Aiden Johnson

Click below for my resume!

About Me

Hello! I’m Aiden Johnson, a senior at Carleton College studying Computer Science, Digital Arts and Humanities, Statistics, and Art History. My work sits at the intersection of human-computer interaction, UX research, and creative technology, with a focus on making complex technology more intuitive, accessible, and human-centered.

Through research, internships, and independent projects, I’ve designed interactive tools, conducted user-centered research, and developed AI-assisted technologies. At the Mayo Clinic’s Knowledge and Evaluation Research Unit, I developed a privacy-conscious research application, AI tools for analyzing clinical conversations, and user-centered interfaces for researchers and clinicians.

I’m particularly interested in where UX research, interaction design, and AI meet. My portfolio reflects that multidisciplinary approach through research, data visualization, web development, Figma prototyping, digital humanities, and creative design. Outside of this work, I’m a Captain of the Carleton Men’s Varsity Swim and Dive Team and the founder and Creative Director of Haus of Frog. If you like what you see, hit me up. I am always looking for new problems to solve!

Portfolio

The problem

Clinical research teams needed a reliable way to compare how multiple coders evaluated the same patient encounters. The existing tool lacked data sharing, collaboration, and meaningful inter-rater reliability analysis. Additionally, there needed to be a way to qualitatively code patient-clinician encounter videos while maintaining the security of patient data.

My role

I developed EnIAC from a small feature request into a full qualitative research platform, designing and building the React/Electron interface, collaboration workflows, agreement tools, and visual interaction.

Methods

UX design, React, Electron, statistical analysis, iterative debugging, information architecture, interaction design, and user-centered problem solving.

Build the foundation

I created the clinical coding application with independent export/import capabilities without disrupting researchers' existing process. I built around the frameworks they wanted for the app, not vice versa.
Make agreement meaningful

I built and validated multiple calculated measures of agreement among independent qualitative reviews, including ICC, Cohen's kappa, Fleiss' kappa, weighted kappa, and percent agreement. These are incredibly useful in qualitative assessment.
Design for real teams

As requirements grew, I added role-based sharing, researcher rosters, progress tracking, transparent agreement views, CSV export, and light/dark theming.

What I learned

Building EnIAC showed me that good research software is more than functionality. In the beginning, I wanted to make something that could be used for any kind of qualititave observation. However, it became more clear that what Mayo Clinic's Knowledge and Evaluation Research unit wanted was an assessment tool that was directly personalized to the work that they were specifically doing. This meant that I had to dig deep and observe their work flow to optimize the performance of the tool. As a plus, now the tool can be used for both the specific assessment frameworks that they requested, and is adaptable to ANY qualitative assessment, clinical or non-clinical research. EnIAC grew into a full-fledged platform used for qualitative assessment and was recognized with an award at the Midwest Endocrinology Society Conference.

View the final product

The problem

Software can unintentionally exclude users when designers overlook accessibility and social context. This research examined whether teaching critical pedagogy in undergraduate software design could help students recognize and address these issues and create more accessible design.

My role

As a student researcher, I led qualitative coding of student reflections, assignments, and interviews. I developed and refined coding frameworks, analyzed patterns in student work, and collaborated on the study's quantitative and qualitative findings.

Methods

Mixed-methods research using the CritCon Index, qualitative coding, affinity diagramming, inductive codebook development, interviews, and non-parametric statistical analysis.

Integrating critical pedagogy

Students identified the embedded values in technology, and the CIDER elicitation technique throughout an undergraduate Software Design course to reconsider how their software may provide differential impacts for some users.
Analyzing student reflection

I independently coded student work and interviews, then refined codebooks through multiple rounds of analysis and consensus-building with my research partner.
Connecting reflection to action

We compared students' proposed improvements with their final software to measure whether critical reflection translated into concrete inclusive design decisions.

What I learned

Students showed significant growth in their confidence discussing ethical and social impacts of software, and they reported feeling more personal agency in their work. Their work also became more attentive to diverse users, with all seven teams implementing accessibility-related improvements. The study showed how research can connect students' attitudes about inclusive design with their actual design decisions.

View the full report

The problem

Carleton students often discover events through long announcement emails and scattered sources, making events difficult to find and coordinate around. CarlSVP centralizes event discovery, RSVPs, invitations, and social coordination into one intuitive platform.

My role

I worked as part of a design team to research, prototype, test, and refine CarlSVP. I took a leading role in the visual and interaction design, developing the intuitive navigation, event cards, interaction patterns, and color system in Figma.

Methods

Stakeholder interviews, user-centered design, Figma prototyping, T-shaped prototyping, usability testing, iterative design, interaction design, visual design, and information architecture.

Understand the student experience

We identified fragmented event communication as the core problem through stakeholder research. We mapped the major student goals around discovering events, coordinating with friends, and managing attendance.
Prototype the core experience

Our team developed a T-shaped Figma prototype, exploring the full application broadly while going deeper into critical flows such as event discovery, RSVPing, inviting friends, and creating events.
Test and iterate

Usability testing revealed issues with the original calendar, participant indicators, navigation, and interaction feedback. We replaced the difficult-to-scan monthly calendar with a chronological event feed, replaced confusing icons with profile photos, improved notifications, and refined buttons and friend lists.

What I learned

CarlSVP reinforced the importance of designing around real user behavior rather than assumptions. Small changes to hierarchy, social cues, and interaction feedback significantly improved the experience. I also gained experience translating research and usability findings into a cohesive visual system, including much of the final interface, color palette, and interaction design.

View the Figma prototype

The problem

Many respiratory disabilities are invisible, leaving people with symptoms and daily challenges that are often misunderstood or overlooked. Breath Beyond Visibility was created to amplify these experiences and make hidden respiratory disabilities more visible and understandable.

My role

I designed and developed the website as an interactive platform for sharing stories and information. I built the front end and connected the experience to a structured Airtable database, creating a system that could grow as more stories and resources were added.

Methods

UX and interaction design, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Airtable, responsive web development, information architecture, and content-driven interface design.

Center lived experiences

I designed the experience around the people affected by hidden respiratory disabilities, prioritizing clear storytelling and accessible ways for visitors to understand experiences that are often difficult to see from the outside.
Build a flexible content system

I connected the website to Airtable so stories and project content could be managed through a structured database rather than being hard-coded into individual pages. JavaScript then dynamically connects that content to the interface.
Turn information into an experience

I developed the HTML, CSS, and JavaScript interactions to create a responsive experience that makes complex information easier to explore while maintaining the project's focus on visibility, awareness, and human stories.

What I learned

Breath Beyond Visibility taught me how UX can be used not only to solve usability problems, but also to give visibility to experiences that are frequently overlooked. Building the database-driven system also strengthened my ability to connect front-end design with flexible content infrastructure.

View the final product

The problem

The Care That Fits website needed a clearer, more cohesive experience for communicating the work of the clinical research unit. The existing site made it difficult to understand the unit's programs, people, research, and broader mission. The goal was to create a more intuitive structure while establishing a consistent visual identity.

My role

I led the UX and web design process from initial stakeholder consultation through implementation. I translated feedback from researchers and unit leadership into the site's information architecture, visual design, page layouts, and interactive features, then built the final experience in WordPress.

Methods

Stakeholder interviews, information architecture, UX design, wireframing, Figma prototyping, local WordPress development, responsive web design, custom HTML/CSS, iterative feedback, and visual branding.

Consult with stakeholders

I began by meeting with stakeholders across the unit to understand their goals, audiences, existing content, and pain points. These conversations established the foundation for the site's structure and content priorities.
Design and validate the structure

I translated stakeholder feedback into initial mockups, then built a full Figma prototype to demonstrate the proposed navigation, page structure, visual hierarchy, and interactions before development began.
Develop and implement

I built a local WordPress version to test the design in the actual CMS before deploying it. I then implemented the final website with custom HTML/CSS features, responsive layouts, and a consistent visual identity across the site. All while maintaining the project on WordPress so that the website can be sustained even after I left.

What I learned

This project strengthened my ability to take a complex stakeholder problem from discovery through implementation. I learned how to balance the needs of researchers, leadership, and site visitors while translating a design system from Figma into a real, maintainable WordPress experience.

View the final product

The problem

In the early 1900s (1904-1908) A Carleton alum travelled to China to teach English to the nephews of the Empress, and wrote home about it. The letters survived in the archive - but a box of handwritten correspondence is not something a reader can actually use. The hand is difficult, the references go unexplained, and there is no way to search the collection or see the shape of it as a whole.

My role

Digital Humanities Associate. I worked on transcription, historical annotation, and the textual and spatial analysis, and helped shape how the material was presented in the published exhibit.

Methods

Archival transcription
Contextual annotation
Textual analysis using Distant Reading Software
Spatial analysis and mapping using ArcGIS

Transcribe the handwriting

Accurate transcription is the step everything downstream depends on. Without proper transcription, all of the data becomes skewed.
Annotate what the letters take for granted

The writer never explains who she means or why a place matters; she was writing to people who already knew. We added the context a reader today needs to follow her, which meant deciding, letter by letter, what genuinely required explanation.
Analyse the collection as a whole

Textual analysis surfaced patterns across the correspondence that no single letter reveals - and gives us a better look into Western perspectives of China in the early 1900s. Spatial analysis put the letters on a map, so the geography of the account becomes something you can physically see rather than something you have to piece together in your head.

What I learned

The hard part was never the transcription, it was judging how much context a reader needs before a primary source becomes legible to them. ArcGIS was a tool that I learned at large due to this project.

View the exhibit

Artwork Studio Art Portfolio

Experience

June 2026 to August 2026

AI Engineer & UX Design Intern

Mayo Clinic · Knowledge and Evaluation Research Unit · Rochester, Minnesota
- Designed and developed a local-first qualitative research application that enables collaborative coding of clinical encounters while keeping protected patient information local
- Developed AI-assisted speaker diarization tools to automatically identify speakers in clinical recordings, improving the efficiency of qualitative patient-experience research
- Conducted user-centered design through researcher interviews, UX wireframing, and interactive Figma prototyping to translate clinical research needs into usable software tools
- Collaborated with clinicians, researchers, and software developers to implement and evaluate research-focused interfaces and workflows
- Redesigned and maintained the KER Unit’s WordPress website and created publication-quality figures and visualizations for medical research
- Presented the qualitative coding application at the Midwest Endocrine Society Conference and received the runner-up award
March 2025 to August 2025

Software Design Research Intern

Carleton College · Northfield, Minnesota · St. Louis, Missouri
- Designed and conducted A/B testing to evaluate software design using non-parametric statistical methods
- Presented the completed research on the national level at SIGCSE 2026
- Applied human factors and program analysis methods to investigate how users interact with and learn from software design tools
- Analyzed and visualized experimental data using Python, Pandas, Matplotlib, and PyWaffle to communicate research findings
- Developed a research website and visual communication materials to translate quantitative findings into accessible research outputs
- Contributed to research publications and ongoing studies in human-computer interaction and software design education
September 2025 to present

Senior Digital Humanities Associate

Carleton College · Northfield, Minnesota · Poughkeepsie, New York
- Developed and maintained digital research projects integrating web development, information architecture, and computational methods into humanities scholarship
- Received an academic travel award to develop a project on the national level at ILiADS 2026
- Collaborated with faculty, students, and external institutions to design digital research resources
- Built and integrated interactive content using HTML, CSS, JavaScript, ArcGIS, WordPress, and Omeka
- Applied user-centered design and visual communication principles to improve the accessibility and usability of digital scholarship
June 2020 to present

CEO & Creative Director

Haus of Frog
- Lead product design, branding, digital marketing, and e-commerce strategy for an independent creative business with thousands of dollars generated in product sales
- Designed user-facing product graphics and digital experiences using Figma, Procreate, and Canva to strengthen brand identity and customer engagement
- Incorporated customer feedback and engagement data into product and design decisions
June 2024 to July 2024

Program & Community Assistant

Carleton College · Northfield, Minnesota
- Organized and marketed large-scale programming for Carleton College’s Summer Liberal Arts Institute
- Independently supervised 18 pre-college students, developing leadership, communication, and community-building skills
- Used Microsoft Office tools to organize student information and streamline program operations
August 2023 to present

PEAR Lifeguard & Teaching Assistant

Carleton College · Northfield, Minnesota
- Balanced teaching, safety, and communication responsibilities alongside academics and collegiate athletics
- Communicated and instructed students for the Swimming Fitness course under the direction of course staff

Haus of Frog

Education

September-2019 to June-2023

Mayo Senior High School

Honor's Diploma, President of 46 schools in the Southeastern Division of Minnesota, Captain of Boy's Swim and Dive, 4.7 weighted GPA

September-2023 to June-2027

Carleton College

Computer Science Major, Digital Arts and Humanities, Statistics, and Art History Minors. Captain of Men's Swim and Dive team. Two Time All-district Academic Award Honoree. Dean’s List awardee (2023-2024).

Contact

NameAiden Johnson
Emailaidenjohnson728@gmail.com
LinkedInlinkedin.com/in/aiden-johnson
Instagram@haus.of.frog

About Me

Portfolio

The problem

My role

Methods

Build the foundation

Make agreement meaningful

Design for real teams

What I learned

The problem

My role

Methods

Integrating critical pedagogy

Analyzing student reflection

Connecting reflection to action

What I learned

The problem

My role

Methods

Understand the student experience

Prototype the core experience

Test and iterate

What I learned

The problem

My role

Methods

Center lived experiences

Build a flexible content system

Turn information into an experience

What I learned

The problem

My role

Methods

Consult with stakeholders

Design and validate the structure

Develop and implement

What I learned

The problem

My role

Methods

Transcribe the handwriting

Annotate what the letters take for granted

Analyse the collection as a whole

What I learned

The problem

My role

Methods

Final Product

Experience

AI Engineer & UX Design Intern

Software Design Research Intern

Senior Digital Humanities Associate

CEO & Creative Director

Program & Community Assistant

PEAR Lifeguard & Teaching Assistant

Haus of Frog

Education

Mayo Senior High School

Carleton College

Contact