We at Tern are committed to providing curated travel tours, making it possible for everyone and anyone to freely explore any destination and serving you a one-stop solution for all of your travel needs. In our user research, we found that aspiring travelers often find brainstorming and logistics planning for travel to be overwhelming. There are too many sources available, such as Google Reviews, Reddit, Yelp, and Airbnb, which do not have the sole purpose of “Detailed Travel Planning.” With our service, travel planning can be more enjoyable and less burdensome.

Industrial Control Systems (ICS) are cyber-physical systems that allow operators to monitor and control complex industrial processes, such as those found in energy, manufacturing, and other critical infrastructures. ICS operators face numerous challenges, especially information overload, reliance on disparate information sources, and a lack of aggregated, consumable, and intuitive ways to gain insights on ICS vulnerabilities and risks to protect their assets. By leveraging thoughtful user-centric design, we worked with FireEye to create and organize a structure for meaningful relationships between vulnerabilities and assets, designing a user-friendly system to display information that is both easy to understand and actionable.

This project is meant to determine the feasibility and willingness for libraries to use virtual, augmented, and mixed reality technologies (digital realities) in order to solve modern information problems. As a whole, library employees were generally enthusiastic about the technology. Unfortunately, research on AR/VR software and a survey of library professionals revealed a lack of training, budget concerns, uncertainty of its usefulness, and a lack of meaningful software. However, the secondary aspect of this project would help alleviate some of these concerns with the creation of freely available software that are meaningful and relevant toward libraries and makerspaces.

We do not believe that having a disability limits a person’s potential. Everyone should have the equal access to the “new world”. We adopted the four principles published by the Department of Justice (DOJ) for the UW record management websites, to make sure they are perceivable, operable, understandable and robust. This project is going to help both Records Management Services and its over 20,000 users.

We connect people in a meaningful way by taking online dating, offline. AMPR is for those who are tired of mindless swiping and superficial conversations. Our unique date generator plans dates for users based on mutual interests, first date preferences, and individual schedules so they can focus on developing meaningful relationships. We want users to use our product as a tool, not a crutch; that is why we welcome all users, whether they’re looking to meet someone new or discover local spots. Swipe less, date more.

Meaningful understanding of diverse user groups can help maintain top-of-the-line experiences in software and beyond. Epic Games asked the Data Divas to design a study that could be applied across multiple user types for Unreal Engine 4 and its documentation. Phase One involved creating user personas and stories. In Phase Two, we developed a flexible methodology using customizable task sets and user-centric evaluation through journey maps and open-ended questions. In Phase Three, we tested the methodology with beginning-level users and gained additional insight. Applying this methodology will help quickly assess user needs across an increasingly diversifying user group.

Guiding by the philosophy of “putting people first,” BECU cares deeply about their members. Thus, resolving high-impact incidents as quickly as possible to ensure a seamless member experience is crucial. BECU IT Incident Management Portal is a one-stop online portal that provides end-to-end management of High and Critical technology incidents. It collects important information from multiple incident management and troubleshooting tools and displays the right information to help IT and non-IT employees triage, action, communicate and collaborate. Our solution empowers employees at BECU to handle critical incidents promptly and painlessly, increasing productivity and business competitiveness, and ultimately improving member satisfaction.

We redesigned a tool, called the Broadband Connectivity Assessment, which supports advocacy for high-speed internet access in underserved communities in the US. We conducted user research and interviewed participants who piloted of a beta version of the tool. While responses were overwhelmingly positive, there were challenges which made the tool difficult to use. We offer solutions through a redesign of the user experience and architecture of the tool. Because the needs of participants vary, our final design recommendations focus on creating a tool that is flexible and can be adapted to the needs of any community.