HCDE 210 Panel 1 Report
- Interaction Design
Alan Borning’s presentation of the interaction design behind One Bus Away was very insightful. I was able to get a better understanding of the steps and challenges of the interaction design process. I learned that an extremely crucial aspect of interaction design is iteration and alteration. A design is only strengthened by testing hundreds of designs and deciding which one works best for the product. One aspect of the project that stood out to me was that it seemed as if Alan was one of few people who were still working on the project. One Bus Away, being a prevalent mobile application used on the UW Seattle campus, certainly needs to be updated and maintained. The app is becoming bigger and scaling across the nation, and I was surprised of how small the team seemed.
2. Usability Testing
Laura Barboza gave an interesting perspective of usability testing. Given her expertise and extensive background in the professional software industry, I really enjoyed learning more about the usability testing process from her. One thing that stood out from her presentation was how many times she had to alter her Nordstrom ad design to make it less invasive for the user, but at the same time, get the point across and get more users to attend their special sale.
3. Reflection
Based on the work Alan and Laura did, I definitely learned of better ways to conduct usability tests and work on interaction design. For interaction design, I now know to iterate on my designs, get user feedback and criticism and try many different designs. For usability testing, I would probably have a larger sample size so that I could get a wide variety of feedback to improve my product.