Hello Classmates,
My name is Benjamin Parks and I look forward to learning more about you all as well as seeing what you are all  interested in studying. I am currently a Junior at Fort Hays State and have previously completed an Associates degree. I live in Wichita, KS and busy myself with activities such as reading, exercise and creating things with 3D printing technology. Throughout the first section of reading I found myself correlating my previous educational experiences at Fort Hays State with our current course. Terms such as ‘sample’ and ‘population’ were covered in depth within my statistics course. Statistics also covered, and made use of, the difference between qualitative and quantitative data. It is enlightening to see how the courses build upon each other to create a strong understanding of concepts. As we begin to learn more about research methods, I have no doubt our previous educational and personal experiences will influence our progress.
In terms of what I am planning on researching, I have recently become  interested in What is commonly referred to User-Experience design or, as the Nielson/Norman Group defines it, Research-Based User Experience (Moran). I recently became aware of this field of research after taking a course many of my peers may have taken as well, Human-Computer Interaction. Within the course I read text such as ‘Don’t Make Me Think'(Krug, 2017), By Steven Krug and ‘The Design of Everyday Things'(Norman, 2013) by Don Norman. These text, and the course itself, illustrated the importance of designing digital interfaces that are easy to utilize with minimal effort. I will not go  into detail about the principles discussed but I believe an effective experiment may be to design two interfaces. The first accomplishes a task online but does not strictly adhere to the principles outlined by the experts I learned about in my previous course. The second interface would adhere to the principles I learned and look to make the task efficient and easy. This usability test would have both qualitative and quantitative elements. For example, I may consider timing how long a subject takes to complete the task or how many irrelevant things they have to click on to find the proper information. This would be quantitative data being collected. Much of the experiment would be qualitative however. I would need to have a discussion with the subject about what is being done and my simultaneously collect their thoughts about the interface as I go. This empirical approach would be based on observation and have minimal to no input on my part in order to allow the subject to find their own way around the interface. This research topic is closely aligned with how humans interact with technology and is invaluable to improving an interfaces accessibility to all types of users.  Post experimental analysis may include a breakdown of what was difficult for the user, developing theories on how to improve the interface, future test, and whether or not the applications interface fits the needs of the user. The development of theories can lead itself into further experimentation following grounded theory approach research principles. Here, we would conduct the experiment, observe what needs improving, create a hypothesis detailing why a certain behavior within the application was observed, and create a theory as to if improvements need to be made or not. This pattern would repeat until the interface is optimized. In terms of classification regarding this possible experiment, I believe this would be an experimental study. Our text defines Experimental studies as follows “Experimental designs introduce a specific treatment and then measure whether this treatment has an effect on some outcome” (Patten & Newhart, 2018). With this in mind, I would classify the website that has the principles of usability in place as the experiments ‘treatment’. The experiments control group would be the subjects utilizing the interface that is not following the principles of design and the experimental group would be the subjects utilizing the interface that did so. Additionally, it would not be difficult to conduct the study blind by simply not allowing the other users to see the opposite groups interface. Depending on what metrics are obtained and how I go about collecting subjects for the experiment this may also be classified as a quasi-experimental study.
This topic is broad but the experiment itself can be specific if proper parameters are in place. For anyone interested in User Experience. the references below include the two books I read. Reading them has enlightened me quite a bit and I find myself investigating the  usability design of everything from microwaves to the newest app on my phone.
 

References

 
Krug, S. (2017). Don’t make me think!: a common sense approach to Web usability. New Riders.