This summer I conducted research as an usability intern at Transkribus, an Austrian company that works on AI transcription tools designed for historical documents. Transkribus is one of various AI transcription platforms out there widely used by historians, archivists, and genealogists (both professional and hobbyist) to automatically transcribe handwritten documents. AI is especially potent here because it's not that these documents are messy (though some are), it's that the average person couldn't read medieval "fonts" and scripts without specialist training that can be prohibitively difficult to access.
Transkribus's goal is to make powerful AI tools accessible to everyone, especially those without technical backgrounds. I spearheaded UX research projects at Transkribus, including designing from scratch a usability study aimed to shed light on how beginner users interact with the Transkribus web app. I personally ran the first few user interviews myself, and was responsible for all aspects of the study, including writing a facilitator script, designing user tasks, and putting together study recruitment material. To be honest, I had no idea what UX research was before this internship, so this was a rare opportunity for me as a humanities/social science major to experiment and learn how my degree could prepare me for jobs in industry!
Outside of work, I frequently hung out at a local Chinese restaurant and chatted with the owners and other visiting students about how they experience Innsbruck as an immigrant or visitor. I took walks around, especially by the river where it was not as hot to see what people did in their spare time. I liked going to grocery stores to see the different products and produce they sold. I was also able to attend a music festival and a circus.