lis7470 - information architecture

LIS7470 - Assignment I

Nick DeNardisFebruary 23, 2011

Site: College of Engineering Wayne State University

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Name Junior Jimmy Community Cathy Researcher Rob Ivy League Irene

Role/Job title High School Junior In Community College Current Grad Student Currently attending Cornell

Age/Gender 17/Male 20/Female 26/Male 28/Female

Quote “I have always been good at math and science”

“I have to pay my own way through school”

“Sometimes I stay all night working on projects”

“Always looking for great faculty research”

Goals

• Grown and raised in Michigan

• Likes math and science

• Applying for colleges soon

• Looking to see what Wayne State has to offer

• Goal: Request Information

• Lives in an apartment and has a job

• Knows she wants to be a Mechanical Engineer

• Has one more semester before transferring to a four year college

• Looking to see how to transfer to the Wayne State College of Engineering

• Goal: Apply to the school

• Current graduate student

• In the Electric-Drive Vehicle Engineering program

• Has a project he needs to work on

• Looking to get a good grade in this class

• Goal: Find an open lab with MATLab software

• Current graduate student at Cornell

• Doing research in Mechanical Engineering

• Writing her final thesis

• Looking for collaborators on some research

• Goal: Find faculty and research

LIS7470 - Assignment 1 Personas overview

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Wayne State College of EngineeringHome

Admissions Departments & Programs

Current Students

Faculty & Staff

Alumni About UsResearch

Admissions Process

Admission Requirements

Deadlines

Forms

Honors Program

Gradstart Program

Financial Aid &Scholarships

Apply Online

Message from Dean

History

Facts

About the Dean

Contact Us

Board of Directors

Bylaws

Hall of Fame

Donations & Grants

Join the Alumni Association

News & Announcements

Currently Funded Projects

Research News

Computing Facilities

Labs & Centers

Associate Dean for Research

Faculty Profiles

Faculty Research

Faculty in the News

Room Scheduling

Job Postings

Academic Advisors

Office of Student Affairs

Student Organizations

Courses

Computing Resources

Forms & Policies

ROTC

BE 1050 Orientation

Department & Program List

Choose a Program

(Program Name)

Overview

Concentrations

Curriculum

Information Meetings

Application Information

Degree Outcomes

Request Information

Faculty Listing

Choose a Faculty Member

(Faculty Member)

Contact & Bio

Research

Publications

Project Listing

Choose aResearch Project

(Research Project)

Name & Amount

Faculty Member

Project Information

View Schedule

Reserve a Room

Facilities & Capabilities

Description & Hours

Software

Policies

Workstation Layout

Choose a Facility

Transfer Equivalencies

Navigation Diagram

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Find a program and apply Compiled Task Analysis

Getting ready to graduate from High School means finding colleges and submitting an application

Before Scenario After Scenario

Jimmy has looked at a few competing college websites, found the program he is interested in and applied.

Jimmy will continue to look for schools and apply at other institutions.

Scenario Path through current site Path through new site

1. See if the college has an electrical engineering program

2. Check to see what the degree requirements are

3. Request information

4. Find out how to apply

1. Homepage

2. Academic Programs

3. Electrical Engineering

4. Degree Information

5. Undergraduate

6. ECE Curriculum (PDF)

7. Homepage

8. Prospective Students

9. Admissions

1. Homepage

2. Departments & Programs

3. Electrical Engineering (B.S.)

4. Curriculum

5. Request Information

6. Application Information

* inspired by Todd Warfel's task analysis grid

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http://iainstitute.org/tools/task_analysis_grid.php


Find a program and apply Compiled Task Analysis

Getting ready to graduate from High School means finding colleges and submitting an application


Jimmy has looked at a few competing college websites, found the program he is interested in and applied.

Jimmy will continue to look for schools and apply at other institutions.

Justification

The new navigation focuses on the prospective student with the main “Admissions” area that explains everything a future

students would need to know about applying to any of the College of Engineering programs. The information is published by

the main student services office instead of by each department like it is now. This keeps the requirements consistent and

reduces redundancy.

The “Departments & Programs” menu item does a good job fulfilling the needs of two audiences. They prospective student

who is looking for information based on programs and then current student/faculty member is who looking for the

departmental sites. The landing page would be a filterable and sortable list of links to further information.

Jimmy will not have to go far to find consistent and comparable information about the programs in the college since they

each will have standard information provided. Currently each department maintains their own level of information for each

program which can vary from a few sentences to multiple pages. The calls to action will either be consistently in the menu or

in the side bar of each page. He will not have to look far to take the next step.


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Transferring to a four year institution Compiled Task Analysis

Cathy is looking to transfer to a four year institution to graduate with a B.S. degree


Cathy has been taking classes at her community college and looking for a place to transfer to get a full degree.

Cathy will look at other area colleges to transfer to, she has to stay close because she has a job.

Sub-task

Scenario

Functionality



1. Check to see if there is a program in Mechanical Engineering

2. Check to see what the degree completion requirements are

3. Check to see what the transfer equivalents are

4. Request information

1. Homepage

2. Academic Programs

3. Mechanical Engineering

4. Degree Requirements

5. Prerequisites

6. Homepage

7. Prospective Students

8. Admissions

9. (Dead end)

1. Homepage

2. Departments & Programs

3. Mechanical Engineering (B.S.)

4. Curriculum

5. Admissions

6. Transfer Equivalencies

7. Request Information

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Transferring to a four year institution Compiled Task Analysis

Cathy is looking to transfer to a four year institution to graduate with a B.S. degree


Cathy has been taking classes at her community college and looking for a place to transfer to get a full degree.

Cathy will look at other area colleges to transfer to, she has to stay close because she has a job.

Sub-task

Scenario

Functionality


Justification

Cathy knows that she is going to transfer to a larger school and just needs to find the one that offers her the best transfer

plan. She has invested a lot of time and money into her schooling and doesn’t want to loose it. The goes straight to the

program information to make sure WSU offers the program she is interested in. She then looks for the degree completion

requirements. From here she can also get information about degree outcomes and possibly explore current student

projects.

After ensuring WSU has the degree she is interested in she goes on to the admissions area. The “Admissions” menu item is

meant to be a one stop shop for anyone interested in applying. It explains the admissions process and has a list of transfer

equivalencies. Cathy is interested in the equivalencies since she is transferring. The link will probably go off to a separate site

at the university but it will get her what she needs. There is a “Transfer Credit” department which handles the complicated

task of matching courses from any other school to WSU’s.

Cathy will be able to make an informed decision by taking these steps. If she needs more information she can request it

from the menu.

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Finding a lab with specific software Compiled Task Analysis

Rob is a hard worker and often needs to find a computer to do research on, finding one that is open should be easy


Rob is looking over the requirements of his project and he needs to do some programming in MATLab. He needs to find a campus computer to do his work on.

Rob is going to the lab to work on his project.

Sub-task

Scenario

Functionality


Scenario Path through new site Path through new site

1. Check to see if the school offers MATLAB software use

2. Check to see if the what labs have that software

3. Check to see if there is availability in those labs

1. Homepage

2. Computing

3. Engineering Computing Center

4. Software

5. Software Availability

6. MATLAB - List of Rooms

7. (Click each room)

8. (Back two pages)

9. View Schedule

10. (Find rooms)

1. Homepage

2. Current Students

3. Computing Resources

4. Facilities & Capabilities

5. Software

6. MATLAB

7. (Choose a lab)

8. Description & Hours

9. View Schedule

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Finding a lab with specific software Compiled Task Analysis

Rob is a hard worker and often needs to find a computer to do research on, finding one that is open should be easy


Rob is looking over the requirements of his project and he needs to do some programming in MATLab. He needs to find a campus computer to do his work on.

Rob is going to the lab to work on his project.

Sub-task

Scenario

Functionality


Justification

Rob has been to the College of Engineering website before. He is a current student so he knows that information he needs

and wants it quickly. He goes straight for the “Current Students” menu item. This is the place for students to interact with the

college at an administrative and tactile level.

There are two kinda of computing resources available to the students/faculty, they are technical support and facility services.

Instead of forcing a user to guess the responsibilities of each IT area the navigation was redesigned to be task based. This

way the visitor can find what they need and be directed to the correct department without having to make any other

decisions. The current navigation forces the visitors to pick an IT department to interact with.

The room scheduling area is broken down into two areas, when each room is available and what its capabilities are. Rob is

looking for capabilities first then checks the availability. Since all engineering labs are dual purpose, both labs and teaching

rooms it is important to not only find the lab needed but also ensure it is available at the time desired. The new navigation

allows Rob to do that while the current navigation has this information disconnected forcing visitors to use the back button.

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Looking for a research collaborator Compiled Task Analysis

Irene is always on the hunt for great engineering research and has decided to see what is going on at WSU


Irene is working on her Mechanical Engineering thesis and is looking for faculty across the nation to collaborate with.

Irene will e-mail the faculty member(s) to start a larger discussion.

Sub-task

Scenario

Functionality



1. Currently doing research on mechanical engineering

2. Check to see what faculty is in the mechanical eng department

3. Look at a specific faculty members profile to see their research

4. Check to see all the current mechanical eng research projects

5. Check out the progress of an interesting project

6. Contact the faculty member to see if they can collaborate

1. Homepage

2. Faculty

3. (Search by mechanical engineering)

4. Select a faculty member

5. Browse their Research

6. (Back to homepage)

7. Click “Research” main menu item

8. Funded Research Projects

9. (Scroll down to mechanical engineering)

10.(View only information)

11.Has to go back to the faculty list to view their profile and contact info

1. Homepage

2. Faculty & Staff

3. Faculty Research

4. (Search by mechanical engineering)

5. Select a faculty member

6. Browse their Research

7. Click “Research” main menu item

8. Currently Funded Projects

9. (Filter by mechanical engineering)

10. (Find interesting project)

11. View Faculty Member’s Profile

12. Contact Faculty Member

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Looking for a research collaborator Compiled Task Analysis

Irene is always on the hunt for great engineering research and has decided to see what is going on at WSU


Irene is working on her Mechanical Engineering thesis and is looking for faculty across the nation to collaborate with.

Irene will e-mail the faculty member(s) to start a larger discussion.

Sub-task

Scenario

Functionality


Justification

Irene is a hard worker and she knows how to network. For her getting an edge over her other classmates is important. Her

approach includes reaching out to faculty at other institutions to get insights into bleeding edge research. She does this a lot

and doesn’t have time to waste sifting through every faculty member’s individual profiles.

She goes right to the research related to mechanical engineering. The navigation allows for faculty to enter all of their

research when then get extracted to a categorized list. This allows a visitor to search by topic or by name. Irene uses the

topic based search first. Once she finds the research project that interests her she clicks on the faculty members name to

see their full bio.

From here she can read all about their education, accomplishments and additional research. Each faculty member has a

standard profile structure so it is easy for her to scan and find information. She locates their e-mail address and clicks to

send them a message to start a larger discussion. The dual format of information allows for great discoverability of each

faculty member. The currently navigation and layout make this information disconnected and inconsistent.

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Photo Credits

http://www.flickr.com/photos/babybare11/5210326574/http://www.flickr.com/photos/sxld/4609295582/http://www.flickr.com/photos/sharontaylor/246397449/http://www.flickr.com/photos/afdn/3827359751/

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http://www.flickr.com/photos/babybare11/5210326574/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/babybare11/5210326574/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sxld/4609295582/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sxld/4609295582/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sharontaylor/246397449/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sharontaylor/246397449/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/afdn/3827359751/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/afdn/3827359751/

lis7470 - information architecture

Education