Randolph Bias

Biography

After receiving his Ph.D. in cognitive psychology from UT-Austin, Randolph worked in industry for over 20 years as a UX professional/manager, helping software developers make human-computer interfaces user-centered. After stints with Bell Labs, IBM, and BMC Software (where he created and managed the Usability Department), Randolph co-founded an independent usability lab and consultancy. In 2003 he came to the School of Information to research human information processing and human-computer interaction and to help train the next generation of UX professionals. Randolph has published over 80 technical articles and co-edited two editions of _Cost-Justifying Usability_ (R. G. Bias and D. J. Mayhew, Eds., 1994, 2005, Morgan Kaufmann). He is a Certified Human Factors Practitioner, and is active in professional societies such as the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society and the User eXperience Professionals’ Association (UXPA). Randolph has taught undergraduate and graduate courses in psychology, information studies, and statistics at The University of Texas at Austin, Rutgers University, Huston-Tillotson University, Texas State University, and the Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, plus has taught many short courses for industry. In 2017 he was awarded the UXPA’s Lifetime Achievement Award. Randolph is a vigorous advocate for designing technology to fit the user. In his retirement he has launched a UX consulting effort, UXonSpec, with a creative twist: www.uxonspec.com.

Degrees

B.S. (with honors), Psychology, 1973, Florida State University
Ph.D., Human Experimental Psychology, 1978, University of Texas at Austin

Areas Of Specialization

Usability
Human-Information Processing
Human-Computer Interaction
Cognitive Science

Recent Publications

Bias, R. G., Gillan, D. J., & Lewis, C. (In press.) The tortoise and the (soft)ware: Moores Law, Amdahls Law, and performance trends for human-machine systems. To appear in the Journal of Usability Studies.

Bias, R. G., Nixon, M., He, D., & Kim, H. (In press.) Employing a user-centered design approach to improve operator interfaces. To appear in the IIE Transactions on Occupational Ergonomics and Human Factors, Special Issue on Special Issue on Human Factors in Advanced Applications for Process Control.

Huang, S.-C., Bias, R. G., & Schnyer, D. (In press.) How are icons processed by the brain? Neuroimaging measures of four types of visual stimuli used in information systems. Journal of the Association of Information Science and Technology. Article first published online: 15 May 2014. DOI: 10.1002/asi.23210.

Bias, R. G. (2013). (Almost) A lifetime at the research/practice nexus: Human information processing and UI design. Presentation made to the Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition, Pensacola, FL, June.

View more in Google Scholar

Recent Awards

  • John Wiley Best Paper Award , Journal of the Association of Information Science and Technology (JASIST) with Huang, S. C. & Schnyer, D.

Recent Courses

YearSemesterCourse NumberCourseSyllabusNotes
2022SpringINF 398TSupervised Teaching in Information Studies
2021FallINF 385GAdvanced Usability
2021FallINF 388LProfessional Experience and Project
2021SpringINF 398TSupervised Teaching in Information Studies
2020SpringINF 398TSupervised Teaching in Information Studies
2019SpringINF 391FAdvanced Topics in Research Methods, Methodologies, and Design Experimental Design
2018FallINF 315CTopics In Human-Computer Interaction User Experience Design
2017FallINF 315CTopics In Human-Computer Interaction User Experience Design
2017SpringINF 385GAdvanced Usability
2017SpringINF 315CTopics In Human-Computer Interaction User Experience Design