The Challenge

ResearchPoint is a leading servicee for nonprofit Prospect Research. Our goal was to intelligently integrate social media information into proscpect research profiles.

The Solution

ResearchPoint Social Finder is a add-on service that enhances wealth screenings by returning social media information such as social media accounts, profile images, biographical information, and social media ratings.

Details

Learn More About ResearchPoint

The Challenge

Create a system that allows mobile devices to become lifelines in the period immediately after a disaster.

The Solution

EOS uses familiar conventions to provide flexible, optimized communication for those affected by a disaster, a resource map for those in need, and a central hub for status updates from local and federal agencies. It is designed to enhance, not replace, existing services such as 911.

EOS won first place at the 2014 Microsoft Imagine Cup UX Challenge.

Details

View project documentation (pdf)

The Challenge

As college classrooms in the United States become more international, how can design encourage dialogue and cultural understanding among university students?

The Solution

Wonder Album is designed to bridge the gap between international and domestic students by providing a safe space in which future classmates can share perspectives and open the door to conversation.

Wonder Album was a finalist at the 2013 CHI Student Design Competition in Paris, France

Details

View CHI Extended Abstract (pdf)

The Challenge

Introduce speculative and critical design research methods to UX designers in industry.

The Solution

The Make It (Critical) card deck is a tool that helps designers consider new ways of ideation by introducing them to speculative and critical designs. The cards challenge designers to break out of their comfort zone and to imagine and critically examine the many different ways things could be. This deck was my capstone project for the human-computer interaction design (HCI/d) masters program at Indiana University.

Thank you to the designers who granted permission for me to include your designs and to the Indiana University Cultural Research in Technology (CRIT) group, led by Dr. Jeffrey Bardzell and Dr. Shaowen Bardzell.

Details

Make It (Critical) Document (pdf)

The Challenge

This research was conducted by the Indiana University Cultural Research in Technology (CRIT) group, led by Dr. Jeffrey Bardzell and Dr. Shaowen Bardzell. The purpose was to study the ideas of persuasive anxiety, big data, and the quantified self through critical design research. Three physical designs, created by Shad Gross, were deployed to families throughout Bloomington, Indiana. We used the designs to engage the users and prompt critical thought on persuasive anxiety.

The Solution

I was one of the primary researchers for this project. I engaged with users through cultural probes, contextual inquiry, and interviews. I helped construct physical prototypes for field testing and acted as project facilitator for three hourly team members.

Details

Publication

The Challenge

Provide teachers a modern, interactve means for communicating expectation and performance feedback to students.

The Solution

The onCampus interactive rubrics help teachers provide students with meaningful feedback on performance and outcomes. Teachers can create and save rubric templates, collaborate and share rubrics with colleagues, and have grades flow directly from the rubric to the onCampus gradebook.

Details

onCampus blog post

The Challenge

Blackbaud's 2015, $190 million aquisition of Smart Tuition provided the opportunity to better serve our schools and candidate families by bringing together the contract experience with student billing.

The Solution

The onBoard Contracts/Smart Tuition integration merges two annual processes into one streamlined workflow. Families no longer need to enroll at their school through the "ON" products, and then enroll in Smart Tuition for payment processing.

Details

Feature preview

The Challenge

A three-year ethnography lead to the introduction of a new critical research method – The Critical Playshop

The Solution

In this article, we detail our experience planning, implementing, and reflecting on a critical playshop. This was published in the February 2017 issue of Interactions Magazine.

Details

Article

The Challenge

Upon finishing an internship or degree in design, novice designers face a challenging professional world. Design schools often prepare novices for the types of projects they will face, but preparing them for the professional realities they will face is often left to the company that hires them.

The Solution

One way we can prepare designers for the challenges they will face as professionals is by simulating professional presentations that go wrong. In this case study, we examine one particular pedagogical tool designed for this purpose: The Panda Hat of Doom.

Details

Panda Hat of Doom Site

Publication