Luddy students apply interaction design to Research Desktop

Eli Blevis, professor of informatics and human-computer interaction design at the Luddy School of Informatics, partnered with Research Technologies to improve the user experience of Research Desktop (RED).

Research and discovery Jul 30, 2024

Pictured are Luddy School M.Sc. Human-Computer Interaction Design students who apply interaction design principles with Research Desktop

Eli Blevis, professor of informatics and human-computer interaction design at the Luddy School of Informatics, partnered with UITS Research Technologies (RT) as a client for his students to improve the user experience of Research Desktop (RED), a graphical desktop service for research software built and maintained by RT. The studio course, Meaning and Form in HCI, introduces concepts relevant to navigating a digital world using icons or graphic symbols.

Eli Blevis, professor of informatics and human-computer interaction design at Indiana University Luddy School of Informatics Eli Blevis, professor of informatics and human-computer interaction design at Indiana University Luddy School of Informatics“The tenets of transdisciplinary design will serve as the foundation that enables each designer to articulate her or his vision of what truly matters in design with the materials of digital technologies,” writes Blevis in the course’s syllabus.

While Blevis’ own dissertation was composed on an alphanumeric terminal and “typed” on a daisy wheel printer (a Diablo 630), “These days most students have never seen a command line terminal, and so partnering with RED was an interesting challenge which introduced many new directions for study of UX and UI design,” he said.

A professor of informatics at IU for over 20 years, Blevis says design interaction with a visual emphasis remains relevant in advanced cyberinfrastructure. This interdisciplinary work includes scientists working across languages and time scales.

“Most of my students have no scientific computing experience,” explained Blevis. “They are architecture, psychology, or informatics majors, who grew up with a graphic user interface on their own devices, and so they provide a unique perspective on navigating RED.”

Robert Henschel, project director for Research Engagement and Integration at UITS Research Technologies Robert Henschel, project director for Research Engagement and Integration at UITS Research TechnologiesRobert Henschel, the lead designer for RED at Research Technologies, said students’ ideas for improving the graphics-based interface gave him a fresh take on his years-long project. “The original goal for Research Desktop was to make High Performance Computing (HPC) software accessible for scientists without computer science backgrounds. It’s been great to see how students interpret icons and graphics placement to make the instance even easier to navigate.”