1. Observations:

All of my observations were from my history course in McCosh, taken on three separate days.

a.  I first interviewed a senior girl when class ended, and got permission to interview her when she got to class before lecture.  She got to class five minutes early,  and spent her time chatting and playing with her iphone.  She was sitting next to a friend, and played angry birds until lecture started.

b.  My second interview was with a junior male.   He got to class six minutes early, and went over the course syllabus for a minute, before checking facebook and espn on his computer for the rest of the time.

c.  My last interview was with a sophomore male.  He got to class two minutes before lecture and prepared a word document for class notes.  He waited the last minute silently for the teacher to start lecturing.

From my observations and questions I gathered the following:

– most students arrived before lecture started, and roughly half the class was there with 3-5 minutes until lecture.

– many people spent time on computers and iphones

–  people sitting quietly with notebooks out

– small percentage chatting

– lots of people looking around

Generally, people were either waiting for lecture, chatting with friends, or using a smartphone/computer to surf the web, check email, and use Facebook.

From my questions:

a)  Do you have anything specific you like to do before lecture?

– “I like to play games on my Iphone, and review notes for class”

–  “it’s a good time to check email”

–   “Not really, just unwind between classes”

b)  Do you have a smartphone or computer to use?

” I don’t bring my computer to class, but I have an Iphone”

“Yes, I like to take notes on my computer.”

” I carry my computer to class, I don’t use my smartphone much except for texts though”

c) Would you like something else to do before class?

“Yes, it can be a nice time to be productive but I am generally unoccupied for a decent amount of time”

” I don’t know, it’s not really that long, but maybe, it depends on what it was”

” Mmm, possibly, Facebook normally does the trick though.”

From my observations I got the feeling that people kept themselves happy before lecture, but had time for something else.  Many students have internet access, and classes generally tended to be divided between boredom, productivity, and entertainment.  From this, I decided to make ideas with utility and entertainment, while not being too intensive so students can relax before lecture.

2.  Ideas

I brainstormed with Bereket Abraham, Andrew Ferg and Lauren Berdick.

We came up with the following list:
1. A name game to get to know your neighbors

2. A talent show with students performing as they wish

3. Q and A with professor based on student’s questions and a voting system to choose the questions asked
4. A joke telling contest with students rotating telling jokes before class

5. An application video of what is going to presented during the lecture to give people an overview and draw interest
6. Crowdsourced music making, with each student getting to contribute a beat to a song that builds up until lecture starts
7. Current events shown that are related to the class, such as campus speakers, new books, important findings, etc

8. One tough problem that everyone collaborates on and if they get it then the entire class gets extra credit

9. Crowdsourced, collaborative art project that everyone contributes to until the semester ends

10. A personal blog for the class where students can post and view other posts as they wish

11. Professor or preceptor gets to prepare a story to tell the class during the day

12. Professor gives a brief summary / update of his current research or the state of his research field.

13. Riddle of the day that the class works together to solve

14.  Professor/preceptor gives potential interview questions for jobs or graduate school related to the field

15. Map application that shows shortest path to your next class from your current location, with a stop for food along the way

16. App for perpetually late students that provides a live audio broadcast of the first 10 minutes of large lectures

3.  Favorite Ideas

My two favorite ideas were the question and answer session with the professor, and the collaborative art project.  I chose the Q and A idea because it let students pick whether they wanted to be productivity or entertainment based on their questions, and did not require all of the students to participate so others could carry on activities they enjoyed more.  I chose the collaborative art project for similar reasons, since only interested students needed to participate, and because I thought having a final project that many people had worked on would be a neat touch to a course.

Pictures:

Q and A Ranker:

Q and A Homepage

Q and A Login

Q and A Past Questions

Q and A Question Submission

Q and A Flag Submission

The Q and A Ranker was made as a website.  Students enter their netID, and select their course to go to the course’s Q and A page.  From here, students use a reddit-style system to submit their own questions for their Professor, upvote and downvote other questions, and flag posts.  Posts can be flagged if they are offensive, already asked, or related to homework.  This is designed to keep questions interesting and make the session not turn into a homework session.  As well, students are listed next to their submissions to prevent offensive/or rude material.

Class Graffiti:

Class Graffiti Homepage

Class Graffiti Draw Page

Class Graffiti Update/History

The class graffiti idea is also a website, and students travel to the homepage for their course to work on a drawing project.  Students can contribute to the art, look at other’s recent submissions, and view the last year’s final work.  The drawing panel allows the student to pick colors and brush sizes from a panel, and add to the drawing wherever they want.

Testing:

For testing, I decided to go with the Q and A ranker website.

I first tested with a male student.  I gave him the login page and he followed that, and acted like he pick his course.  He then went to the homepage (which I gave him), and was initially confused, and wasn’t sure what to make of the arrows and questions.  He clicked on submission, and pretended to make his own submission.  He then went back to the homepage and looked at the questions again.  He clicked on an arrow, and realized it was a voting machine.  He than viewed the already asked questions.

When I asked him if he liked the website, he told me he thought it was a neat idea, but wasn’t sure if the Professor would have time to answer the questions.  He liked that people’s names were linked to questions, and also worried that it would turn into a homework session (I then showed him the flag option, and he agreed this would help prevent that).  He overall found that it could be useful for some classes, and agreed that he might use it if he got to class early.

For my next tester, I gave hime the login and then homepage, and he recognized the similarities to reddit.  He upvoted two posts and downvoted one and laughed, and then went to view older questions.  He then returned to the homepage and made his own submission.   Again, the user did not click the flag option.  When I asked what he thought of the site, he said he liked it and called it a “reddit site”.  He though he would use it, but was worried questions would get out of hand (I then showed him the flag option).   Overall, he found the site a little silly, but agreed it could be a nice way to pass time and commented that he would enjoy asking some of his Professors some questions.  He wasn’t sure Professors would agree to participate, or might be busy setting up for class, but said if they weren’t he could see it being a nice addition to the 10 minute break in between classes.

My last tester also drew comparisons to reddit, and was excited to use the site.  He logged in, laughed at the class selection, and went right to upvoting and downvoting posts.  He asked if he could click on the posts, and said that it might be neat to allow the user to submit information on what motivated them to ask the question to help convince others to up or downvote it.  He liked that he could see the net results of the vote next to the post.  He then went to view the past questions.  He went back to the homepage, and pressed flag, but then said that he didn’t think the post was flag worthy, so he tried to submit his own post instead.

The user enthusiastically felt that the site would be useful, and began to brainstorm questions he would ask his professors.  He said the site was simple and suited the idea, and he would use it for classes if he had time and wasn’t running late.

Tester submitting their post

Tester flagging a post for being offensive

Tester clicking to view already asked questions

Insights:

From my testing, I realized that there needs to be a way to make sure the Professor is on board with the website and answering questions before implementing the website.  This could come in the form of asking them what types of questions they are comfortable with and only allowing submissions of those, and giving the Professor an overriding power to delete posts before they can even be viewed for consideration by students.  Additionally, there may need to be more instructions for using the arrows.  Users who had frequented sites such as reddit immediately knew what to do when given the prototype, however other users were not sure how the voting system worked.  Colors would help make things more clear, but additionally more instructions or a help section on the website could be provided to help users unfamiliar with the format.  Another option could be to add the ability to provide text/a paragraph which motivated a users submitted question, that would be linked from the submitted question.  This would help students pick questions, and make up their minds if they are torn or ambivalent.  Testers seemed to like the ability to ask professors questions, and it appears that this website could be a viable option for the ten minute break in between classes.

1. Observations

I conducted my observation over the course of 2 weeks by trying to pay close attention to everyone around me as I walked and waited between all of my classes. After a few days, I began to notice several trends. Many students (especially after 1:30pm classes and before 10 or 11am classes) used the 10 minutes in between classes to run off and find food. Many students also used this time to print (and sometimes finish) last-minute assignments. Once arriving in the classroom, most students spent their time surfing the web, or socializing with nearby friends. However, there were 2 notable social trends. 1) students generally didnt appear to use this time to meet new people, but instead to socialize within established circles of friends. 2) Students never really got involved in any large-scale social interactions with the entire class or the professor. Lastly, I noticed that the students who consistently arrived late always seemed a bit lost for the first few minutes after arriving to lecture, likely because they missed important introductory material.

2. Brainstorming

Collaborated with: Bereket Abraham, Ryan Soussan, Lauren Berdick

1. name game, get to know your neighbor

2. talent show

3. professor story time

4. joke telling contest

5. applications/videos of what your are going to learn in order to generate interest

6. crowdsourced music making. everyone gets to contribute a beat to a song, entire thing gets compiled

7. Current events related to the class. Example, speakers, new books, important figures, etc

8. One tough problem that everyone collaborates on and if they get it then the entire class gets extra credit

9. Crowdsourced, collaborative art project that everyone contributes to

10. Personal subreddit for the class.

11. Class votes on interesting questions for the professor, i.e. about his work or life experiences

12. Professor gives a brief summary / update of his current research or the state of his research field.

13. Riddle of the day, Google interview questions

14. Map application that shows shortest path to your next class from your current location, with a stop for food along the way

15. Same as above map idea, only for bathrooms instead of food.

16. App for perpetually late students that provides a live audio broadcast of the first 10 minutes of large lectures

3. Favorite Ideas

1. Food map: My observations showed me that many students used their time walking between classes to grab some food, and this idea would be very useful if you need to grab a quick snack/meal in between classes by minimizing the walking distance you would need to travel to both grab a bite to eat and make it to class.

2. Lecture audio broadcasts: I noticed that late students would often look confused for a bit after arriving to lecture. This app would allow perpetually late students the opportunity to not be completely lost when arriving late to a lecture because they can listen to it while walking to class; additionally, because it only provides 10 minutes of audio, it  still forces students to go to class so it will not encourage skipping class entirely.

Photos and Descriptions of Prototypes

This is the title screen of Prototype 1, FoodMap

This is the second screen; it is an interactive map that lets you choose the location of you next class.

This is the final screen of Prototype 1; it shows a sample path from the current location (1938 Hall) to the next class at Wollworth, recommending Frist as the closest source of food.

This is the welcome screen of Prototype 2, LectureCast, with the login screen for a PUID.

This is the main screen of LectureCast, giving teh times until each of your classes, and notifying you if you are currently late for a class with an available audio stream.

This is the play screen, which shows when LectureCast is playing a live audio stream of a lecture.

This is the Schedule screeen of LectureCast, whic shows a Google Calendar styled calendar of each of your classes, including a bar showing the current day and time.

Notes From User Testing

Joe Margolies – Joe was a big fan of the concept of the app. He did not know immediately that the Schedule option on the Classes screen was the one available to be clicked on, and suggested that the darker tab should be the current selection. He intuitively noticed that the line on the schedule page indicated the current time, a la Google Calendar. His main complaint was the lack of additional functionality on the main Classes screen; he tried to click on all of the classes, and was disappointed that nothing happened. He suggested something such as Blackboard integration.

Greg Smith – Greg was a big fan of the simple home screen, because it reminded him of the PUID login screen, and felt that made it very intuitive. He was also a big fan of the displayed class times, as a sort of shortcut schedule. He was a fan of the simple design, and large buttonssaying they were easy to hit on a touchscreen while running to lecture. However, he wants more functionality, e.g. Blackboard synchronization, other academic information, just like Joe suggested.

Salvador Martinez – Salvador did not notice the Schedule button until much later on. He remarked when he finally clicked it that it was ambiguous whether the ‘Classes’ and ‘Schedule’ were descripive, or represented tabs. Sal was also the only person to notice a very obvious flaw: I forgot to include a signout button…. Lastly, he too was disappointed when there was no extra functionality, and suggested Blackboard integration.

Insights From Testing

Everyone seems to be a big fan of the app’s concept, but all wanted more from its implementation. Everyone I interviewed suggested Blackboard integration, and perhaps inclusion of powerpoints and other form of lecture materials. The GUI also needs minor improvements, especially the ‘Classes’ and ‘Schedule’ tabs, which most people did not recognize as a clickable option, and the volume control, which most users did not seem to try to use. Also, as Sal pointed out, the app obviously requires a logout button.

1. Observations

These observations were divided into the three time stamps that were mentioned. It seemed that people in each category tended to behave similarly. Early people were bored or distracted. On time people were cluttered. Late people caused a distracion.

First (Early)

Group of four students arrived to class 6 minutes early. As soon as they walked in, one of them asked the professor where the handouts for lecture were (every lecture had several handouts). The one person passed the handouts to each of the people he was with. The four of them sat down in a row and three of them proceeded to talk to each other. One of them looked over the handouts. She scanned the handout with the lecture slides. She also looked at the other miscellaneous handout. She spent more time intently looking at this one. 1 Minute before class begins, she stops looking at the handouts and then proceeds to talk to her friends.

Second (On Time)

Lots of students arrived between 1 minute before class started and when it started. Large bottleneck for receiving handouts. There were two piles, but there was a flood of people in front of the professor. Some students proceeded to ask the professor questions about the previous lecture and about precept. Not very many people looked over the handouts. They picked them up and found their seats. One student in particular asked a question about the miscellaneous handout, but the professor told him to ask the question after class (other people had a similar question that was eventually addressed). In the 30 or so seconds from getting their handouts to sitting down and becoming alert, most people took a quick look at their cell phones. Some people immediately sat down and got on Facebook. Very few others were looking at the assigned homework online. One student was reading Piazza posts.

Third (Late)

One notable student arrived 8 minutes late to class. He walked in through the front-side door and ended up getting the professor’s attention. Without saying a word, the professor pointed him towards the handouts on the table. The handouts were actually no longer on the front table, but were instead floating around in a big pile. He asked someone near the front where they were, creating a minor distraction among the people in the front. Eventually, someone passed them down and he got the two handouts. Because he was looking for the handouts in the front center, he walked towards a seat up the center aisles in the lecture hall. Most people he directly passed seemed to be distracted by him. He even dropped one of the handouts, and someone had to pass it to him. He eventually sat down near the back. He glanced at the lecture slide handout and the miscellaneous handout and proceeded to put them both inside his folder.

2. Brainstorming

1.Time Table – An app that reads your GPS location and upon clicking where your next class is, will tell you how long it takes to get there.

2. Class Connect – Each teacher contains a cheap computer that creates a network that allows closed, quick, and uncluttered communication between all people with laptops in the class.

3. Prox Proof – Uses the NFC feature to tag yourself when you leave a class and enter a class. If you enter late and prox in, the professor can look to see when you left your class and where it was to prove it wasn’t your fault you were late.

4. Text Quest – On your way to class, you can text questions about the class to a certain number. The professor can decide to give special attention to frequently asked questions.

5. Running – Running late to a semi-small class? This app allows you to update your status. If the professor sees enough people are late but on their way, the professor might wait for you.

6. Weighing In – Arduino controlled scale in your backpack that measures the weight of your backpack in accordance with the time of your class. If you’re missing anything, it’ll let you know, along with how long it will take you to get your things from your room and get to class.

7. Piazza Video Link – On their way to class, students can vote on videos they liked on piazza to be projected during the ten minutes before class.

8. Meal Link – Fill in the times you’re available for lunch/dinner on your way to class and where you want to go. Your friends will fill it out too.

9. Optionalcept – If a class offers optional precepts, students can let professors know if they plan on attending via a touch screen device in the ten minute time span before class.

10. pclasschat.com/[class name] – Private chat website between students before, during, or after class. Allows inter-student communication to be much easier.

11. Traffic Flow – If people are clogging Shapiro Walkway, you’ll know with this app.

12. Late Meal, Ho! – Will you make it to late meal? This website will text you at the absolute latest time you have to leave a class to make it to late meal.

13. Veggie Collection – An app that compiles a list of all the vegetarian food offered during a given day and meal. Now you can be sure where you want to go in your ten minute time-frame.

14. iSlush – An app updated by the university and students. During harsh weather conditions, lets people know if walkways are slippery, etc.

15. Food Queue – Eliminates the waiting time to order food from a restaurant. If you can’t make dining hall hours, this app will place an order with eat24 so you can get your meal at the right time.

3. Choices and Choices

1. Class Connect offers an information hub for professors to carry around that can be taken to lecture of office hours (Raspberry Pi powered, for example). People can connect via wifi on a close network. I noticed that people were often copying exactly what the professor wrote on the lecture slides. The lecture slides could be updated real time, so people wouldn’t have to copy down notes. I also noticed that some people had common questions on class. People could post questions, and thumbs up or thumbs down them. A professor can look at this list and decide what to answer. In general, people seemed more preoccupied right before class and this offers a more engaging experience.

2. I’ve had my route to class blocked via construction or ice before and it took longer than normal to get to class. If I was updated before I had to leave for class, I could have planned my route accordingly. iSlush would send such notifications.

4. Paper Prototypes

The menus shown are the main menu, documents page, assignments, groups, schedule, and comments. These would all be accessed via a closed wifi network. Additionally during review sessions or office hours, the same hardware can be brought and a similar mechanism can be used. For example, during both lectures, review sessions, and office hours, people can post questions and they can get up voted or down voted. This provides an engaging class experience, that also allows people who arrive late to jump right in.

Class Connect. In the image, you can see the main menu that allows you to write a review on the class you just experienced, post a question, thumbs up and down other questions, create groups for HW/studying, download the lecture slides as they are updated, view what’s going to be covered in this lecture, and more.

iSlush would give you a map of the campus and highlight hotspots. Frequent travelers of a route would be able to comment on the conditions of the route on any given day. Push notifications can alert the user of an interference in their path. This would allow users to actively plan their route.

iSlush gives you an interactive map with hotspots. When you click on one of the hotspots, it gives you info pertaining to construction, safety, etc. The info is in the form of comments that are up voted or down voted.

Here is the interactive map with two hotspots — One by Woody Woo and one by Jadwin

5. Testing

The users seemed to naturally interact with the menu. They pointed and clicked and then the menu got updated. They navigated to the sections they desired, and gave comments. My task was to notice the ease in which they navigated and to listen to their comments on the sections.

Elliot Pearl-Sachs:

• He was able to quickly understand the interface of the menu. He commented how he found the idea useful — he commented that his classes were spread out, so showing up late would’t be that much of an issue.
• His first order of business was to rate the music class he just came from. He mentioned how he appreciated the professor’s lecture and wanted to give him five stars (since he couldn’t write on the paper!).
• He commented on the simplicity of the comments section, mentioning the often times teachers ask for input on their lectures, but it’s relatively awkward going directly to them.
• He then returned to the main menu and entered the comments page
• He viewed someone’s question on the Hamiltonian and gave it a thumbs up.
• He then navigated to the main menu again and to the groups section. He was easily able to select that he wanted to join the group with Olivia Wilde in it.
• His main criticism was to include more information on the logistics of the class — actual links to the syllabus and such, not just trimmed down versions.

Elliot navigating to comments

Elliot giving the lecture 3 stars.

Michelle Lim:

• Michelle also commented on the menu — she appreciated the simplicity
• She first clicked on the documents. When I mentioned that this was updated in real time via the professor, she thought it would be useful since you no longer have to alter lecture slides: just wait for your professor to finish them.
• Her first critique was the addition of an email feature. If you could email the updated lectures slides to yourself, it might be more manageable at home.
• She navigated to the schedule and remarked on the importance of having “last lecture” “this lecture” and “next lecture.” She said that it not only allowed her to know which class to skip, but what the relative connection was between each lecture
• She finally navigated to the comment section. She said that she thought this was the most important section, commenting on how professors appreciate feedback. She said that it would be a good idea to incorporate the thumbs up and thumbs down feature so professors know what to look at.

Michelle Posing and choosing Post Question

Michelle Rating the class with five stars

Rebecca Basaldua:

• She first navigated to Group Create
• Her feedback for this section was to assert that it might not have been necessary to have a study group, as people don’t really organize that way.
• She then navigated to thew View Documents section
• She said that this would be useful for easily organizing comments on certain documents. She said that in her problem sets, professors, often add additions to them. Piazza doesn’t really organize it this way.
• She also liked the ability to post a question, especially in a big lecture. She said that she couldn’t really see anybody down voting someone, but definitely up voting them.
• Again, she was the third person to like the ability to rate the lecture. She too said the feedback would be useful for the professors.
• She also commented that this might be too much work on the professor. For example, would the professor be willing to constantly update the schedule section to give a summary of what was going to happen in lecture?

Rebecca navigating to create a new group for an assignment

She ends up joining the group with Orlando Bloom

6. Insights

• People seemed to really like the ability to give feedback, which is a good thing.
• It was also commented that this was efficient and easy to use.
• The ability to use a cheap Raspberry Pi as the central hub for each professor seemed like an interesting idea and people that I surveyed thought it could be useful too, as it could be taken to review sessions and office hours as mentioned.
• I definitely have to be careful as to what is necessary and not necessary. For example, people don’t really meet with random people to make study groups. They might, however, for assignments.
• I might also want to get rid of the thumbs down feature if it won’t be used.
• The main insight however, lies in the connectivity. Students thought that this would be great if there would be a way to continue this work outside of the closed wifi network provided by the RPi. For example, if there was an email feature that allowed you to send yourself the updated lecture slides.
• Another feature that people appreciated was the aggregation of updates on each assignment. You could see all the updates mentioned in one comment-like section.
• Another recommendation was to include a chat service that spanned more than just uploading questions/comments and up voting them for attention.
• Additionally, if this was online stead of a closed network, it would also allow the student who is late to familiarize himself with the outline of the lecture.
• A good feature mentioned is the saving of paper and the ability for the late student to easily know all the handouts necessary.
• Maybe the idea would have to span more than just a closed network. If it had an app, like Piazza, it would be great. The main difference though, is that there has to be that level of interactability. Piazza isn’t really used during class, while this project would sometimes require that.
• Like the feedback from the iClicker, this project too can give real time status updates of the class, except more specifically.
• Generally, users found this useful in some aspects more than others. For example, having a “previous lecture” and “next lecture” section might not be necessary, but a quick summary of what’s going on in “this lecture” generally seemed like a good idea.
• The interface followed a simple menu and button format, and while not too extravagant, users indicated that with many features, simplicity was useful.

Observation

I focused my observation on two major settings, each of which involved more than 3 individuals interacting in some way.

At first, I spent some time observing the handful of students who are in both COS426 and COS436, which happen back-to-back on Tuesdays and Thursdays in the Small and Large Auditoriums, respectively. There is no class in the Small Auditorium after COS426, but there is class before COS436 in the Large Auditorium on Thursdays only. As a result, student behaviors differed between Tuesdays and Thursdays. On Thursdays, students generally gathered in the banana gallery outside the auditoriums and either worked individually on laptops, or chatted in groups at a normal volume. Most students checked their phones more than once, and occasionally a few would wander to the bathroom or water fountain. On Tuesdays, however, students generally entered the Large Auditorium early and sat either individually or in pairs, usually with laptops out. Students spoke in quieter tones, and there was less movement: students tended to stay put once seated. Two students in particular exemplified this behavior in that they consistently talked with each other between these two classes, but in different ways depending on their location and the day of the week: they spoke more loudly and with other students in the banana gallery on a Thursday, and they sat together and chatted quietly in the Large Auditorium on a Tuesday. When sitting down, the two students chatted over their laptops and some work they both had at the time, one for graphics and one for another unknown course.

I also spent some time observing masses of students attempting to cross the northern portion of Washington Street to get to/from class. Pedestrian traffic here is pretty predictable in its patterns, peaking a couple minutes after class ends and before the next class starts. At these times, there are typically dozens of people waiting at the light at a time, on both sides. When pedestrian traffic is heaviest, students tend to stalk holes in vehicle traffic and cross during, just before, or just after red crossing lights whenever possible. At times, this causes floods of students to cross illegally, holding up vehicle traffic. Also during these times, bikers tend to have trouble avoiding pedestrians, adding to the mess (especially since bikers must take more roundabout routes to avoid stairs at the northernmost pedestrian crossing). Of particular interest were the times just after class began, when students were clearly running late. I observed a particular student run to catch a crossing light, dash across after the crossing light was already red, then slow to a brisk walk once across, continuing on at a more leisurely pace. This seemed to be a common pattern for students running late.

Brainstorming

(Completed with Edward Zhang (edwardz))

1. Somehow sync a mobile app with stoplights on Washington and Alexander, allowing people to check the light status at any time, and possibly to click the “wait” button from a certain distance away.
2. Place simple security cameras with monitors (or just mirrors) outside classroom doors or in hallways. People love looking at themselves.
3. Provide space and tables to allow for administrative activities (i.e. signing in, distributing handouts) to start outside classroom.
4. Install ipod docks/speakers in waiting areas near classrooms that create “bubbles” of soft music that can’t be heard a few meters away.
5. Strategically place tablets on stands/walls that have short daily math/trivia/etc. puzzles on them
6. Program a timed phone silencer that turns the ringer on during waiting periods and off again during class based on calendar information.
7. Rent scooters/bikes/etc. at unmanned stations around campus. Students can get and return vehicles at any station for small fee by swiping their PUID to open the vehicle locks at the stations.
8. Create an app with an “I’m bored” button that starts a short game/convo with someone very nearby who is also bored. Should expire 1min before class.
9. Install a terminal in each classroom that starts a short group game between classes, which any mobile device can join within that time window (imagine in-flight entertainment).
10. Use sensors to track the number of students that walk into buildings and classrooms, for an idea of how traffic flows and what may be improved.
11. Create a small portable fan/vent that diffuses/absorbs/counteracts the smell of any food you are carrying.
12. Create a lightweight app that allows people to post a relevant status (e.g. “We’re [talking about final projects]/[complaining about workload] [at the front of the classroom]/[outside the doors]”).
13. Display “Student(s) of the Day” profiles in classrooms,letting everyone associate a name with a personality and a face.
14. Install a large floor display with interesting effects (e.g. lights up or makes sounds where stepped on) at a popular crossroads.
15. Install large electronic white boards on walls that students can use for notes/games/graffiti/etc.
16. Create a mobile app that shows a map of all available outlets on campus.

Prototypes

I chose to prototype ideas 1 (stoplight tracking) and 7 (bike/scooter rental). I chose the first because of the problem I saw with street crossing on campus, and because of personal experience with getting caught at a red light and being late for class as a result. The latter I chose because it presents some interesting security and economics questions to explore, and because I often find myself wanting a bike without the commitment of purchase or long-term rental.

Stoplight Tracking

Below is the concept sketch of a simple app that would provide students with the status and information about the two prominent stoplights on campus.

From this, I created a paper prototype (shown below). It includes a full frame for each major screen in the sketch, along with cut-outs of the buttons and numbers, which are secured with scotch tape. This was mainly to facilitate quick changing of the screen’s state for user testing, without the need to create a new panel for each possible combination of the colors and numbers. It was made entirely using printer paper, washable marker, and ink pen, over the course of about an hour.

Bike Rental Stations

I started with a few sketches on what a single gate at a single station would look like, including both the gate itself and the interface used to rent a bike from it.

From this, I created a simple paper prototype of the interface only, which is designed to be informative and easy to understand. I used a larger sheet to represent the device itself, which would presumably be simple plastic with a place to swipe a card. The various screens themselves are separate, interchangeable sheets. The three major screens are shown below. Two screens are missing, primarily because the pricing and status format requires thought beyond the prototyping stage, as described below. Again, this prototype is made of printer paper, washable marker, and ink pen.

Aside from the basic mechanism and interface for renting and returning bikes, there are three other major components of this system that I considered while designing it: convenience, security, and pricing. Addressing convenience is mostly a matter of determining where to place rental stations. I suggest a possible configuration below. Security is mostly concerned with ensuring that bikes are not stolen or destroyed, or if they are, it is possible to track down the perpetrator. With some careful planning, this should be possible using the information from a swiped PUID, and damages (and rental fees) can be charged to a student’s account. The actual prices require more research, but I feel a system with a small upfront fee and additional hourly rate would be appropriate. I initially considered a 10-minute grade period of zero cost, but this may encourage too much traffic at busy periods and prevent students who actually need the bikes from finding one.

Possible set of locations:

• Dinky Station
• Frist Campus Center
• Friend Center
• Dillon Gym
• Rocky/Mathey
• Firestone

User Testing

For the sake of user testing, I staked out a spot outside Forbes, where the stoplight on Alexander is not yet visible (about a 10 second walk away). Unfortunately, I could not do this at a time when students were actually rushing to class, otherwise I could never get anyone’s attention for long enough to complete the test. So instead, I loitered around the parking lot during my free time and accosted students heading toward Alexander, following this general procedure:

• (beforehand) Choose a setting for Alexander: green-high, green-low, red-high, or red-low (where high and low indicate big and small numbers, respectively).
• Introduce the user to their shiny new iPhone 5. Establish that they are late for class.
• Give user about 10 seconds to take in the app.
• Start counting down on the Alexander light and ask how they would react.
• Change the color and/or number of Alexander and Washington and ask again how they would react.
• Repeat for the other possible settings of color and number.
• Collect any additional feedback.

I tested this with four individuals, choosing a different starting setting for each and varying them somewhat randomly throughout the test. I also, on a whim, flagged down a pair of friends to look at it together, to see how their interactions might differ.

The first key observation is that across the board, students understood the purpose of the app after looking at it for less than 10 seconds. This is actually in contrast to the short inquiries I made of my roommates based on the original sketch above — they took a long time to figure it out, even with the notes in blue. The addition of a title and the change in the button text are probably responsible for the difference, since they are more explicitly descriptive of their actual function.

The meat of the experiment revealed a key part of the users’ nature: telescopic vision. The individual users I tested fell neatly into exactly two categories: those who used the app to decide how fast the approach the intersection, and those who used the app to repeatedly push the “wait” button. These categories were robust for each user regardless of the current status of the light — button pushers would continue to push the button even if the light was green, and the others never considered pushing the button, regardless of whether they decided they would slow and wait for the next light. Users did realize they were expected to change their responses somehow as the settings changed; however, instead of changing what types of activities they would do, they focused on a change in the same type of action (e.g. walk slower or faster, or press the button more or less). One button presser was confused about the excessive number of questions, since he wouldn’t actually change anything and would have just continued pressing the button all the way across the intersection.

Lastly, there were a few significant holes in the way users interacted with the app. Almost all users focused explicitly on Alexander street, ignoring Washington entirely (although one button presser went ahead and pressed buttons for both each time). This clearly came from the bias of being 30 meters away from Alexander Street, so it was not surprising. Also somewhat unsurprising is that users completely ignored the “view schedule” option. This could be due to many things: having something counting down draws immediate attention, the schedules are not really relevant to someone heading toward the light (though perhaps it would be for someone waiting at it), and the “view schedule” button itself does not catch as much attention as the other pop-out buttons in the paper prototype.

In general, it seemed that users would be able to make fast use of this app, as it is clearly understandable and gets the point across. However, each user would tend to use it in a way that perhaps satisfies them the most, but may not be the most useful or effective way to use the app. Even so, there may not be much merit in catering the app to specialized needs or structuring it to encourage intelligent usage — in the end, it is meant to display a status (plus some helpful functionality) that users can use as they wish.

Observations:

Imagined languages:

• Due to the large overlap between this class and HCI, a lot of mutual observation of each other and meta-observation.
• Erica writes down that I am taking a video of her: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mYvlDS5vfU&feature=youtu.be

Syntax class:

• Discussing a problem from another class on the board. Illustrating “lim sup” as a bowl of limb soup.
• Student 1 to Student 2 (referring to a print of an engraving on the wall): “If I told you this picture looked like you, would you be offended?” Ensuing discussion regarding gender of subject of said picture. Consensus reached that the only male in the room thought it looked female, while all three females thought it looked male. Initial question pointedly ignored by Student 2. Hasty clarification that Student 1 was not implying that the picture did look like Student 2. Emphatic declaration that said picture does not resemble said student at all.
• Another student arrives and stares listlessly at book.

Brainstorm

1. something to help you find the nearest bathroom/water fountain
2. probability of falling asleep in the next class (brainstormed with Krithin Sitaram)
3. optimal seat finding — climbing over other people is annoying and hard
4. better pockets to avoid having to search for phone, which is super-awkward when sitting down
5. another way to avoid making people climb at each other: make center seats of classroom more comfortable?
6. something to tell you how long you have until the next class
7. something to help you out with the primary pre-class activity, which seems to be gossiping about other students — oh wait, that already exists and it’s called Facebook
8. something to avoid that “oh crap, did I have something due?!” moment
9. something to start conversations with other students, to avoid the listless staring at book syndrome
10. something to remind you of the names of students you *know* you’ve been introduced to, to facilitate #9!
11. something to remind you why you’re taking this class in the first place, which would in turn motivate you to pay attention
12. a sudden jolt of adrenaline — fear? terror? excitement? — doesn’t matter, anything to keep you alert and paying attention!
13. you arrive and realize you don’t have your book — do you have enough time to run back to your room?
14. hardest problem from your most recent problem set to think about while waiting
15. an app that warns you when you’re about to say something socially inappropriate or awkward

I chose to combine 10, 8, and 6 into one “quick info about the class” app, that shows you how long you have until class starts, and then pulls Facebook profile pics of classmates and upcoming assignments from Blackboard. It’s quick, simple, and solves some real problems.

The prototype!

The starting screen.

“upcoming” tab, listing upcoming assignments and readings.

after user taps on “moby dick” item, it slides to reveal more options.

One of these options is a link to the wikipedia page, for the truly lazy!

Or if you want, you can go back to the main “classmates” tab and commiserate.

User 1: Erica.

• found and tapped “upcoming” tab quickly
• found “W” button confusing 

User 2: Brenda.

•  found “upcoming” tab quickly
•  it was hard to get users to just tap and not manipulate the prototype themselves!
  
•  “no no no! just tap it and I’ll make things happen!” (Brenda reads through the 250-page assignment with horror.)
•  Brenda also quite kindly (and unprompted) tries out all the functions, including the chat function, just to let me use all my index cards.

User 3: John.

• does not own smartphone
• waiting for Semantics class
• confused by initial interface; “what do I do?”
• eventually figured out which tab to press (“upcoming”)

Insights from testing…

About paper prototyping:

• Simple actually does mean SIMPLE! Having complicated prototypes meant my users spent most of their time reading and playing with things, rather than using it to complete tasks. 
• even if I can’t give them information about the task itself, the idea of paper prototypes is foreign to users, so it’s necessary to give them a quick run-down of how those work.

About the prototype:

• W does not universally mean “Wikipedia”, as I thought it did.
  
• Similarly, labeling something “pdf” does not actually mean “pdf of the assignment” to people.
• “Upcoming” is not a good catch-all term for “assignments + readings + exams”.
• I had considered making the clock element tappable (and link to a schedule), but no one even considered tapping it, so that would have been an unnecessary feature.