxpartners and tweets about everything from agile development to the culture and philosophy of design.
Sarah Drummond
Rufflemuffin — real name Sarah Drummond — is a designer based in Great Britain. Sarah writes (and tweets) extensively about service design and its role in public policy.Ailsa M. Blair
Ailsa M. Blair
Ailsa M. Blair is a design manager at product development consultancy TribalScale. Much of Ailsa’s work focuses on diversity and inclusion in tech and empowering marginalized communities to effect meaningful change through design.
Ruth Ellison
Head of user research at Australia’s Digital Transformation Agency, Ruth Ellison is a designer with a deep, abiding love for thoughtful design. Ruth often tweets about accessibility and UX, as well as the joys (and challenges) of parenthood.
Cyd Harrell
Currently serving as service design lead for the Judicial Council of California, Cyd Harrell is a noted researcher who has held roles with organizations including Code for America, the Center for Civic Design, and 18F. Cyd’s work focuses primarily on how design can facilitate better civic experiences.
Gregg Bernstein
Gregg Bernstein is a UX researcher at Signal and author of Research Practice. Prior to joining Signal, Gregg worked in research roles for companies including Vox Media and Mailchimp.
Steph Marsh
Steph Marsh is UX research ops manager at Springer Nature and the author of User Research: A Practical Guide to Designing Better Products and Services. Steph frequently tweets about improving user research, the importance of empathy in design, and other thought-provoking topics.
Mariana Morris
Founder and managing director of UX design studio Fruto, Mariana Morris is a UX practitioner based in the United Kingdom. Mariana cofounded UX Oxford and tweets frequently about collaborative design, managing virtual teams, and other topics.
Gerry Gaffney
Gerry Gaffney runs Information & Design, a UX and usability company based in Melbourne, Australia. Gerry also hosts the popular UXPod podcast, where he has interviewed many leading UX and research ops practitioners (including more than a few names on this list).
Joseph Kay
Jospeh Kay — perhaps better known by his online handle, jofish — is principal research scientist at Mozilla. Joseph tweets extensively about his work at Mozilla and the organization’s mission, as well as related topics such as trust in the media, the responsibilities of online publishers, and the ethics of user research.
Michael J. Metts
Michael J. Metts is a designer and a coauthor of Writing Is Designing: Words and the User Experience. Michael often tweets about the intersection of content strategy and product strategy and offers a refreshing and insightful take on the sometimes vague world of UX writing.
Laura de Reynal
Laura de Reynal is design innovation lead at the International Rescue Committee. Prior to joining the IRC, Laura held research roles at organizations such as Mozilla and Microsoft.
Lorna Wall
Lorna Wall is head of user research at the Home Office, in the United Kingdom. In addition to tweets about her work in the British government, Lorna often shares content about career development and making the transition to a career in UX — perfect for aspiring UX practitioners hoping to break into the field.
I hope you found it helpful and please let me know if I should include somebody else here. Hit me up on Twitter 🙃 @sofiaqt
Originally published at https://blog.getenjoyhq.com on April 22, 2020.
