David T. Windell

Toward a Stable Career in an Unstable Job Market

Welcome to the Sixteenth Annual Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Student Career Panel. While our typical career panel emphasizes what one should do to prepare for a career in a “typical” year, 2009 is anything but typical. The economy is changing every day and so too is the job market for Human Factors (HF)/Ergonomics (E) graduates. About the only certainty is that the economy and associated job market will likely change from month to month over the course of the year. Thus, our panelists have chosen the theme “Toward a Stable Career in an Unstable Job Market” for our 2009 panel. We solicited questions for this paper from the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society (HFES) student members. The California State University Northridge Student Chapter members then selected the best six questions for the panel to address in this paper. Many of the recommendations in this paper are tried and tested techniques, which should apply well even in this unstable environment. Some are new ideas, which the professionals on our panel deem especially appropriate today. At the annual meeting panel discussion, panelists will provide a brief introduction and then entertain questions from the audience regarding career preparation in todays environment. A subsequent paper will be published on the HFES website summarizing the panel discussion.

Gathering User Feedback from Internal Sources to Supplement Formal Usability Studies

Formal usability testing is an established method for capturing critical information about how users interact with products. However, summative and aggregate user and client feedback can be gathered from other internal sources to supplement formal user observations. By acquiring perceptions from other teams within an organization, a human factors professional can not only economically capitalize on existing knowledge related to user and client pain points, but also create advocates for high-quality user experiences. Mutual benefits for interacting with various teams and methods for initiating usability-related dialogues are introduced.