Each year, approximately 2 million new immigrants from all over the world arrive in the United States. These newcomers can often find themselves feeling isolated due to language and cultural barriers, which make meeting new people and acclimating to their new environment especially challenging. We built an events based social networking website, called Immingle, designed specifically with the needs of this group in mind. Our solution helps immigrants who share a common language or homeland connect with one another through creating and attending local events. Events can range anywhere from small knitting group gatherings to large cultural music festivals, and can be created by new immigrants, established immigrants, or even local organizations. By providing a resource for both recent and established immigrants alike to connect with one another, Immingle helps newcomers meet friends who have shared similar experiences. These peers can help them overcome some of the challenges that transitioning to life in a new country can pose. Our solution aims to strengthen local immigrant communities by providing a platform with very low barriers to access that encourages making new friends, building support networks, and getting involved in the local community.

Mental health clinicians, researchers, and program managers require good data to make good decisions. The Mental Health Research Network (MHRN) has collected a significant quantity of population data, but action based on this data is hindered without extensive technical training and experience. This limits the data’s impact to improve health care outcomes and performance by preventing a wider audience from using the data to make high-level care and policy decisions. We worked with the Group Health Research Institute to design an interactive tool that transforms health care data into understandable visualizations, which are easy to explore.  Our tool will provide translational research; encourage people to ask questions; and promote data-driven healthcare improvements, ultimately impacting over 11 million patients across the United States currently served by the MHRN.

In 1997 the Menil Collection in Houston, Texas, acquired the private library of the institution’s founder, Dominique de Menil. Since then the library has been housed in an offsite location which makes staff access to it inconvenient and public access impossible. Consisting of about 1,500 items, the library had no formal list or inventory nor was the library publicized. Working with the Menil Collection Library I increased the usability and accessibility of the private library by conducting an inventory and creating searchable finding aid. Now Menil staff, scholars, and visitors will be able to discover what is in the founder’s library including many items found nowhere else in the U.S. This finding aid will also help the librarian manage the special collection.

Maclear eGRC is a governance, risk, and compliance software suite supporting the risk and compliance industry. The application currently supports a SQL based authentication and authorization service. Unfortunately, the usage of a SQL based system is difficult to synchronize information between the Maclear eGRC suite and client applications, therefore creating a mismatch between data exchange formats. Traditional relational databases based authentication systems suffer from vulnerabilities, such as SQL injections, which present a vast array of security concerns. The purpose of this capstone project is to design and implement a module to support Lightweight Directory Access Protocol and single sign on functionality, and obtain knowledge regarding the operational benefits of its implementation.

LENS is an image-scanning based Android application that uses crowd sourced/rated information to create an objective, fluid experience. Users scan 2D media in the real world with a smartphone camera to instantly retrieve related information. Our design was generated through market research, interviews, task analyses and an iterative prototyping/testing process. Results from feedback indicate that users aren’t willing to spend much time looking up information while on the move. LENS will always be faster than competing applications because it doesn’t require the user to do any superfluous work.

Adults spend too much time alone instead of flourishing in interpersonal environments. Young adults age 18 to 24 spend an average of three hours per day watching television, and an additional six hours monitoring online media. The same age group enjoys merely three hours a day interacting with their peers in a social setting. We have engineered Let’s Do Something, a comprehensive mobile application designed for the Android platform that presents the user with an intuitive tool to suggest social and active ideas in the Seattle area.  From abstract art to weightless free falling, our database is already populated with over 50 unique and interesting adventures. Through usability research we have already found that one in three people have found activities they haven’t indulged in, but would love to experience. Our peers have voted Let’s Do Something as more intuitive, better architected, and ultimately more useful than similar existing applications. What separates Let’s Do Something from our competitors is the ability for our fan base to submit fun and enticing ideas to our moderated and ever growing database. Our application doesn’t suggest mundane and ordinary plans like our rivals. Instead, we offer memorable outings and experiences that even the most reserved person will be excited to participate in. The Let’s Do Something application is the key for our generation to rebuild relationships with their loved ones, have fun with friends, and exercise important interpersonal skills lost in this day and age.

CommunityConnect is an interactive application licensed by King County Library System (KCLS) that uses geographic information systems (GIS) technology to map market segmentation data, library circulation data, and census data in order to help librarians pinpoint areas of potential outreach in their communities. However, KCLS administrators determined that librarians have been struggling to apply it at their branches. We conducted a needs assessment, via an online survey, face-to-face interviews, and observations, to identify the obstacles preventing librarians from successfully using the software. Based on our findings, we produced an in-depth analysis of CommunityConnect’s uses at one KCLS branch to serve as a model for other branches in the future. We also developed a set of recommendations for future training on CommunityConnect.

LOCAL COLOR is a retrospective exhibit of watercolor paintings by Parker McAllister currently housed in the Seattle Public Library's Special Collections. My project is a comprehensive exhibit plan and handbook containing an interpretative checklist of the exhibit materials, including a selection of 17 paintings and other materials from the library collection; information about the artist and The Seattle Sunday Times Magazine series for which the paintings were created; painting conservation details; and marketing and programming suggestions. By contrasting the historical personages and events in McAllister's artwork with primary and secondary sources from the library's collection, this exhibit highlights the materials available to the Seattle public about the early history of the Pacific Northwest, and creates space for community dialogue about our history and its portrayal in interpretative art upon which the library can build.

The roots of Lost Sounds Montana can be traced to a Havre, MT, basement with the discovery of a box containing long-forgotten seven-inch records. These rediscovered musical treasures are cause for great excitement among music lovers, but it is not only aficionados who benefit from the unearthed gems. The recordings, posters, interviews, and ephemera of the Lost Sounds archive offer a glimpse of a bygone era and the cultural and regional happenings that informed it. My project creates a taxonomy and metadata schema that will benefit the people of Montana, cultural historians, and music fans alike. By facilitating the inclusion of the collection in multiple digital environments, as well as a dedicated Lost Sounds Montana website, the potential audience grows exponentially. This interoperable schema prepares the collection for future growth and will aid targeted finding, while encouraging and fostering serendipitous discovery.

Social influence in the physical world can be correlated with intangible attributes like charisma, attraction, and charm. In translation to a digital context, the concept of influence is still very much connected to these types of human elements, but their impact becomes measurable. The value in determining how much impact an individual has on a specific topic of interest is becoming clearer as more companies depend on digital communities for product awareness. Using a defined metric for domain-specific impact factor in conjunction with predictive modelling, we are able to visualize some interesting trends of influence among Twitter users. Not only can these findings assist in integrating social media into an effective marketing model, they can potentially outline a more direct return on investment.