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.

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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

LET’S TAKE A LOOK

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