Maria Rosala

Director, Research

Maria is the Director of Research at Nielsen Norman Group. With over a decade of experience leading research for digital products and services, she helps organizations understand user needs, reduce risk in decision-making, and build research practices that scale. At NN/G, Maria leads research efforts, consults for product teams across industries, and teaches UX professionals around the world. 

Maria’s work frequently explores how emerging technologies are changing research practices. Through her research, writing, and the courses she develops and teaches, she has advanced practical approaches to discovery, qualitative data analysis, and research operations. Maria is known for transforming thorny research topics into clear, repeatable practices that teams can apply in the real world.

Before joining Nielsen Norman Group, Maria was a senior user researcher in the UK Government, where she conducted research in the UK and internationally to improve a wide range of digital products and services — from internal casework systems and online visa applications to public-facing websites and offline service touchpoints. 

In 2017–2018, she led a multidisciplinary team on the EU Settlement Scheme (Settled Status), widely regarded as one of the UK Government’s most innovative services at the time, combining remote identity verification with automated checks using existing government records, and used by millions of people in the UK. She also created the UK Government’s first research-ethics training and consent standards, which were later adopted more widely across government.

Maria holds a Master’s in Human-Computer Interaction with Ergonomics from University College London (UCL) and a Bachelor’s in Philosophy from the London School of Economics (LSE). She is based in Bloomington, Indiana.

Courses taught by Maria

 Courses taught by Maria

Publications

 Publications

More about Maria

 More about Maria