Alexandria Mead

The field of User Experience (UX) has traditionally been applied to website design, app development, video-gaming, and other technologies—moving into the future, can we begin applying the field of UX to the humanities? My research focuses on the application of UX through a methodological review of traditional UX research and applies it to the field of anthropology and museum studies to answer: can we more effectively teach and engage the public in museums? My poster aims to present how I am currently applying UX to anthropology by highlighting current difficulties which museum specialists and archaeologists face when trying to engage members of the public in archaeological and museological forums. This research addresses an important topic currently present in the anthropology/archaeology field: how to become more transparent and community based in our research.

Alexandria Mead, a first-year Ph.D. student in Anthropology at William & Mary, received her B.A. in Anthropology from the University of North Carolina in 2013, where she became interested in historical archaeology. She went on to receive her MA from the University College of London. Her studies at UCL focused on the intersection of public archaeology and museum studies and how the public engaged with archaeology in different contexts.