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We have two main sources of user populations: high school students (who may or not have been accepted to MIT already) and current MIT students. The analysis for each general population, and classes within those populations, is below.
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college students and their parents.
College Students
Characteristics:
- 1418-18 23 years old
- About evenly male and female
- proficient with technology
- Diverse diverse ethnic backgrounds and countries of origin origins (but basic proficiency in with English)
- Academically motivated and accomplished
- Proficient with technology
Pichu is applying to colleges. He is interested in MIT, but would like to learn more about its culture and academic opportunities. Pichu is in many ways similar to Pikachu (below), although his general focus is likely more on the academic opportunities at MIT. When we expand our website to include more information about other features of MIT life (such as academic programs and virtual campus tours), he will be much more likely to use the website.
Pikachu has been offered admission into MIT, and needs to differentiate MIT from other colleges. Before making a final decision, Pikachu would like to gather more information on financial cost, academic programs, research opportunities, and student life.
>> We interviewed one prefrosh who reported browsing a number of different sites about campus life (i3 videos on YouTube, main MIT site). She wanted to be able to get advice from current MIT students about housing and academics.
Raichu has accepted MIT’s offer of admission and is preparing for the fall. While Raichu may have come to CPW, he was busy attending so many free food events that he was not able to adequately compare dorms. Raichu is worried about ranking dorms and would like to find the dorm that best fits his personality. In addition, Raichu has started to consider potential majors and scout the surrounding neighborhood for good restaurants, but all the information he wants is scattered across multiple websites and he is finding it hard to keep track of everything.
>> We interviewed several current freshmen (the closest to this user population as possible right now). They all reported a lot of difficulty finding information about dorms when deciding among them for their preference list, and difficulty using the Housing website as well. Additionally, they said that over CPW they weren’t able to interact much with current MIT students or to get a good feel for which dorms would be best for them. Several of them reported that they selected the wrong dorm when they first came to MIT and then subsequently entered the re-adjustment lottery once they had a chance to talk to more MIT students.
MIT Students
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Characteristics:
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- 18-23 years old
- Age excepted, same characteristics as high school students
- wide variation of income level and spending capacities
Luke is a freshman at college. His parents pay for his tuition and housing and provide him with $300 a month for food and other necessities. Luke wants to keep track of his spending so he always has enough money for food and textbooks and knows if he has any extra money for recreational activitiesAsh wants to share his MIT experience with newcomers so that they may get the most out of MIT. He wants to impart his wisdom to the young’uns, warn them of perils, and inform them of the best locations on campus.
>> As current MIT students who help out during CPW and REX, we have all had prefrosh come into our living groups who are curious about each dorm’s particular culture. However, with the large number of prefrosh coming and going, it is hard to sustain a long conversation about the reality of MIT life. Also, students unable to visit MIT, particularly international admits, will get little to no chance at interacting with actual MIT students. Our site will provide an efficient interface for prefrosh to get in touch with current MIT students who are willing to share their personal experiences.
Task Analysis
Our website is intended as a home-browsing, leisurely activity. Thus, all of the below tasks will likely be performed indoors at a desk, on a computer, and the individual tasks have no time constraints and will likely be performed about once a week during the times that high school students are making their decisions (mid-March to the end of April about MIT, then June about dorms) and the MIT students are offering their personal experiences (potentially all year round, but with spikes during CPW and REX).
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