Senior Project Database: Design and Usability Evaluation

Stephanie ChengRachelle Hom

Ronald MgHoang Bao

CSC 484 – Winter 2005

Senior Project Center Concept

Students who are interested in beginning their senior project, but don’t know where to start

Students who are looking for supplemental help during their senior project

Resource where students may come together to collaborate and share ideas

Senior Project Center Environment

Brainstorming area and software Research station Presentation/video conference room Publishing area

Overview

From the data collection about the Senior Project Center:

– 78% of students surveyed felt it was NOT easy to start their senior project. Among the difficulties was finding a topic.

– 63% of students felt it was beneficial to work with a partner, but there is no official tool to make finding partners a simple task for students.

Hence, we decided to focus on one of the most important aspects of the Senior Project Center: the Senior Project Database Search

Senior Project Database Search

A web based tool that allows users to:1. Find a senior project topic and/or partner2. Post a senior project topic and/or partner3. Discussion board

Targeted audience:– Students– Professors– Companies– Communities

Design Approach

First we created a paper-based prototype of our Senior Project Database Search using Microsoft Visio

Goals:– Simple– Intuitive– Easy to use

Paper-based Prototype

Paper-based Prototype (cont.)

Paper-based Prototype (cont.)

Preliminary Feedback

Questions we asked users about the paper- based prototype during data collection– Is there enough information on each panel?– Is it easy to understand?– What changes would you recommend?

Preliminary Feedback (cont.)

Positive aspects:– Intuitive layout, in logical order – Good flow of information– Low learning curve

Negative aspect:– Wanted to be able to post topics similar to being able to post a

search for a senior project partner (we added this change to the next prototype)

Overall feedback was positive; felt that it would be a good addition to the Senior Project Center.

Interactive Prototype

Used DreamWeaver MX to develop web-based prototype

Based on the positive feedback, we kept a similar layout to the paper-based prototype

Usability Study of Interactive Prototype

Short questionnaires about the look and feel, intuitiveness, general impression, etc.

– Used ranking scale when possible to keep results as objective as possible.

Environment of data collection: – Informal– In test subjects’ homes

“Quick and dirty” method due to time constraint.

Result of Usability Study

Major of Students

Business

CPECSc

ME

Social Science

Business

CPE

CSc

ME

Social Science

The Interface Has Good First Impression

0123456789

StronglyAgree

Agree Disagree StronglyDisagree

NoOpinion

Type of Agreement

Number of Student

Result of Usability Study (cont.)

Would Use This Tool If Existed

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

StronglyAgree

Agree Disagree StronglyDisagree

NoOpinion

Type of Agreement

Number of Students

The Most Useful Feature

0

0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

3

3.5

4

4.5

All searchability

DiscussionBoard

PartnerSearch

Topic Search Other

Type of Feature

Number of Times Being Chosen

Suggested Changes

Colors are not uniform Need more content on help page Search fields are a little disorganized

Final Prototype

Prototype with revisions based on usability study– Made color scheme more uniform– Added a more extensive help page– Re-organized search fields

Demonstration: http://www.calpoly.edu/~rhom/main.html

Usability Evaluation Plan for Complete System

Observe users as they perform a set of tasks1. Find a senior project topic2. Find a senior project partner3. Post a senior project topic4. Post a search for senior project partners5. Log into the discussion board and ask a question

Note the difficulties they are having

Note the time it takes for the users to complete each task

Ask users to rank their overall satisfaction with the Senior Project Database Search

Further Work

Possible continuation of our work – The database could be implement through senior projects

or CSC 366 projects

A completed and functional version of Senior Project Database Search is feasible.

The Senior Project Database Search could serve as an important part of the future Learning Commons.

Conclusion

Questions? Thank you!