Kathleen Watson Prepares Graduate Students for the Industry with Best Practices in Usability
Kathleen Watson coaches a WNM Graduate Student
- WNM graduate students mock-up their user experience
Websites and computers have been a part of our lives for quite a while now. So why do we still stare at our screens wondering what to do next?
“I live by the philosophy that form follows function. Nothing useful can be built that doesn’t put people’s needs first.”
According to Kathleen, usability has a dual meaning: 1) an attribute of a “thing” that makes it easy and fun to use, and 2) a set of methodologies that ensures that “something” is appropriately designed to what people really want. The “thing” can be a service, hardware or software product and content.
The WNM graduate curriculum at AAU is designed to prepare students for the real world by teaching them how to design and produce meaningful, understandable and engaging student projects. The department believes that usability must be “baked into the project” by the appropriate application of user-centered design (UCD) practices from a project’s inception to production.
While advising MFA students with their thesis projects, Kathleen realized that they didn’t fully grasp that the cornerstone of effective interface design is clear navigation. Thus, the Usability Lab was born.
“The Usability Lab provides students the opportunity of watching how well potential users interact with their project. Getting this feedback before entering the design process, and at frequent intervals during its development, is critical to the success of the project.”
Testing usability on the screen
The Usability Lab has been a boon to students, as well as other AAU departments embarking on new projects that require this kind of research. In fact, MFA students have won numerous industry awards at SIGGRAPH for the past five years.
Last December, student Mary Wharmby developed a paper prototype of her MFA thesis project, The Riverbed, and tested about 5 potential users in the Usability Lab. She tested story concept, task flow, trigger points and navigation at the early stages of her project development.
“This is how it works in the real world. The Usability Lab is just another example of how AAU truly prepares its graduates for today’s workforce.”
