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User Analysis
In At a higher level, our user population can be categorized into students or instructors (e.g., TAs). However, since different kinds of students will use the application differently, this user group was broken into two subcategories: more active (or "organized") students, and more passive (or "lazy") students. For the user analysis, we have interviewed one of each type of usersuser:
- Olivia, the Organized Student
- Levi, the Lazy Student
- Tina, the TA
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- There are students who would go in on the first day of class and add everything they need.
- However, they might repeat effort: Olivia would want to do it herself.
- Google calendar isn't used for dynamic, group scheduling.
- Google calendar is annoying to enter non-repeating events on (ie bulk adders are really nice).
- Efficient entry is necessary to attract this class of users.
Levi, the Lazy Student
Levi dislikes unnecessary work. He occasionally uses a small to-do list, but mostly prefers to keep track of his assignments in his head. To check his class assignments he visits the course website for each class, checks his email for announcements, and talks with other students in the class. He would like a tool to help keep track of his assignments, but would be reluctant to spend time adding assignments himself. Whether or not he would use certain features, like rating assignments, largely depends on how easy they are to access and use. However, he thinks it would be interesting if an assignment tracking tool also allowed him to see when friends had completed assignments.
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- TAs could have the role of moderators.
- Changes in assignments are a real-world problem.
- TAs and instructors could use the tool to collect statistical information.
Task Analysis
The problem analysis and user interviews revealed several high-level tasks performed by our users. Some of the tasks to be supported by the application include:
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- Goal: Enter a new class, with its assignments, into the system.
- Frequency of use: At the beginning of a semester, once per class.
- Subtasks:
- Create the new class
- Add one or more assignments
- Preconditions:
- A descriptive name for the new class feed
- A list of assignments with due dates
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- Goal: Subscribe to the feed for a class, so its assignments will show up on your due list.
- Frequency of use: At the beginning of a semester, once per class.
- Subtasks:
- Find the desired class in the list of class feeds
- Preconditions:
- Knowing the class name
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- Goal: Add an assignment, either to a class feed, where it will be visible to all students, or to a private feed, visible only to you.
- Frequency of use: Varied: anywhere from once per assignment to never.
- Subtasks:
- Choose the feed to add the assignment to
- Add assignment details
- Preconditions:
- A due date for the assignment
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- Goal: Mark an assignment as done, so that it does not appear in the due list.
- Frequency of use: Up to once per assignment (several times a week).
- Subtasks:
- Mark the assignment as done
- Fill in assignment statistics (optional)
- Preconditions:
- A completed assignment