HCDE Blog

Dear HCDE colleagues,

We are very pleased to let you know that one of your graduate students, Dharma Dailey, is a featured speaker at our upcoming Scholars’ Studio.  This is a public event, and an important professional development opportunity for our graduate students.  It would be fantastic if you could join us in supporting Dharma that day – and encourage other students, staff, and faculty from your program to attend.

Thursday, February 21st| 4:00 – 5:30 pm

Allen Library South, Ground Floor

Join us for a fun, informal, interdisciplinary event featuring a series of rapid-fire lightning talks (5 minutes each), given by graduate students doing disaster-related research.

Talks will be followed by a Q&A with presenters, reception and conversation. Please see detailed schedule and presentation information below. http://commons.lib.washington.edu/scholarsstudio

4:00-4:10 Introductions

4:10-4:40 Disaster: Technology, Communication and Language

• Opening Presentation: Gail Kouame, Public Health Outreach Coordinator, Health Sciences Library
• Journalists as Community-Sourcerers: Responding to Crisis by Reporting with a Crowd. Dharma Dailey, Human Centered Design and Engineering
• Troubling Silence: The Poetry of Disaster. Jane Wong, English
• Disaster recovery for Online services. Abhi Rathinavelu, Foster School of Business
• Libraries as Information First Responders. Beth Patin, The Information School

4:40-4:50 Q&A

4:50-5:20 Disaster: History, Labor and Environment

• Disaster City: New York in the 1975 Fiscal Crisis. Michael Reagan, History
• Nuclear Power: Fallout or Fall In? Shelly Arreguin, Materials Science & Engineering
• Factory Accidents in South India. Lily Shapiro, Socio-cultural Anthropology
• Mechanism of Democracy: the correlation of the filibuster and disaster. Brandon De Bruhl, Economics/Public Policy
• Climate change in rural Alaska: Is it as disastrous as it seems? Rachel Aronson, School of Marine and Environmental Affairs

5:20-5:30 Q&A. Please join us for reception and conversation following Q&A.

The post Scholars’ Studio: Disaster Research @the Commons appeared first on Human Centered Design & Engineering Blog.

Guest Lecturer, Lilly Irani, will be talking on the Hacking Politics in India: UnderstandingDesign Methods as a Cultural Process

When: Friday, February 22, 2013 9:30-10:20AM

Where: Allen Auditorium

Today, the halls of TED and Davos reverberate with optimism that hacking, brainstorming, and crowdsourcing can transform citizenship, poverty alleviation, and education alike. When, how, and for whom are these approaches effective?

Drawing on one year of participant-observation in an Indian design studio, I will discuss the case of a “hackathon” convened to build software for participatory governance. The “hackathon” brought me together software engineers, designers, and a legal anthropologist for an intense, interdisciplinary week-long collaboration. On the third day, however, the “hackathon” partially dissolved as the anthropologist departed in frustration. In this talk, I argue that key to the dissolution was the social organization of time. As an outgrowth of software peer-production, “hackathons” drive towards demos supported by fast trust and ready-to-use modules of software code. In India, where most people do not access the web directly or often, we needed not only software but also partnerships with activists to engender participation. The “hackathon’s” style of fast technology production proved incompatible with these slower partnering processes.

This case is drawn from a broader ethnographic project examining how middle-class values and social positions shaped how designers chose and solved problems in India. The project addresses outstanding questions of how cultural dynamics shape the practice of design by expanding the lens from the things designers make to how designers understand and organize social life.

About the Speaker

Lilly Irani is a doctoral candidate at the Department of Informatics at the University of California, Irvine. Her work examines design practices in situ to understand their relationships with broader cultural, political, and social processes. To date, she has investigated these issues through ethnographic fieldwork of a design studio in India, as well as through ethnography and activism in the crowdsourcing platform Amazon Mechanical Turk.

Her work has been supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship, a Fulbright-Nehru Scholarship, Intel Corporation, and the NSF Virtual Organizations as Sociotechnical Systems program. Prior to the PhD, she spent four years as a User Experience Designer at Google. She received a B.S. and M.S. in Computer Science, both from Stanford University

The post Hacking Politics in India: Understanding Design Methods as a Cultural Process appeared first on Human Centered Design & Engineering Blog.

Please join the Department of Human Centered Design & Engineering (HCDE) for a 10-week seminar this winter on user experience (UX), as industry experts speak about current issues and research in the field.

Each 40-minute talk will be filmed and will be followed by a Q&A session. Videos of each talk will be posted online afterwards. Members of the University of Washington community and the public are welcome. http://www.hcde.washington.edu/ux

Lecture Speaker: Carolyn Wei

Date/Time: Friday, February 22, 2013 11:30–12:20 PM

Location: Loew Hall, Room 216
University of Washington, Seattle campus

Abstract                                                                                                                              This presentation will discuss the user experience research behind the Bing search app for Windows 8, which supports both touch and traditional mouse and keyboard. Some usability research findings about the app will be presented. Methodological issues of testing an app on a brand new OS that runs on tablet and desktop computing form factors will also be discussed.

About the Speaker
Carolyn Wei is a user researcher at Bing where she works on social search and the search experience for Windows 8. Previously, she worked at Google, leading the user experience research for social and consumer products, such as Google+ Hangouts video chat. She received the first PhD awarded by the University of Washington’s department of Human Centered Design and Engineering in 2007. Her doctoral research, primarily carried out in Bangalore, India, focused on mobile phone use in digitally emergent settings and received international attention.

The post UX Speaker Series: Designing a Touch-Friendly Search App appeared first on Human Centered Design & Engineering Blog.

Attention all women in HCDE! Women in Informatics (WINFO) is hosting the first annual Women’s Hackathon at the UW next weekend, February 22nd – 24th. It’s coming up very soon! This event is open to all women regardless if it’s your first hackathon or if you are a hackathon superstar. Winners get to present at Microsoft’s Imagine Cup Programming Contest!

It will start on Friday, February 22nd at 3:00 pm, running until 6:00pm Sunday February 24th . Food will be provided by Costco Wholesale. In addition, participants will have mentors from Microsoft to guide them on their projects. It’s hosted on the fourth floor in Mary-Gates. They’re hoping that women from Info, CSE, Design, and HCDE can all come together for this event.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts that by 2018 there will be 1.4 million open technology jobs in the United States and, at the current rate of students graduating with degrees in computer science, we will fill only 29 percent of those openings with women graduates in computer and information science. These predictions are all the more dispiriting when you realize that the latest advances in improving healthcare, protecting the environment, and upgrading manufacturing have come from technological innovations. We believe that no other field offers as much opportunity for students and society as computer science does.

Microsoft Research, National Center for Women & Information Technology, Association for Computing Machinery Council on Women, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Women in Engineering, Microsoft Imagine Cup and Skype are pleased to support the first annual International Women’s Hackathon.

We would like to support and pilot a grounds up crowd-sourcing effort to empower young women leaders in computer science to support more young women across university campuses around the world to become producers of future innovations in technology.  We want every woman to have a fun and safe environment in which to explore computing and help solve challenges in the world today.

Women in Informatics (Winfo) will be hosting the women’s hackathon on the University of Washington’s campus. We are inviting women in Informatics, Computer Science & Engineering, and Design to participate, but all women are welcome. We hope you will join us! More information visit: http://research.microsoft.com/womens-hackathon2013 or email ranej@microsoft.com rules and regulations will be available on the website.

Check out the details atInternational Women’s Hackathon on Facebook.

Or register directly at winfohackathon.eventbrite.com.

The post International Women’s Hackathon – February 22 – 24! appeared first on Human Centered Design & Engineering Blog.

Guest Lecturer Francis Quek will be talking on Interacting with the Embodied Mind

When: Tuesday, February 19, 9:30-10:20AM

Where: Allen Auditorium

Humans do not think like computers. Our minds are ‘designed’ for us to function as embodied beings in the world in ways that are: 1. Physical-Spatial; 2. Temporal-Dynamic; 3 Social-Cultural; and 4. Affective-Emotional. These aspects of embodiment give us four lenses to understand the embodied mind and how technology may support its function. I adopt a two-pronged approach to human-computer interaction research.  First, I harness technological means to contribute to the understanding of how embodiment ultimately ascends into mind. Second, I employ my four-lens model of embodiment to inform the design and engineering of technologies that augment human higher psychological processes of learning, sense-making, creating, and experiencing.

In line with the first approach, I shall first show how language, as a core human capacity, is rooted in embodied function. We will see that mental imagery shapes multimodal (gesture, gaze, and speech) human discourse. In line with the second approach, I shall then present an assemblage of projects in the light of our four embodiment lenses. Projects cluster around three application domains, namely 1. Technology for special populations (e.g. mathematics instruction and reading for the blind, and games for older adults); 2. Learning and Education (e.g. learning and knowledge discovery through device/display ecologies and creativity support for children); and 3. Experience (e.g. socially-based information access, image personalization and affective communication)

About the Speaker

Francis Quek is currently a Professor of Computer Science at Virginia Tech. He directs the Vision Interfaces and Systems Laboratory at the CHCI. Previously, he has been the Director of the Virginia Tech University-level Center for Human-Computer Interaction, and has been affiliated with Wright State University, the University of Illinois at Chicago, the University of Michigan, and Hewlett-Packard. Francis received both his B.S.E. summa cum laude (1984) and M.S.E. (1984) in electrical engineering from the University of Michigan.  He completed his Ph.D. in Computer Science at the same university in 1990. Francis is a member of the IEEE and ACM.

He performs highly interdisciplinary research mainly in embodied interaction, notably related to language and discourse (e.g. multimodal verbal/non-verbal interaction), education (e.g. sensemaking, creative storytelling), special populations (individuals who are blind, children, older adults) and human experience (e.g. affective communication). His other research crosses into medical imaging, computer vision and computer graphics. He has published over 150 peer-reviewed journal and conference articles in human-computer interaction, computer vision, and medical imaging.

For more information on Professor Quek visit his website: http://vislab.cs.vt.edu/~quek

The post Interacting with the Embodied Mind appeared first on Human Centered Design & Engineering Blog.

                        Student Planner Cover Design Contest!                                               We are now collecting design submissions for UW 2013 student planner!

The winner will have their design displayed on the cover of the planner and receive a $50 gift card to the University Book Store.

Requirements

• Dimensions: 7″ width, 9″ height
• Resolution: at least 144 pixels/inch
• Color Mode: CMYK
• Deliverables: one hardcopy, CD with original file and a .pdf version (include your full name and email contact)

Turn in your submission to First Year Programs, Mary Gates Hall, Room 120 NO LATER than March 22nd, 2013 at 5PM.

View past winning designs here. Questions? Please contact FYP at fyp@uw.edu or 206.543.4905

The post Submit Designs for UW 2013 Student Planner! appeared first on Human Centered Design & Engineering Blog.

The One Laptop per Child group at the University of Washington develops apps for the XO laptop, a simple computer distributed to schoolchildren in the developing world. These laptops foster self-empowered learning and are supplied by the One Laptop per Child Association. Our work helps increase the educational, social, and practical value of these laptops by developing new applications for them.

The group is currently recruiting new members. All students regardless of background or programming experience are welcome to join. There are many opportunities available in the group, especially Python development, graphic design, human-computer interaction and, of course, making new friends!

Meetings are every Friday from 5:00 pm to 6:00pm at the Electrical Engineering Building, room 026.

Those interested are encouraged to join. http://depts.washington.edu/sao/rso-directory/?club=3110

The post One Laptop per Child, UW Chapter Recruitment appeared first on Human Centered Design & Engineering Blog.

Guest Speaker Gary Hsieh will be talking about Studying & Designing Motivators for Prosocial Computing

When: 9:30 AM, Thursday, February 14, 2013
Where: Allen Auditorium, Allen Library, University of Washington, Seattle campus

Information and communication technologies hold great promise in promoting and empowering prosocial actions, such as sharing, donating, cooperating, and volunteering. Unfortunately, while continued advances in technologies can lower barriers and increase the efficacy of prosocial behaviors, the fundamental challenge of motivation persists — people still need to have the desire to use these technologies for prosocial purposes.

In this talk, Gary will present both past and current projects on the study and design of technology-mediated motivators to support prosocial behaviors. He will start by presenting his research on designing incentives to encourage online information and content sharing. Gary will then describe his study of moral balancing and consistency effects in slacktivism, or low-cost online activism. Finally,  he will conclude with his ongoing work to infer individuals’ motivations and develop tailored motivators to more effectively encourage prosocial behaviors.

About the Speaker
Gary Hsieh is an Assistant Professor of Communication and Telecommunication, Information Studies, and Media at Michigan State University. He is also an adjunct faculty in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, and is affiliated with the Health and Risk Communication Center at Michigan State University. His research focus is on studying, designing and developing technologies to enable people to interact in ways that are efficient and welfare-improving. He has conducted research at a number of industry research labs, including Microsoft, IBM, Intel and Fuji-Xerox. He received his Ph.D. from the Human-Computer Interaction Institute at Carnegie Mellon University and his B.S. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at University of California, Berkeley. He is a recipient of the NSF Career Award.

To learn more about Gary Hsieh, please visit: www.msu.edu/~garyh

The post Studying & Designing Motivators for Prosocial Computing appeared first on Human Centered Design & Engineering Blog.

Guest Speaker Eric Baumer will be talking on Computational Supports for Frame  Reflection

When: 9:30 AM, Monday, February 11, 2013
Where: Allen Auditorium, Allen Library, University of Washington, Seattle campus

 A given situation can often be understood from multiple different perspectives. Understanding the processes by which people come to see things from these various perspectives–that is, seeing things differently–is the fundamental interest that drives my research. This talk describes an exploration of this phenomenon in the context of framing in political communication. Drawing on the notion of frame reflection, my current work uses computational text analysis to identify, draw attention to, and promote critical thinking about linguistic patterns relevant to the framing of political issues. I refer to this approach as computational supports for frame reflection. This talk presents results from two studies–one controlled experiment and one field deployment–demonstrating the ways that such tools mediate and interact with the processes of frame reflection. Not only does this work contribute to improving the quality of political communication and public discourse, but it also exemplifies my broader interest in understanding how computational technologies might support more thoughtful, reflective living.

About the Speaker

Eric P. S. Baumer is a postdoctoral associate in Communication and Information Science at Cornell University. His research involves designing, implementing, and evaluating information technologies, especially interactive visualizations based on computational text analysis, to promote critical thinking and reflection. His current projects include using computational analyses of framing in political text to foster more thoughtful, reflective discussions of political issues, and studying technology refusal in the context of Facebook to understand how society decides where in our lives technology is (in)appropriate. Dr.

Baumer’s work has been supported by such sources as an NSF SoCS grant and an NSF CreativeIT grant, and has been published in CHI, CSCW, JCSCW and other related conferences and journals. He holds an MS and PhD in Information and Computer Sciences from the University of California, Irvine, and a BS in Computer Science with a minor in Music from the University of Central Florida. He is also an avid ultimate ultimate Frisbee player, an aspiring rock climber, and an amateur photographer.

To learn more visit Eric’s link: http://ericbaumer.com

The post Seeing Differently: Computational Supports for Frame Reflection appeared first on Human Centered Design & Engineering Blog.

Dr. Alex Games will be talking about his studies in the context of the advances in digital technologies that have set the stage for a transformation of the way we do work, play and learn.

When: 9:30 AM, Friday, February 8
Where: Electrical Engineering Building (EEB), Room 403, University of Washington, Seattle campus

Abstract
Since the beginning of the 21st century, advances in digital technologies have set the stage for a fundamental transformation of the way we do work, play, and learning. In a world where billions of mobile devices readily give learners the computing power previously only to supercomputers, one of the core changes comes in the form of their ability to move us from passive receptors of information, to active participants and makers of the knowledge and world around us. In this talk I discuss the research and development efforts I have conducted in both academia and industry around the role that play enhanced by digital technologies that bring together gaming, social media, television, performance, and creation can have in shaping the way we learn to incorporate more situated, embodied, and critical ways of thinking. I discuss how the studies I have conducted with these technologies shed light on the psychological, motivational, and sociological implications of digital playful learning for people of all ages, and their successful engagement with challenging subject areas such as literacy, science, technology, engineering and math.

About the Speaker
Dr. Alex Games is Design Director for Education at Microsoft Studios. In this role, over the last two years he has led the Playful Learning initiative, a cutting edge program of research and development focused on creating innovative learning experiences blending play and educational content for Xbox 360, Kinect, and Windows 8. He is credited in critically acclaimed titles such as Kinect Sesame Street TV, Kinect National Geographic TV, Double Fine Happy Action Theater, and Kodu Gamelab Mars Edition. Previous to that he was faculty at the Michigan State University, studying the intersection between the epistemic frame of game designers and youth’s STEM learning using Gamestar Mechanic, a game about making games developed for the Macarthur Foundation. His research has been featured in journals such as ACM Computers in Entertainment, Learning, Media and Technology, E-Learning, and Games and Culture Journal.

The post Playful Learning to Playful Making: How Digital Play Technologies Will Transform Learning and Society appeared first on Human Centered Design & Engineering Blog.

The application deadline for the Ghana Exploration Seminar this summer is fast approaching; March 1. Applications before the deadline are appreciated so that interviews can start to be scheduled. Here is a piece written by two HCDE students who participated in the program last year: http://www.hcde.washington.edu/news/duong-robancho-ghana2012

PROGRAM DESCRIPTION
Access to information and communication technologies (ICTs) in Ghana ranges from no access in many rural areas to access comparable to some major US cities. What strategies do people with low incomes use to connect to others and get the information they need? How does this impact their lives? We can get answers to these questions through research and direct experience. Whether you are interested in the uses and impacts of ICTs on the lives of people in developing countries, or more generally in information and communication in another country or learning about how to do field research, this seminar is an opportunity to explore researched-based learning through immersion in the people and culture of Ghana.

In this seminar students will examine how people in different types of communities (urban and rural) use ICTs in their daily activities and how they feel about the impacts on their well-being. In contrast to historical notions of development where outside agencies determine goals with little input from the target populations, we will focus on development from the perspective of low-income populations. Students can apply the experience to their individual areas of interest, whether they be information systems, health, education, or other fields. The program will provide instruction and practical experience on using field research methods to investigate the role of ICTs in the livelihoods of low and middle-income populations. If you are interested in ICTs, development, or just want to learn more about conducting field research, we encourage you to apply!

APPLICATION DEADLINE: MARCH 1, 2013

To find out more about this seminar visit the program website (http://studyabroad.washington.edu/index.cfm?FuseAction=Programs.ViewProgram&Program_ID=10922&Type=O&sType=O).

If you have any questions about the program, feel free to email:
Dr. Araba Sey (arabasey@uw.edu)
Chris Rothschild (chriskr@uw.edu)

The post Study and earn credits in Ghana! Summer 2013 appeared first on Human Centered Design & Engineering Blog.

Please join the Department of Human Centered Design & Engineering (HCDE) for a 10-week seminar this winter on user experience (UX), as industry experts speak about current issues and research in the field.

Each 40-minute talk will be filmed and will be followed by a Q&A session. Videos of each talk will be posted online afterwards. Members of the University of Washington community and the public are welcome. http://www.hcde.washington.edu/ux

Lecture Speaker: Stephanie Rosenbaum

Date/Time: Friday, February 8, 2013 11:30–12:20 PM

Location: Loew Hall, Room 216
University of Washington, Seattle campus

Abstract                                                                                                                               Qualitative research is a powerful tool for human-centered design, yet practitioners often must justify it to marketing and engineering teams accustomed to using only large-sample quantitative data to drive decisions.  An often-voiced concern is how we can transfer research findings from a small group of participants to a larger target audience. In addition to educating product teams about the nature and value of qualitative data, we must communicate–and insist upon–the necessity of conducting qualitative research with people who truly represent the user community.However, it’s a giant step from agreeing to observe representative users and actually conducting research with them. The challenge is especially demanding when designing products for enterprise customers: large corporations, universities, medical centers.  This talk uses case histories to illustrate how TecEd plans for field research within large enterprises:

* Identifying candidate enterprises, and a champion within them
* Convincing corporate management to grant permission for site visits
* Motivating busy employees to give us their time
* Collecting profiles of interview candidates
* Negotiating between enterprise champion and client for the best mix of participant characteristics

The methodology for planning field research within large enterprises is high-touch more than high-tech, so it’s often neglected as we keep up with the latest apps.  Compelling stories about the research goals, told one-on-one with managers, are still our most effective tool for finding the right research participants within enterprises.

About the Speaker
Stephanie Rosenbaum is founder and CEO of user experience consultancy TecEd, Inc., a pioneering firm in user research.  Headquartered in Ann Arbor, Michigan, TecEd also maintains offices in California and New York. TecEd clients include Cisco Systems, Google, McGraw-Hill, Varian Medical Systems, VMware, the IEEE, Yahoo!, and a wide variety of smaller firms.  Stephanie regularly delivers presentations and workshops at the User Experience Professionals’ Association, ACM SIGCHI (Computer Human Interaction), and the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society. She co-chaired the CHI 2006 Usability Community, and is a past vice-chair of ACM SIGDOC (Design of Communication). A Fellow of the Society for Technical Communication, Stephanie received the STC’s 2011 Rainey Award for Excellence in Research, and was awarded an IEEE Millennium Medal in 2000.

Stephanie’s many publications include an invited chapter on “The Future of Usability Evaluation” in Maturing Usability (Springer HCI Series) by the European COST294-MAUSE usability research community. With Chauncey Wilson, she contributed a chapter on “Categories of ROI and their Practical Implications” to Cost-Justifying Usability: An Update for the Internet Age.  She is co-editor of a forthcoming IEEE PCS Transactions Special Issue on “Designing a Better User Experience for Self-Service Systems.”

The post UX Speaker Series: Choosing Research Sites and Participants: Neglected Methodology, Negotiation Challenge appeared first on Human Centered Design & Engineering Blog.

Our sorority promotes women in all engineering majors and we do community service and are involved in the engineering community. It is an opportunity for women in the major to connect with other women in the engineering community. All female HCDE students are welcome!

Winter 2013 Rush events are as follows:

ALL EVENTS ARE HELD IN Mechanical Engineering Building 248!

The post Engineering Sorority Phi Sigma Rho Winter 2013 Rush! appeared first on Human Centered Design & Engineering Blog.

Join us for a lecture on the pressing challenges facing contemporary society concern sustainability and public health from guest, Hari Sundaram, an Associate Professor from ASU!

Date: Wednesday February 6th, 2013

Time/Location: 3:15 PM in the Electrical Engineering Building (EEB), Room 303

Abstract:
Many of the pressing challenges facing contemporary society concern sustainability and public health. For example, how can sustainable behaviors—such as reducing individual energy consumption—be encouraged? How can participation in activities that reduce overall healthcare costs—such as compliance with preventive care routines and leading healthy lifestyles—be supported? Common to these challenges is a fundamental question: how can we facilitate cooperative behavior adoption on a large scale?

The conditions for self-governance found in small groups do not apply in large populations. As a result, the question of how cooperation can be facilitated in large populations remains unanswered and is the focus of my work. In this talk, I shall discuss the computational tools needed—analysis of social signals from networks and knowledge of human activity from physical sensors—to engender cooperation in heterogenous populations. I shall discuss in depth our work on discovering homogenous groups, and discuss in brief two data science challenges: network sampling, compressed sensing techniques to analyze large scale network changes. Central to our framework of cooperative behavior is the idea that individuals are resource constrained and these constraints affect how they participate in activities. I shall also present connections between information theory and networks: the social cooperative capacity of a group, and the design of signaling schemes for cooperation.

About the Speaker
Hari Sundaram is an associate professor with the School of Arts Media and Engineering, as well with the School of Computing, Information and Decision Systems Engineering at Arizona State University. He received his Ph.D. from the Department of Electrical Engineering at Columbia University in 2002. His research and teaching focus on using network analysis tools and sensors to understand and influence individual decision making. His research has won several best paper awards from the IEEE and the ACM. He also received the Eliahu I. Jury Award for best Ph.D. dissertation in 2002 . He is an associate editor for ACM Transactions on Multimedia Computing, Communications and Applications and IEEE Multimedia.

For more information on Mr. Sundaram and his research,

visit http://ame2.asu.edu/faculty/hs

The post Crowdsourcing Change: The Role of Computing in Tackling Major Societal Problems appeared first on Human Centered Design & Engineering Blog.

The Sexual Violence Law Center (SVLC) is in search of a volunteer who has experience with web design to help us update and improve our website (www.svlawcenter.org). This is a flexible, short-term project. The volunteer may work on the project in SVLC’s shared office space or independently.

Who we are:
SVLC is a small 501(c)(3) nonprofit in Seattle that provides a wide range of free legal services to victims of sexual assault. Since 2010, when SVLC began taking cases and created a statewide hotline, we have served hundreds of victims of rape, molestation, and other sexual crimes, including consultations or direct representation in any/all areas of law affecting each victim (such as safety, privacy, education, housing, employment, immigration, criminal prosecutions, etc). Because SVLC is so small (2.5 employees), and has no support staff, we rely on the assistance of volunteers for projects like this that are outside our areas of expertise.

The project:
(1) Our website needs some basic content updates (e.g., to remove and replace outdated contact information).
(2) A previous temp employee partially designed a new website for SVLC last year (using Aptana). We do not want to use this new design as a whole, but there are several parts of her design that we would like to integrate into the existing website (e.g., an interactive map identifying the locations of rape crisis centers throughout Washington).
(3) If the volunteer is interested, we welcome creative suggestions regarding the design of our website, and would be open to making changes that will make the website more user-friendly, informative, and/or interactive. However, the previous two elements are the only essential parts of the project, if the volunteer does not have the time for or interest in this creative element.

These updates are long overdue, so we would prefer a volunteer who can complete the first element (basic content updates) quickly. The other two elements are less time sensitive. The time required for this project will be determined largely by whether or not (and to what extent) the volunteer chooses to provide creative input regarding the overall design of the website.

If you are interested, please contact Managing Attorney Emily Cordo at:

Sexual Violence Law Center
2024 3rd Ave
Seattle, WA 98121
emily@svlawcenter.org
206.436.8611

Email contact is preferred.

The post Sexual Violence Law Center (SVLC) in Search of Web Design Volunteer appeared first on Human Centered Design & Engineering Blog.

Don’t forget!

Intent to Submit Deadline-Sunday February 3
Preliminary team information is due on February 3. Intent to Submit form available online.
See the calendar of all EIC deliverables.

UW EIC Office Hours with past participants!
Tuesday, February 5, 4:00-6:00 pm, Dempsey Hall 211 (Herbold Innovation Lab)
In need of some guidance for the UW Environmental Innovation Challenge? Sign up online for a 20- minute chat with past participants of the EIC. By appointment only – click here. Questions? Contact Pam Tufts, ptufts@uw.edu

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