Information Arts & Technologies

Usability Lab

The University of Baltimore's Usability Lab, established in 2002 by Dr. Kathryn Summers, provides a full range of usability and user research services to support university and industry research needs. Supervised by Dr. Summers, University of Baltimore graduate students use the lab to perform a variety of quantitative and qualitative research projects and industry projects.

Students who have completed the Research Methods for Interaction Design course often have the opportunity to participate in industry projects in collaboration with Dr. Summers.

Lab activities are coordinated and supervised by Dr. Summers, the University of Baltimore's resident expert on user research and usability testing. Research activities include cardsorting, image collaging, contextual inquiry and field studies, quantitative and qualitative usability testing, and eyetracking studies.

Lab features:

  • Gaze replay, gaze plot, and hot spot maps of user gaze data using Tobii T60 eyetracker and Tobii Studio software.
  • Digital picture in picture capability using Morae
  • Professional sound system with an audio mixer
  • Audio/video control and observation room with one-way mirror
  • Two monitors in observation room echo the participant's screen
  • Capable of holding focus groups with one-way mirror for observation

Location

1420 N. Charles Street
Baltimore, MD 21201

Hours: 9:30 am - 8:00 pm
Get directions

Renting the Lab

If you would like to rent the lab, please contact Dr. Kathryn Summers (ksummers@ubalt.edu) about scheduling it.

Dr. Summers' consulting experience includes projects for:

  • Nielsen Norman Group
  • Pfizer
  • Astra-Zeneca
  • MCI
  • Reuters.com
  • U.S. Department of the Treasury, Bureau of the Public Debt
  • National Cancer Institute
  • NFL
  • Levis