“Inclusivity isn’t charity—it’s intelligence"

For our season 6 finale, TRIP passes over the mic to returning guest Nikki Yeboah, Assistant Professor at the University of Washington. She’s joined by her colleague, Dr. Jasmine Mahmoud, Assistant Professor of Theatre history and Performance Studies at the University of Washington, whose work explores the intersection of theater, culture, and social justice.

Together, Nikki and Jasmine unpack performance ethnography—a research approach that merges observation with embodied experience—and how it can deepen inclusivity in both academia and applied research.

This episode examines positionality, the ethics of “who we are” in relation to our subjects, and how performance itself can enrich the context of research.

Tune in to hear actionable insights for conducting more inclusive, embodied, and ethical research, including:

• How embodiment reveals what words can’t—using performance to uncover deeper human truths.
• Why inclusive research requires examining the structures and histories that keep some voices out of the conversation.
• How positionality check exercises and embodied empathy (like “walking in your interviewee’s shoes”) foster more meaningful connections.
• What researchers can learn from artists about process, iteration, and the physical presence we bring into the interview space.

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Dr. Jasmine Mahmoud is the Donald E. Petersen Endowed and Assistant Professor of Theatre History and Performance Studies at the University of Washington, with affiliations in Art History and Comparative History of Ideas. An arts journalist and scholar, she writes about minoritized artists often excluded from official archives, with over 50 publications in venues such as Modern Drama, TDR, ArtForum, and Hyperallergic.

Her research and teaching explore contemporary performance and art through the lenses of race, feminist and queer of color critique, and public policy. She leads UW’s Minoritarian Performance Research Cluster and received the university’s 2025 Distinguished Teaching Award.

Her upcoming book, Avant-Garde Geographies, examines how experimental art practices intersect with race and urban transformation in U.S. cities. A committed arts advocate, she founded the Seattle Arts Voter Guide and serves as a Washington State Arts Commissioner. In 2024, she received the Mellon Emerging Faculty Leaders Award.

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TRIP is a self-funded podcast exploring representation and inclusion in the insights industry, hosted by Kristin Spraggins and Katrina Noelle, and produced in partnership with ⁠Hasty Storytelling⁠.

If you’ve found value in our conversations, please consider supporting the show by “buying us a coffee”! ☕️ Your donation helps fund production and for the price of a cup of coffee, you can:

🔊 Get a shoutout for you and your business

🎙️Share your inclusive insight story to be featured on a future episode

💬  Just use the “Say something nice” section when you donate to leave your message or story—or email us a voice recording to share your voice directly! 

We’d love to share your voice on the show! Contact us at [email protected]

"Everyone's got some level of effort to be inclusive, to have accessibility built in."

Shamsu Bhaidani, Founder at Bello has a history of working side-by-side with the market research industry. His latest venture, Bello (https://letsbello.com) offers simplified solutions for qualitative research.

Shamsu and his team started with the goal to make sure they could include everyone in research. They started from a product/feature view, making sure that all of their tech is as accessible and easy to use as possible, and supports people with different abilities, connection speeds and tech savviness.

The conversation is a great reminder to not assume tech proficiency - on the part of participants and researchers! Always be sure to check and double check that everyone can access everything they need to make the project successful and be "shepherds of the research".

Thanks to Shamsu for talking to TRIP from an inclusive research platform perspective!

"Inclusivity in learning is not just about differences, but preferences."

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In this episode, Michele Ronsen explores how inclusion and representation in research can be deepened by recognizing diverse learning styles, addressing invisible challenges, and bringing cultural expertise into projects.

She shares her personal journey that led her to broaden accessibility in her teaching and research practice.

Michele highlights practical strategies such as offering multi-format learning materials, creating activity-based engagement, and involving local experts in cross-cultural studies.

Together, we look ahead to the future of research education, advocating for critical thinking skills and research literacy.

Links:

• Ask Like A Pro UXR workshops
• The Expert Series (spotlight workshops)
• Fuel Your Curiosity newsletter
• UX Lexicon blog

Check the assumptions you have about target audiences - especially with Black consumers. Don't assume the data you have is enough, look into the nuances to guide your business decisions.

Dawn's team at Mahogany Minds helps brand teams not only ask questions, but to learn more but know the optimal questions to ask to get beyond initial perceptions. 

On this episode Dawn talks about brands that have successfully - and sometimes less successfully! - connect with Black consumers.

Everyone's living a different experience and it's important to make Black customers feel seen. That indicates a long term commitment by the brand and helps create an authentic relationship with the brand. 

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Connect with Dawn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dawnvcarr/

Join Mahogany www.mahogany-minds.com 

Work with Mahogany: www.mahoganyinsights.com 

"When we improve products for accessibility we improve the experience for everyone." 

Annabel Weiner, UX Manager, Accessibility at Ally inspires organisations to proactively ensure people with disabilities are included in usability work across the board, especially shifting it to the earlier side of research efforts. Including these voices early – especially in the prototyping and discovery stages – saves a lot of time in the development and testing phases later on.

Annabel also sympathizes with those struggling for those getting funding and suggests talking about how including those with accessibility really does improve market share and WOM recommendations.

Her challenge for TRIP listeners? Try to build accessibility into one of your routine research practices. And know it's OK to make mistakes and modifications! Just get comfortable asking about making modifications to ensure they can participate in the research.

Check out Annabel's recommended resources: https://inclusivedesign24.org/2025/ and https://www.deque.com/axe-con/

"You don't have to do 0 to 100 things in your first study you try, but little things can make a difference."

In this episode of  TRIP, Rajasi Desai shares her journey and practical strategies for fostering inclusivity in user research.

She emphasizes the impact of small, intentional steps—such as using multilingual and offline surveys, adapting scheduling for global participants, and making space for human connection. Rajasi also highlights internal initiatives like inclusive UX book clubs and team-wide efforts to diversify participant recruitment.

Tune in to learn about inclusion with recommendations:

1. Start Small and Iterative – Focus on making one aspect of your research process more inclusive each time, rather than trying to overhaul everything at once.
2. Use Multilingual and Offline Recruitment Methods – Incorporate surveys in multiple languages and distribute them both online and offline to reach underrepresented groups.
3. Foster Cultural Sensitivity in Execution – Learn to pronounce participants' names, adjust scheduling for global time zones, and create space for vulnerable conversations to build genuine rapport.

Links to Resources:

• 6 design failures that could have been avoided with inclusive research 
• Global UX - Designing for gender equity  
• Making the web a more inclusive place for minority languages (video) from Inclusive Design 2022. Their yearly conference is available on YouTube.

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Rajasi is a Principal UX Researcher at MathWorks, where she leads the Inclusive UX Group. Her work centers on creating processes that enable researchers and designers to be inclusive in their work. She has presented her work at prominent conferences such as UXPA Boston, UXPA International, ICML, NeurIPS, and ConveyUX. Rajasi holds a graduate degree from the University of California, Berkeley.

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TRIP is a self-funded project, produced in partnership with Hasty Storytelling, and is dedicated to raising awareness of new research practices for inclusion, challenging the status quo, and identifying assumptions in the industry by talking to people who are pushing in the insights industry.

To support our production with a donation and receive a shoutout for you and your business visit: https://buymeacoffee.com/trippodcast

To learn more about The Research Inclusion Project visit: https://theresearchinclusionproject.com

Join Kristin Spraggins and Katrina Noelle as they give you a sneak peak of what's to come for The Research Inclusion Project. Season 6 premieres on June 6th!

To learn more about The Research Inclusion Project visit: https://www.theresearchinclusionproject.com

TRIP is a self-funded project dedicated to raising awareness of new research practices for inclusion, challenging the status quo, and identifying assumptions in the industry by talking to people who are pushing in the insights industry.

To support our production with a donation and receive a shoutout for you and your business visit: https://buymeacoffee.com/trippodcast

On this episode we speak with Merve Basdogan, Assistant Professor of Instructional Technology at Texas Tech University about how technology can bridge the gaps in learning and teaching practices.

The UDL framework she uses focuses on 3 key principles: engagement, representation, and expression.

Merve is working towards personalized instructions to bridge the digital divide for older adult learners to help them interact with the technological world.

Get inspired by the lessons learned in her technology mentorship program and think about how they may relate to interactions with research participants: engage in small talk to built rapport, give relevant/relatable reasons they should to learn a technology, and use jargon-free (and emoji-free) language, and give them practical opportunities. 

Read more about Universal Design for Learning (UDL) here: https://www.gse.harvard.edu/ideas/ed-magazine/14/01/all-along.

We were so grateful to connect with Merve at TQR in January 2024, stay tuned for next year's lineup here: https://nsuworks.nova.edu/tqr/

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Dr. Merve Basdogan is an Assistant Professor of Instructional Technology in the Department of Curriculum & Instruction at the College of Education, Texas Tech University. As a post-phenomenological scholar, Merve’s research focuses on a diverse array of topics, including the philosophy of technology, technology-enhanced teaching and learning environments, critical AI literacy, digital ethics, and cyberbullying. In 2023, Dr. Basdogan was awarded an AT&T Foundation Grant for her project, "Fostering Digital Literacy in Rural Communities: A University Student-led Technology Mentoring Program," which connects adults over 65 with teacher candidates in west Texas.

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As a founding member of the Accessibility Insights Consortium (AIC), Claire brought her expertise and shared with TRIP how accessibility participatory design can spark excitement from the top down and vice versa within an organization. Her first-hand perspective of celebrating incremental changes and pushing for better accessible processes gives listeners something to reflect on within the industry and in all of our work.

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Claire Ferrari holds a PhD in Rehabilitation Sciences & Human Computer Interaction, and a master’s in Interactive Telecommunications. As Principal UX Researcher at Verizon, Claire has built and continues to lead the company’s Accessible UX Research practice. Her work is dedicated to empowering others to include people with disabilities in product design – pushing practices beyond compliance, and improving experiences for all. 

Jennifer walks the TRIP co-hosts through project design choices her team has made to 'design with people, not for people' that have resulted in actionable insights and successful product and line launches.

Hear how REI uses their 'focused groups' methodology to make participants with similar contexts comfortable in research - and how they use these sessions to in turn making customers more comfortable in (and excited about getting out in) the great outdoors.  And they can see the results in their brand tracker to ensure the research is having the impact they intend.

Jennifer also shares an example of understanding the role of gender in sizing and fit. In that case they used 'friendship pairs' to create safe and relaxed environments that allow the team to get authentic insights to inform the design of the new Active Pursuits line.

Check out more info:

And to learn more about 828's cultural empathy work, reach out here