Welcome to Core!
Welcome to Core!
Core welcomes our newest team members Eugene Yoon and Valerie Beck.
What drew you to human factors and what drew you to Core?
Eugene: I have always been interested in human behavior and how people respond to and interact with things. This combined with my desire to help people led me to Core, where I can investigate and improve tools that people might use every day.
Valerie: I started working in the field of human factors because I wanted to better understand how people interact with objects and the environment in real-world situations, not just how they perform simplified tasks related to attention and memory on a computer in a laboratory. Fundamentally, I am interested in how people make sense of and interact with an increasingly complex world through applications, objects, and the environment. A hugely important component of this interaction is whether the user interface of the application or object is safe for the intended users, which is what drew me to the work at Core.
What is one fun fact about yourself?
Eugene: I am a returned Peace Corps volunteer, having served in Georgia (the country). I speak pretty decent Georgian and play the panduri, a Georgian stringed instrument.
Valerie: I like driving (but not necessarily driving in Philly). During my last 1-1.5 years in high school, I put 30K miles on my car without really leaving the Midwest. I've lost count of the number of times I've driven from the Midwest to either east or west coast, but I've never driven all the way from one coast to the other in one trip.
What is your educational or professional background and how does it relate to your everyday job at Core?
Eugene: I studied human-computer interaction where I learned many of the research methods that are used at Core. My public sector work experience also helped me develop my empathy skills, which is helpful when thinking about the end users who will be using the medical devices evaluated at Core.
Valerie: I have a Bachelors and Doctorate in Psychology, with a focus on human cognition and perception, and completed postdoctoral training in cognitive neuroscience and neuroimaging. My educational training and recent experience evaluating human factors in the context of accident scenarios allows me to apply my expertise in research methodology, cognition, and perception to client concerns regarding warnings and safety information, product use and interactions, and human behavior across a variety of contexts.
What do you enjoy doing most outside of work?
Eugene: Anything related to sound! I like playing music, field recording, designing synthesized sounds, and using these sounds I collect or make in various media.
Valerie: This is probably a three-way tie among knitting, beer tasting, and hiking; unfortunately, I can't do all three at once!
What is the worst (or best?) design you have ever seen and why? (Does not have to be medical related)
Eugene: Last year Mozilla updated their Firefox UI on mobile devices by moving the address bar to the bottom of the screen. It was a huge UI change that went against years of web design tradition, but I thought it was a really innovative design decision that makes sense for the specific context. Now I can't use any other browser on mobile devices because of how far away the address bar feels from my thumb!
Valerie: I continue to be amazed at and greatly frustrated by how poorly designed some women's clothing can be, particularly in terms of minimally functional or nonexistent pockets. I once made a skirt with no less than eight pockets in a vain attempt to right the scales; sadly, once implemented, they weren't all functional. It seems that further design iteration will be required.