Panel Report

1. Alan Borning described to our class a brief history of OneBusAway, showing its timeline of development from 2008 until now. The main design techniques used in the development of OBA were scenarios, paper prototyping, surveys, lab tests, and beta testers, in addition to some ancillary techniques. One aspect of the project that stood out to me was how hands-on the developers got during their surveys — Professor Borning shared that they actually buttonholes riders at bus stops and did quick surveys for the app. How fun! I wish I saw developers doing more real-life action like that, although I know I would probably be among those too shy to disrupt the riders.
2. Laura Barboza explained to us the development process of Nordstrom’s Anniversary Sale Early Access, a recently-incorporated perk for Nordstrom creditcard holders. The idea is that if you have a Nordstrom card and can prove it, you can get early access to the coveted Anniversary Sale. Implementing this new feature in a way that the users would understand was more difficult than one may expect. Barboza, as a UX specialist, shared with us the questions that needed to be answered while developing the program: Do the customers understand what the program is?; Can customers identify their next step options?; Do the users see the benefit in being cardholders? The last question is perhaps the most important of all.
3. The biggest thing that these panels taught me is that no matter how prepared you may think you are for your users, you are still completely unprepared. If you think you know your users, you are wrong. It’s imperative that in the field of UX or UCD, you interact with real users as much as you possibly can.