hFIDO Blog

“Every other Monday, right before class ends, Muhammad Zaman, a Boston University biomedical engineering professor, hands out a one-page form asking students to anonymously rate him and the course on a scale of one to five.

It asks more, too: ‘How can the professor improve your learning of the material?’ ‘Has he improved his teaching since the last evaluation? In particular, has he incorporated your suggestions?’ ‘How can the material be altered to improve your understanding of the material?’ ‘Anything else you would like to convey to the professor?’”

A fascinating read as we wrap up the semester – read the full article at the NYT.

“My experience in that emergency room changed my perspective on design forever. Within the chaotic environment of the ER, it seemed all the players within this system had no idea what their roles were or how to interact with me—the patient. Processes were so broken that I almost ended up in the Operating Room for surgery instead of going to Radiology to get a basic x-ray. I could not understand how professionals who were there to save lives—and who worked in this environment every day—seemed utterly incompetent. That’s when I realized all the mistakes I was witnessing were not of human error, but of design flaw. Poor design of patient I.D. bracelets lead me to the O.R. Bad space design and planning caused treatment delays when staff had to run back and forth for supplies. On top of it all, before getting a valid diagnosis, I was placed on a temporary ventilator leaving me unable to communicate, completely helpless, and forced to put my life in their hands.”

Read the full article at Adaptive Path.

“One of the biggest challenges and top frustration causes for UX research and usability practitioners lies in getting buy-in for research from stakeholders. People have trouble persuading stakeholders to conduct UX research to begin with. They have difficulties in getting sponsorship and budget for fieldwork. They experience hostility when they try to get their stakeholders to act upon research results. This workshop provides strategies and tools for getting stakeholder buy-in for UX research. During the workshop we will learn tried and tested techniques, hear success and failure stories, practice and role play, and share insights with other workshop attendees.”

The half-day interactive workshop is conducted by Tomer Sharon, User Experience Researcher at Google Search and HFID graduate, at the Smith Academic Technology Center in Room 223 on Saturday, May 12 from 9:00 AM to 12:30 PM. Registration is only $25 for students.

Join more than 500 UX professionals, on Monday, May 7 for the eleventh Usability Professionals’ Association (UPA) Boston annual conference at the Sheraton Boston Hotel!

This is a great conference for HFID students to attend – it’s local and registration is only $95 for fulltime students, or $195 for working professionals. It’s also the biggest UX event of the year in Boston, and a great place to network!

It’s a packed day of 32 talks, ranging from mobile design and testing to reporting research findings to ethnography to evangelizing UX and more. Come see current HFID students Amanda Davis and Vignesh Krubai present “Designing for Education: An iPad Case Study”!

Also see HFID alumni including Kris Engdahl, Eva Kaniasty, Michael Ledoux, Jen McGinn, Dharmesh Mistry, Susan Rice, Bob Thomas, and many others share their experience and acquired wisdom.

See the full schedule for yourself and register today!