Student work and Testimonials
Here are selected examples of a wide range of work my students have made over the years.
Jacob Manders, Duke University Pratt School of Engineering Class of 2023
Student Feedback - Reimagining Tech Talk on Facial Recognition, Duke University, July, 2021
Perhaps the most moving was when Joselyn McDonald spoke to us about facial recognition software. This was such a meaningful discussion because we hit on so many critical facets of the issue. Of course, we discussed the ethical impact of who uses it for what and how the law dictates privacy, but we also discussed the disproportionate impacts that FR software has on racial and ethnic minorities, and how human biases are being upheld and spread by technology. I also found it really interesting that we discussed a little of the underlying function of FR and how we as citizens can fight against FR, which was a neat change in perspective from most of our previous speakers and discussions about our role as technologists. I was particularly moved by the artistic and creative aspects of our discussion of individuals' tactics against FR, and I also felt like I left that discussion with strong actionable items for what I personally can do at many different scales to address this issue.
Herleen Kaur et al. - Code+ SUMMER CODE + DESIGN INTENSIVE, Duke University, summer 2020
My role: Code+ Project Lead, Design Instructor
Project: Bulletin Volunteer Matchmaking Web-app
In the summer of 2020, I led a group of Duke undergraduates through an intensive coding, design thinking, and design research intensive called Code+. The program is designed to support non-CS majors to experience applied computational thinking and gain hands-on design and development experience that can be used to gain an industry internship the following summer. My students were given instruction on how to build a web-application during a bootcamp and then set out to understand a problem they could meaningfully address using a web-app. The students engaged the Duke Community Outreach office, which desperately needed a new, more intuitive website. Over the course of 3-months, I met every day with my group to support their development of a volunteer app that would support students, faculty, and staff to find meaningful volunteer opportunities in the Durham, NC area. The students regularly conducted design research to understand the specific needs of their three core stakeholder groups: students, volunteer organizations, and the Duke Community Outreach office. The student team discovered that Duke students interested in volunteering were primarily concerned with the distance to the organization (many Duke students do not have vehicles on campus). The students took this feedback and built a feature set into the web-application that highlighted distance to the volunteer organization and directions that included public transportation schedules. The end product, Bulletin (a play on Durham being known as the “Bull City”), was a great product and will be adopted by the Duke Community Outreach office in 2021. The students are considering making the project open source to allow for a bigger impact.
Alex Cuozzo, Duke University Co-Lab Makerspace, Spring 2020
Junior, Engineering and CS Major, Duke University
My Role: Independent Study/Project Advisor
While at Duke University, I led a series of human-centered design initiatives through the Co-Lab Makerspace network. Alex Cuozzo asked me to mentor him during the Spring 2020 semester. During the course of the semester, he developed a Human-Brain Interaction device (left) that allowed him to monitor his emotional and physiological responses to music.
He also worked with me to develop a program that engaged technology-design students to make a series of 10-minute instructional videos. The goal of this program was to develop student-led accessible video content that allowed other students to learn more about emerging technologies like machine learning in approachable and invitational ways. (Right) Alex is teaching fellow students how to use Google’s simple Teach Machine program to detect objects like the Baby Yoda he is holding.
Ross Rybalov, Graduate Independent Study, Carnegie Mellon University, Spring and summer 2018
Masters of Human-Computer Interaction ‘18, Carnegie Mellon University
My Role: I co-taught (with Prof. Geoff Kaufman) a
Ross Rybalov and a collaborator worked under my supervision for a semester on a design research project centered on supporting vision impaired persons to feel confident, safe, and secure while engaging ride-sharing services. The aim of their work was to aid the eventual accessible design of fully-autonomous ride-sharing experiences, particularly for individuals with low, or no-vision.
After months of thoughtful qualitative research, the duo developed AVVA (Autonomous Vehicle Voice Assistant), “a conversational user interface that provides independence, agency, and efficiency to visually impaired users by giving them a method to interact with a shared autonomy ride, pickup to drop-off.”
Student Testimonial:
“Throughout my Masters of Human-Computer Interaction at CMU, I have had the privilege of working with Joselyn as my advisor for about 95% of the time (by design). We initially met when she was the co-instructor for my Persuasive Design class - I was nervous and excited and struggling with applying design theories and methodologies. It was my first foray into human-centered design after a career in technical marketing. I was a bit scared to take chances, but Joselyn was able to relate to me and explain things at a level that allowed me to comprehend complex ideas, eventually pushing me outside of my comfort zone into methodologies and techniques that propelled my work to greater heights. She pushed me to pursue harder truths and to not stop with my first round insights and analysis.
This tenacious attitude is exactly what sparked me to seek her out as an advisor for an Independent Study looking at the future of accessibility for autonomous vehicles. Initially, my research partner and I struggled to find an appropriate scope for the study, wanting to solve all of the world's problems. Joselyn was able to give us pointed, but open-ended feedback and critique to help us hone in on the exact problems we wanted to solve (and could solve, given the constraints). Joselyn is not only a wealth of knowledge, with ideas and references into further research, but is also a constant source of inspiration. She leads by example, and her approachable nature and relaxed interactions led to a feeling of comfort and honesty with everyone around her. It is without a doubt that I would recommend Joselyn to become a teacher, as she was one of the greatest I've ever had.”
Ishaan Kolluri,Persuasive Design student, Carnegie Mellon University, Fall 2017
Masters of Human-Computer Interaction Student ‘18, Carnegie Mellon University
My Role: Co-Instructor with Prof. Geoff Kaufman (I’m listed as a TA, but we co-developed the class and I led the later-half of the course.)
Project: Humanizing Autonomous Vehicles
Ishaan’s final project for Persuasive Design was an exploration of emotional-visual signals that communicate to pedestrians about the forthcoming actions of autonomous vehicles. Through in-situ research and probe-based research, Ishaan discovered simple visual patterns that could be displayed on the front and side of autonmous vehicles to ease anxious pedestrians in potentially dangerous situations, such as crossing the street in front of the vehicle.
Kanika Khosla,Persuasive Design student, Carnegie Mellon University, Fall 2017
Masters of Human-Computer Interaction Student ‘18, Carnegie Mellon University
My Role: Co-Instructor with Prof. Geoff Kaufman (I’m listed as a TA, but we co-developed the class and I led the later-half of the course.)
Project: Mystery Run
Overview: “Through research, such as observations, interviews & card sorting we identified that unmanaged stress in the competitive environment at CMU, leaves students anxious and depressed. Mystery Run is an environment-interactive narrative gameplay as a means of covert stress reduction. Inspired by the design of escape rooms, Mystery Run is a chapter based game which gets users to engage in stress reducing physical activities on and off screen in the efforts of solving a mystery.”
Asha Toulmin, Graduate Independent Study, Fall 2017 - Spring and summer 2018
Masters of Human-Computer Interaction Student ‘18, Carnegie Mellon University My role: Independent Study Advisor (2 semesters)
Project: Bits and Giggles: Humor Computer Interaction Research
Asha explored themes related to humor as an emergent and under-explored design paradigm. We collaborated on seven distinct medium-fidelity humorous speculative technology probes and explored the impact, expectations, and friction areas with research participants. You can read more about that work and the related research on the Medium page we dedicated to the project.
Student Testimonial:
“I worked with Joselyn during her time at Carnegie Mellon's Human Computer Interaction Institute - I was a Master's study working under her in the eHeart research lab. During my time learning from Joselyn, she especially excelled at three things:
Encouraging experimentation - Joselyn truly believes in the research by design philosophy. When I stuck iterating on some different research questions related to humor and technology, she had the brilliant idea to simply make seven prototypes in seven days and elicit reactions to these prototypes to move the work forward. She brings this spirit of making and creative iteration to all of her work, and this rapid prototyping helped us devise a research direction.
Practicing conscientious design - Joselyn is always aware of privilege and power in her design work. When we were planning a design workshop for Pittsburgh residents, she went out of her way to make sure there was equitable representation at the event. She is always considering the medium of her work, who her work is for and who it is not for (for example, towards the end of my time with her she realized that none of the department's projects focused on women's health, and quickly began developing period technology).
Diving into new areas with pure passion and curiosity: No matter what project she takes on, Joselyn approaches her work with a true earnestness. In lab meetings when I or any other members were looking for feedback on papers, presentations, etc Joselyn was always (and sometimes sadly the only person) truly engaging with the material, asking questions, diving deeper and surfacing potential implications, even if the subject was completely new to her.
I learned so much from Joselyn during my time working with her on creativity, design power and what impactful technology work can look like - our work should live in the lives of real people, not in the abstract. I think she would make a fabulous faculty member!”
Michal Luria,Persuasive Design student, Carnegie Mellon University, Fall 2017
Fourth-year Ph.D. student at Carnegie Mellon University
My Role: Co-Instructor with Prof. Geoff Kaufman
Michal and her team designed Twist&Shout for their final project in Persuasive Design. Michal’s group was interested in designing hands-on interactions that would reduce anxiety and stress. They presented a a low-tech intervention that aimed to draw participants in to detangle anchored ropes. The design of the intervention allows for seemingly endless knot construction, allowing participants to engage with a fresh and distracting challenge each day.
Student Testimonial and Description of Project
“Joselyn has many substantial qualities that made her an exceptional co-instructor in a course I took in my second year of my Human-Computer Interaction Ph.D. studies, Persuasive Design. Throughout the semester, Joselyn made my experience in the course significantly more valuable by providing consistently insightful and thoughtful critique.
My team and I worked on a project called “Twist & Shout”. The project was an intervention using a tangible prototype that was designed to help reduce feelings of stress and anxiety. By tangling and untangling a set of anchored ropes, we encourage users to vent their stress, resolve it, or just to keep busy in a shared space (see attached images). In line with Joselyn’s advice, we implemented an iterative process that began with low-fidelity paper prototypes. These prototypes were tested and refined several times based on user testing and feedback, and allowed us to make improvements from one version to another. Over the course of the semester, Joselyn enhanced our learning in several ways: she demonstrated knowledge of a broad range of design approaches and resources, gave us feedback and advice about how to make sense of our project, and provided us with useful examples and case-studies.
Joselyn accompanied the project week to week, and through her feedback that was both empathetic and very clear, our team was able to seize the full potential of the project. Despite her bursting creativity as a researcher and designer, Joselyn was a remarkable mentor, and provided us with both the tools and space that we would need to structure our own path to success.”
Regina Flores Mir, Design Intensive Bootcamp, MFA D+T Parsons The NeW School for Design
MFA Design and Technology Student ‘16, Parsons the New School for Design My role: Graduate Design Instructor and Bootcamp (3-week required intensive) Curriculum Lead
Project: Geometry Origami
For Regina’s final Design Bootcamp project, she investigated geometry pedagogy and found it to be inaccessible to most designers. She developed computational and hand-built representations of geometry to aid designers (and creatives) in understanding the common shapes that build the natural world around us.
Student Testimonial:
“Joselyn McDonald was my design teacher at Parsons School of Design during an intensive Bootcamp course taught to incoming masters students in the Design and Technology program.
She was an amazing teacher! She encouraged us, her students, to make work that “said something” and to not be afraid to use our work as a political platform. She was constantly pushing us for more and helping us dig deeper to mold our projects both conceptually and functionally.
Joselyn was also a great “culture carrier” of the program and school. Through her teaching, she helped define the culture and helped her students navigate it so that we were better prepared for the rigorous of the program. As a teacher, offering feedback and critique is an important part of the role. Joselyn was talented at offering constructive feedback that helped her students grow and encouraged them to move forward with their work. My positive experience with Joselyn as my teacher was an important part of the reason why I applied (and was accepted) to also become a teaching fellow. She inspired me and I wanted to follow in her footsteps.”
