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Team members: Stephanie Chang, Qian Long, Isabella Lubin
User Analysis
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 Evenly male and female
- Proficient with technology
- 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
Ash 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).
1. Browse information (Pichu/Pikachu/Raichu)
- Filter map by category (later functionality)
- View i3 videos
- Read MIT student stories
- Browse dorm pictures and stats (cost, number of doubles, etc.)
- View direct comparison of different dorm features (cost, demographics, rooms)
Students are browsing information because they want to learn more about the dorms and about MIT student life in general. We assume the user has basic understanding of colleges (particularly dorm structure) and browsing websites.
Before reaching the browsing functionality, the homepage will include a brief blurb about how MIT Housing and dorm assignments work. This information will be sufficient for the user to begin browsing.
The task is learned by exploration. In general, getting confused by the information on the website and how to navigate it is the biggest way this task could go wrong, so it’s important that we design the browsing functionality to be very intuitive.
Part of this browsing involves reading the personal experiences that MIT students have posted, so in that sense the students here are indirectly interacting with MIT students, and the success of that feature of this task depends on task 2.
2. Submit advice or personal stories (Ash)
- Precondition: logged in with MIT certificates
- Post story associated with a particular location
- Select whether or not others can ask questions about this story (If “yes”, then they are allowing others to email them)
- Preview story
- Submit story
- Delete story
The purpose of this task is for current MIT students to share their experiences with regards to a particular aspect of MIT life.
The preview feature allow the user to proofread what s/he has written before final submission to check for errors. Nonetheless, a user could still submit a story for the wrong dorm or accidentally mark that people may not ask follow-up questions, in which case they are able to delete the story and create a new one.
A potential use case would be students submitting malicious stories about other dorms. We may include an option to report stories for spam or abuse, or simply have an option to notify the webmasters/moderators to remove the story manually.
3. Ask a question (Pichu/Pikachu/Raichu)
- Input email address and question about a particular student story
- Preview question
- CAPTCHA and submit question to the MIT student
Prefrosh and prospective students want to be able to communicate with current MIT students about their actual experiences. They will be able to do so by filling out a form linked to each story.
- 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 activities as well.
We observed college students (especially ones in dorms without dining plans) who are often left with $5 in their bank account and a couple of packs of ramen to last them through the last few days of the month. Several students were observed calling their parents and requesting more money to get them through the weekend; others who have limited resources were seen ordering takeout that they might not be able to afford. The ability to track spending easily would greatly help all of these students, even if it's just a matter of proving to parents that they really do need more money and aren't spending money frivolously.
Parents
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Characteristics:
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- 40-60 years old
- Evenly male and female
- Very basic experience with smartphones
- Diverse ethnic backgrounds and origins (but basic proficiency with English)
- Wide variation of income level
Vader is Luke's 42-year-old father. He wants to keep track of his son's spending so he knows where his hard-earned money is going, and if his son asks him for more money he wants to make sure that his son has been responsible with what he's already been given.
In the student user analysis, a student was observed asking his mother for more money with the explanation that he had just spent the rest of his money on groceries - a parent's ability to view this expense would reassure them that their faith was not misplaced. Other students reported creating careful budgets to present to their parents when defending extra expenses, like spring break trips - parents therefore like being presented with budgets because it illustrates their children's responsibility.
Task Analysis
All of the following tasks require a smartphone connected to the Internet.
1. Register and log in (Luke and Vader)
- Create username/password (first time app users)
- Input username/password (repeat users)
This task is the entry point to the app, used to create an account for the user so that he can modify personal data. The user is assumed to have an email address that will be used for the username, and the user will generate his own password for this account.
This task can be performed anywhere as long as the user has a smartphone that is connected to the Internet. The registration task is only performed once, but once the user has created an account, he can log in anytime afterwards or simply remain logged in, so overall, this task will be performed very infrequently.
This task will be learned by trying it as it will be consistent with other login and registration interfaces. The user might input the wrong username and/or password, but the interface will give immediate feedback so that the user can try again. Only the user is involved in this task.
2. Create and modify budgets (Luke)
- Create categories (groceries, clothing, etc.)
- Input budget
- Input income
- Input expenses
- Input recurring income and expenses (paychecks, rent, Internet, etc.)
The purpose of this task is for the user to create and input his budget and expenses. The user is assumed to know or decide the values of his budget, income, and expenses, and which categories his expenses belong to. The user can create customized categories to reflect his spending trends.
This task can be performed anywhere with a smartphone, but will probably be performed most often at stores right after a purchase is made. This task will most likely be performed at least once a day. This task might be constrained by time, especially if the user is inputting on the go.
This task is learned by trying it because there will be a very intuitive, easy-to-use interface for the user to input information.
This task is reasonably prone to user error because the user might be constrained by time or distractions while he is entering values for his expenses and budget. Because the user is entering values on a mobile phone, he might additionally mistype a value that can later affect his spending decisions. To account for this, there will be immediate feedback after a user has saved an input so that the user can perform a sanity check to see if he made any errors.
3. Share budgets (Luke)
- Share expenses with others
- Enter username/email to share budget with
The purpose of this task is for the user to share his budget with someone else, most likely a parent. This task can be performed anywhere with a smartphone. It is likely to be performed a few times a month. This task is learned by trying it on the intuitive interface.
The user might make an error when inputting a username with whom to share his budget, so the user will need to check a confirmation before sharing. No one else is involved in executing the task, but this task will result in another party receiving a notification.
4. View budgets (Luke and Vader)
- View graphs of expenses by category
- Monthly or yearly cumulative views
- View breakdown of expenses by category
The purpose of this task is for the user to view and track his (or another user’s) expenses. The user is assumed to know how to select options and view simple charts before performing the task.
In the case of a budget having been shared with a user who has not already created an account, that user will first be prompted to perform task 1, and will then be able to view the shared budget.
This task can be performed anywhere with a smartphone. This task is likely to be performed a few times a day. In the case of one’s own budget, one is especially likely to view the budget when one is deciding whether or not to make a purchase, so while at a store with somewhat limited time constraints (the user doesn’t want to spend a lot of time on the task and wants to view the budget quickly). Viewing someone else’s budget is a more leisurely activity and would likely happen in the comfort of one’s homeThe preview feature before final submission will allow the user to proofread for errors. On submission, an email containing the question will be sent to both the questioner and the author of the post.