Associate Professor, Human Systems Engineering Program,

Ira A Fulton Schools of Engineering 

Dr. Branaghan is cognitive psychologist who studies learning, memory and decision-making especially in the context of product design and human factors. He joined ASU after working in industry (Hewlett-Packard and IBM) and consulting for fifteen years. In consulting, he served as Senior Vice President and Partner at Fitch Worldwide and Senior Vice president and partner at Lextant Corporation.

His research focuses on cognitive human factors - identifying ways to make products and systems easy to learn, efficient to use, and easy to remember. Dr. Branaghan's favorite topics include:

• Medical devices such as programmers for pacemakers/defibrillators and external defibrillators.
• Product design for first responders (e.g. police, fire, EMT).
• Aviation human factors such as the design of cockpit displays and controls.
• Cognitve science of creativity and innovation
• Consumer psychology of branding and brand personality.

Education

Ph.D., New Mexico State University, 1994
M.A., New Mexico State University, 1988
B.S., Bowling Green State University, 1986

Expertise

Human factors, usability, medical devices, aviation, user-interface design and evaluation, public safety, product design, creativity and innovation.

Research Interests

At present, National Science Foundation, Motorola and the Veteran's Health Administration sponsor Dr. Branaghan's research and students. His consulting clients include The Federal Aviation Administration and the Air Force Research Laboratory. Previous clients include HP, Motorola, Microsoft, Nike, Disney, PepsiCo, Sprint, Qwest, Medtronic, Cardinal Health and others.