Panel 1 Report

Last week, we had a panel where experts in interaction design and user testing spoke. Alan Borning spoke about the early development and designing of the app One Bus Away, and from his talk I learned about the political issues that can be faced when designing an app. Borning stressed that one of the biggest challenges when developing One Bus Away was working with the transit agencies. One thing that stood out to me from his presentation was when he stated that how the app first grew was mainly from word of mouth and it quickly gained popularity from there.

The other expert that spoke was Laura Barboza, who is a User Experience Researcher that works at Nordstrom. Barboza recently tested users experience navigating the Nordstrom website with their early access Anniversary sale. One thing that stood out to me from Barboza’s presentation was that user testing is a thorough and continuous process, as you are constantly trying to improve and edit your designs. Barboza explained that the process takes several rounds of testing, and emphasized that after improvements are made, it is crucial to go back and test the success of the changes made.

After hearing about these two professional projects, I would modify the work of my own sprints by showing my deliverables to users for feedback and improvements before I finish my project. Also, I would make sure to keep in mind the ease of the user, and how efficient and clear the product was in their experience, as Barboza and Borning both said these were things they kept in mind during the design process.