Academic Projects

Communication Flow

Final Report

Summary:

This course focused on contextual design and user needs analysis through an introduction to the frameworks, methods, and issues on information use in various levels of aggregation (individual, group, organization, and profession) and various contexts (work environments, community, and society).

Our five-person group worked with the U-M International Center to help them solve problems of interest. We investigated and modeled their communication and work flow with customers through a series of interviews and observations. Our recommendations were based on analyzing this data along with the collection of artifacts from the organization and conducting outside research on the field of international education.

Major Deliverables:

Individual and group papers and presentations, included:

* Initial contact report * Project Work Plan
* Information seeking observations
* Client description and analysis
* Initial recommendations
* Final presentation
* Final Report

My responsibilities included:

I conducted client interviews and observations at both the central and north campus locations of the International Center. I also assisted with the analysis of data collected by all team members. I contributed to the writing and editing of most reports and was one of two editors responsible for the compilation of the final report that was provided to the client. In addition I provided overall project management throughout the term.

Site Welcome Page

Summary:

This course focused on the use of PHP and MySQL to create web pages. Little focus was placed on actual elements of page design, rather the bulk of the class was spent learning PHP & MySQL through a series of assignments and a final project.

Major Deliverables:

* Weekly individual assignments
* Final Project (see a gallery of site images)

Additional Notes:

Unfortunately the web server on which this site is now hosted does not have PHP enabled, so I am unable to show live pages. I have however included screen shots of my final project, and can provide code samples upon request.

Activity Grapher

Summary:

This course was an introduction to java programming that involved numerous assignments and a final project. The final project was geared to apply what we learned about java and to make use of the object oriented principles of encapsulation, polymorphism, and inheritance.

Major Deliverables:

* Weekly individual assignments
* Final Project (see a gallery of images)

Additional Notes:

For my final project I made use of a java graphing class I found. I have included screen shots of my final project, and can provide code samples upon request.

iTunes GTN

Persona Report

Competitive Evaluation Report

User Survey Report

Heuristic Evaluation Report

Usability Report

Visual Evaluation Report

Final Presentation Movie

Summary:

This course was a usability evaluation class designed to provide hands-on experience with numerous usability techniques including generalized transition network diagrams (GTNs), persona & scenario development, competitive analysis, user surveys, heuristic evaluation, cognitive walkthrough, user testing, visual analysis, and vocabulary analysis.

Our three-person group evaluated Apple's iTunes music player version 4.x.

Major Deliverables:

Group papers and presentations, included:

* Project Plan & Timeline
* GTN Diagram
* Personas and Scenarios
* Competitive Evaluation
* User Survey
* Heuristic Evaluation
* Usability Testing
* Visual evaluation
* Final Presentation

My responsibilities included:

Overall usability project management and planning was shared among team members, with each team member taking lead on various assignments. I was the project manager for the GTN assignment, which involved the overall design and compilation of the diagram, gathering and creating graphic elements, and getting feedback from other team members. I was also the project manager for the user survey assignment, which involved setting goals for the survey, drafting survey questions, determining target audience, implementation of the survey instrument, initial compilation of survey data, and drafting and revising the final report. For the competitive evaluation assignment I performed the analysis of RealPlayer and the CD Jukebox as well as contributed the editing of the final report. For the heuristic and visual evaluations I performed and summarized an evaluation based on our heuristics and edited the final report. For usability testing I was responsible for equipment set up, conducted 2 of the 5 tests, observed 1 test, and contributed to the analysis of data and the final report. For the final presentation I created the slide show and participated in the presentation.

E-R Diagram

Final Report

Final Presentation

Summary:

This course was an introduction to database management systems (DBMS), covering both the theoretical and practical aspects of DBMS, such as database design, use, and implementation.

Our two-person group designed and developed a practical database system for an external client. This project was an expansion on the final project I undertook in SI 539, and involved the use of MySQL and PHP.

Major Deliverables:

* Individual assignments
* Final Report
* Project presentation

My responsibilities included:

Database redesign and implementation, coding pages to make use of new database layout, editing final report, and designing and co-presenting the project presentation.

Info Arch

Problem: click to join

Midterm Presentation

Final Report

Summary:

This course covered a whole set of principles, concepts, techniques, and tools that are required to build and maintain effective information spaces in distributed systems, particularly those accessible through the World Wide Web. It covered a vast array of computer hardware and software; principles and techniques for graphical design; and concepts and tools for organizing content effectively.

Our four-person group took a semester long look at the website for KCRW, a community radio station of Santa Monica College. We performed an information architecture review of the web site, and put together a set of observations and recommendations for improvements.

Major Deliverables:

* Site Review Report
* Site Review Presentation

My responsibilities included:

I performed an initial site review of the IA to generate list of observations to help guide our discussions on improvements. I also conducted an open card sort exercise on site labels. The actual card sort exercise was developed by another team member. I developed the survey instrument that we used as part of the card sort exercise. I developed personas to reflect the current KCRW listener base. I generated a site map of KCRW.org using Visio, and generated a number of the graphics (see the 'Problem: click to join' image to the left) that we used in our final presentation, which I put together, and the final report, which I co-wrote with another team member.

KidzSafe Logo

KidzSafe Child View

KidzSafe Parent View

KidzSafe Final Report

Summary:

This course provided an introduction to user-interface design from a design principles perspective. The course covered accessibility, design ethics, psychological principles, interaction principles, requirements analysis, project management, I/O devices, standards and style guides, and visual design principles. There was a pragmatic, applied view of design taken, with frequent in-class practical design exercises. We received hands-on experience with multiple primary techniques for user interface design like mockups, thumbnails, screen layouts, personas and scenarios, icon design.

Our three-person group designed Kidzsafe, a web browser allowing parents to control what sites their children browse. This project was on paper only, no actual working product was produced.

Major Deliverables:

* Individual assignments included:
   + Competitive analysis
   + Mockups and Thumbnails
   + Personas and Scenarios
   + Product Redesign
   + Screen Layout
   + Metaphor Design
   + Icon Design
   + Styleguide Creation
   + Speech Interfaces
* KidzSafe Final Report

My responsibilities included:

I developed personas and scenarios; created thumbnails and roughs of the browser and various graphic elements; defined business and user goals; contributed to the competitive analysis; contributed to the task analysis; and co-wrote the final report.

Professional Projects

Design Evolution of the CSR

Before: CSR Page 1

Before: CSR Page 2

After: CSR Page 1

After: CSR Page 2

Summary:

I worked with the College of Engineering web team to develop, code, and test a web-based application for the CAEN Service Center. The goal was to convert the web-based customer repair form I prototyped in my semester projects for SI539 & SI654. The prototypes were done using PHP and MYSQL, but in order to be in production in the college this form needed to utilize the college supported web scripting environment JSP and the college database environment Oracle.

As the summer progressed, the scope of the project changed due to a change in priorities within CAEN. The focus shifted from developing a web-based application to improving the existing customer repair form.

Major Duties:

* Gather initial user requirements, feature set, and usability requirements.
   + define feedback objectives
   + observe repair staff
   + perform group walkthrough of repair form
   + determine financial/administrative requirements
* Develop information architecture
   + define pages/forms/views needed
   + define database table structure
   + define page features
* Rapid prototype a revised web-CSR
* Perform user testing

Major Deliverables:

The final results from this project are summarized in the presentation, 'Design Evolution of a Customer Service Request Form'. The images to the left illustrate the form before and after the project.

CMS Report

Current Intranet

Front Page

Secondary Pages

Summary:

I evaluated and assessed technologies to create a documentation system to make it easy for the Sites technical staff to create documentation about their computing environment for both internal and external consumption. The initial focus was to evaluate the Wikipedia engine and other relevant content/information management systems. After conversations, interviews, and observations of staff I generated a recommendation for content management systems that were simple to use and required minimal time commitment and effort for document creation and editing.

Major Duties:

* Develop an understanding of the various information sources currently in use for documenting and managing the Sites environment, which include web pages, applications, databases, electronic and paper documents
* Gather feedback (both direct and observational) from Sites technical staff on feature set and usability requirements for a documentation system
   + develop requirements interview
   + conduct interviews with Sites staff
   + identify required vs. would be nice needs
* Search for and evaluate content/document management systems including the Wikipedia engine
   + conduct web search for products that meet required needs
   + conduct comparative analysis on selected products
* Generate recommendation and next steps for deployment and implementation plan for documentation systems
* Pilot deployment of the documentation system

Major Deliverables:

The report providing the recommendation of content management systems (CMS) was the first milestone for the project. After a review of the report, Sites selected the Drupal CMS. I then created a wireframe of their current intranet and a set of proposed layouts (front page & secondary pages) for the new document system. After modifications were made to the proposed wireframes I populated the new document system with initial content. The new document system was introduced to staff in late May 2006.

Research Projects

Initial research proposal by student team prior to my involvement

Project Overview - presented by Prof. Bhavnani

Summary:

In addition to my day job, I worked on a research project to develop a tool for users to learn and share effective search strategies. This project had its roots in Suresh Bhavnani's research on information scatter. Basically his research shows that searchers become frustrated when looking for information on the web, despite the use of powerful search engines like Google. Part of the reason for this is that users do not understand how information is organized in unfamiliar domains. For example, without extensive online shopping experience, it is difficult to know that there exist product-review sites, price-comparison sites, and coupon sites, each of which are important to visit when searching for a high-quality product at a low price. Unfortunately, such organization of information is not obvious by just using a search engine like Google. Our work, directly addressed this problem by attempting to provide an environment where users could learn and share such search strategies in different online domains such as shopping, healthcare, and academics.

Major Duties:

As the usability lead I worked with Prof. Bhavnani to develop the experimental design and the research proposal that we submitted for review. I was responsible for assisting in the design of the interface and conducted usability analysis of the interfaces provided by the development team. We conducted an iterative design process where we would sketch out ideas as a group. The development team would then take those ideas and produce a working version of the interface. I would then go through the interface looking for bugs and assess its usability and would make recommendations for changes or fixes.

Once we had a functional interface, I was responsible for setting up, scheduling, coordinating, and running user tests. Users went through a series of shopping tasks using the interface. After each day of testing we made further design improvements based on what we learned from the human subjects.

* Assisted in interface design
   + brainstorming
   + low fidelity mockups
* Conducted usability analysis of interfaces
   + heuristic analysis
   + cognitive walkthroughs
* Coordinated & conducted user testing
* Summarized user test results
* Assisted with design of research proposal
   + assisted in developing research questions
   + assisted in developing experimental design
   + assisted with literature reviews

Major Deliverables:

We went through 3 major revisions to the GoogleBuddy interface, 1 major revision to the SearchBuddy interface, and had begun work on the SearchBuddy introductory tutorial. The images provided here show the evolution from initial concept to the last version of the GoogleBuddy interface completed.

The introductory tutorial for the SearchBuddy interface is illustrated in this PowerPoint presentation.

Additional Notes:

In addition to the images you can see of the GoogleBuddy and SearchBuddy interfaces there were also voice driven instructions present to help reinforce the learning of the steps of the search strategy. Here is a sample of the welcome audio that was present in the introductory tutorial.