Tuesday, December 25, 2012

As part of my doctorate application to Iowa State University (ISU), they asked me to post an e-portfolio for them to review. My CV has an overview of the major projects I have been involved with in the last few years, which can be found here. I will expand my CV into a little more detail in the following sections, organized according to the position I held at the time. All of the documents can be found in the Google Doc folder located here.

Graduate Student

As a graduate student at Brigham Young University (BYU), I have been working on a thesis. The current title for my work is “Applying Activity Theory to Long-term User Experience Engineering (UxE): A Study Measuring Longitudinal User Experience (Ux) and Usability across Desktop and Mobile Platforms.” The purpose of this research is to apply Aleksei N. Leontiev’s Activity Theory (Leontiev, 1978) to the domain of long-term User Experience Engineering (UxE) by developing and testing a long-term Ux/usability research methodology.

I have also done research and taken courses in Information Technology Service Management (ITSM) and Supply Chain Management, which provides applicable business knowledge to my educational background.

Research & Teacher’s Assistant

Electronic Medical Record (EMR) System

I have just started a project with Pediatric Ophthalmologists across the nation, led by Dr. Michael Abrams, to design a functional Electronic Medical Record (EMR) system that doctors actually want to use and that does not inhibit patient care. Although this project is only a couple weeks old, I am in charge of over 40 students that will be analyzing, designing, and prototyping this EMR system during the Winter 2012 semester.

ParentLink

Since 2009, I have been working with ParentLink, a local business that specializes in a school-to-home messaging system to improve their existing messaging system, in addition to developing a new mobile application for their customers. This has involved a significant amount of my time over the last few years, but has resulted in the following outcomes:

· 200% customer usage growth last year

· Significant development cost savings because of my research findings & recommendations

· 80+ usability tests

· Management of 35+ students

· 14+ prototypes designed

· 300+ pages of documentation

· Created a web-based test tracking system (no longer live)

o User test form example

o User profile form example

· Final desktop messaging prototype results:

o Decreased message sending time by 1.5 mins

o 84% customer preference of prototype interface

o One user comment:

§ “You’d have to be brain dead not to figure it out.”

Here are a few examples of the kinds of documentation that I have created with ParentLink projects:

· User profile

· Black box analysis

· Task analysis

· Storyboard

· Low-fidelity prototype

· Medium-fidelity prototype

· High-fidelity prototype

· Basic user survey

· Usability testing protocol

· User testing scenario

· Usability testing schedule in Agile development cycle

· User testing videos

Adobe

I am currently consulting with employees at Adobe Systems Incorporated to help them design the new Network Operations Center (NOC) for their new campus, which is currently under construction in Lehi, UT.

Other Graduate Students’ Projects

I help direct other graduate students in our college on how to perform user testing, develop appropriate user surveys, and create usable interfaces for their own projects.

User Experience Engineering (UxE) Lab Manager

As the manager of the UxE Lab at BYU, one of my first tasks was to start a web page for the lab, which is still a work in progress, and can be found here. I manage various hardware, software, and research resources and manage of various services, including the following:

· Group reviews of web sites (heuristic reviews)

· Usability testing (talking protocol tests)

· Card sorting

· Accessibility testing

· Pluralistic walkthroughs

· Consultation for usability tests of your product

With all of the resources of our lab, I have experience with eye tracking devices, motion capture systems, touch surfaces, prototyping tools, digitization systems, and many other user-testing tools.

Friday, January 13, 2012

I went to my first new car show today. Boy, I had no idea what I had been missing. And I saw the new ZR-1! :-D

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Man do I wish we had modern muscle cars...for so many different reasons.

Sunday, January 08, 2012

Christmas Beard 2011

Almost 3 weeks of growth. The longest I've ever had it.

Friday, January 06, 2012

Lily got her 15 mo shots on Tue and now she has Croup. I hope it passes fast so she doesn't get sick from her shots, too.

Thursday, January 05, 2012

I was thrown into a Class Action Settlement with Honda. But to object or exclude myself from the case, I have to write 4 separate physical letters and send them in the snail mail. Seriously? You are horrible lawyers, David Mazie & Richard E. Norman. You're wasting our time and tax dollars. Get a real job. http://goo.gl/jqE4o