eDiscover DSS

Designed by Chike Nzegwu, James Wong, and Joseph Hamilton

The problem

• Meeting people online is a tough process– Most websites are dating services only– Hard to tell if the person is real or

pretending– Interests alone can’t tell if you fit with

someone

• Other services attempt to match based on interests or predicted feelings

MBTI History

• MBTI is a personality identification test– Created by Katharine Briggs and Isabel

Briggs Meyer– Based on philosophies of Carl Jung– Widely used for various purposes, such as:

• Employee selection• Team counseling• Placement

How MBTI Works

• 4 dimensional test– Introversion or Extroversion

• Where do you get your energy from?

– Sensation or Intuition• Do you focus on the actual or the possible ?

– Thinking or Feeling• Do you decide based on logic or value?

– Perceiving or Judging• Do you like structure or creativity?

How MBTI Works

• Each question measures a specific trait

• After all questions are answered, the value of each trait is weighed against it’s opposite

• There are 16 personality types:

– ISTJ - ISTP– ISFJ - ISFP– INTJ - INTP– INFJ - INFP

– ESTJ - ESTP– ESFJ - ESFP– ENTJ - ENTP– ENFJ - ENFP

Paper vs. Computer MBTI

• Paper– Longer questionnaire– Calculations must be

done by hand– Error checking not

present

• Computer– Questionnaire is

short and easy to use

– Personality calculations done automatically

– Error checking prevents mistakes

– Able to be ported for several applications

eDiscover DSS - Model

• Suggestion Model– User completes a short questionnaire

based on the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator questionnaire

– User’s personality type is determined– System “suggests” best personality types

that match the user’s personality type.

eDiscover DSS - Database

• After the DSS model determines personality types that best match the user, the system searches the database of users for matches of those personality types.

• Database is populated manually in the current implementation, but will automatically populate in the future.

eDiscover DSS - Input

• The first step in the eDiscover DSS is capturing user information

• Only allowable ages are 1-99

eDiscover - Questions

• 7 questions per page, 21 questions overall

• Checkboxes stop user from attempting to select both answers

• User is not given indication of which trait the question measures

eDiscover – Personality Type

• After completing the questions, the results are tallied and each trait category is determined

• The result also brings up an explanation of the personality type, based on the Jung philosophies.

eDiscover – Personality Matches

• After the user’s personality type is discerned, the DSS model selects personality types that match.

• The matches are applied to the database to pick a list of compatible users.

eDiscover – User Match

• User information can be displayed in separate window, allowing users to see the age and gender of their matches.

• User can also see an image of the user.

eDiscover – Potential Applications

• Stand-alone system– Useful for UMBC team building– Placement in Shriver Center internships or

programs

• Web application– Add-on to facebook.com or myspace.com

to help introduce compatible users.– Possible component for Student Life

system to acquaint new students at UMBC.

Questions?