User Experience & Usability Research 

A person with red hair uses a touchscreen ordering kiosk at a restaurant, selecting lunch menu items displayed on the large screen.

Setting the standard for inclusive design

User research is a key step in driving inclusive innovation. We conduct rigorous, outcome-driven studies to uncover how people with disabilities interact with products, translating those insights into solutions that work at scale.

Our user experience (UX) and usability research spans real-world environments and complex technologies, ensuring findings reflect authentic user experiences. Each study combines usability testing, behavioral analysis, and interdisciplinary expertise to uncover barriers, validate solutions, and help product teams build intuitive, equitable, and future-ready designs.

The exterior of the Shepherd Center building with its logo and name displayed prominently, reflecting the city skyline and greenery on its glass windows under a clear blue sky.
Four members from the AURC team pose and smile inside a fast-food restaurant. One man sits in a wheelchair, surrounded by two women standing and another man sitting on a booth seat. Digital menu boards are visible in the background.
A man in a suit sits in a wheelchair at a desk, working on multiple monitors and a smartphone. He appears focused, with various office supplies and paperwork around him in a well-lit room with wooden floors.
Advancing rehabilitation through usability research: At the Marcus Center for Advanced Rehabilitation, our research team collaborates with individuals like Earle Burke to study and test assistive technologies that empower independence. With his device, Earle can draft legal documents, manage his calendar, and communicate seamlessly—real-world functionality driving innovation.

Why Shepherd leads in user experience and usability research

  • Full-circle UX research: As a people-centric UX research program, we advance understanding of user experience through every stage of inquiry, including research design, instrument development, participant recruitment, focus group facilitation, data collection and analysis, and dissemination of findings through detailed reports and studies.
  • Extensive inclusive participant network: Our national registry includes more than 1,500 individuals representing diverse disabilities and demographic backgrounds, enabling efficient participant recruitment for rigorous studies. We tailor our recruitment to align with specific research priorities, such as mobility, neurodiversity, vision, hearing, speech, mental health, or a combination of disabilities and other user characteristics.
  • Decades of accessibility expertise: With over 50 years of combined expertise, our interdisciplinary team includes UX researchers, biomedical engineers, clinical rehabilitation experts and data analysts to implement advanced evidence-based practices in our accessibility and UX research.

Areas of breakthrough research

By gathering real-world feedback, we help developers, designers, and engineers create products and services that are more inclusive, functional, and empowering. Key areas of study include:

Through hands-on testing and participant feedback our studies inform engineers on how to improve features like seating, blood pressure cuffs, and retinal scanners, ensuring these tools are accessible to all users.

By identifying barriers and opportunities, our research examines how software and hardware can better support people with sensory, cognitive, or motor function disabilities.

With the rise of chatbots and AI-driven customer support, our research explores how accessible and acceptable these systems are for people with disabilities.

Featured studies

[The Kinemo device] allows me to be able to practice law — I am grateful to have had the opportunity to be part of the user testing.

Earle Burke, Georgia UX & Usability Research Participant

Earle Burke’s Research Story
A man in a dark suit stands with arms crossed and smiles at the camera, with his reflection visible on a glass wall beside him and a monitor displaying various company logos in the background.

Meet the UX & Usability research team

Led by John Morris, Ph.D., Senior Clinical Research Scientist and Director of Accessibility User Research Collective, our diverse expert team includes a senior research scientist with extensive experience in assistive and accessible technology research, a biomedical engineer who builds connections between engineering and design teams and communities of people with disabilities, a public health professional, a sociologist, and a UX researcher with 20+ years of assistive technology research and who is a member of the disability community.

Our best results happen when your product expertise meets our disability and research expertise.

John Morris, Ph.D. Senior Research Scientist and Director of Accessibility User Research Collective

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