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Research

Julie Kientz's Research Group Archive

This page contains an archive of the past five years of Directed Research Groups led by Professor Kientz. View her currently offered DRGs »

Winter 2025

Community Maternal Health Resource (CMHR) Study Analysis

Instructors:

  • Dr. Julie Kientz, DRG Supervisor
  • Leslie Coney, DRG Lead

In the spring and summer of last year, PhD Candidate Leslie Coney, along with a community partner, conducted semi-structured interviews with 12 Black birthing people about their experiences seeking and using community-based resources during pregnancy and postpartum in WA State. In this DRG, we will be analyzing the interview data using thematic analysis and synthesizing our results.

We are looking for individuals who are eager about being a part of a hands-on qualitative research experience, hold a cultural understanding of the Black community, and work well in collaborative environments. It is also a plus if you have experience with Atlas.ti. 

You will receive 2 credits for the completion of this DRG and authorship credit for any publications produced from the analysis. If you have any additional questions, please reach out to Leslie Coney via email at lesconey@uw.edu.

Winter 2025

Exploring Photography and Social Media Guidelines in Childcare Institutions

Instructors: Meghna Gupta, Julie Kientz

Photography and social media sharing in childcare institutions has become widespread, serving diverse purposes such as documenting educational activities, capturing moments of fun, promoting the institution, and providing parents with visual updates. However, these practices raise significant ethical considerations around consent, privacy, and digital safety — particularly in how they intersect with children’s agency, parental expectations, and the responsibilities of childcare workers.

This DRG aims to investigate how childcare institutions navigate these complexities through both formal policies and informal practices, examining the structural frameworks of institutional guidelines as well as the lived experiences of childcare providers, parents, and children.

The students will be expected to assist in conducting the following activities over the course of the DRG (tentative):

  1. Analysis of Institutional Policies: We will crowdsource and collaboratively analyze institutional policies and practices around photo-taking and social media sharing.
  2. Semi-Structured Interviews with Providers and Parents: We will conduct semi-structured interviews or focus groups with childcare providers and parents to gather deeper insights into their understanding of institutional policies, the challenges they face, and the strategies they use to navigate expectations around photo-taking and sharing practices.
  3. Participatory Design Activities with Children: We will use participatory design techniques to capture children’s views and experiences.

Winter 2025

Designing a Desktop App for Storing Virtual Memories

Led by: Nisha Devasia, PhD student
Advised by: Julie Kientz, HCDE Professor

Long distance relationships are becoming increasingly common, typically because one partner is pursuing educational or employment opportunities. Anywhere from 25-50% of college students report being in a LDR. People in LDRs often play video games together as a way to stay connected, and the facilitators have run a study investigating these dynamics. In a DRG last spring, students used these findings to prototype a digital diary app that couples could use to store virtual memories made together. This DRG will be focused on building that app and user test it with couples. The facilitator (Nisha) is a former software engineer and has partially built out some of the functionality, and a REU student has created a working Figma prototype that we will be recreating. 

 

Autumn 2024

Designing and Analyzing Co-Creative Gameplay for Parents and Children

Led by Adrian Rodriguez (PhD Student, HCDE), with supervision from Julie Kientz (Professor, HCDE)

How does multimodality affect engagement among children and parents during construction-oriented play? Constructionism, a growing pedagogy, posits that children learn most when they “construct meaningful products,” especially in collaborative contexts. While Joint Media Engagement, a form of multiplayer in which parents help maximize learning, flourishes when players “use media to build things.” The popularity of building games also makes joint construction a formative experience for today’s youth. Over 55% of Gen Z has created a Roblox account, LEGO is the most valuable toy company in the world, and nearly half of children aged 3 to 12 actively played Minecraft in 2018. In this DRG, we’ll ask: How do the benefits of co-creation vary across physical and digital mediums? Whom do co-creative experiences exclude? And how can we design co-creative experiences to be as inclusive and productive as possible?

We’ll ground these questions in the instructors’ current research into multimodal digital sandboxes. Following a paper titled Towards Construction-Oriented Play for Vision-Diverse Youth, we have implemented a block-based 3D modeling program that supports both virtual and physical input. This probe’s goal is to understand how varying degrees of multimodality affect experiences of Joint Media Engagement among parents and preschool-aged children during co-creative play. During this DRG, we will discuss the cognitive and critical theories beneath Constructionism, design co-creative activities to promote Joint Media Engagement, collect data from children and parents in a study session, and analyze videos of child-parent dyads creating together. 

Summer 2024

Participatory Design with Children and Researchers

We are looking for students for the Summer 2024 to help with running KidsTeam UW, an intergenerational co-design team of children (ages 6 – 12) and design researchers. There is rich work around how to interact with adults and children together in the co-design space, the role of design techniques in co-design, and the different stages and phases of co-design. You have the opportunity to help us understand this space.
 
Activities of this research group will include interacting as an adult design partner with children in co-design, working with researchers on multiple projects involving children and design, and running overall logistics to support the intergenerational design team. 
 
This DRG will require you to participate in KidsTeam UW in the summer 2024 for the following dates:
 
Tuesdays and Thursdays: 60 minutes reading seminar (online): June 25, 29, and July 2, 9, 11, 16, 28 (times TBA).
 
Week of July 22 – 26, 2024: 9:00 am – 5:00 pm in-person co-design sessions with children.
 
Students who have completed INFO 300/360, HCDE 318/418/518 and/or HCDE 417/517 or have relevant experience will be given priority.  Alternatively, students who have experience with youth mentorship, learning sciences, education, and child development will also be considered. 
 
Prior experience working with children (ages 0 – 17) is a requirement (e.g., tutoring/teaching/coaching, child-care, summer camps, etc.)
 
This research group will be led by Associate Professor Jason Yip (iSchool), with support from Dr. Julie Kientz (Professor, HCDE), Dr. Jin Ha Lee (Professor, iSchool), Dr. Caroline Pitt (Postdoctoral Fellow, iSchool) and Dr. Alexis Hiniker (Associate Professor, iSchool).
 
For any questions, please email Dr. Jason Yip at jcyip@uw.edu.

Spring 2024

Executive Function and Sociotechnical Systems DRG

Overview

How do we learn executive function skills? And how might that process differ (or not!) for neurodiverse children and their families? How can technologies be used to scaffold and strengthen these executive function skills over time? 

How can we draw on strengths instead of focusing on deficits, use intrinsic instead of extrinsic motivation, and generally make things like improving organization and time management a more positive experience for everyone? Can we implement sociotechnical systems within families and communities to support this approach?

In this DRG, we will start by examining the values inherent in existing apps that are designed to support executive function. In addition to providing valuable information about the current state of the field, the work from this DRG will situate future participatory design work with youth and families, and some exploratory sessions with KidsTeam (Dr. Jason Yip’s youth co-design group) have already been conducted.

Student Researcher Participation

The DRG will meet once a week for an hour to discuss progress and findings. Students will engage with current and foundational literature, write research memos, and evaluate existing technologies. 

Students will be expected to spend 1-2 hours per week outside of meetings on assigned research tasks such as documenting application features, coding data, and developing annotated bibliographies. We are looking for 3-5 students (of any degree program) who are interested in learning more about literature reviews and systematic app evaluation, as well as those interested in the intersection of neurodivergence (ADHD, autism, etc.), families, and technology. Once accepted, students should register for 1-2 DRG credits depending on their bandwidth for this project. Depending on interests and skillsets, we may not be able to accept all applicants, but there may be opportunities for further work on this project in future quarters.

Recommended (not required!) skills and qualifications:

  • Familiarity with academic writing, including citations
  • Attention to detail, particularly in reading
  • Familiarity with literature search and documentation
  • Experience with application review and analysis
  • Commitment to synchronous and asynchronous teamwork
  • Coursework in areas such as educational technology, education, psychology, and/or design, or at least an interest in some of these areas
  • Patient, thoughtful, and reflective approach to research

This research group will be led by postdoctoral scholar Dr. Caroline Pitt (iSchool/HCDE) with oversight from Dr. Julie Kientz (Professor, HCDE).
 

Spring 2024

Facilitating Long-Distance Connection through Gaming

Led by: Nisha Devasia, PhD student
Advised by: Julie Kientz, HCDE Professor

Long distance relationships are becoming increasingly common, typically because one partner is pursuing educational or employment opportunities. Anywhere from 25-50% of college students report being in a LDR. People in LDRs often play video games together as a way to stay connected, and the facilitators have been running a study that investigates the features of digital games that promote emotional connection. This DRG broadly seeks to analyze the data from said study to create a digital or physical prototype for a technology that enhances feelings of long-distance connectedness while gaming. The goal is to submit this prototype to the CHI 2025 conference deadline in September. Co-authorship may be possible for interested and motivated students. 

What students should expect:

  • Engaging with and analyzing qualitative data from a diary study. Connecting theoretical framework with user needs.
  • Weekly 2 hour meetings with the team to discuss observations from data and brainstorm (meeting time TBD)
  • Independently and collaboratively come up with design ideas.

This DRG is designed to be 2 credits. We are seeking 3-5 students to work on this project. Prior design experience (digital or physical) is required. Interest in gaming or UX research is not required but preferred. 

Winter - Spring 2024

Assisting or Resisting Black Birth: Reproductive Technologies That Stick

Artificial wombs. Forced sterilization. Cloning. Low-cost surrogacy. Black infertility. The renewed fight for abortion rights is the tip of an iceberg. What can UW students contribute to debates about reproductive oppression and assisted reproductive technologies (ART)?

We will apply HCDE-related approaches to relevant academic literature and recent journalism that investigate how a wide range of insidious techniques have been used to resist black birthing people’s freedom. Rather than stopping there, we will also consider black public participation in successful examples of technologically-mediated childbirth against the odds.

Interactions between black women and ART can teach us lessons about how the current limits of design and engineering (that centers affluent, white humans) are already being surpassed beyond the walls of the university. Reading and discussing literature on these timely topics will provide a foundation for designing, printing, and sharing stickers that showcase our collective knowledge — spreading the word about lessons we have learned through creative communications that “stick.”

Facilitators: Nat Mengist and Leslie Coney
Meeting time: TBD
Location: Virtual (zoom link will be sent to confirmed participants)
Credits: 2

Summer 2023

Elevating Black Corpus and UX in Speech & Language Systems (ASR/NLP)

Led by HCDE PhD candidate Jay Cunningham, with Professors Julie Kientz and Daniela Rosner, this DRG serves as a working-group for a new research agenda to develop equitable, community-collaborative design methods to mitigate racial disparities and performance in automated speech and language technologies for Black language communities (AAVE/AAL).

Overview:
Automated speech recognition (ASR) systems that rely on natural language processing (NLP) techniques are becoming increasingly prevalent in people’s everyday lives. From virtual assistants integrated into mobile devices, smart home assistants, and vehicles; to software tasks such as automatic translation, automatic captioning, automatic subtitling, and even hands-free computing, ASR systems are core components of new devices and applications. However, recent research has shown that with this broadening access comes new fairness-related harms and racial disparities that negatively impact Black speakers of African American Vernacular English (AAVE), leaving AAVE users’ speech less accurately represented, recognized, and processed. 

HCDE PhD candidate Jay Cunningham, with Professors Julie Kientz and Daniela Rosner, seeks to address this challenge by developing and validating collaborative methods for developing more inclusive and equitable automated speech and language technologies for Black speakers of AAVE that are culturally competent. 

Through this project, we hope to further inform how academic researchers and industry practitioners can democratically collaborate with communities to create artificial intelligence and machine learning systems, practices, and policies that enable fair, equitable, and sustainable solutions that ultimately liberate and empower historically marginalized groups.

Student Researcher Involvement:
This DRG is seeking 3-5 dedicated students to collaborate and execute on the research studies outlined for this agenda. 

Participation in this research team will entail conducting and assisting with participant interviews and focus groups, thematic analysis of audio transcripts, analyzing co-design workshop artifacts, and conducting data science on AAVE speech data alongside the graduate student project lead. This also includes obtaining consent and assisting with performing all study procedures. Participants will have had coursework in research methods, complete an orientation to human subjects protections given by the UW, and will receive training from graduate student project lead on obtaining consent and debriefing subjects. 

This will be a 2-3 credit DRG. We will meet no more than 3 hours virtually or in-person each week (twice/week, 90-minute), and students should expect to spend no more than 2 hours working outside of that time per week.

Research will explore the following:

  • What are the strengths and pitfalls of existing ASR/NLP system design processes?
  • How might design decisions NLP/ML technologists make that shape experiences of fairness and bias among underrepresented language variety users?
  • How might researchers from academia and industry develop and employ collaborative-participatory approaches with African American community members — involving their voices and perspectives early and often in the product development process — to address many of the challenges African Americans (AAVE speakers) face when using voice technology?
  • How might community accountability boards serve as means for accountable action and transparency measures toward more culturally competent human centered technologies. 

Summer 2023

Inclusive Play and Making among Children with and without Disabilities

We are conducting a research study to understand whether and how computational toys (e.g., KIBO robots) can foster inclusive play in preschool classrooms that involve children with and without disabilities (age 3-5 years) and how to develop new accessible solutions to promote a maker mindset and inclusive play among this ability-diverse population.
We are seeking 2 students to work on this project for the Summer 2023 quarter. Depending on progress, students may have the option to continue on this project after the quarter ends.

Activities of this research group will include developing and running play-based study sessions with children and teachers in a preschool classroom and assisting with data analysis.

Ideal qualifications:

  • Experience with or interest in learning research or co-design activities with children.
  • Experience with or interest in learning qualitative analysis and/or video-based interaction analysis.

The sessions will take place on weekdays (between 9:00AM- 3:00PM) at a preschool classroom within UW during throughout the month of June. We will have 2-3 sessions per week. Each session may last for 60-90 minutes. Depending on your availability, we expect you to be present in-person during several sessions. For the rest of the Summer, we'll primarily work on video data analysis.

We expect students to spend approximately 6-9 hours per week (equivalent to 2-3 credit hours). Students will be expected to register for a course or independent study credits (e.g., HCDE 496/596, HCDE 499/599, REHAB 600, etc.).

This research group will be led by Dr. Maitraye Das (postdoc) with supervision from Prof. Heather Feldner (Rehabilitation Medicine) and Prof. Julie Kientz (HCDE) in collaboration with the Experimental Educational Unit at the UW Haring Center. For any questions, please reach out to Maitraye Das at maitraye@uw.edu.

 

Summer 2023

Participatory Design with Children and Researchers

We are looking for students for the Summer 2023 to help with running KidsTeam UW, an intergenerational co-design team of children (ages 6 – 12) and design researchers. There is rich work around how to interact with adults and children together in the co-design space, the role of design techniques in co-design, and the different stages and phases of co-design. You have the opportunity to help us understand this space.
 
Activities of this research group will include interacting as an adult design partner with children in co-design, working with researchers on multiple projects involving children and design, and running overall logistics to support the intergenerational design team. 
 
This DRG will require you to participate in KidsTeam UW in the summer 2023 for the following dates:

  • Tuesdays and Thursdays 60 minutes reading seminar: June 29, and July 6, 11, 13, 18, 20
  • Week of July 24 – 28, 2023: 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. co-design sessions with children

Students who have completed HCDE 318/418/518 and/or HCDE 417/517 or have relevant experience will be given priority.  Alternatively, students who have experience with youth mentorship, learning sciences, education, and child development will also be considered. 
 
Prior experience working with children (ages 0 – 17) is a requirement (e.g., tutoring/teaching/coaching, child-care, summer camps, etc.)
 
This research group will be led by Associate Professor Jason Yip (iSchool), with support from Dr. Julie Kientz (Professor, HCDE), Dr. Jin Ha Lee (Professor, iSchool), and Dr. Alexis Hiniker (Associate Professor, iSchool).
 
For any questions, please email Dr. Jason Yip at jcyip@uw.edu.

Spring 2023

TB-TST HIV/PrEP Adaptation DRG

Oral antiretroviral therapy (ART) is highly effective for people living with HIV to suppress viral replication, and oral pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) reduces the risk of HIV acquisition; however, monitoring and improving drug adherence remains challenging. 
 
The TB-Treatment Support Tools (TB-TST) project, led by Dr. Sarah Iribarren of the UW’s School of Nursing, has been actively working to provide TB care providers in Argentina with a mobile web application that helps monitor and support individuals with active TB. The TB-TST has shown promising results for aiding in the treatment of patients. 
 
Prior DRGs conducted user research, created a high fidelity app prototype, and conducted a cycle of usability testing. This DRG will involve analyzing the first cycle’s usability tests, synthesizing and implementing design recommendations, and conducting a second round of usability testing. 
 
Requirements:

  • Passion for designing equitable and innovative healthcare solutions using HCDE principles in a fast-paced environment.
  • UI/UX design experience, familiarity with Figma prototyping techniques is a plus.
  • Usability testing or qualitative research experience, with an emphasis on translating findings into data-supported UX design recommendations.
  • Registering for 2-3 credits (3 hour commitment per credit)
  • Ability to attend and present progress reports/deliverables in weekly 90 min. meetings over zoom.  
  • Willingness to meet outside of the regularly scheduled meeting time to work with fellow collaborators and be flexible for usability testing participants.

 

Spring 2023

Elevating Black Corpus and UX in Speech & Language Systems (ASR/NLP)

Led by HCDE PhD candidate Jay Cunningham, with Professors Julie Kientz and Daniela Rosner, this DRG serves as a working-group for a new research agenda to develop equitable, community-collaborative design methods to mitigate racial disparities and performance in automated speech and language technologies for Black language communities (AAVE/AAL).

Overview:
Automated speech recognition (ASR) systems that rely on natural language processing (NLP) techniques are becoming increasingly prevalent in people’s everyday lives. From virtual assistants integrated into mobile devices, smart home assistants, and vehicles; to software tasks such as automatic translation, automatic captioning, automatic subtitling, and even hands-free computing, ASR systems are core components of new devices and applications. However, recent research has shown that with this broadening access comes new fairness-related harms and racial disparities that negatively impact Black speakers of African American Vernacular English (AAVE), leaving AAVE users’ speech less accurately represented, recognized, and processed. 

HCDE PhD candidate Jay Cunningham, with Professors Julie Kientz and Daniela Rosner, seeks to address this challenge by developing and validating collaborative methods for developing more inclusive and equitable automated speech and language technologies for Black speakers of AAVE that are culturally competent. 

Through this project, we hope to further inform how academic researchers and industry practitioners can democratically collaborate with communities to create artificial intelligence and machine learning systems, practices, and policies that enable fair, equitable, and sustainable solutions that ultimately liberate and empower historically marginalized groups.

Student Researcher Involvement:
This DRG is seeking 3-5 dedicated students to collaborate and execute on the research studies outlined for this agenda. 

Participation in this research team will entail conducting and assisting with participant interviews and focus groups, thematic analysis of audio transcripts, analyzing co-design workshop artifacts, and conducting data science on AAVE speech data alongside the graduate student project lead. This also includes obtaining consent and assisting with performing all study procedures. Participants will have had coursework in research methods, complete an orientation to human subjects protections given by the UW, and will receive training from graduate student project lead on obtaining consent and debriefing subjects. 

This will be a 2-3 credit DRG. We will meet no more than 3 hours virtually or in-person each week (twice/week, 90-minute), and students should expect to spend no more than 2 hours working outside of that time per week.

Research will explore the following:

  • What are the strengths and pitfalls of existing ASR/NLP system design processes?
  • How might design decisions NLP/ML technologists make that shape experiences of fairness and bias among underrepresented language variety users?
  • How might researchers from academia and industry develop and employ collaborative-participatory approaches with African American community members — involving their voices and perspectives early and often in the product development process — to address many of the challenges African Americans (AAVE speakers) face when using voice technology?
  • How might community accountability boards serve as means for accountable action and transparency measures toward more culturally competent human centered technologies. 

While we can’t accept all applicants, subsequent DRGs on this topic may be available for future quarters (summer, autumn). If you’re interested in a future instance, please contact Jay Cunningham (jaylcham@uw.edu). 

Spring 2023

CRIBS: Community-Clinician Relationship Impact on Black Birthing Success

Black women in the US are 3-4x more likely to die during childbirth, and over 60% of these deaths are preventable. The over medicalization of Black birth and obstetric racism have negatively impacted Black birthing people for centuries, thus causing a growing interest in non-hospital care and support during the pregnancy and postpartum period for Black birthing people. This creates the opportunity to investigate how, or if, community-based organizations (CBOs), initiatives, and resources are being shared as supplemental care and support options by clinicians. 

This 2-credit DRG will serve primarily as a reading group to understand CRIBS, community-clinician relationship impact on Black birthing success. We will also ideate ways to incorporate design and/or technology in creating, facilitating, and/or improving this relationship by developing a research study protocol. No previous knowledge of or background in Black maternal health is needed, only open-minded, eager scholars willing to read and engage in literature around this topic. Considering HCI scholars and literature to date don’t provide extensive research and writing on Black maternal health, we will draw from various other disciplines to better understand the historical and contemporary implications of the subject. 

Objectives
The objectives of this reading group are to:

  1. Gain a brief understanding of the Black maternal mortality crisis from a historical and contemporary lens
  2. Critique the roles medical institutions and CBOs play in Black maternal health as individual entities
  3. Investigate the relationship, or lack thereof, between medical institutions and CBOs and its impact on Black maternal health outcomes
  4. Develop a study protocol to use design and/or tech to create, facilitate, and/or improve relationship between community-based organizations, initiatives and resources and clinicians

Who’s a good fit?
Master's or PhD scholars from all disciplines and backgrounds with an interest in the topic are welcome to join! This DRG can accommodate 6-8 scholars. Registration for 2 credits is required to join.

This DRG will be run by HCDE PhD student Leslie Coney with guidance from Professor Julie Kientz.

Winter 2023

Adaption of Tuberculosis (TB) Treatment Support App for HIV/PrEP Treatment

Oral antiretroviral therapy (ART) is highly effective for people living with HIV to suppress viral replication, and oral pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) reduces the risk of HIV acquisition; however, monitoring and improving drug adherence remains challenging. 

The TB-Treatment Support Tools (TB-TST) project, led by Dr. Sarah Iribarren of the UW’s School of Nursing, has been actively working to provide TB care providers in Argentina with a mobile web application that helps monitor and support individuals with active TB. The TB-TST has shown promising results for aiding in the treatment of patients. 

A prior DRG conducted qualitative research into how the TB-TST could be adapted to support patients being treated with ART and/or PrEP. This DRG will build upon that work using an agile development methods to create a high fidelity app prototype. This project will involve at least 2 cycles that will include design planning, prototyping, and usability testing. 

Requirements:

  • Passion for designing equitable and innovative healthcare solutions using HCDE principles in a fast-paced environment.
  • UI/UX design experience, familiarity with Figma prototyping techniques is a plus.
  • Usability testing or qualitative research experience, with an emphasis on translating findings into data-supported UX design recommendations.
  • Registering for 2-3 credits (3 hour commitment per credit)
  • Ability to attend and present progress reports/deliverables in weekly 60-90 min. meeting over zoom, tentatively on Mondays before 12pm.
  • Willingness to meet outside of the regularly scheduled meeting time to work with fellow collaborators.

Please fill out this application survey by 12/27/22. We will notify applicants by 12/29/22 for tentative start date of January 3. We will select 2-3 students.

Winter 2023

Co-designing a Sex Education Tool For and With Trans and Queer Youth

Led by Calvin Liang, PhD Candidate with guidance from faculty advisor Dr. Julie Kientz

Overview:
Transgender (trans) and queer young people deserve effective, affirming, and accurate sex education resources that can support them to have healthy sexual and romantic relationships. In this DRG, we will partner with a community advisory board made up of 20 trans young people ages 16-25, known as the QTAB (Queer and Trans Advisory Board). This QTAB was intentionally designed to center the perspectives of Black, Latine, and Asian-American youth; transfeminine and non-binary people; young people living in rural areas and/or localities where legislation is actively attempting to remove their healthcare access; and people who are new to experiences with research. There are increasingly more social support groups for trans young people today, but this group is unique by positioning QTAB members as experts of their own lives and drivers of research that affects their own health related issues.

DRG students will engage in monthly co-design sessions with QTAB members to ultimately develop a medium to high fidelity prototype of a sex education tool for trans youth. In between these co-design sessions, students will prepare a style guide, mockups, wireframes, and additional design elements for feedback elicitation from QTAB members.

Autumn 2022

Co-designing Screen Use Guidelines with Teen

Overuse of screen-based media is a widespread problem, and the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that parents limit and monitor their children's screen use. However, data suggests that when parents try to rigidly control teen behavior it backfires, and teens just hide their media use. The goal of this NIH-funded project is to improve how parents and teens make decisions about media use. Building on our focus group feedback from middle and high school students, you will help us come up with content, learning strategies, and conceptual designs for a novel web-based tool. You will seek feedback from middle and high school students throughout this process as we refine possible approaches so they meet the learning and communication needs of diverse families.

This directed research group will meet on Tuesdays from 10 to 11:30 a.m., starting October 4 (hybrid), and will be led by Seattle Children’s / UW Researcher Emily Kroshus with guidance and collaboration with Dr. Julie Kientz.

 

Autumn 2022

Breaking Down the Process of finding a UX Job

Directed by HCDE Outreach Manager Melissa Ewing with faculty oversight from Dr. Julie Kientz 

The Department of Human Centered Design & Engineering is offering a 10-week class that takes students through the journey of finding a UX/UI/HCI-focused job.

Workshop leaders and guest speakers include alumni, industry experts, and UW career counselors. In this class, we focus on the fundamentals of getting a job in the UX field, including decoding UX job titles, storytelling, best practices for job hunting in North American culture, resume-writing, networking in person and on LinkedIn, building portfolios, and whiteboarding.

The class will meet on Tuesdays in Autumn 2022 at the below times and locations. Session topics are:

  • In-person Storytelling workshop (10/4, 4-6 p.m.)
  • Virtual Decoding UX jobs and job titles (10/11, 4-5 p.m.)
  • Virtual Best practices for working in the US (10/18, 4-5 p.m.)
  • Virtual Resume writing (10/25, 4-5 p.m.)
  • Virtual LinkedIn tips & tricks, and networking with HCDE alumni (11/1, 4-5 p.m.)
  • In-person Portfolio workshop-creating and discussing portfolios (11/8, 4-6 p.m.)
  • In-person Whiteboarding workshop (11/15, 4-6 p.m.)
  • Virtual Interviewing best practices (11/22, 4-5 p.m.)

The in-person, two-hour sessions (10/4, 11/8, and 11/15) will take place in the 3rd floor Design Lab in Sieg Building. All other sessions are virtual.

All students (regardless of whether they are registered for the DRG) are welcome to attend the virtual events listed above. Students who register for 1 credit of HCDE 496/596 will be expected to complete assignments related to career planning. Priority will be given to HCDE MS students studying on an F-1 visa, but other HCDE students are welcome to express interest and will be admitted if space permits.  Any questions? Contact Melissa Ewing at mewing3@uw.edu.

Summer 2022

Co-Design with Parents of Young Children

We are looking for students for the Summer 2022 to help with running co-design sessions with design researchers and parents of young children under the age of 5 from a variety of backgrounds. The goal of this work will be to work toward the design of a culturally competent mobile application for helping parents understand and celebrate their child’s development and connect with early intervention resources if needed.

Activities of this research group will include developing co-design session activities, running sessions with a diverse group of parents, and assisting with data analysis. 

Ideal qualifications:

  • Experience with developing and facilitating participatory design techniques or an interest in learning
  • The majority of these workshops will take place on weekends at a site near the Othello light rail station in July and August due to parent availability, so availability on weekends is needed (though not every weekend)
  • A bonus would be if you can converse in Spanish, Vietnamese, or Somali

This research group will be led by Professor Julie Kientz, Dr. Kendra Liljenquist, and PhD Students Akeiylah DeWitt and Leslie Coney and collaboration with Seattle Children’s.

Summer 2022

Adaption of Tuberculosis (TB) Treatment Support App for HIV/PrEP Treatment

Background:

Oral antiretroviral therapy (ART) is highly effective for people living with HIV to suppress viral replication, and oral pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) reduces the risk of HIV acquisition; however, monitoring and improving drug adherence remains challenging. 

The TB-Treatment Support Tools (TB-TST) project, led by Dr. Sarah Iribarren of the UW’s School of Nursing, has been actively working to provide TB care providers in Argentina with a mobile web application that helps monitor and support individuals with active TB. The TB-TST has shown promising results for aiding in the treatment of patients. 

The purpose of this DRG is to conduct research into how the TB-TST can be adapted to support patients being treated with ART and/or PrEP.  We will conduct a qualitative study to understand features and user-interface desired by clients and providers. 

Requirements:

  • Experience in qualitative research including individual interviews or focus groups. Ideal candidates will have knowledge in fast paced iterative-cycle usability testing techniques with an emphasis on translating findings into data-supported UX design recommendations.
  • Completion of HCDE 412/417/517/519 is desirable but not required.
  • UI/UX design experience. Familiarity with Figma prototyping is a plus.
  • Registering for 2-3 credits (3 hour commitment per credit)
  • Ability to attend and present progress reports/deliverables in weekly 90 min. meeting over zoom on tentatively Tuesdays at 2 pm  

Summer 2022

Participatory Design with Children and Researchers

We are looking for students for the Summer 2022 to help with running KidsTeam UW, an intergenerational co-design team of children (ages 6 – 12) and design researchers. There is rich work around how to interact with adults and children together in the co-design space, the role of design techniques in co-design, and the different stages and phases of co-design. You have the opportunity to help us understand this space.

Activities of this research group will include interacting as an adult design partner with children in co-design, working with researchers on multiple projects involving children and design, and running overall logistics to support the intergenerational design team.

This DRG will require you to participate in KidsTeam UW in the summer 2022 for the following dates:

  • Tuesdays and Thursdays: 60 minutes reading seminar: July 5, 7, 12, 14, 19, 21, and August 2, 2022.
  • Week of July 25 – 29, 2022, 9:00 am – 5:00 pm co-design sessions with children.

Students who have completed HCDE 318/418/518 and/or HCDE 417/517 or have relevant experience will be given priority.  Alternatively, students who have experience with youth mentorship, learning sciences, education, and child development will also be considered. 

Prior experience working with children (ages 0 – 17) is a requirement (e.g., tutoring, teaching, coaching, child-care, summer camps, etc.)

This research group will be led by Associate Professor Jason Yip (iSchool), with support from Dr. Julie Kientz (Professor, HCDE), Dr. Jin Ha Lee (Professor, iSchool), and Dr. Alexis Hiniker (Associate Professor, iSchool).

Spring 2022

Developing a Heuristic Evaluation Method for Child Health Apps

Mobile apps for parenting and child health guidance have recently increased in popularity. While there is potential for these apps to support parent knowledge and monitoring a child’s health, evaluating these technologies is challenging in the early stages of design processes or non-medical contexts. In this Directed Research Group (DRG), we are interested in understanding how extending the heuristic evaluation method in this space might support the identification of issues earlier in design processes.

Planned activities: In this DRG, we will spend the first weeks reading papers about heuristic evaluation methods and how to develop them. We will explore existing heuristic evaluation methods (e.g., Nielsen’s heuristics) and identify key features that heuristic evaluations for mobile health apps should address. During the next weeks of the DRG, we will engage with parents and pediatricians to develop and test a set of heuristics for evaluating child health and parenting mobile apps. We look forward to working with students interested in mobile health apps, child development, health equity, cultural relevance in design, and heuristic evaluation methods. Students will have an opportunity to collaborate on future projects in this area.

Required availability:

  • Attend our meeting twice a week (in-person) Mondays and Wednesdays from 5:00pm-5:50pm.
  • Dedicate at least 3 hours to work each week outside of meetings
  • Register for 2 to 3 credits of HCDE 496/596

This DRG will be led by HCDE Ph.D. student Akeiylah DeWitt, with guidance from Professor Julie Kientz. This DRG is open to both undergraduate and graduate students.

Spring 2022

Child Care Access in Seattle: Mapping and Visualization 

Led by: Rebecca Michelson, PhD Candidate, HCDE 
With guidance from faculty advisors Professor Julie Kientz and Professor Daniela Rosner
Wednesdays, 3 - 4:40 p.m. on Zoom

Project Overview
This DRG is a hands-on opportunity to deliver on information and advocacy needs expressed by the Greater Seattle Child Care Business Coalition. The goal of the DRG is to co-create with GSCCB an interactive map that features childcare and daycare centers as well as providers in each neighborhood. Activities include: collecting and reviewing data, learning about mapping platforms, and iteratively developing a beta map with opportunities for feedback from the community partnership. Students will get the chance to learn from guest speakers on topics of data viz, mapping for social change, and childcare policy. 

The project is driven by a partnership with the Greater Seattle Child Care Business Coalition who serves as a learning and workforce development arm among childcare providers, policymakers, and regulatory agencies. (Read more about some of their recent work here).

We are looking for:

  • 4-6 undergraduate or graduate students
  • Folks with experience or strong interest in data visualization, mapping, and usability studies
  • Nice to have:
    • Passion or domain expertise for childcare or caregiving access
  • You do not have to be a method or subject expert to participate!

DRG Format:

  • Meeting once a week for 1.5 hours on Zoom, with 2 hours of asynchronous design research in between sessions: Wednesdays 3-4:30pm PST. *There may be some flexibility in this course timing, if this time absolutely does not work for you!
  • 1-2 credits
  • This DRG will be entirely remote via Zoom
  • Composition: we will have 1-2 project working groups, based on the number of students who apply

Students Participating in the DRG will:

  • Participate in co-design and planning of a resource to launch by the end of Spring quarter with a local community partner
  • Brainstorm and research best approaches to share information about childcare access in Seattle
  • Conduct user research activities for audiences of this prototype
  • Move from concepts to prototype in a short period of time
  • Engage with design research long-term with possibility for a Fall 2022 DRG

Summer 2021

Participatory Design with Children and Researchers

We are looking for students for the Summer 2021 to help with running KidsTeam UW, an intergenerational co-design team of children (ages 6 – 12) and design researchers. There is rich work around how to interact with adults and children together in the co-design space, the role of design techniques in co-design, and the different stages and phases of co-design. You have the opportunity to help us understand this space.

Activities of this research group will include interacting as an adult design partner with children in co-design, working with researchers on multiple projects involving children and design, and running overall logistics to support the intergenerational design team. 

This DRG will require you to participate in KidsTeam UW in the summer 2021 for the following dates:

Tuesday / Thursdays: July 6, 8, 13, 15, 20, 22, 27, 29 and August 3 and 5 (90 minute co-design sessions)
Wednesdays: June 30, July 7, 14, 21, 28, and August 4 and 11  (60 minute reading sessions)

Students who have completed HCDE 318/418/518 and/or HCDE 417/517 or have relevant experience will be given priority.  Alternatively, students who have experience with youth mentorship, learning sciences, education, and child development will also be considered. 

Prior experience working with children is a requirement (e.g., tutoring/teaching/coaching, child-care, summer camps, etc.)

This research group will be led by Assistant Professor Jason Yip (iSchool), with support from Dr. Julie Kientz (Professor, HCDE), Dr. Jin Ha Lee (Associate Professor, iSchool), and Dr. Alexis Hiniker (Assistant Professor, iSchool).

Spring 2021

Designing for an Asynchronous Remote Communities (ARC) tool to support adolescent depression treatment

This DRG was offered by Julie Kientz, PhD and Jessica Jenness with guidance from Sean Munson, PhD and Elin Björling, PhD

Over 60% of adolescents diagnosed with depression do not receive mental health care and treatment engagement is low among those who do access care. Asynchronous Remote Communities (ARC) are a promising technology-based approach for engaging adolescents in mental health care that capitalizes on the reach and scalability of technology while also providing support, social interactions, and motivation to engage. ARCs use private online platforms (e.g., Slack, Microsoft Teams) to deliver and gather information from adolescents in a format that is lightweight, accessible, usable, and low burden. Our team of researchers including HCDE faculty Juile Kientz, PhD, Sean Munson, PhD, and Elin Björling, PhD and Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine faculty Jessica Jenness, PhD have conducted pilot work to develop a functional Asynchronous Remote Communities (ARC) platform to supplement behavioral activation (BA+ARC) therapy for depressed adolescents using Slack. Our BA+ARC platform included peer and therapist coaching through direct messaging and chat channels, chatbot supported therapy tools, and real-time mood and behavior tracking and visualizations. Mental health clinician and adolescent target users provided critical feedback on design requirements including ARC supplementing versus replacing synchronous therapy sessions and tested preliminary prototypes that adapted core BA elements to a technology platform (BA+ARC). 

We are seeking to adapt our Slack prototype to Microsoft Teams in order to meet certain design criteria including HIPAA compliance and meeting the needs of the clinician’s workflow. We are partnering with Microsoft and Seattle Children’s Hospital engineers to begin the development work and are seeking students to assist in the creation of a design specification document related to this shift from Slack to Teams as well as the addition of automated data collection and visualization tools identified as important by target users.

Activities:

Understand the design of our current Slack-based prototype that has been developed and feasibility tested with teens and clinicians
Adapt the design of a Slack Prototype for delivering treatment for depression for teens to the Microsoft Teams platform
Create a set of annotated wireframes or an interactive prototype for the new design
Conduct informal usability testing on new ported design
Write a design spec document for communicating that design to a team of developers working at Seattle Children’s and Microsoft by the end of the quarter

Spring 2021

The Cost of Culture: Diverse and Multicultural Community Interaction with Financial Technology Applications

Led by: Jay Cunningham, PhD Student | Faculty Sponsors:  Julie Kientz, Daniela Rosner 
2 credits | Virtual via Zoom |  Meeting Day/Time: TBD

Overview:
This DRG is seeking 3-4  dedicated and enthusiastic students to join in supporting this proposed study. Students from all levels (BS - PhD) are invited to apply and participate in this project. The group will conduct applied research outlined by the study agenda to investigate the relational engagement among low-resourced ethnic minority and multicultural communities and their interaction with financial technology (fintech) applications. This study is concerned with the cultural and communal relativity embodied by financial technology, specifically with diverse underserved populations. 

Involvement:
Participation in assisting with this study will entail surveying, interviewing, collaborating and collecting oral and written histories with participant experts on experiences and circumstances that influence their use of fintech applications. This also includes obtaining consent and assisting with performing all study procedures. Participants will have had coursework in research methods, complete an orientation to human subjects protections given by the UW, and will receive training from graduate student project lead on obtaining consent and debriefing subjects.

Impact & Affordances:
This project will provide researchers with data and stories provided by participants that grant perspective into their choice of personal finance and banking technology services and the impacts of its use in their lives. Findings of this project will guide further research to triangulate the affordances of culturally relative/sensitive technical systems design and highlight consequences of biased financial technology and the impact on low-resourced ethnic minority and multicultural communities. 

Additional Background & Motivation:
This project serves as a preliminary analysis toward examining the role that big tech plays in the position of power, ethics, equity, and sociality in the design, development, and deployment of AI systems. With specific reference to financial technology firms (fin-tech), AI systems are based on statistical and probability models along with predictive analytics to forecast consumer performance. Extensive research has shown that bias in AI systems reflect historical patterns of discrimination and oppression long influenced by a dominant culture; which in the U.S defaults to white, heterosexual, middle-to-upper class men. Thus, when AI tools make decisions based on predominant consumers’ data, fin-tech must urgently consider the effects of low-resourced ethnic minority and multicultural communities and whether the decisions are transparent and explainable. Across the U.S.,these communities are less likely to possess adequate financial literacy, generational and community wealth, and access to financial resources and education. Though previous work in community cultural wealth has examined the relationship between people, equity, and finances, the role of computation in this process remains unclear. We contribute to this work by exploring how a study of fintech practices among diverse underserved populations may foster equity-centered sociotechnical change.

Winter 2021

Design Considerations for tools Supporting Individuals to Cope with Shame

This DRG will be offered by HCDE Affiliate Professor Mania Orand with guidance from Professor Julie Kientz

Shame is a common emotion that negatively impacts individuals’ mental health. One effective strategy to cope with shame, as psychologists suggest, is to share shame experiences with others and build mutual empathy. Research shows that online communities can facilitate the exchange of sensitive issues for social support. However, few platforms have been specifically designed to facilitate sharing of users’ shame experiences in order to build mutually empathetic connections. In this DRG, we will work together to explore the literature to gain a better understanding of different dimensions of shame experience, such as the importance of anonymity or the desire to be heard without being judged. The literature review will inform the design of platforms that might support individual to cope with shame.

Activities:

Find, read, and discuss literature about shame and other relevant topics
Discuss design considerations for tools that might facilitate sharing shame experiences
Explore mechanisms that might encourage mutual empathy, while balancing the need for anonymity and the desire to connect with other individuals
Design ideas to support individuals to freely express their feelings

Participation Requirements:

Attend our virtual 2-hour class and working session each week, starting the second week of January
Search for and review the literature 4 hours each week outside of class meeting.
Register for 2 HCDE 496/596 in Winter. Email orand@uw.edu for registration code
This DRG will be offered as Credit/No Credit.

Winter 2021

Participatory Design for Family-Centered Innovation

Led by Rebecca Michelson, Akeiylah DeWitt, and Professor Julie Kientz

2 credits

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to disrupt work and preschool-12th grade education in the United States, families are finding new ways to adapt their home lives accordingly. This DRG topic is motivated by questions about remote learning and childcare needs that were uncovered from a recent study on families using technology in the home. In this DRG, we will work together to define the scope of future design by engaging in activities like reflection, design-thinking, and usability evaluation. We will meet remotely on Zoom once a week and connect via Slack as well. Outputs of this DRG may include low-fidelity prototypes, technology probes, data visualizations, or other creative outputs such as a manifesto for family-centered design. There may be opportunities to carry our outputs forward through a Spring quarter DRG as well.

Goals:

Based on recent research and stories that DRG participants generate, we will explore the greatest challenges that families with young ones ages 18 and under are experiencing during COVID-19.
Design for family-centered support by leveraging our knowledge, community, and diverse skill sets as DUB students.
Conduct family-centered advocacy in our communities and beyond.

The team is led by Rebecca Michelson and Akeiylah DeWitt, (Human Centered Design & Engineering). For more information about Families and Technology research, see our blog at medium.com/families-and-tech. 

Participation: We encourage all UW students who are parents or caregivers for kids and young adults ages 18 to apply! Beginner knowledge of design-thinking is recommended as well. Please reach out with any accessibility needs so that we can meet them.