Assignment #2

Team Management Structure
Revised Problem Statement
Justification and Development of Personas and Goals
Personas and Goals
Necessary and Optional Tasks
Work Distribution
Appendices - Questionnaire and Interviews

Team Management Structure

Revised Problem Statement

Justification and Development of Personas and Goals

Based on our experience with the SIMS coursework and informal discussions with first year students, we identified students’ usage of course content being influenced by three factors: technical expertise, professional experience, and career certainty. We thought technical expertise or comfort with a command line environment would influence individuals' interest and likelihood to use web based tools. We expected students with professional experience would have encountered Intranets and other content or knowledge management systems and therefore have certain expectations of navigation and customization. Whereas students without a clear career direction would want to easily browse materials by subject as a way to gauge interesting opportunities. These were our initial assumptions about users' expectations and we used these factors to identify interview candidates.

To refine our views and understand how students use SIMS’ academic information, we developed a questionnaire. It focused on information use, information navigation, information classification, information communication, and general usage of the SIMS web site. (See the complete list of interview questions).

We interviewed five SIMS students - two first-year and three second-year Masters’ students. Both first-years have technical backgrounds. One worked for a few years developing applications and came to SIMS with a distinct purpose. The other has very little professional experience and is still undecided about what he hopes to do after SIMS. All three second years worked prior to coming to SIMS, two extensively, and were skilled but did not perceive themselves to be technical “experts”. One knew exactly her course of study upon entry at SIMS while the other two were undecided. Of the two “undecided” second-years, one defined a clear path after completing the core courses. The other remains undecided and is taking a wide range of classes to find a direction before graduating.

After the interviews, we analyzed our findings. We found the results differed from our initial assumptions. The factors we identified at the start of the process (technical expertise, professional experience, and career certainty) did not have a strong impact on usage of SIMS course information. Instead the students’ general attitude towards information provided electronically was the overriding influence. For example, one of the first-year students is so ardent about all forms of electronic information that he placed his “whole life is online”. He did so to allow others to quickly find and communicate with him. It was due to this interview, as well as informal conversations with a similar student, that we developed our persona, Thomas N. Gibson.

The answers presented by the “undecided” first-year closely matched those we received from two of the second-year students. All of them are interested in receiving information electronically but only access sources they can get to quickly and easily. As a result, they have added course web sites to their browser “Favorites” or personal site and use these links to review readings and due dates. Two of the second-year interviewees are interested in HCI and wished they had more insight into activities going on outside SIMS. All of our interviewees expressed a need for a centralized place to manage academic requirements and deadlines. In fact, two of the students we spoke with had nearly missed a due date required for graduation. We combined the results from these interviews to form our primary persona, Clara Filo.

The answers we received from the third second-year student differed sufficiently from our other interviewees that we felt another persona needed to be created. After reviewing the online course catalog to identify the classes she wanted to take, she did not revisit the course information on the SIMS web site. frequently. Instead she tended to memorize assignment due dates and would hear about changes to the schedule either in class or from classmates. She also preferred course readings in printed format. We found it interesting that her preferences for managing information were not a reflection of her comfort with technology. She is adept with a number of online tools to access and classify information; however she did not see the need to use any electronic gadget or site to manage her academic pursuits at SIMS or related interests. We also discussed her usage of course information with a student who expressed similar patterns of behavior. His input supported her comments and helped us to develop our third persona, Isaac Einstein.

Personas and Goal

 

Thomas N. Gibson: Information Addict

Thomas' entire life is can be found online Thomas is 27 years-old. He grew up in Silicon Valley. His dad, Steve, was one of the original employees at Apple. He worked there for a number of years before founding a successful software company. Thomas admires his dad and hopes to start his own company someday. After earning a BS in Computer Science from Stanford, Thomas went to work at Wired Digital. Thomas was the go-to-guy for anything perl or PHP related and managed Wired's online communities. In his spare time he supports his gadget habit by doing as much web work as he can get, uses open source tools, and spends way too many hours reading news feeds from people and information providers he trusts. His blog helps him keep-in-touch with friends. They put pressure on each other to have their sites current, so he uses scripts to make automatic updates. He believes it takes an understanding of both business and technical concepts to run a company. Because he plans to be a CEO by the time he is 30, Thomas applied to graduate school. He chose SIMS because his interests change quickly, and SIMS seemed to be one of the broadest and most forward thinking schools. At the start of the semester, he used the SIMS web site. to research courses. After that, he simply added links to cardea, MySims, Telebears, and the library to his site. Doing so meant he missed out on announcements posted on the SIMS homepage. Goals: Use open source technologies for as many parts of his life as possible Add new feeds to his reader without having to break the flow of his current activities Identify information by specific people, groups, and publishing organizations he respects

 

Clara Filo: Information as an Enhancement

Clara's interests are diverse and many. Clara is 29 years old. She grew up in San Mateo and went to UC Berkeley for her undergraduate degree. She majored in Economics but wanted to do something more creative when she graduated. She had some friends in Computer Science and Communications, so she took a few classes in their departments and started to learn HTML before graduating. Clara worked as a Media Planner in a San Francisco-based ad agency. On one account, she teamed-up with members of the Creative department. She was inspired to take another HTML course and a Java class at UC Berkeley Extension. After losing a few big accounts, Clara's agency closed its doors. She thought about joining another firm, but she wanted to find a more stable field. Uncertain what to do next, Clara researched graduate programs at Berkeley. She wanted to be near her friends and family and found the diverse aspects of SIMS appealing. But, she was apprehensive. Clara did not want to be the only one without a CS undergrad or feel overwhelmed. She read everything about the school, courses, and jobs people had beforehand. She emailed a few students. Their responses made her feel comfortable, and she applied. After completing her first year of coursework, Clara had yet to identify a specialty. She found HCI, document engineering, and multimedia fascinating. She thought the degree tracks might help her to focus her interests, but she heard a number of the classes weren't being offered. She spent some time online researching each area and realized how important it is to keep up with certain groups on campus. She has great ideas for using all of the information she's found at SIMS, if only she had the time to pull all of the resources together. Then again, Clara lives a hectic life and rarely has the time to do more than make bookmarks for her class web sites Goals: Keep-in-the-know about general topics of interest Use her SIMS web site. to reflect her individuality Access course web sites quickly, frequently, and easily

 

Isaac Einstein: Only the Essentials

Isaac remembers everything - absolutely everything. Isaac is 31 years old. He grew up in Boston but moved to the Bay Area to attend Stanford. He received a BA in Linguistics and graduated with honors. His studies did not take up much time, so he joined a number of organizations. He's probably best known for his stint as editor of the student paper, Stanford Daily. Many people still recall his sharp wit and amazing memory. His friends joined tech companies after graduation, but Isaac preferred the written word. He was hired by Chronicle Publishing as its Associate Managing Editor. In the first year Isaac worked there the amount of electronic information managed by the company doubled. Isaac saw it as an opportunity to develop a comprehensive archive of the company's body of work. He became intrigued by the way content could be organized and cross-referenced. In his spare time, to make information more uniform and reusable, he wrote guidelines for content development. Eventually, he realized he needed a better framework for understanding how to organize and use information. He remembered there was a library school at UC Berkeley and did some research. The SIMS program had a professional bent and seemed interdisciplinary. He applied and was quickly accepted. While his primary interest is collection management, he always had a proficiency for logic and programming. He certainly was not above using technology to assist with some of the more mundane aspects of his work. However, he still prefers reading his newspaper in the morning and tends to keep his assignment due dates in his head. He only visits the SIMS web site. to research classes and relies on hearing other students talk about important administrative deadlines that are sent out in the flurry of emails he receives each day. Goals: Use technology to manage the administrative details of his life at SIMS Receive salient reminders for things he finds trivial but must address to progress at school Ensure he does not miss out on any information he perceives as interesting

Necessary and Optional Tasks

Tasks: Thomas N. Gibson

Task	Frequency	Importance	Details
Setup Content	Often	High	Identify relevant topics of interest Research sources (optional) Review feedback (optional) Configure default format and frequency at source Configure local means for accessing information
View Content	Often	High	Go to or receive new content whenever new information is posted View specific item of content Discard content or retain for later viewing
Update Information Sources	Rarely	Medium	Review existing sources of information Decide to archive or retain for future reference Modify settings - frequency, source, format, etc. (optional)
Develop custom tools (Optional)	Rarely	Low	Identify source that needs modification Identify technical solution Encode solution in given technology

Tasks: Clara Filo

Task	Frequency	Importance	Details
Setup Initial Content	Sometimes	High	Identify relevant topics of interest Research sources (optional) Review feedback (optional) Configure default format and frequency at source Configure local means for accessing information
View Content	Often	High	Go to or receive new content whenever new information is posted View specific item of content Discard content or retain for later viewing
Update Existing Content	Rarely	Low	Review existing sources of information Decide to delete, archive or retain for future reference
Customize Presentation (Optional)	Rarely	Medium	Identify source that can be modified Identify preferences to customize Customize preferences - frequency, source, format, etc. (optional)

Tasks: Isaac Einstein

Task	Frequency	Importance	Details
Setup Initial Content	Rarely	High	Identify relevant topics of interest Research sources (optional) Review feedback (optional) Configure default format and frequency at source Configure local means for accessing information
View Content	Often	High	Go to or receive new content whenever new information is posted View specific item of content Discard content or retain for later viewing
Update Information Sources	Rarely	Low	Review existing sources of information Decide to delete, archive or retain for future reference
Customize Presentation (Optional)	Rarely	Low	Identify source that can be modified Identify preferences to customize Customize preferences - frequency, source, format, etc. (optional)

Appendices

Interview Template (.doc)
Interview #1 - First Year, Professional Experience, Decided Focus (.doc)
Interview #2 - Second Year, Professional Experience, Decided Focus (.doc)
Interview #3 - Second Year, Little Professional Experience, Undecided Focus (.doc)
Interview #4 - Second Year, Professional Experience, Decided Focus (.doc)
Interview #5 - First Year, Little Professional Experience, Undecided Focus (.doc)