Master’s students in Georgia Tech’s MS-HCI (Human-Computer Interaction) program focus on the point at which computing and daily life intersect. The research here seeks to develop user interfaces that are useful and usable in a number of focus areas like industrial design, health care, language, media, psychology, and much more.
The opportunity to learn practical skills that helps students learn how to apply technology and innovation to society is crucial. That’s why a semester-long project in the program’s Psychology 6023-Research Methods course in the fall was so beneficial.
The project called for the 65 students in the course – divided into 15 teams – to work with seven different company partners to engage in a user-centered design project over the course of 15 weeks. The teams tackled a specific problem each corporate partner faced in the real world, issues related to website and mobile application redesign, technology needs of field-based service technicians, visitor engagement at exhibits, food ordering and purchase processes, and merchant service options for small businesses.
"This course has evolved into a great partnership with companies and organizations in the Atlanta area," said Carrie Bruce, a research director for the MS-HCI program, senior research scientist in the School of Interactive Computing, and the instructor of the course. "Our students get to work on real problems and network with people across a range of industries."
One team focused on the design for a new shark exhibit at the Georgia Aquarium, encouraging visitors to move from “fear to fascination, then to conservation and celebration.” Another aimed to help Zoo Atlanta improve its conservation mission awareness by appealing to college-age and young professionals. Two other teams worked closely with Georgia Tech’s own College of Computing, one of the home schools for the MS-HCI program, to evaluate its existing website and redesigning the information architecture and navigation.
Teams conducted their own extensive research to define the project space, identify user needs and design criteria, develop and refine concepts, and evaluate prototypes. To the students, the benefits that come with working with corporate partners are clear.
They receive hands-on knowledge about what major companies face in their day-to-day operation, from appealing to customers to increasing brand or mission awareness, and more. They also hear from users that offer insight into the kinds of experience they want or their tendencies as consumers of a product. Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, they receive genuine feedback straight from the people that will be taking advantage of their innovations and designs.
It’s more than just the students who benefit, however. Companies that partner with MS-HCI aren’t called upon only to judge a class project. They are real consumers of the recommendations, and many actually implement many of the ideas and recommendations presented by the teams themselves.
"We have had wonderful external partners involved in the last three years and will continue to develop this course into a mechanism for strengthening our local user research and design community," said Dick Henneman, director of the MS-HCI program and professor of the practice in the School of Interactive Computing.
The PSYC 6023 course and projects received substantial assistance from teaching assistants Courtney Allen, Rishma Mendhekar, and Rachel Stuck.
Explore some of the projects from the Fall PSYC 6023-Research Methods course below.
The Jamba App: Iterative User Research & Design
Team name: Fly Like a Beagle
Team members: Stephanie Baione, Yiming Lyu, Niharika Mathur, Shelby Reilly
Company: Focus Brands/Jamba
Task: Improve the Jamba order-ahead application's consumer journey in order to reduce cart abandonment and increase sales
Summary: Our team narrowed our problem scope to include new Jamba users and focused on the sign-up, ordering, and checkout processes within the application. We developed an application prototype that decreased the average user's time using the application by 20 percent and increased system usability by 53 percent.
Predator: In Collaboration with the Georgia Aquarium
Team name: Atlanteans
Team members: Candice Butts, Yash Lara, Gurudutt Perichetla, Sonam Singh, Yangyi Xu
Company: Georgia Aquarium
Task: Research and design a solution for a new shark gallery at the Georgia Aquarium with the goal of altering visitor perception of the fish
Summary: Encouraging visitors to go from "fear to fascination, then to conservation and celebration" was the central goal of each step of the research and design process. The final outcome is built upon emerging augmented reality technology that leverages Magic Leap to create a novel guest experience at the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta.
Zoo Atlanta and Conservation
Team name: Phoenix
Team members: Catherine Deeter, Kunal Dhodapkar, Hung-Yeh Lin, Shuya Zhan
Company: Zoo Atlanta
Task: Improve the communication of Zoo Atlanta's conservation mission beyond the typical audience drawn to the zoo to view animals
Summary: Our team aimed to increase mission awareness by increasing interest among college-age and young professionals. Our final design built upon two key functionalities: virtual adoptions and guided tours. Both allow users to connect with the zoo to learn about the conservation mission both in and outside of the zoo.
Making Zoo Atlanta Accessible to Visually Impaired
Team name: STEMinists
Team members: Nandita Gupta, Jill Niland, Vicky Chen, Hannan Abdi
Company: Zoo Atlanta
Task: Make African Savanna Exhibit at Zoo Atlanta more accessible for visitors with visual impairments
Summary: We conducted user research and uncovered many insights that led us to answer the question: How might we enrich user experience at the zoo, while also providing them with meaningful educational information? Brainstorming various ideas, we evaluated our prototypes using research methods and presented our final design of a reservation service that combined guided tour options to the stakeholders.
GT and Unified Brands Field Service Experience Project
Team name: Peach Grenade
Team members: Jack Gale, Tushar Gupta, Olivia Hughes, Anushri Kumar, Hannah Tam
Company: Unified Brands, Dover Corporation
Task: Increase the efficiency and experience of field service technicians working in the kitchen equipment industry to help them improve their First Time Fix rate and decrease their Time to Fix rate
Summary: Our team designed a field service management app that serves as a one-stop shop for technicians to see their schedule, document notes and images from a specific job, create invoices and obtain client signatures, reference service manuals, and utilize phone "shortcuts" for easy access to tech support and other contacts.
Social Media to Foster Growth and Economic Expansion
Team name: International Stingers
Team members: Talia Ayala-Feliciangeli, Priyanka Mohindra, Jay Modh, Varun Nambiar
Company: Square
Task: Design a social media experience to foster growth and economic expansion for small merchants
Summary: We provided merchants with a solution while keeping them on social media so they could continue easily communicating with their customer base. Our project provided a streamlined solution to help manage their presence on multiple social media channels, as well as the orders placed through their various accounts. Our design could be implemented on existing/new social media channels, removing the need for customers to download an additional app.
Reimagining Brick and Mortar: A Considered Omnichannel Experience
Team name: Hiveminds
Team members: Titilayo Funso, Ngoc Tran, Joshua Galang, Tiffany Chau
Company: Square
Task: Address the question of how we might help Square sellers create a considered omni-channel experience
Summary: Focusing on small business owners in the food and beverage vertical, our team applied research to land on a solution: Square Route. Square Route is an extension of the Square Dashboard that provides sellers with personalized recommendations of Square-integrated apps to assist with their business in one central location.
Overhauling the Georgia Tech College of Computing Website for Mobile and Desktop Users
Team name: Knowledge Zombies
Team members: Jordan Cox, Chaoyuan Luo, Lu Meng, Yuhan Zhou
Company: Georgia Tech's College of Computing
Task: Improve user experience and navigation of the College of Computing website for both mobile and desktop views
Summary: With the help of data gathered through user experience testing, we focused on improving the browsing experience of prospective and current faculty by redesigning the information architecture and navigation of the entire website. We also improve the visual design of certain pages related to faculty.
Redesigning the Ordering Experience at Cafe Aquaria
Team name: It Depends on Form and Stuff
Team members: Victoria Green, Kevin Hwang, Whitney Li, Yining Liu
Company: Georgia Aquarium
Task: Improve upon the customer experience at Cafe Aquaria, integrating it seamlessly with the Georgia Aquarium
Summary: The main dining option at the aquarium, Cafe Aquaria experiences heavy overcrowding issues during peak seasons and hours causing conflict for both the aquarium and its visitors. We ultimately created a pre-ordering mobile web app solution to allow customers to view the cafe menu and place orders at any time and location to be picked up at their convenience.
Focus Brands: Jamba
Team name: Jello Yackets
Team members: David Du, Eileen Li, Ollie Hsieh, Ryan Winstead
Company: Focus Brands/Jamba
Task: Improve the ordering experience for the Jamba mobile application
Summary: Jamba is a health food chain that offers freshly blended smoothies and on-the-go sized bites with over 800 locations across the U.S. Our project aimed to drive conversion from guests to loyalty users via improvements of the Jamba mobile application rewards system. Through phases of research and prototype, we uncovered tier system and gamification as the major areas for improvement.
