We are delighted to publish an editorial by Elizabeth Rosenzweig, Aaron Nathan, Nicholas Manring, and Tejaswini Rao Racherla titled “Creating a Culture of Self- Reflection and Mutual Accountability.” The authors explore the topic of bias in user research, with a particular focus on UX professionals evaluating their own designs. They argue that potential bias can be mitigated through a culture of self-reflection and mutual accountability.
The first article is by Brad Aabel and Dilini Abeywarna titled “Digital Cross-Channel Usability Heuristics: Improving the Digital Health Experience.” In this article, the authors propose a new approach to identify and prioritize user tasks in a cross-channel context of behavioral health. This work is critical as usability researchers aim to improve the cross-channel user experience across a wide variety of digital platforms.
The second article is by Jonathan Lazar and colleagues, titled “Co-Design Process of a Smart Phone App to Help People with Down Syndrome Manage Their Nutritional Habits.” The authors share a design process for a mobile application aimed at helping individuals with Down syndrome improve their nutrition. They share the results from focus groups, design workshops, and the development of conceptual designs. The result of these efforts was an illustrative scenario that was used as a driver in the development of wireframes depicting a new mobile application.
The third article by Colton Turner, Barbara Chaparro, and Jibo He is titled “Texting While Walking: Is It Possible With a Smartwatch?” They evaluate typing performance on a QWERTY keyboard displayed on a smartwatch while moving. Their results have significant design implications for text input on smartwatches.
