Projects

• Blackboard (2007 – Present). Provide design ideas for various products, from better grading to better browse/search.
• K12 Community Chest (August 2006). Gathered requirements, created wireframes/sitemaps, and provided administration for a community site (for K12 customers) built using the Drupal CMS. The site includes a blog for the CLO, a webinar archive (using Elluminate), bulletin boards, games, an art gallery, and more.
• NIDDK Website Usability Analysis (August 2005). Conducted a heuristic evaluation, researched and created personas, and performed a competitive analysis for this combined work/school project. Results were used to provide web site redesign recommendations (see paper below).

Articles

• Fay, R. (March 17, 2011). Blackboard’s Design Principles.
• Chang-Gillespie, E. (December 09, 2008). Meet Blackboard User Experience Architect Rob Fay.
• Fay, R. (March 31, 2008). Blackboard’s User Centered Design.
• Aynu, B., Fay, R., & Okereke, N. (August 20, 2005). NIDDK Website Usability Analysis [3.67 MB pdf]. Class project for INFM 702 – User Interactions with Information Systems, University of Maryland, College Park.
• Fay, R. A. (May 27, 2004). Effective Culture Change [80 KB pdf]. Centralized Library Services at the Department of Justice. Washington, DC: USDOJ.

Presentations

• Fay, R., Hunt, J., and Neal, L. (January 8, 2011). “Rudes” Design (video) | (slides). Presentation for UX Barcamp DC.
• Fay, R. (January 23, 2010). Measuring Desirability. Presentation for UX Barcamp DC.
• Aynu, B., Fay, R., & Okereke, N. (August 16, 2005). NIDDK Website Usability Analysis [2.2 MB pdf]. Class project for INFM 702 – User Interactions with Information Systems, University of Maryland, College Park.
• Fay, R. (August 10, 2005). Don’t get caught in the web: Using a web site to enhance small business opportunity [1.4 MB pdf]. Capstone project for University of Maryland, College Park graduate program.
• Ahuja, N., Aynu, B., Fay, R., Fortenberry, M., Quinto, M., & Weaver, V. (May 27, 2004). Centralized Library Services at the Department of Justice.

Training

Rob created a UX Certification course to train other Blackboard staff in Product Development to conduct user and design research.

• User and Design Research Overview
• Blackboard User Experience Design Principles
• Types of User and Design Research Activities
• How to Facilitate Usability Tests
• How to Record Usability Tests
• Responsibilities of the Observer
• Debriefing After User and Design Research Activities
• Quick and Dirty Ethnographic Research Techniques