Hi, I'm Andrea ,
 nice to meet you.

I have always been interested in sound, listening, ethnography, and the environment as a participant and as an educator. I'm motivated to listen deeply and help people by creating better designs to improve their daily life. My work in user research began with my interest in acoustic ecology, the study of the soundscape and how humans shape the soundscape. I helped test the first open source Soundmap of NYC with the New York Society for Acoustic Ecology (NYSAE) in 2004, called Sound Seeker. In 2005, I took a course at Pratt Institute in NYC with two Stanford graduates who worked at IDEO labs who introduced me to the design thinking process with application to an urban planning project (adding bike lanes in Manhattan). Also, I have traveled to places like the Amazon Rainforest in Brazil in 2006 to listen and record the sounds of animals, but also I recorded the sound memories and favorite sounds of indigenous community members through interviews with a translator. I wanted to understand and convey the importance of the rainforest through multimedia storytelling.

I have about 15 years of working on research and design projects such as with Target and Craigslist. I went back to school in 2014, and I received my PhD in Electronic Arts with a dissertation, "Soundwalking: Creating Stewardship for Local Waterways." I was the Lead Researcher & AR Designer of the Riverfront Park Soundwalk AR audio tour located along the Hudson River in Troy, NY that aims to help connect community members and commuters to the Hudson River. The project integrated ethnographic research & interviews and sound design into the development of iterations, analysis, prototypes, usability studies with 100 recruited participants, and a final product. It was launched as part of a solo exhibit at the Hart Cluett Museum, Troy, NY in 2016. 84% of 100 users responded a clear “Yes” that they felt more connected to the Hudson River via the AR soundwalk.