About Me

I am fascinated by human nature. From my background in humanities to my experience in sales, I’m interested in the difference between what people say they want, and what they actually need. My goal is to design experiences that will improve people’s quality of life.

In my free time I like to beat everyone at Star Trek Scene It?, think of ways to change the world through video games, look for new blogs to add to my Google Reader, and build slightly skewed furniture.

I am an Experience Design and User Research Masters student in Human Computer Interaction/Design at Indiana University. I will graduating in May 2011 and am currently seeking a design position.

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Education

MS Human-Computer Interaction/Design

Indiana University – Bloomington | Expected Graduation May 2011

BA Religious Studies

Minor in Human Sexuality
Indiana University – Bloomington | Graduated August 2006

Relevant Work Experience

Associate Instructor | Indiana University | Fall 2010

As an associate instructor for the class Interaction Design Practice I served as a mentor to students learning and utilizing design thinking to complete difficult design projects.

Usability/User Experience Intern | Nationwide Insurance | Summer 2010

As an intern at Nationwide Insurance I conducted end usability analysis to explore, uncover, analyze, and capture user requirements specifications and recommendations. Assisted with preparing, conducting, and reporting of usability tests and participatory design sessions. Collaborated in a cross-discipline team to plan usability analysis projects and communicate results effectively with both technical and non-technical Nationwide staff.

Relevant Design Experience

Designing for Sexual Wellness| Fall 2010 – Spring 2011

A yearlong design project that seeks to lower the barrier of entry to intimate artifacts by incorporating formal elements of wellness into their design. Methods used: surveys, interviews, exemplar review, 3D modeling, prototyping, and experience evaluation.

Lightbooth | Spring 2010

An experience prototype for an interactive exhibit for a museum that allows participants to create long exposure photos. The goal of the project was to create a prototype that best tested the experience the exhibit would encapsulate. Methods used: user research, exemplar review, experience disability, concept development and iteration, and prototyping and experience testing.

Achievement Coordinator | Spring 2010

An add-on for World of Warcraft that aids in trust and coordination for players. The design was developed to address breakdowns in communication discovered through user research methods. Methods used: user research, conversational analysis, ethnographic observation, paper prototyping, usability testing.

Interactive Tabletops and Surfaces Research Group | Fall 2009 – Present

A ‘Computer Supported Collaborative Work’ research group focused on gender collaboration in a collocated environment using a multi-input tabletop. Methods used: brainstorming, sketching, user research, concept generation, prototyping.

Skills

Activities

Association for Computing Machinery | Member
MLK Design Competition | Judge | Fall 2009
Assistant Coach| Shawe Jr. High Girl’s Basketball | Madison, IN | 2008-2009
National Day of Silence Committee | Chair | Fall 2005 – Spring 2006
BloomingOUT Radio Show | Host, Writer | Fall 2004 – Fall 2006

Employment History

Lowe’s Hardware | Customer Service Associate | Madison, IN | Feb 2009 – August 2009
Full Signal Media Group | Advertising Executive | Louisville, KY | Aug 2008 – Jan 2009
Wilsonville Honda | Sales Account Manager | Wilsonville, OR | Jan 2008 – July 2008
CSR Personnel| Administrative Assistant | Portland, OR | Aug 2007 – Dec 2007
Jacobs School of Music | Properties Mistress | Bloomington, IN | Aug 2006 – Aug 2007

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Email: ameaglin@gmail.com

LinkedIn

Twitter: @annaeaglin

My Blog

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Designing for Sexual Wellness

This is a summary of one semester of work on my masters capstone project. My advisor is Shaowen Bardzell.

For my masters capstone project, I decided to focus on intimate artifacts (more commonly known as sex toys). Intimate artifacts have a very turbulent history and are currently considered socially taboo, which often deters those who are interested in purchasing them. However, they have been shown to be associated with many health promoting behaviors. The question I decided to tackle for my project is, Can separating an intimate artifact’s form from it’s function make it more accessible?

Findings and Analysis

Based on my user and secondary research, I came to the following research insights:

Sexual Wellness – Intimate artifacts have many clinical benefits, and sex therapists have been prescribing them to their clients for many years. They are also associated with health promoting activities such as gynecological and testicular examinations. It was also found that those who use intimate artifacts report higher sexual satisfaction. A number of participants in the survey reported they use sex toys because it is the only way they are able to achieve orgasm, either alone or with a partner.

Social Taboo – Sex toys still have a very strong link to pornography. This is troubling for many who are put off by the graphic sexuality. Aligning sex toys with something else, like education, makes them more accessible to more people. One survey respondent wrote, “I don’t want anyone to find a sex toy in my room. I would be nervous what people would think of me if I owned one.”

Materials – There is not a lot of research regarding germs and sex toys, or the best ways to clean them. Cheaper materials such as jelly are very porous and difficult to clean, but a higher quality silicone toy is going to cost more.

Price – The price of a toy is very much related to its materials. A higher quality toy will last longer and be made of a better material, but a person new to sex toys may not be willing to spend the money on something they may not like.

Use – The question of how sex toys are used is hard to answer. First-time users often do not know what they want because they have no context to understand sex toys, and a good sex toy is in the eye of the beholder. Every body is different and wants different things. Even a person’s individual needs can shift based on context (e.g., sex versus masturbation).

Manufacturer – Like many products, sex toys are mass-produced, mostly in China. Companies tend to follow trends to see what is selling and what is not. Oftentimes sex toy companies will hire talented people who excel at making products, but have no education or background in sexuality.

Design Principles

Based on the research and the subsequent data analyses, I learned that although the wellness benefits of intimate artifacts have been studied and published in research and medical communities, they still have a reputation that deters people from using them. This high barrier of entry is reinforced by a disconnect between manufacturers promoting sex toys that are poorly made in terms of both the materials and ergonomics and the needs of the users, especially how they appropriate and experience these artifacts in their (sex) lives. Accordingly, a successful design would have to incorporate the following principles:

Overcoming the Social Taboo through Wellness

Many people who use and/or who are interested in using intimate artifacts do not like the negative social connotation surrounding them. Separating them from graphic sexuality makes them more approachable by mainstream society, and by aligning them with sexual wellness will lower the barrier to entry for people who want to consume them. This can be achieved by incorporating formal elements that signify wellness to the user.

The form of an object is the elements that are intrinsic or internal to it. These are things such as shape, line, color, texture, and layout or composition [3]. Formal elements of wellness are present in the architecture of spas, signs in organic grocery stores, the shape of aromatherapy bottles, the labels of yoga DVDs, to name a few. In order for consumers to accept a sex toy as an object of wellness, it must formally exhibit this.

Allowing for Multiple Contexts of Use and Spontaneous Appropriation through Ambiguity in Form

Although the form of intimate artifacts is related to sexual wellness, it needs not dictate a single purpose of use. And the toys do not need to all take the form of genitals. It is not only that different people need different things based on their situations, desires, and experiences, but they also need different things in different contexts. One sex toy cannot appeal to everyone, but by incorporating a strategically ambiguous form, users can appropriate it into their sexuality in the way they see fit. As William Gaver and Phoebe Sengers recommend, the space for interpretation is clearly defined (sexuality and wellness) but actual use (such as penetration, use with partner, etc.) should not be inscribed on the user. This appropriation will empower the user in their pursuit of sexual wellness.

Addressing Core Usability Issues

Like all consumer electronics, many of the issues people have with sex toys are in regards to usability. Some problems reported were size (big or small), noise (too loud), battery drain, not enough power, poor quality, or difficulty in cleaning and maintaining. Rechargeable, quieter sex toys, made with more hygienic materials would need to be considered and researched to address these concerns.

Conclusion and Future Work

The ideas of designing for sexuality and wellness are of growing interest in HCI. As intimate artifacts continue their trajectory towards becoming more similar to consumer electronics, these issues are going to become more important to the HCI community. The three design principles, based on the preliminary user research and data analysis, point to a path for sexual wellness design in HCI. They help conceptualizing and the design of future digital intimate artifacts with the aim of lowering the barrier of entry for consumers and fostering sexual wellness. In future work, I plan to validate and iterate these design principles through concept generation and critique to further advance the research and design agenda of sexual wellness in our field.

Download my CHI submission paper here.

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Design Process Model

This is NIRD. A Non-obtrusive way to Integrate Reflection into your Daily practice (NIRD), a model that helps designers integrate reflection into their daily lives. This was a collaboration with Chris Basham, Eugene Siew, and Xiying Wang.

The Problem

According to Donald Schön, being reflective about the decisions you make as a designer helps a person understand why they do what they do, and it also helps them build a repertoire that will aid when encountering new design situations.

However, we found from our primary research that designers understand the value of reflection, but do not reflect because of three main issues:

• They are not sure when to reflect.
• They are not sure how to reflect.
• And they are not sure what to reflect upon.

First Iteration

Based on the issues uncovered, we created our solution that had designers reflecting five times a day via short activities.

• When: Morning, before lunch, during lunch, after lunch, and at the end of the day (five set times).
• How: Blog post, twitter, text message, post-it note, sketch, video commentary, etc.
• What: The current project.

Testing this method ourselves, we found that it did not work for the following reasons:

• The when was too structured and did not allow for flexibility.
• The how was too varied and provided too many options.
• The what was too specific. Often projects can move slowly and we found we were struggling to come up with things to reflect upon.

In order for our model to be successful, the following changes were integrated:

• The when is flexible.
• The what is any event in your life.
• The how is a specific activity.

Final Design

Based on our insights, we created a Non-obtrusive way to Integrate Reflection into your Daily practice (NIRD).

Using a pen and a post-it note, the designer keeps a log of any event in their day (personal or professional) in the form of a mind map that grows throughout the day. Then, at the end of the day, an overall reflection can be written on the back of the post-it.

This final incarnation of the model has a very low barrier to entry, is quick and simple, and the materials are ready at hand. The post-its can be kept within a notebook or sketch book, daily planner, or organized in many other ways.

We also found this model is flexible enough to allow people to incorporate it into their lives in many different ways. Below are four variations.

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Summer Internship

People with Disabilities Usability Testing

In order to ensure the accessibility of the website, testing was done with Blind and Low-Vision users who were browsing the main website using applications such as JAWS and ZoomText. Three specific areas of the site were tested: Apply for a Job, Pay a Bill, and Get a Quote. My responsibilities included testing facilitation, uncovering and analyzing issues, and giving recommendations for solutions to uncovered problems. The results of these tests were delivered to the client in a report and a short video.

People with Disabilites Usability Testing Results from Anna Eaglin on Vimeo.

Life Insurance Estimate

The Life Insurance Estimate tool main page.

The goal of this project was to identify possible issues with a proposed Life Insurance Estimation tool. This tool would allow customers to answer different lifestyle questions and be given an estimate immediately online. There was an opportunity to see if customers understood the overall rationale of the tool, and the value of the information provided. One big challenge was to uncover whether participants trusted the estimate they were given during the process.

The following issues were found in testing:

• Many participants wanted some kind of help option throughout the process.
• The health categories caused concern because smoking, family history, and fitness were grouped into mutually exclusive categories and some participants were afraid this would negatively affect their monthly payment.
• For some, it also lowered their confidence in the final estimate.

When asking users to purchase something as important as Life Insurance online it was discovered that they need two things: trust and help. My responsibilities included conducting usability testing, interviewing, competitive analysis, and giving recommendations for solutions to uncovered problems.

Close Button Location

The goal of this project was to see which CLOSE button customers preferred when a modal overlay pops up on the website. The testing participants were given the following three scenarios:

In order to see which CLOSE button was the first to catch the participants’ eye, we utilized Tobii eye-tracking software to create visualizations.

We found that most people preferred the (X) on the top right, and in its absence would use an (X) on the bottom left. My responsibilities included moderating, interviewing, data analysis and providing recommendations for solutions to uncovered issues. The final report can be read here.

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LightBooth

This was an assignment from Jeff Bardzell’s Experience Design class. The goal of the project was to design a museum exhibit and create a prototype that best tested the experience the exhibit would encapsulate. Our process included user research, exemplar review, experience disability, concept development and iteration, and prototyping and testing. The final deliverable was an eight minute video.  This was a collaboration with Anthony Nguyen and Sidd Manini.

LightBooth would exist inside a photography exhibit showcasing long-exposure photography, and our participants would be familiar with this art form by the time they access it. By allowing them to create their own photos, the art the visitors have just seen becomes accessible to them and it also adds a dimension of authorship.  Participants would also be able to take home a four-framed photostrip of their work.

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The Achievement Coordinator

This was an assignment for Shaowen Bardzell‘s Computer Supported Collaborative Work class in Spring of 2010. The goal of the assignment was to pick a community that uses some kind of digital collaboration, uncover problems or issues, and design a solution.

Target Space

The Start Screen of the Dungeon Finder

The venue I chose was World of Warcraft, a massively multiplayer online role playing game developed by Blizzard Entertainment that currently has 11.5 million subscribers worldwide. Specifically, I targeted players who are trying to complete achievements inside instanced dungeons.

Achievements are one-time self-contained goals that cover every aspect of World of Warcraft gameplay including world exploration, Player vs. Environment, Player vs. Player, professions, and character development. They can be as simple as visiting a certain location, or complex tasks that require multiple steps. And because players only get credit for completing an achievement once, there is little incentive to help others. Some of the most complicated achievements exist inside Instanced Dungeons.

Instanced Dungeons are dungeons that spawn specifically for each group of players that enter them. Each time a group enters such an instance, a unique version of it spawns for that group only. This means no other players can play in that instance and bother the group. Instances are often challenging, but offer players better rewards than can be found in normal questing.

In the past, forming a group for an instanced dungeon was a very tedious task. In response to this, Blizzard created the Dungeon Finder. The Dungeon Finder allows players to join a queue to group with randomly selected players based on the five-man instance grouping. Each player chooses their role, and will be assigned to a random group. In order to combat the time associated with forming a group, a ready check is initiated before the group enters the instance. While a player is queued and waiting for their group formation they can do other tasks in WoW. What is especially different about the groups created by the Dungeon Finder is groups can be comprised with players from different servers.

Because of the size of WoW, it is broken down into different realms, or servers. A server acts as an individual copy of the game world. Players on different servers cannot interact with each other unless randomly paired together in the Dungeon Finder. Therefore, most players randomly grouped together have no history or future of playing together

Problem

Through in-game ethnography, and chat transcript analysis, I found that players were trying to complete complex achievements inside instanced dungeons with other players who had never grouped together in the past, and because they exist on different servers, will not play together in the future. Because each player has a specific responsibility, this can be difficult to coordinate.

Based on my user research, I found the following things:

• Players need overview of the achievement before they begin.
• One player is usually in charge in instructing others.
• Each class has a specific task to complete and require class-specific instructions.

Design Solution

The Overview Screen: The Achievement Coordinator allows players to choose the specific achievement they want to track. They choose it from a drop-down menu. They can also choose their class as well as their class specialization. A specialization can change the role of a player. For example, a Priest is a healing class, but if they choose Shadow as their specialization, they will be a better DPS player. Within the Overview screen players view the achievement criteria, geographic location within WoW, general instructions, as well as specific class instructions. This overview gives players a general understanding of what completing the achievement will entail. This information will be imported from different WoW companion websites such as Wowhead.com or WowWiki.com.

The Steps Screen: This screen gives players specific step-by-step instructions to complete the chosen achievement. By allowing players to view all the steps at once, they can be prepared for upcoming tasks. If multiple players are using the Achievement Coordinator they will sync and tasks are checked as completed.  It will then gray and highlight the next step. There is also a text-to-chat button that will send the instruction to the text chat. Since one person is usually in charge of coordinating the group, this will allow them to send instructions to the team without having to type them out.

Testing and Final Design

After testing the paper prototype with World of Warcraft players, the following changes were made:

• Illustrate how close the achievement is to completion.
• Provide a picture of the location of the achievement.
• Make the text-to-chat button less confusing.
• Give players the chance to rate the strategies they are provided. Also give them opportunities to provide their own.

The final design includes a picture of the instance or specific target is included to help give players context, breadcrumbs located on the left side of the screen will illustrate to the player their progress towards achievement completion, and the text-to-chat button was changed to more reflect its function. The word CHAT is colored light blue to mimic the color of the ‘party chat’ the players use to communicate.

The Achievement Coordinator in game.

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Tabletop Research Group

The goal of this research group is to study whether gender plays any role in collocated collaboration on a multitouch interface. In order to do this we designed and implemented the Building Layout Designer, an application that allows participants to design the layout of a room. This was a collaboration with Matt Edwards, Ammar Halabi, and Dan Richert.

Our research group centered around the DiamondTouch, a multitouch surface that allows up to four participants to interact directly with the table, eliminating the domination that occurs when one person controls the input device (such as a mouse or keyboard).

It was important to eliminate other factors that would affect collaboration in order to be able to focus on gendered differences. To that end, we recruited participants at the university who have prior experience working together.

In order to ensure our participants would be highly engaged in the task, we created the Building Layout Designer application that would allow participants to create the interior of a new building that was currently being commissioned. This new building was highly anticipated by the students, and the committee in charge of it was including student feedback. It was inferred that the results of the testing would be given to those in charge of the new space, therefore establishing motivation to complete the task in a way participants considered successful. We tested our design using a paper prototype, and built the application using the DiamondSpin Java toolkit.

Read more about our findings and analysis here.

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The Ambiguous Form of the Form 3

This was an assignment for Jeff Bardzell’s Interaction Culture class. The goal of this paper was to critique the Jimmyjane Form 3 as an interaction using theories from film studies, art, and cultural studies.

In this paper, I offer a critical analysis of the Form 3, arguing that its ambiguous form allows users to create their own meaning and interpretation, by a formal analysis, review of the history of intimate artifacts, and motivating formal ambiguity as way to enable pleasurable and empowering interpretation by the user.

The paper can be downloaded here.

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