INTRODUCING NICHOLAS DAY
Human Systems Engineer
ABOUT ME
MY HISTORY
My lifelong interest in science and problem solving lead me to Arizona State University, where I earned a Bachelor and Master of Science in Human Systems Engineering. While earning my degrees, I was given the opportunity to work on a variety of applied human factors projects and cognitive research.
MY PROCESS
Define Objective: secondary research + stakeholder input
Determine what data the objective/research question requires
Design the study
Recruit participants
Format raw data for analysis and run it
Extrapolate Insights
PROFESSIONALÂ INTERESTS
UX research/design
Physical products
Behavioral study
Game psychology
Complex problem solving
EXPERIENCE DESIGNER AT PHILIPS HEALTHCARE
Contributor to the development of Monitor devices and AEDs
Draft and pilot test plans
Collect qualitative and quantitative data during user testing
Report on results
Ensure documentation is comprehensive and in compliance with FDA standards.
MASTERS THESIS
Certainty, Severity, and low latency deception
GOAL
Creating the thesis consisted of many steps, and I was given two semesters (one year) to complete them. This included research, an initial proposal, study design, collection, and analysis. The thesis needed to find a gap in current research and explore a topic in a novel way.
RESEARCH
Criminal justice research has identified two key dimensions in crime deterrence: certainty, the likelihood a deceptive behavior will be detected, and severity, the size of the punishment incurred. Understanding these factors is key in designing deterrent systems. Research suggested that certainty had a greater weight than severity, however there was a gap; the body of research lacked studies involving repeated strategic deception between two people.
JUSTIFICATION
Understanding certainty and severity is useful for designing systems to deter deception and crime. Many other systems involve some form of deception, including those that may encourage it such as gaming.
DESIGN
In order to study these factors, a game was created that could control for them affectionately named "Nictacs". While it is a simple game, particular care had to be made in it's design. For instance, the allocation of points was designed to allow for equivalence between certainty and severity. The training document can be seen below.
COLLECTION
Participants were recruited using through an online service as well as through campus advertisements. Each session lasted an hour, with quantitative data recorded as the game progressed. Onboarding information and confidentiality agreements were presented at the beginning, and participants were debriefed after.
RESULTS
A mixed factor analysis was conducted using SPSSÂ and more aesthetic graphs were created later using R Studio. As hypothesized, a main effect was found for certainty but not for severity. Ultimately, the study supports that what matters in deception is perception, not reality.
