Building University-Government Collaberations: A Model for Students to Experience Usability Engineering in the Federal Workplace
Jonathan Lazar, Elizabeth D. Murphy, Theresa A. O'Connell
Following a discussion ofusability and accessibility, this case study describes an informal collaboration between the US. Census Bureau's Usability Laboratory and a graduate class in usability engineering at Towson University. With guidance from their professor and inputfrom usability professionals, graduate students participated in usability and accessibility evaluation activities as part ofa class project. The collaborationfocused on evaluation ofaprototype Web site developedfor the Census Bureau. The experience ofcollaborating on this evaluation demonstrates how a more formal partnership can be forged Lessons learned can provide useful irformation to those who are trying to create valuable real-world experiences for students.
Jonathan Lazar is a member ofthe Department ofComputer & Information Sciences at Towson University.
Elizabeth D. Murphy is a research psychologist at the U. S. Census Bureau's Usability Laboratory in Suitland, Maryland. She worked as a human factors consultant in private industry for more than 15 years. She was the co-editor of a book on human factors in air traffic control and co-author of a book chapter on information processing in air traffic control. She contributed to several NASA technical memoranda and contractor reports. Dr. Murphy's papers have been published in the International Journal of Aviation Psychology, the Internatianal Jaurnal ofMan-Machine Systems, Research in Official Statistics, Telematics andInformatics, and numerous conference proceedings. Her current research interests focus on the usability and accessibility ofsoftware tools for use by the Census workforce and Census-related software products for use by the general public.
Theresa A. O'Connell is with Humans and Computers, Inc. in Upper Marlboro, Maryland.
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