Portfolio Category: UX Process

Validating Mental Models

Validating Mental Models
Often, it's tempting to begin creating or improving designs by jumping in and moving the elements of the design around, adding something here or there, to try to address customer concerns. However, experienced product designers know that surface treatments like this often do not address the real problems people have with using a design. We…
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Era Analysis Reveals Trends

Era Analysis Reveals Trends
One of the primary reasons to do design research is to proactively predict what products will be needed in the future, rather than constantly reacting to the market and therefore constantly being behind the curve. Companies who want to leapfrog the competition and drive their industries need to predict the influence of many factors on…
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Integrating a Range of Human Factors

Integrating a Range of Human Factors
My training in human factors helps me contribute designs that work better for people. This knowledge helps us avoid common ergonomic pitfalls, build on the strengths that humans already have and build something that makes sense to use. An iterative, human-centered design approach lets our products fit into people's lives, rather than making people adapt…
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Building a Multi-Language Interface

Building a Multi-Language Interface
The instruments here are helping to protect drinking water safety around the world. I built a state machine driven prototype to define the user interface, and included a layer of abstraction that allowed me to reference three different language files. This in turn allowed me to test the user interface in the US, Germany and…
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Product Design for Worldwide Use

Product Design for Worldwide Use
Handheld instrument design Hach partnered with two other leaders in the field of chemical analysis to create a brand new platform of devices for measuring pH, dissolved oxygen, and other electrochemical properties. This radical upgrade to a core product required careful analysis and iterative design to achieve. One of the main goals was to make…
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Testing Usability in Embedded Systems

Testing Usability in Embedded Systems
For the DR/4000, DR/5000, AquaTrend and other systems, the effort put into trying out solutions with customers paid off big. We were able to reprioritize and organize features within the instruments to match user needs by getting feedback from representative users. I defined the interaction designs for these instruments, as well as the goals and…
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