research presentation01

Juliana Diaz | Adam Howard | Jenny Shirey | Ruqian Zhou

2020-ten.org

Research & Need IdentificationA review of initial research, synthesis of needs and directions for further inquiry.

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Juliana Diaz | Adam Howard | Jenny Shirey | Ruqian Zhou2020-ten.org

Lets review...

Information Lifecycle & Distribution

We identified an area of focus......

but it was a bit of a monster


Looking back at stakeholders

Speakers & Lectures

7

Recruiters

7

Individuals

6

Student Orgs

6

Administrators

6

Market Researchers

5

Advertisers

5

Graphic Designer

4

Printer

3

Distributor

2

Students

1

Faculty

1

Visitors

1

Copy Writers

5

Janitorial Staff

1

Paper and suppliesProvider

3

Promote OrgFundraising

Promote productmake money

Communicate ideaget message out

Make moneybe efficient/accurate

files Accurate up to daterelevant informationCLarity of message

Promote companylook for employers

Promote, lecture,book,self Gett message right

please client, make moneyget paid, set direction

target audience

?


Touchstone Tours

We wanted to examine how people deal with information. We knew that the area was a bit broad so we understood the need to focus our touchstones in order to get concrete results that would help us identify needs.

We chose to focus our research efforts on information distribution within organizations. Organizations have unique information challenges and understanding how they handled these was key to understanding information distribution methodologies and styles.

The basis of our touchstone tours


Jeff - TT # 1

Position: Senior Manager Company/Organization: Bosch Research and Technology Center (RTC)Years in Position: 10

“ Email is a burden”

Needs:better organization/prioritizing of emailless information overloadbetter communication between RTC and the rest of Bosch


Jason - TT # 2

Position: Editor of “The Link”Company/Organization: CMU Computer Science Dept.Years in Position: 2

“I treat it like a small-town newsletter”

Needs:Feedback from audienceTo reach a wide audience through online presence


Sonjala - TT# 3

Position: Assistant Director - CFA career consultantCompany/Organization: CMU Career CenterYears in Position: 7 3/4 years

“Students and opportunities, everyone needs one thing to connect, even it is quite bad”

Needs:Email and social media most welcomed/acceptable way for students. The web is used to quickly update information and keep students on track. Make students aware of the most relevant and important events. Find a way to ensure knowledge gets to students without being overwhelming (emails)


Jill - TT # 4

Position: General ManagerCompany/Organization: Battleworks Dance Company

“…I worked with artists so much. They're so forgetful and unreliable… email was a great way to keep them to task without allowing them to waste my time by digressing into arty conversation like they would in person.”

Needs:Consistent information / “paper trail”Engage potential donors and performance attendees


Casey - TT # 5

Position: Manager - Team LeaderCompany/Organization: Whole Foods -Shadyside

“I literally measure my email in feet”

Needs:An easy fast method to reach all 250 employeesA better way to sort and flag emailsBe able to remember actionable emails


More research - Connecting to Info

Getting more information

After we met and decided how we were going to do our touchstone tours, we realized we needed more data on the other side of the spectrum. While the tours granted us access to people who were in charge of information distribution, we now felt it necessary to try and get the “information consumers” perspective.

For this purpose we created a quick survey looking at how people consumed various types of information. Service or task based information, leisure based, knowledge based and passive sources of information.


Survey Results (Sample)


Survey Responses

“Downside of email is I don't always have time to look into activities more and then I forget about them later.”

About effective methods of communication

“Given that I am a heavy user of e-mail, I pay more attention to direct messages with event advertising. The e-mail should be well formatted so that it doesn't resemble annoying or useless spam”

“I usually only care about events that my friends feel are relevant enough to me to tell me about.”


Synthesis & Direction

1. FeedbackHow can people who send out mass messages get

feedback?2. Filtering

How can receivers of mass messages avoid information overload by filtering out the most relevant and important information?

3. TimelinessHow can users avoid out-of-date information, and

consistently receive current information?

Getting closer and finding opportunities

3 Directions of focus:


Refining our area

After our research, our discussions led to a specific category of information distribution that we were automatically drawn to, this was...

The information cloud

Actionable Information

1. The cloud holds the river of information that we access on a daily basis

2. We consume multiple types of information, but usually are most interested or worry most about the information that requires our specific involvement. Both as individuals and as businesses.

3. We manage many forms of information that require us to engage or respond to it. And there are few tools designed to address actionable needs.


What we discovered

A source in the computer science department pointed out that our interest in actionable information aligned with a many current research efforts.

Actionable information logistics addresses people-centered design of information logistics: the user actively designs, develops and monitors processes necessary for delivery and presentation of information tailored to individual user needs.

Wikipedia says... “

”


Other interesting facts

89% of internet users send or receive email(September 2009 - source Pew Internet & American Life Project)

55% of American adults connect to the internet wirelessly, either through a WiFi or WiMax connection via their laptops or through their handheld device like a smart phone. (source: Pew Internet & American Life Project)

38% send instant messages(November 2008 - Pew Internet & American Life Project)46% upload photos to a website so you

can share them with others online(August 2008 - Pew Internet & American Life Project)

72% go online just for fun or to pass the time(April 2009 - Pew Internet & American Life Project)

81% look for information about a service or product they are thinking of buying(September 2007 - Pew Internet & American Life Project)


Directions - (Feedback)

Example concept: digital bulletin board that knows when users are looking at it

How can people who send out mass messages get feedback?

Based on our conversations with Jill, Jason, and Sonjala, who need to reach a wide audience but also need to know their information is relevant

Ties in to user engagement, which Sonjala is also concerned with


Directions - (Filtering)

Example concept: email metadata that facilitates a filtering system

How can receivers of mass messages avoid information overload by filtering out the most relevant and important information?

Based on our conversations with Jeff and Casey, who report receiving overwhelming amounts of email, and don’t know what needs a response

Sonjala knows students ignore or delete her emails: needs a way for students to get relevant information

Our own experiences show that information overload is a huge problem


Directions - (Timeliness)

Example concept: context-aware email, smart bulletin boards where events delete themselves after event is over

How can users avoid out-of-date information, and consistently receive up-to-date information?

Based on our own experiences receiving outdated or last-minute information about events at CMU

Jeff and Casey said if they don’t take care of emails right away, they’ll forget about it

Survey responders report also forgetting about email if it lingers in the inbox too long


Next Steps

Targeted research within our chosen directionsExample: have a few participants keep track of outdated information received

Competitive analysis: what’s already on the market?

Begin concept development: narrow down target audience

A little brainstorming


thank you!

research presentation01

Documents

important information

passivesources of information

unreliable email

years students

burden needs

bad needs

bosch research

students aware