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# Michael Siepmann PhD

Serve Users Better

## Sitemaps

- [XML Sitemap](https://msiep.com/sitemap.xml): Contains all public & indexable URLs for this website.

## Posts

- [Thoughts](https://msiep.com/?page_id=3138)
- [Friendless on Facebook, by Design](https://msiep.com/friendless-on-facebook-by-design/) - While many people experience Facebook® as a supportive technology that enhances their lives, it poses a troubling dilemma for those of us who do not want Facebook to mediate our personal relationships and influence our personal lives and selves: Not having a Facebook account has significant costs if it prevents us from participating in groups
- [When harder to use = <em>more</em> supportive](https://msiep.com/when-harder-to-use-equals-more-supportive/) - Being hard to use is one of the most common ways in which technology fails to support its users, so making your technology easier to use is always a good thing, right? Well... No. Not always. In some cases, making tech harder to use than it needs to be can be extremely helpful. Why? Because
- [Supportive, Clumsy, or Evil?](https://msiep.com/supportive-clumsy-or-evil/) - Tech that's supportive is not only useful, easy, and pleasing, but also helps users flourish. That means it actively tries to support positive psychological states and traits such as clear thinking, self-discipline, focused attention, and a strong sense of purpose, and does its best to avoid triggering negative psychological phenomena, such as impulsiveness, apathy, or

## Pages

- [Home](https://msiep.com/) - I help make technology serve its users better, making it more: Useful (functionality) Easy (usability) Pleasing (user experience / UX) Supportive of Well-Being(positive computing) How? Mainly through user research and interaction design. User research provides knowledge and insight about users' needs and preferences, and how a technology (often a prototype) succeeds and/or fails to satisfy
- [Contact Me](https://msiep.com/contact/) - Email: MSJfhysjerhhy@JfhysjerhhyMSiepJfhysjerhhy.com
- [Case Studies](https://msiep.com/examples/) - (Want more detailed examples? See Portfolio.)
- [Bio](https://msiep.com/about/aboutus/) - Michael Siepmann, PhD I combine industry experience in technology design, depth and breadth of expertise in scientific psychology, and practical psychological insight. My nine years of study and research in psychological science started at the University of Stirling in Scotland and culminated in a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania—one of the top-ranked psychology departments
- [Portfolio](https://msiep.com/portfolio/) - These are examples of how specific projects unfolded, from the goals that triggered them, through the approaches I used to achieve the goals, to the results and business impact of my work. (For higher level, less detailed examples, see Case Studies.) User Research Contextual Interviews Understanding user needs and the context in which technology will
- [Useful, Easy, Pleasing, Supportive](https://msiep.com/about/useful-easy-pleasing-supportive/) - To serve users better, technology should be useful, easy, pleasing, and supportive. What does that mean? Useful (Functionality) The most obvious way for tech to serve users better is by doing things that have real value to them, serving their overall best interests. Tech can easily fail to do this, often by being designed without
- [High Fidelity Prototyping](https://msiep.com/portfolio/hi-fi-prototyping/) - Portfolio | Contextual Interviews Goal The wholesale division of Qwest Communications (which has since become CenturyLink) needed to create a web application to modernize a complex paper/fax-based industry standard process that other companies, such as smaller local telecom companies, wireless carriers, etc, use to order backend network services, such as fiber optic capacity between two
- [Medium Fidelity Interactive Prototyping](https://msiep.com/portfolio/med-fi-prototyping/) - Portfolio | Prototyping, High Fidelity Note: This project was confidential, so I have omitted and changed some details. Goal A large technology company was launching a pilot program for their partners. They wanted to provide their partners with the information they need to successfully participate in the program, through easy-to-use web pages, rather than the
- [Contextual Interviews](https://msiep.com/portfolio/contextual-interviews/) - Portfolio | Survey Note: This project was confidential, so I have omitted and changed some details. Goal A large technology company had recently created a new sales role and introduced a new Web application to support it. To plan and prioritize improvements, they needed to understand the challenges employees in the new role were facing,
- [Survey](https://msiep.com/portfolio/survey/) - Portfolio | Usability Test, Unmoderated Note: This project was confidential, so I have omitted and changed some details. Goal An Internet Service Provider provided its customers with a customizable, interactive web portal intended to add value and increase loyalty. They wanted to measure customer satisfaction with the portal and get feedback to identify improvement opportunities.
- [Design Review](https://msiep.com/portfolio/design-review/) - Portfolio | Prototyping, Low Fidelity Note: This project was confidential, so I have omitted and changed some details. Goal A telecom company offered a VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) telephone service for business users, which included a web portal in which users could configure settings, view call logs, listen to voice messages, etc. Customer feedback
- [Usability Test, Moderated](https://msiep.com/portfolio/usability-test-moderated/) - Portfolio | Design Review Note: This project was confidential, so I have omitted and changed some details. Goal A large technology company had designed a simplified application for tracking sales opportunities and launched it to a small group of pilot users. They wanted to measure its usability and get user feedback to decide whether any
- [Usability Test, Unmoderated](https://msiep.com/portfolio/usability-test-unmoderated/) - Portfolio | Usability Test, Moderated Note: This project was confidential, so I have omitted and changed some details. Goal A large technology company was considering several design options for its website’s main navigation menu, varying in whether they had a “hamburger” menu icon, a “Menu” label, exposed top level menu items, etc. They wanted to
- [Low Fidelity Prototyping](https://msiep.com/portfolio/lo-fi-prototyping/) - Portfolio | Prototyping, Medium Fidelity Goal Snowdrift.coop is an innovative nonprofit startup with an ambitious mission to greatly improve the ability for people to collectively fund the creation and maintenance of public goods such as free and open source software (FOSS) through a new approach called crowdmatching, where everyone is a matching donor to everyone
- [Psychology Research](https://msiep.com/about/psychology-research/) - My doctoral work at the University of Pennsylvania focused on social psychology and the psychology of judgment and decision-making (which includes behavioral economics). My web-based dissertation research identified a paradoxical phenomenon of "disbelieved beliefs" in which people view specific beliefs of theirs to be biased by their desires, yet hold to these beliefs at the
- [Article & Talk](https://msiep.com/about/articles/) - Article: Entrepreneural UX State of Mind By Michael Siepmann, PhD and Remy Arteaga "...people are prone to a powerful illusion that blinds them to the uncertainty they face ... The entrepreneurs that get the most benefit from ET [Entrepreneurial Thinking] and UX/DT [User Experience / Design Thinking] are those that ... integrate ET and UX/DT into
- [TESTING SCRATCHPAD](https://msiep.com/tb-shortcodes/) - All | Interaction Design | User Research | All
- [Site Map](https://msiep.com/about/site-map/)
- [More...](https://msiep.com/about/)
- [Testimonials](https://msiep.com/testimonials/)
- [Site Credits](https://msiep.com/about/site-credits/) - This site uses WordPress with the Sempress theme, modified with a child theme I created. I chose Sempress because of its support for IndieWeb functionality. The original logo and color palette for Interaction Insight Consulting were designed by Open Design. When I started doing business as The Tech Design Psychologist™ I used InkScape to make

## Categories

- [Commentary](https://msiep.com/category/commentary/)
- [Business](https://msiep.com/category/business/)

## Tags

- [Tech Creator](https://msiep.com/tag/tech-creator/)
- [Consumer Tech](https://msiep.com/tag/consumer-tech/)
- [Business Tech](https://msiep.com/tag/business-tech/)
- [Interaction Design](https://msiep.com/tag/interaction-design/)
- [Research](https://msiep.com/tag/research/)

## Case Study Categories

- [User Research](https://msiep.com/case-study-category/user-research/)
- [Interaction Design](https://msiep.com/case-study-category/interaction-design/)