Each winter, master’s and certificate students in the Department of Human Centered Design & Engineering (HCDE) take a deep dive into usability testing and user-centered research in HCDE 517: Usability Studies.
In this hands-on course, students work in small teams to plan and run usability studies from start to finish—with real clients, real products, and real users. Over the quarter, they define research goals, create test protocols, recruit participants, conduct moderated sessions, analyze findings, and present actionable recommendations to their industry sponsors.
While the course often focuses on digital systems, the methods students learn apply broadly across software, hardware, and service design. Along the way, they gain experience not only in usability research, but also in working with stakeholders and turning user insights into design decisions.
The following five projects, completed in Professor Sean Munson’s Winter 2025 Usability Studies course, highlight how HCDE students deliver meaningful insights to client teams across a wide range of products and domains.
Boeing ForeFlight
Improving Multi-Leg Flight Planning for Pilots
Partnering with Boeing’s ForeFlight app team, the students studied how pilots plan multi-leg trips, identifying common workflows and recommending ways to streamline routing, clarify the interface, and improve onboarding.
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Amazon
Understanding the Certified Refurbished Customer Experience
Partnering with Amazon, the HCDE team evaluated the Certified Refurbished program’s landing page and competitor sites, uncovering ways to improve trust, clarity, and ease of purchase for pre-owned devices.
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Nordstrom
Improving Browsing on Nordstrom’s Mobile Website
Working with Nordstrom, the HCDE team studied how shoppers navigate the mobile site without search, revealing ways to improve category labels, navigation visibility, and overall browsing flow.
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Sony
Evaluating Accessibility in Sony’s LinkBuds Onboarding Experience
Partnering with Sony, the team tested the accessibility of the LinkBuds onboarding process, uncovering design changes to improve how users with visual or dexterity challenges locate the QR code and access setup tutorials.
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WSDOT
Evaluating WSDOT Android App’s Mountain Pass Reports
Partnering with WSDOT, the HCDE team evaluated the Mountain Pass Reports feature in the agency’s Android app, identifying ways to make key winter travel information easier to find, interpret, and act on.
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