Hardware design

My approach to software UX design is influenced by my background in hardware human factors engineering. I enjoy the challenge of designing for a 3-dimensional space and for the user's physical size, ergonomics, and environment. I strive to consider how my 2D UI designs fit into a user's complete experience.

Due to confidentiality agreements with U.S. government contracts, I have limited design artifacts available to share.

Human Factors

Human Robot Interaction

Ergonomics

Rapid Prototyping

Human-Robot Interaction

naval research lab
george mason university

My graduate research at the Naval Research Lab studied how humans naturally interact with a humanoid robot, how humans expect the robot to interact with them, and how to program the robot to meet humans' mental models.

Example of documentation with a long table of contents
Octavia, the Naval Research Lab's humanoid robot
  • Research conducted on Octavia, a Nexi MDS robot (mobile, dexterous, social) capable of expressive facial gestures
  • Studied how humans detect boredom in others, resume after interruptions, and produce gestures
  • Created embodied cognitive models to train robots to generate behavior based on human studies
  • Tested the robot models to assess how natural the interaction felt to human participants

Publications
Trafton, J. G., Jacobs, A., Harrison, A. M. (2012). Building and verifying a predictive model of interruption resumption. Proceedings of the IEEE, 100(3), 648-659.

Jacobs, A. M., Fransen, B., McCurry, J. M., Heckel, F. W. P., Wagner, A., R., & Trafton, J. G. (2009). A Preliminary System for Recognizing Boredom. Human Robot Interaction, 2009.

Ambulance Design

BMT Designers & planners
department of homeland security

I wrote human factors standards to mitigate safety risks for both patients and medics in ambulances based on observations, crash statistics, and simulation modeling of my designs for an improved ambulance patient compartment.

  • Conducted research through interviews, observations, task analyses
  • Collected crash safety data with National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA)
  • Designed 3D models of an ideal ambulance patient compartment
  • Partnered with National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to evaluate designs with human reach simulation models
  • Submitted technical standards for inclusion in NFPA 1917 Standard for Automotive Ambulances (2016)
  • Co-wrote a DHS guidebook that included human factors design and process guidance in addition to those technical standards
Example of documentation with a long table of contents
3D ambulance model used to evaluate designs with Jack, a human modeling software
Early ambulance design concept that replaces bench seats with rotating bucket seats
An early ambulance design concept exploring replacing the bench seats with bucket seats, encouraging consistent seatbelt usage
Refined ambulance concept that considers equipment storage locations
A more refined design concept that includes equipment and storage

Publications
Kibira, D. , Lee, Y. , Marshall, J. , Barnard, A. , Avery, L. and Jacobs, A. (2015), Simulation-based design concept evaluation for ambulance patient compartments, Simulation-Transactions of the Society for Modeling and Simulation International, 91(8), 691-714.

Marshall, J., Barnard-Feeney, A., Lee, Y.T., Kibira, D., Avery, L., Jacobs, A., Moore, J., Boone, C., Malone, T. (2015), Ambulance Patient Compartment Human Factors Design Guidebook, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Science and Technology Directorate, First Responders Group, Contract No: GS-10-F-0181J, Order No: HSHQDC-11-F-00054.

Fingerprint scanner

BMT Designers & planners
department of homeland security

A precursor to today's Global Entry kiosks, I submitted a design proposal for a self-service fingerprint scanner that could be used by travelers between 8 and 80 years old, with no prior traveling experience, regardless of culture or language.

  • Researched universal colors and symbols for accessibility
  • Created cardboard prototypes to test different form factors
  • Tested interactive states with CAD models
  • Ran user tests with no instructions to observe users' natural reactions to the prototype
Example of documentation with a long table of contents
Design that used lights and hand symbols to show users what part of their hand to scan at each step

Passenger security human factors

Quasars inc
transportation security administration

I evaluated passenger and baggage screening equipment against human factors engineering standards as well as the security screening procedures and workstation environment in use by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA).

  • Performed field usability evaluations at Dulles International Airport and Reagan National Airport
  • Defined operational requirements for TSA agents and functional requirements for screening equipment
  • Reviewed potential new equipment based on human factors heuristics and wrote recommendation reports for Federal purchasing decisions
  • Proposed ergonomic improvements to the wand used to collect samples from passengers' hands for explosives residue (example photo shown)
Example of documentation with a long table of contents
Example photo of the type of wand used for hand screening