* This Colloquium has been canceled 

The Information Science Colloquium series welcomes Jodi Forlizzi, professor at Carnegie Mellon University's Human-Computer Interaction Institute and at the School of Design. Co-founder of Pratter.us, a healthcare startup, she designs and researches systems ranging from peripheral displays to social and assistive robots. Her current research interests include designing educational games that are engaging and effective, designing services that adapt to people’s needs, and designing for healthcare. Jodi is a member of the ACM CHI Academy and has been honored by the Walter Reed Army Medical Center for excellence in HRI design research. Jodi has consulted with Disney and General Motors to create innovative product-service systems.

Title: Speed Dating: Providing a Menu of Possible Futures

Abstract: As user experience (UX) design continues to grow and expand, designers frequently find themselves working on projects that probe areas with few design patterns or social mores, where it is easy to make things people do not want or will not adopt. To help address this challenge, we developed and refined a method called speed dating. This method allows teams to probe several possible futures with target users. Speed dating helps reduce the risk of making things people will not adopt. It also surfaces new opportunities and user needs that design teams could never observe when conducting fieldwork. Over the last decade, we have used this method on many research projects, and we have taught it to hundreds of UX design students. In this paper, I describe this method and share cases showing how it aids UX design.