Post on 12-Aug-2015
PLAN FOR SCHOOL
user centered research evaluationcarnegie mellon university
Plan for School is a university applications organizer that provides tools to manage the information required for the successful and timely completion of university applications.
“
WHY “PLAN FOR SCHOOL” ?
USER RESEARCH
PROSPECTIVE STUDENT
PROFESSORS(recommenders)
GRADUATE STUDENTS(domain experts)
USER RESEARCH - DIAGRAMSAFFINITY DIAGRAM
USER RESEARCH - DIAGRAMSARTIFACTS
USER RESEARCH - DIAGRAMSARTIFACTS
USER RESEARCH - DIAGRAMSARTIFACT DIAGRAM
USER RESEARCH - DIAGRAMSCULTURAL DIAGRAM
Fill in all the information, Also look at other unnecessary information
Sorry, there areno reminder emails
“ What information do I
need to fill? ”
“ Can you remind me about the deadlines? “
“ What information do I need to fill? ““ Can you remind me about the deadline? “
Fill all this information.
Sorry there are no reminder emails.
“ Can you give me the details? “
“ I completely forgot about the deadline? “
• Frame the recommendation letter
• Complete the recommendation
“ Can you recommend me to this college? “
“ Can you please consider this applicant for admissions? “
“ Can you please tell me about your research? “
“ Look at my portfolio. Also I am
interested in working with you. “
“ It looks fine. Maybe you should change this. “
“ Can you review my admission documents? “ • Gather all the
application information• Ask for
recommendations• Complete the online
application• Send the application
materials
• Provide suggestion and feedback
• Guide prospective students
• Review application requests
ONLINE APPLICATION SYSTEM
RECOMMENDER
DEPARTMENT ADMINISTRATOR
APPLICANT
UNIVERSITYPROFESSOR
FRIENDS
USER RESEARCHFINDINGS - PROSPECTIVE STUDENTS• It is hard to keep a track of specific requirements for each
college.
• The applicants (prospective students) have to constantly look at their excel sheets or notebooks to determine approaching deadlines. There are no notifications.
• Users do not carry all important documents everywhere and therefore are limited to completing their applications at home.
• Applicants face many complications when asking for recommendations and trying to keep track of the recommendation status.
USER RESEARCHFINDINGS - RECOMMENDERS
• It is hard for the users to keep track of all the recommendation requests. They find it tedious to make a list of pending requests.
• Some of the recommendation systems employed by University application administrations do not send deadline notifications.
• The recommenders usually get 75-100 emails everyday because of their work profile and it is easy for a recommendation email to get lost in the email list.
SKETCHES
INFORMATION FOR UNIVERSITY APPLICATIONS
NAVIGATION MAP
HOME PAGE / DASHBOARD
Modular InterfaceDesignThe interface was designed to support separate modules in the same view
SCHOOL PAGE
Breadcrumb NavigationProvides an easy way to navigate between view hierarchies
Accordion Style Sidebar
NavigationAllows user to quickly
browse & reference inner links
WIREFRAMES
HOME PAGE
Home Page
Individual School Page
USABILITY EVALUATION
PROSPECTIVE STUDENT
PROFESSORS(recommenders)
GRADUATE STUDENTS(domain experts)
USABILITY EVALUATIONFINDINGS
Users found the layout of the pages and navigation to be very intuitive and easy to use.
The breadcrumb navigation was very helpful. For the most part users relied on breadcrumbs for navigation.
Users were confused about saving a new requirement to the to-do list and adding a new link for each college.
Users failed to add a new recommender to a particular college when no recommenders were on the list of common recommenders.
USABILITY EVALUATIONSUGGESTIONS
1. System should support online viewing and editing for documents.
2. Provisions to maintain multiple versions of the document would be helpful.
http://kaushalagrawal.com/planforschoolhttp://planforschool.net/
APPENDIX - SKETCHES
COLLEGES PAGE
ADD COLLEGE PAGE
RECOMMENDER PAGE
PERSONAL INFORMATION PAGE
RECOMMENDER’S HOME PAGE
APPENDIX - WIREFRAMES
HOME PAGE