Panel 1-Two Stories

Today we received the visit of two important figures in this User Experience world. One of them was Alan Borning, a retired Computer Science Professor at UW and member of the One Bus Away app. And Laura Barboza, a Senior User Experience Researcher at Nordstrom Direct.

Alan Borning-One Bus Away

Alan Started the entertained lecture by explaining how One Bus Away was created. You may not believe this, but actually this app was a doctorate project made by a student whose advisor was Alan. It was really interesting to know how everything began and the type of problems they were finding in their way. For example, the founder of the app was really concerned about real time changes in the buses’ schedules. No other platform was giving that kind of information. Consequently, he and another student, began this crazy project which is now used in different cities across the United States. But not everything was easy. As Alan mentioned, the hardest part was working with the buses company, since they didn’t want to release their information. On the other hand, I found really interesting the fact that this application was born with the techniques that we are learning. They used paper prototyping to create the very first version of the app, and usability testing with different participants to test the final versions. Beyond question, a very reaching experience.

Laura Barboza-Nordstrom

After Alan finished his presentation, Laura went to the podium and prepared herself to talk about her work at Nordstrom. She presented how Nordstrom improved their page for their anniversary sales using three different rounds of usability tests. And this is basically what I liked about her presentation. Because, she showed us, how using this powerful technique, they discovered the importance of the details. At the beginning, the participants of the tests, were confused about different sections of Nordstrom’s web page. But, after the different test rounds, and changing some colors and organization on the page, the users were finally understanding how to make the most of Nordstrom anniversary’s deals.

What I learned…

Doubtless, these two people and their work, have left really important things to consider in our user experience’s career. Alan taught me how important is to research about our projects before even starting. To look how things really work, what factors enter in the equation, and to trust in paper prototyping. Because it is a cheap and good way to know how to start our project.

Additionally, Laura taught me the importance of a project’s details and usability tests. It doesn’t matter how small the detail of your project can be, a single color or font size of a text can change everything! And also, how good it to test your project with actual users. You may think that your work is perfect, but it is not, because you didn’t create it for yourself, it is always good to test it with possible users.