Tue, Apr 11

Guest Speaker: Dr. Camilo Jimenez

Today our guest speaker will be Dr. Camilo Jimenez from Southwest Airlines. He will discuss his experience implementing user-centered design. Below is a summary of his talk and bio.

Title: User centered design: The ethical aspects of functional but unusable systems

Summary: What good does a functional but unusable system do? Meeting a system’s functional requirements might not be enough to ensure its successful deployment and safe usage. Many times when systems are being developed, developers and designers make the erroneous assumption that what makes sense to them will also make sense to the end user. This perception might have dire consequences especially in safety critical systems. Understanding the importance of how an end user will interact with the system, and incorporating their feedback when developing such system can not only save time and money, but in some critical systems, can also save lives. This lecture will overview the importance of end user feedback while providing a high level introduction of different techniques developers and designers can use during the design/development process to ensure their systems are not only functional but also usable. 

Bio:

Dr. Camilo Jimenez is the manager of Flight Operations Human Factors Engineering at Southwest Airlines in Dallas, TX. He leads a group of human factors engineers, analysts, and Pilot subject matter experts who work together to conduct research aimed at increasing Pilot performance and safety. Dr. Jimenez has over 12 years of experience in experimental psychology, aviation human factors research, and usability testing. He received a Bachelor of Arts in psychology from Florida Gulf Coast University, a Master of Science in human factors and systems from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, and a PhD in modeling and simulation with an emphasis in human-systems integration from the University of Central Florida. His research interests revolve around understanding human performance in complex socio-technical systems, analysis of incidents and accidents in aviation, and user centered design.