I have long been passionate about designing with the end user involved. After all, they’re the ones using our products, so they better be able to use them!
My educational background is a little varied: Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Linguistics (I loved studying language!) and a Doctor of Science in Information and Interaction Design. My specialty is User Experience research and design, and I specialized my research with at-risk groups. At-risk can also be referred to as “edge cases” in UX. These are generally people from low socio-economic backgrounds, with little (to no) digital literacy. They can also be people with disabilities.
Baltimore (my DSc is from University of Baltimore) has a high concentration of adults who qualify as low literate, thanks in large part to the economic disparities of the area. I worked quite a bit with this group and learned so much about developing easy to use applications that have simple interactions and plain language. I am determined to get these groups out of the edge case fringes and into the mainstream design consciousness.
During my years in education (curriculum and assessment development, mostly), I was intrigued by the use of student data to drive changes in our courses. I wanted to work directly with students, to hear their stories, understand their needs, and adapt the courses to meet them where they were. Again, I was driven by a need to work with the end user and build for their needs.
Designing with the end user in mind, is a great way to ensure that your products will be relevant in the world. If users can’t use your site, they won’t. There are a million other sites out there that they can use and they will.