Panel 1 Report

OBA
To start it off, Alan Borning explained the early development of the OBA, where it was a PhD dissertation for a student. It was first started off as focusing expert bus riders, however it went under multiple revisions due to wanting the simplest possible user interface. The issue was, the OBA had trouble with the King County bus transportation, because they wanted to use the data to track buses, however it was confidential and disallowed. 
What stood out to me
I was a bit surprised at how the King County denied information and data for the OBA, however I gradually began to understand, that whatever method used, and somehow the data was leaked, it could actually pose a threat to future bus rides by malicious people.

Nordstrom
Laura Barboza explained her usability test about Nordstrom’s anniversary website, explaining in detail how multitudes of usability tests were taken into consideration to further enhance the website. This not only was able to create a simpler, more useful, and perfect interface for users, the usability of the website was basically fool-proof. In effect, the website was able to be aimed for their target audience, the customers of Nordstrom, and it helped customers navigate through the catalog easily.
What stood out to me
I liked how many tests were used efficiently for the cause of the customers, the usability test. This shows just how effective usability tests can be, and by having done a test through a sprint, I could say there are many beneficial information that is gathered, besides focusing on only usability, there are more possibilities and enhancements seen.

Changes I would make in my sprints
Definitely in my sprints, if possible that is, would take more than just a single test for users. I would try, especially for the usability test, make more tests on the same subject, such as multiple different moderator scripts for users, so I could experiment and acquire more information about different aspects about usability.