Wrapping up the project

I was able to start UX testing today on a prototype of the site. I'll hopefully wrap up UX testing tomorrow, write up my findings, and add a small section on the results to my final project document and the infoshare slides. 

I'm scheduled to present to the team on Monday, an "infoshare" where I'll talk about the project and demonstrate the (prototype) interface. There's still some development work that will be done, but my role in the project is coming to an end.

Overall, it's been a good experience taking a project from the info gathering stage through (some) development. In classes, I've mostly worked at a theoretical level, designing something without ever talking to the stakeholders. In the IA classes, I've created personas and sitemaps and wireframes and all the various things I've done in this project, but I've never seen the project actually implemented. I haven't my designs translated into reality.

The challenges have been the types of challenges that occur in any working environment: coordinating schedules, gaining consensus, needing to revisit work that's already been done.... 

This semester has been very rewarding and has provided me with valuable experience. 

Moving toward the end

A few posts ago I had a list of tasks to complete. Most of those tasks are done or as done as they can be at this point.

• Personas - DONE
• Finalize controlled vocabulary - Most DONE; category terms sent to manager
• Synonym file - DONE
• Finish use cases and scenarios - DONE
• UX testing - Prepped; testing to be done next week
• Finish project report - In progress

Most of the final project report is done, but the section on UX testing won't be completed until after testing is done next week. I can't report results until I have them! Also, I have some of the technology section done, but I need some details from the developers to flesh that section out.

So, what's left to do?

UX testing

UX testing will be done next week. It looks like I should be able to do both phase 1 (testing the administrative project entry interface) and phase 2 (testing the portal interface). For a while, it looked like only the administrative side would be complete enough to test before the end of the semester, but all the fields have been added to the database, so we should be able to seed it with projects and test the search functionality.

Infoshare

The last item on the internship schedule was an infoshare and staff training. For the infoshare, I will need to present to the group about the project. I'm not quite sure what is expected (there are several ways to present the project, depending on the focus), but I have another week to work that out. I'm sure Tassie, my supervisor, will be able to help me prep.

Staff training

I am not sure if there will be time for staff training before the end of the semester. At the very least, I can probably come up with some 'best practices' for project entry that will make search work better. Having standardized formats and such will ensure that the data are consistent. And consistency simplifies a lot when it comes to search!

Project report

My project report, as noted above, is almost complete. The last bits will get added as I finish UX testing and after I get more information on the custom analyzer, filters, and such for the technical section.

I think that's all I have left. 

I've had a pretty good internship experience. There were a few challenges (scheduling meetings and such, getting feedback mid-semester when people were out of the office, etc), but it's been very positive. All the AVL staff members have been very helpful, answering my questions. I've felt like I belonged, like I was part of the group. 

Reading documentation and next steps

I have spent quite a bit of time reading the documentation for the database solutions mentioned previously. There is a lot to grasp, and it helps if I understand some of how crate.io and elastic.co work, especially since I need to help make decisions on how it is implemented.

Monday brought another project meeting. Dave and Patrick, the developers, were able to present their solution and talk about the proof of concept work they had done. They're moving on to the next steps. Hopefully we'll have a prototype that we can send to staff to test out, so I can do a little UX testing.

I need to do some prepping, deciding what UX testing is the most effective and reasonable for what we are doing.

On my plate right now:

• Finishing my personas
• Finalizing the controlled vocabulary
• Putting together the synonym file
• Finishing use cases and scenarios
• UX testing
• Expanding my earlier schema and structure report into a full report for the project

There is a lot to do in the next three or four weeks!

What I think I can get done this week:

• Personas
• Sending suggested controlled vocabulary to the manager for feedback
• Use cases and scenarios
• Prep UX testing

The reason that list is so long is because I am almost done with the personas, use cases and scenarios.

Takeaway this time around: my lull during development didn't last long. Development is moving faster than I had anticipated. Although the full portal may not be completed by the end of the semester, a lot will be done and there should be a working prototype at the very least! The things I have been working on in the meantime need to be finished so I can move on to the next stage.