UW Human Centered Design & Engineering

Winter 2026 course showcases Step inside HCDE classrooms at our end-of-quarter showcases. Discover student work across service design, AI, prototyping, usability research, and venture design.

Curious what HCDE students have been working on this quarter?

Join us for our end-of-quarter course showcases featuring projects in service design, human-centered AI, usability research, prototyping, and venture design.

Schedule (March 10–17): www.hcde.washington.edu/news/article...

UX Speaker Series Carolyn Wei, UX Research Lead, Meta | UX Speaker Series: March 5, 2026

How do you study a generation whose experiences are different from your own?
This Thursday at our UX Speaker Series, Instagram research lead Carolyn Wei (PhD '07) shares practical methods for navigating cross-generational research and studying Gen Z.
www.hcde.washington.edu/ux/2026/wei

UX Speaker Series Matt Klenk & Matt Hong, Future Product Innovation team, Toyota Research Institute

This Thursday at HCDE:
Researchers from the Toyota Research Institute share how generative AI is transforming physical product design — from sketching tools to synthetic users for ideation.

Feb. 26 • 4:30 p.m. • 134 Sieg, UW campus • Open to the public

www.hcde.washington.edu/ux/2026/hong...

When Posting Becomes Its Own Style of Politics Social media has long been flooded with populist rage and discontent. What happens when the posts become policy?

“But in the second Trump administration, this relationship is more direct, with policies clearly being motivated, shaped and justified by and through digital content creation,” Starbird, a @hcde.uw.edu professor, told The New York Times. [2/2]

www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

UX Speaker Series Rajiv Pennathur, UX Researcher, Expedia, & Yuan Zhuang, Senior Manager, User Research, Expedia | Feb. 19, 2026

Change is constant. How do you adapt?
Join Expedia researchers Rajiv Pennathur & Yuan Zhuang at HCDE’s UX Speaker Series to explore navigating AI, career shifts, and life transitions with a human-centered lens.

Feb 19 • 4:30 pm • Sieg 134 • Open to the public
www.hcde.washington.edu/ux/pennathur...

Nicole Washington Nicole Washington | Product Designer II, Xbox | February 12, 2026

Join the HCDE UX Speaker Series Feb 12!
Alumna Nicole Washington (BS ’20), Product Designer II at Xbox, shares candid advice on navigating early careers, from building confidence, growing your skills, collaborating across teams, and finding your voice at work.
www.hcde.washington.edu/ux/2026/wash...

Julie Zhuying Julie Zhuying | Staff UX Manager, Gemini & Enterprise Security, Google Workspace Platform | February 5, 2026

Join the HCDE UX Speaker Series this week with HCDE alumna Julie Zhuying (MS ’17), Staff UX Manager for Gemini & Enterprise Security at Google, on UX leadership and designing human-centered AI systems.

Thursday, Feb 5 • 4:30-5:20 p.m. • Sieg 134, UW campus

www.hcde.washington.edu/ux/2025/zhuy...

Outstanding Alumni Award The Human Centered Design & Engineering (HCDE) Outstanding Alumni Award celebrates alumni whose achievements demonstrate the mission and values of our department. This award recognizes alumni who have...

🌟 Now accepting nominations for the HCDE Outstanding Alumni Award! 🌟

This award celebrates HCDE alumni (BS, MS, PhD) whose work shows exceptional professional achievement, leadership, innovation, and community impact.

Nominations open through April 1, 2026. www.hcde.washington.edu/alumni/award

Brad Jacobson Brad Jacobson | Head of Data, Engineering, and VoteShield at Protect Democracy | January 29, 2026

Join HCDE this Thursday, Jan. 29 for our UX Speaker Series with Brad Jacobson (HCDE MS ’14), Head of Data, Engineering & VoteShield at Protect Democracy, for a talk about using HCDE principles to design for public good. www.hcde.washington.edu/ux/2026/jaco...

Congratulations @katestarbird.bsky.social! Super well-deserved.

Professor Kate Starbird named ACM Fellow for advancing research on misinformation and information ecosystems HCDE Professor Kate Starbird has been named an ACM Fellow, one of the highest honors in computing, for her groundbreaking research on misinformation and online information ecosystems. The honor recogn...

HCDE Professor Kate Starbird has been named an ACM Fellow, one of the highest honors in computing. She's recognized for contributions to understanding and improving information ecosystems, including during crisis events and addressing misinformation. www.hcde.washington.edu/news/article...

Sena Janky: Jan. 22 Sena Janky, UX Manager, Fluke Corporation | January 22, 2026

Join us on campus for the next HCDE UX Speaker Series talk this Thursday, Jan. 22 🎤
We’re excited to welcome Sena Janky, UX Manager at Fluke Corporation, for the talk “Designing Influence: UX Advocacy Across an Organization.”
Free and open to the public.
www.hcde.washington.edu/ux/2026/janky

Welcome to Sensemaking Distortion A blog about how our ability make sense of everything is profoundly distorted by digital and social media.

I've been doing a soft launch of my new Substack, Sensemaking Distortion, a blog about how our ability to make sense of the world around us is being profoundly distorted by digital and social media. I just published the Welcome post this morning. open.substack.com/pub/katestar...

Propose a Usability Studies Project HCDE welcomes usability study proposals from industry and academic partners. In HCDE's usability studies course, students engage in product and user research, formulate an appropriate usability study,...

Looking for fresh usability insights? Partner with a team of UW Human Centered Design & Engineering master’s students this winter.

Students plan and run usability testing on your product or service, delivering new perspectives and actionable recommendations.

www.hcde.washington.edu/cap/propose-...

Students explore wearable technology in design jam for accessibility In Autumn quarter, HCDE welcomed students for wearABLE Futures, a fast-paced design jam focused on the question: How might we make wearable technology more accessible to all humans? Industry mentors f...

How might wearable technology be more accessible to all? HCDE students explored the question at wearABLE Futures, a fast-paced design jam with mentors from Ipsos, Oura, Meta, Ralytics, and Microsoft’s Inclusive Tech Lab. www.hcde.washington.edu/news/article...

Liz Juhnke .speaker-photo { width: 100%; aspect-ratio: 1 / 1; object-fit: cover; border-radius: 50%; } Liz JuhnkeUX Principal Designer, Home Depot

The HCDE UX Speaker Series kicks off this Thursday! Join us on campus at 4:30 p.m. as we welcome Liz Juhnke, UX Principal Designer at The Home Depot, for the first talk of the winter quarter. www.hcde.washington.edu/ux/2026/juhnke

UX Speaker Series Each winter, the Department of Human Centered Design & Engineering welcomes designers, researchers, and technology leaders to campus for a 10-week UX Speaker Series. Join us on Thursday afternoons to ...

Curious what UX leaders are thinking about right now? Join us for free, public talks every Thursday this winter at UW.
www.hcde.washington.edu/ux

In case you missed this earlier this week, our team put out a report documenting our approach to "rapid research" during elections, crises, & other breaking news events. It demonstrates a role for university researchers — relying on contextual and methodological expertise — to act as "sensemakers".

UX Speaker Series Each winter, the Department of Human Centered Design & Engineering welcomes designers, researchers, and technology leaders to campus for a 10-week UX Speaker Series. Join us on Thursday afternoons to ...

Looking for fresh UX perspectives this winter?
Join us Thursdays at @uofwa.bsky.social for free, public UX talks — new speakers, new ideas each week.
www.hcde.washington.edu/ux

Being Sensemakers: A Framework for University-Based Rapid Research of Elections, Crisis Events, and Beyond – Simple Book Publishing A framework for university-based rapid research of elections, crisis events, and beyond

Since 2020, our team has iterated on a model for “rapid research” to help surface, analyze, & resolve rumors about election administration. This work demonstrates an innovative role for researchers to support public sensemaking during rapidly unfolding events.

uw.pressbooks.pub/rapidresearc...

Graduate Certificate in Human Centered Artificial Intelligence Advance your expertise in responsible AI with HCDE’s newest program, starting January 2026.

Be part of the first cohort shaping the future of human-centered AI! HCDE’s new Certificate in Human Centered AI starts in January.

Learn to lead AI initiatives, integrate AI into products and services, ensure responsible AI development, and build strategic frameworks for AI implementation.

Join us for the final talk of HCDE’s 2025 Research Speaker Series!

This Thursday, Assistant Professor Sucheta Ghoshal will share insights from her work with social movements that actively resist dominant computational technology.

📅 Thursday, Dec. 4
⏰ 4:30 – 5:20 p.m.
📍 134 Sieg, UW campus

The UW Center for an Informed Public is looking for postdocs (for 2026-2028) from across diverse disciplines whose research sheds light on the challenges of our modern information environment, promotes civic health, and/or helps people/communities navigate online spaces: apply.interfolio.com/177901

Why are so few WA school districts applying for state funds to fix lead in drinking water? HCDE Prof. Katya Cherukumilli and her students are mapping risks and uncovering barriers to help ensure resources reach the communities that need them most. edge.deohs.washington.edu/blog/removin...

HCDE students earn second place in global IBM Service Design Challenge A team of HCDE master’s students has earned second place in the IBM Challenge as part of the 2025 Student Service Design Challenge, an international competition inviting students to design services th...

HCDE master's students took second place in the IBM Challenge as part of the 2025 Student Service Design Challenge for Echo, a platform improving transparency around AI in speech-language therapy.

www.hcde.washington.edu/news/article...

Join us this Thursday at 4:30 for HCDE’s Research Speaker Series with Professor Cecilia Aragon: "Human-Centered AI and Data Science: Why People Must Come First."

Aragon will share why human considerations aren’t optional in AI and how human-centered approaches make technical work stronger.

AI could worsen inequalities in schools – teachers are key to whether it will Under-resourced schools are less likely to support teachers in implementing AI technology to best serve learning.

HCDE PhD student Aayushi Dangol co-authored a new article in @us.theconversation.com with iSchool Professor Katie Davis, sharing findings from their research on how K-12 teachers are navigating the rapid rise of generative AI:

theconversation.com/ai-could-wor...

Last week, my Foundations of Human-Computer Interaction class covered an older paper about “social translucence” where they explain how the design of online systems shapes the norms & behaviors w/in those systems. But the framework they create can be applied more broadly, eg to our political moment.

Join us Thursday for HCDE’s Research Speaker Series with Professor Sayamindu Dasgupta!

He will discuss "Living with Data," exploring how quantitative data shapes how we learn and make sense of the world—and how we can design learning experiences that help young people engage critically with data.

A Wikipedia Conference Took a Dark Turn. Unfortunately, It’s Not a Total Surprise. An armed man at a gathering of the website’s volunteers is just the latest reminder: Editing the internet’s encyclopedia has never been riskier.

Slate: Scholars, including @cip.uw.edu graduate research assistant and @hcde.uw.edu PhD candidate @zarine.net, say "recent attacks on Wikipedia differ from earlier critiques" of the website, which had focused on Wikipedia's content.

Read more: slate.com/technology/2...