Record and submit a video telling high school students why you’re excited about your major and career prospects. Inspire the next generation of the workforce to choose the right career path by sharing how you plan to make an impact on the world.

• Vote: Get your friends, family, teachers or anyone else to vote for your video. 
• $10,000 Scholarship (1): The top student vote getter will receive a $10,000 scholarship and an iPad 2. 
• $2,000 Scholarships (4): The 2nd–5th ranked student vote getters will each receive a $2,000 scholarship and an iPad 2. 
• Get a job right out of school: The top 5 vote getters will have the chance to get their name out and build their resumes by guest blogging at InspiringExperts.com.

Learn about Randstad (full disclosure: Brian works at Randstad) and get the word out!

Just in time for the Oscars, we are announcing the winners of our t-shirt drawing. All HFID students who participated in our recent survey were in the running.

Using the grooviness that is http://www.random.org/, we put everyone’s entry # in a virtual hat. Here are the randomly determined winners of a brand new, official hFIDO t-shirt:

If you are a winner, please contact the honorable Azilah Baker to indicate your preferred method of delivery. And if you’d like to thank the Academy, well, go for it.

Thanks again to everyone who participated in the survey. We will be posting a summary of results shortly

We’ve updated the hFIDO calendar to reflect a whole lot o’ upcoming activities that may be of interest, including the following:

• Presenting Data and Information: A One-Day Course taught by Edward Tufte
• Boston CHI Professional Development Seminars
• UPA Intl, 20-24 June, Atlanta GA
• Healthcare Experience Design Conference

For the full list of events, including logistics and descriptions, check out the hFIDO Calendar.

The Boston Hack Day Challenge

Current HFIDer Susan DiManno wants to spread the word. The Boston Hack Day Challenge is coming up, and this would be a prime opportunity for HFIDers to pounce and play.

About the Challenge

Are you a software developer or designer? Are you a product manager, marketer or startup enthusiast? Come spend 48 hours to build a web site or phone app that will make life better in Boston. It’s a weekend of hacking where you can think up ideas, pitch concepts to each other, join into teams to quickly build as much as you can, and present the results.

Registration

Registration is due February 18. Don’t miss out!

Logistics

REGISTER: Boston Hack Day at Eventbrite.com

WHEN: Friday – Sunday,
February 25-27, 2011

WHERE: MassChallenge space on Fan Pier (Boston’s Innovation District), 14th Floor, One Marina Park Drive, Boston

Learn More

http://beta.boston.com/hackday

Celebrate World Usability Day Boston 2010

Join us for UX Trivia Night - aka “The Smackdown” - and celebrate the 6^th annual World Usability Day.

Whether you’re a UX novice, expert practitioner, or anywhere inbetween, this is chance to have fun, engage in good-natured competition, and learn a few things to boot. This will not be the UX SAT’s. Simply get together a team of 3-6 people, or join a pick-up team there, and give it a shot.

This year, hundreds of events will take place across the globe to raise awareness for, and celebrate, usability and user-centered design — from Australia, to Brazil, to Belarus.  More on World Usability Day.  Come participate in Boston’s festivities!   Continue Reading »

The Human Factors in Information Design Organization is having another redesign contest!  Last year, we asked you all to redesign the coffee vending machine in the Adamian building on campus.  The esteemed panel of judges evaluated your submissions based on creativity, simplicity, and ease of use. This year, we are asking you to redesign a different interface you can find on campus.

Have you ever ordered a cheeseburger in the Lower Cafeteria of LaCava (sorry vegetarians, we aren’t trying to marginalize you)?  Well, go and check it out and see if you can come up with an easier process to order a cheeseburger.  We want you to create a prototype showing the following interaction:  order a cheeseburger with all the toppings.

(Click to enlarge)

Submit one entry per person to [email protected] by February 13, 2009 to qualify for one of the two prizes.

Contest Prizes:

• First Prize: $150
• Second Prize: $50
• Third: Steel hFIDO water bottle
• Honorable Mentions: hFIDO T-shirt.

We are looking for low to medium fidelity prototypes as well as a brief explanation of your design. The prettiest design isn’t always the winner, so it doesn’t matter if it’s pen on paper or something fancier.

In case you can’t read the specific options in the pictures, here they are…

Burger Fixings:

Free:

• Swiss Cheese
• American Cheese
• Lettuce
• Tomato
• Onion

Extra:

• Onions $0.15
• Peppers $0.15
• Mushrooms $0.25
• Bacon $0.60
• Ham $0.50

We do ask that all submissions be made electronically, so make sure you know how to use a scanner.

MS PowerPoint is a fairly effective prototyping tool.  If you’ve never made a prototype before, I suggest you use that.

1st Place - Mike Jenkins

Mike earned himself a Nintendo DS with two Brain Age games. Look for our next contest for your chance to win a great prize, as well as bragging rights.

2nd Place - Drew Condon

3rd Place - Dan Fitek

Sorry for the delay in posting these.  I finally have a few moments of free time now that the spring semester is over.

Help out your fellow students taking HF 755 by participating in this online usability test. All the students in 755 will analyze the results of the test, and you can win a $20 Amazon gift card. It should only take about 15minutes.

http://www.webusabilitystudy.com/Inventors/

There’s a lot that can be done to make this coffee vending machine more usable.

Create wireframe sketches of your design, and write up a 1 page maximum explanation.

The person who creates the best design will win a Nintendo DS Lite with the Brain Age game.

Submissions will be judged by an impartial, diverse set of judges based on the following criteria:

• Creativity
• Simplicity
• Ease of use

Email your submissions to me by March 17, 2008.  My email is [email protected]

Have fun with this!