Alice Ji
Behavioral Data Scientist & Mixed-Methods Researcher
bridging experimental design, behavioral analytics, and UX
insight.
Welcome.
I’m a PhD researcher at the Institute of Communications Research (University of Illinois). I study how interface design shapes attention, emotion, and persuasion, especially in platforms where user experience is the product.
My work spans media psychology, UX, and behavioral data science. I build and instrument custom prototypes (social feeds, streaming platforms, gacha-style games) with eye-tracking, emotion recognition, and telemetry to capture engagement and conversion moment-by-moment.
I’m a researcher who codes and a UX strategist who speaks marketing. I write the JS to track clicks by second, analyze behavioral signals, and merge them with qualitative insight to explain not just what users do, but why, and how to turn that into product action.
The Medium is the Message — Marshall McLuhan
Featured Projects
TV Shoppable Advertising
Viewers notice shoppable TV prompts, but rarely act. In a simulated living-room lab, most participants looked, hesitated, and reached for their phones instead of their remotes. The problem isn’t interest but uncertainty. When outcomes feel unclear, curiosity collapses. My research reveals that shoppable TV doesn’t need louder design—it needs clearer intent and emotional continuity.
Causal Role of Social Features in Buying
Built two versions of an interactive Instagram-style feed (HTML/JS)—one with comments, one without— to experimentally test how comment function presence impacts user connection to influencers and likelihood to purchase. Removing comments entirely broke the purchase funnel, showing that this feature is critical for converting influencer liking into product buying.
Gacha Behavioral Economies
Developed a playable gacha-style game in HTML/JS with detailed action-level telemetry tracking to examine how randomness, reward framing, and value perception influence trust and spending behavior.