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Judy Ramey

Professor Judy Ramey joined the University of Washington in 1983 as a faculty member in what was then known as the Department of Technical of Communication, now Human Centered Design and Engineering. She retired from active teaching at the end of 2013.

Dr. Ramey led the department as Chair from 1997 until 2008. In 2013, she was the Frank & Julie Jungers Interim Dean of the University of Washington’s College of Engineering.

During her tenure as chair, the UW became internationally recognized in the emerging field of technical communication. Dr. Ramey led development of the department’s doctoral degree program and its professional master’s program, one of the first to be offered in the College of Engineering. She also helped design a new, interdisciplinary professional master’s in Human-Computer Interaction and Design.

Education:

  • PhD, University of Texas, 1983
  • MA, University of Texas, 1971

Professional Affiliations:

  • Society for Technical Communication
  • ACM Special Interest Group on Computer-Human Interaction
  • ACM Special Interest Group on Systems Documentation
  • IEEE Professional Communication Society
  • Usability Professionals Association
  • Association of Teachers of Technical Writers
  • Council of Programs in Technical and Scientific Communication

Honors and Awards:

  • Diana Award to the UWTC Laboratory for Usability Testing and Evaluation (LUTE), 2007, ACM SIGDOC, accepted by J. Ramey, founder and director
  • Adjunct Professor, Industrial Engineering, College of Engineering, University of Washington, 1999-present
  • Jay R. Gould Award 2000, given by the Executive Board of the Society for Technical Communication. The highest honor bestowed by STC in recognition of teaching excellence in the field. Elected STC Fellow, 1998
  • Chair, Department of Technical Communication, College of Engineering, University of Washington, July 1997
  • Best Collection of Articles Award, 1990, National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), for my December 1989 guest issue of the IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication on usability testing.
  • Fellows' Award, Association of Teachers of Technical Writing (ATTW), for Best Article Published in 1986 in the Technical Writing Teacher, for my two-article series "Building a Theoretical Base for On-Line Documentation," Spring and Fall 1986.
  • Chapter Achievement Award (Professional Chapters) for 1982, presented to me as president of the Austin, TX chapter of the Society for Technical Communication for "outstanding contributions to technical communications in the computer industry."

Publications:

  • Turns, J. and J. Ramey 2006.  'Active and Collaborative Learning in the Practice of Research: Credit-Based Directed Research Groups,' Technical Communication (archival journal of the Society for Technical Communication) special section, August 2006.
  • Guan, Zhiwei, Shirley Lee, Elisabeth Cuddihy, Judith Ramey, 'The Validity of the Stimulated Retrospective Think-Aloud Method as Measured by Eye Tracking,' technical paper, CHI '06 (the annual conference of the ACM Special Interest Group on Computer-Human Interaction), Montreal, Canada, April 2006.
  • Turns, Jennifer, and Judith Ramey, 'Directed Research Groups,' 2005 International Professional Communication Conference, July 10-13, 2005, Limerick, Ireland.
  • Chin, Crystal, Elisabeth Cuddihy, Mary Deaton, Rich DeSantis, Eleanor Garner, Jana Jones, Cory King, Steve Lappenbusch, Shirley Lee, Sandra Maddox, Manal Mohanna, Quan Zhou, and Judy Ramey, "Eye Tracking in Usability Testing: What Questions Can It Help You Answer?," Proceedings, Usability Professionals' Association 13th Annual Conference, June 7-11, 2004. Usability Professionals' Association (upassoc.org), Bloomingdale, IL: 2004. 4 pp. (no page numbering; published on CD). Chin et al. (2004).
  • Approaching Online Self-Representation in a Community of Practice. In Harris, Don, Duffy, Vincent, Smith, Michael, and Stephanidis, Constantine (eds.), Human-Centered Computing: Cognitive, Social and Ergonomic Aspects (Volume 3 of the Proceedings of HCI 2003, 22-27 June 2003, Crete, Greece). Lawrence Erlbaum and Associates. Pp. 769-773.
  • Eliot, Matthew, Tristan Robinson, MS, Robin Mayberry, MLIS, Judy Ramey, PhD, Brent Stewart, PhD, "Rolling Assessment: Observing On-Going User Responses To A Next Generation Internet Telemedicine Application Through Successive Stages Of Development," Society for Technical Communication 2002 Annual Conference, Nashville, TN, May 2002. Arlington, VA: Society for Technical Communication, pp. 281-285
  • Ruthford, Marcia, and Judith Ramey, 'The Impact of Usability Test Results on Product Design: A Case Study Based on Artifacts and Interviews,' Proceedings of the ACM SIGDOC Conference, October 24-27, 2000, Boston, MA.
  • Jong, Menno de, and Judith Ramey, Introduction: New Perspectives on Document Evaluation Methods, IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication, special issue on usability research methods, September 2000. pp. 237-241.
  • *Boren, Ted, and Judith Ramey, "Thinking Aloud: Reconciling Theory and Practice," IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication, special issue on usability research methods, September 2000, Ramey and de Jong, guest editors. pp. 261-278.
  • Ramey, Judith, "Web Data Collection for Analyzing and Interacting with Your Users," Technical Communication, 3rd Quarter (August) 2000. One of seven articles making up a special issue on building a communication model for web design. pp. 397-410.
  • Ramey, Judith, "Learning through Design in Technical Communication," STC Conference 1998. Proceedings of the 45th Annual Conference, STC, May 1998,pp. 60-62.
  • Ramey, Judith and David Farkas, "Building Community on a Design Team in a Decentralized, Individualistic Environment, " Designing Interactive Systems-DIS '97, ACM SIGCHI, Amsterdam, Netherlands, August 1997, pp. 301-304.
  • Ramey, Judith, "A Model for Organizational Creation and Maintenance of a Web Site," IEEE International Professional Communication Conference (IPCC), IPCC '97 Conference Record October 1997, pp. 303-309.
  • Ramey, Judith, "Fact, Context, Communication: The Value Added to Data by Information Design," IEEE International Professional Communication Conference (IPCC), IPCC '97 Conference Record, October 1997, pp. 385-392.
  • Schulz, Erin, Judith Ramey, Maarten van Alphen, and William Rasnake, "Discovering User-Generated Metaphors through Usability Testing," IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication; December 1997, pp. 255-264.
  • Wixon, Dennis, and Judith Ramey, editors, A Field Methods Casebook for Software Design, Wiley 1996. A collection of 17 essays on field research by practitioners in the field. 342 pp.
  • Schulz, Erin, Judith Ramey, and Denise Carlevato, "Data Collection and Analysis: A Look at Process-Oriented and Product-Oriented Field Studies," Proceedings of the 43rd Annual Conference, STC, Seattle, April 1996, pp. 329-334.
  • Ramey, Judith, Denise Carlevato, and Erin Schulz, "What You Can Learn From Analyzing Artifacts and Outcroppings in Field Studies," Proceedings of the 43rd Annual Conference, STC, Seattle, April 1996, pp. 324-328.
  • Carlevato, Denise, Judith Ramey, and Erin Schulz, "Communicating the Results of Field Studies to Support Usable Design," Proceedings of the 43rd Annual Conference, STC, Seattle, April 1996, pp.320-323.
  • Redish, Janice C. and Judith Ramey, "Measuring the Value Added by Professional Technical Communicators: Introduction," Technical Communication, First Quarter (February) 1995, pp. 23-25.
  • Ramey, Judith, "What Technical Communicators Think about Measuring Value Added," Technical Communication, First Quarter (February) 1995, pp. 40-51.
  • Ramey, Judith, Carol Robinson, Denise Carlevato, and Ruth Hansing, "Communicating User Needs to Designers: Hypermedia-Supported Requirements Documents," IEEE International Professional Communication Conference IPCC '92 Conference Record, Santa Fe, September 1992. pp. 241-247.
  • Ramey, Judith, and Carol Robinson, "Video-Based Task Analysis: A Tool for Understanding Your Audience," IEEE International Professional Communication Conference IPCC '91 Conference Record, October 1991, Orlando, FL, pp. 66-70.
  • Ramey, Judith, "Communication: Usability Engineering," in IEEE International Professional Communication Conference IPCC '91 Conference Record, October 1991, Orlando, FL, pp. 53-57.
  • Ramey, Judith, "Working with Users to Design Online Documentation," IEEE International Professional Communication Conference IPCC '89 Conference Record, Garden City, NY, October 1989, pp. 17-20
  • Guest editor, IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication, December 1989. Issue won award 1990: Best Collection of Essays in 1989, NCTE.
  • Ramey, Judith, "Interactive Interfaces: What's the Use of a Hybrid Interface?" Proceedings of the 35thInternational Technical Communication Conference, STC, Philadelphia, PA, May 1988, ATA90-ATA93.