Our research aimed to improve student experience in large university lectures. Specifically, we examined the use of backchannels (a moderated chat alongside lecture) and the effectiveness thereof with respect to students’ grades, level of participation, and overall satisfaction. We began with a survey of 149 responding students, and focused further with interviews. The survey reached two academic quarters of students from an introductory informatics course. Respondents self-categorized into three groups based upon their interaction with the backchannel: contributors, observers, and non-users. This split developed into our personas to interview. Our findings revealed significant supporting evidence of greater interest in lecture and higher participation with backchannel involvement. Further qualitative analysis suggests, also, that backchannel contributors achieved higher grades. Thus, backchannels can enhance student experience in large lectures--especially with our feedback-inspired redesign. Though we prioritized student experience, we believe that instructors, likewise, benefit from a more engaged student base.

Research scientists need to stay up-to-date on advancements in their field, but it is time-consuming to constantly search multiple sources. They need to collaborate with other people with complementary expertise, but discovering them can be a challenge. Scientists also need to become aware of funding opportunities they should apply to, but are not sure which ones are appropriate. Connected to Research delivers relevant publications, key people, and funding opportunities. This personalized portal knows your interests so it eliminates searching, reduces the effort, lowers barriers, and automatically provides the information you need when you need it. It tracks key dates and notifies you of changes. Connected to Research allows you to collaborate and share information with others in your team. This tool also actively monitors a variety of trusted sources so you do not have to. Your time is valuable so now you can stay Connected to Research.

Since the 1970s, the Refugee Forum of King County has been a vital source of information and networking for service providers serving refugees and newly arrived immigrants in the Puget Sound region. However, they relied on paper copies, monthly meetings, and word of mouth to share ideas. This has made it difficult for them to move forward with new goals and reach out to potential new members. Following principles of user-centered design, we helped the organization identify its information needs and built a website tailored to its goals. The process included user testing, content strategy, and documentation to ensure a smooth handoff. The website has the potential to improve the speed and efficiency with which service providers access information about community resources, thus enabling them to better help refugees and newly arrived immigrants in the region. Furthermore, it can serve as a platform for advocacy as the RFKC grows.

Our work is part of the Game Metadata Research (GAMER) Group’s project: Constructing a Metadata Schema for Video Games and Interactive Media, which aims to capture the essential information about these materials in a standardized, user-centered way. The deliverables of our project include: (1) an XML schema representation of their metadata scheme; (2) a repository of XML instances containing cataloging records of sample video games; (3) a user-friendly data input form for game catalogers; (4) interfaces enabling users to search and browse game records within the database; (5) documentation for users and future maintenance. This project consolidates and enhances GAMER’s previously disparate and incomplete game data into a single, easily extensible format, and delivers a concrete product to help GAMER evaluate their developing metadata scheme. It provides a basis for advancing the GAMER research, contributing to the goal of improving video game organization and access for gamers, catalogers, and researchers.

The UW Department of Global Health website provides information to a diverse audience that includes students, researchers and global health professionals. However, the site is not easy to navigate, and the department desires to improve usability as well as increase visibility of their academic programs. Our research examined three areas: the goals of the department staff, website statistics, and student-user needs.  Website analytics and a content inventory of the current site were evaluated.  Usability testing was performed with students through surveys, user observation, and in-depth interviews allowing us to understand their search behavior and information needs.   The quantitative and qualitative data collected was used to create a prototype taxonomy for website navigation and a suggested redesign of the homepage. Recommendations to improve the website, and address the needs of prospective and current students, were presented to the Department of Global Health for incorporation into their website redesign project this summer.

There are currently few ways for students to explicitly showcase the skills they learn outside of school to advance them in their career and education. At the Pacific Science Center, youth in the Discovery Corps program become leaders in science and presentation, developing crucial personal and professional skills that that they would not have otherwise developed in school. Our solution to giving the students the recognition they deserve is to design a digital badge system for the Discovery Corps Program. Digital badges provide the youth with a way to present these skills in an online platform that they can share with potential employers and educators. This creates a precedent for which skills learned outside of school can be quantified in an applicable manner. Students can gain recognition for skills that previously were unacknowledged, giving them an advantage in reaching future goals.

In 2012, an estimated 421,000 people were injured from crashes involving distracted drivers. This is a 9% increase from the previous year. Locking drivers out of their phone is not a way to combat this issue. Instead, we have developed an Android lockscreen application that allows users to set commonly used driving apps so that they have quick access to them when needed, as well as provide data via the phones’ sensors to show how safely the users drive. Our app not only reduces time spent fumbling through the phone to find specific apps, but it also tells the user they might be an often-distracted driver. We found that through the use of our lockscreen replacement, testers spent up to 13 less seconds browsing to an app they wanted to use, indicating that our app would help drivers pay more attention to the road.

Truly an urban retreat, the Washington Park Arboretum is a beautiful, 230-acre oasis tucked away in Seattle’s Montlake neighborhood. Since 1934, scientists and volunteers have collected data on over 11,000 plant species, which have recently been digitized. This plant database, as well as an Arboretum map highlighting trails and landmarks, is formatted for use on computers, and difficult for visitors to access while at the park. We have designed a mobile application to put this information in the hands of visitors, enriching their overall park experience. Application features include customizable trail loops, information on gardens, park maps and a GPS-enabled plant lookup capability that easily locates plants around app users. Our project has involved a research phase, app sketching, wireframing, usability tests and an interactive prototype built in Axure. Stop by to see the final design and learn all about the application features!

Teaching video editing is a time consuming task that requires much one on one time between a teacher and student. As class time and office hours are limited, there is a ceiling on how much instruction a student can receive during a course. Furthermore, with only a finished product to evaluate, it is difficult for teachers to suggest improvements to cutting room processes used by students. To increase visibility into students’ processes and allow for a more iterative feedback loop, an online collaborative workspace has been created. In this workspace, visibility into processes was added through real-time collaboration and revision history. Coupling these features with an ability to give and request targeted feedback at any point in the process allows students increased access to a teacher’s wealth of knowledge.

Alaska Airlines has a large pool of 3300 flight attendants. To improve the work efficiency and lower down the labor cost, there is an immense need for supervisors to measure the performance of flight attendants on the basis of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). It is also very important for every flight attendant to be able to track his performance under different performance categories as well as view the average peer score for comparison. There should be an easy, efficient, and less time-consuming way to do this task as the major problem is that the data is scattered at different places. Our Project: It involves researching and refining the data available from different sources. It also involves designing a prototype of a user friendly flight attendant performance measurement dashboard which will be able to fetch relevant data from different places and show the processed information (performance scores) at a single platform.