Development phase

Just before spring break, I passed the schema and structure document to the developers on the team. They said the document I created was useful, which is good. I'm glad I was able to provide them with the information they need. 

They are researching the best way to implement the plans. There are a lot of tech considerations; there might be a solution that already exists that will get them most of the way there, or they might start from scratch. I might be able to follow along with some of their decision-making, but there isn't a lot I can do at this point in the project; development is their job.

I'm actually glad I don't have to make some of the decisions at this point. I'm glad there are developers who like to do the coding and all the other stuff involved with this part of the project. That is not my forte and not something I am overly interested in doing. So I am happy to hand the project off.

Basically, it might be a while before the Showcase comes back to me for UX testing. 

Time to wait....

So, what am I working on while the project is in development? 

• Synonyms
• Personas
• Use cases

Synonyms: I have a good start on this part of the project. There are three of the facets that require synonyms: campus (done), discipline (maybe done), category (I need the final vocabulary for this first). 

Campus was easy. We are using the format "IU Bloomington" for campus, so synonyms are "IUB" and "Bloomington".

Discipline is a little tricky. I settled on using the existing schools as the base, but that's still complicated because different campuses categorize fields a little differently. But, it's the cleanest way I could come up with the categorize disciplines. The synonyms, then, involve putting all the departments and certain institutes and such under the appropriate discipline (school). There are a few that I want to discuss before finalizing the list.

Category is not done at all. I am relying on the team to come up with the appropriate categories for technologies and initiatives (which may end up being the name for this facet). Once that is done, I can work on synonyms, but that will again require some assistance from team members as subject matter experts.

Personas: I have my proto-personas from earlier in the project. I didn't truly finish them, giving them names and personalities, so I will finally do that. 

Use Cases: One of the tasks I have been asked to do is come up with some use cases. I have a list of four or five that I will write up. I would like to come up with a few more. Basically, the point of use cases for this project is to think about who might need to find what types of projects and test that the interface has been designed such that those projects could be found.

If I finish the synonyms, personas and use cases before development is done, I think I can start some UX testing on low-fi prototypes. I have the wireframes I created, so I could work from that. 

Take away today: It's always good to have other things to work on. 

Week two: Diving in

Week two began with being thrown into the deep end.

No time for water wings!

One of the missions of the AVL is education. Several team members teach classes in addition to their daily work for the group, which led to my attending a virtual reality (VR) class to get a sense of both the VR facilities and the educational aspect of the group.

My intention was to sit quietly in the back, being as unobtrusive as possible, but this class session was hands-on and involved students trying several types of VR equipment. The three VR stations (the VCT, a room installation, and two Vives, head-mounted displays) were staffed, but an augmented reality (AR) station at the back of the room wasn't. After a quick, five minute lesson, I was put in charge of helping the students, giving instruction on how to use the HoloLens.

Takeaway: even though my project is completely different, as a team member, I was asked to step in and help out.

The rest of the week was much quieter, mostly involving typing up notes (a work station was finally installed at my desk), writing a draft of a survey for the project, and creating five proto-personas to be used in the design process. The personas are not complete. More exploration will help me flesh them out and possibly reduce them to two or three.

Next steps will involve talking to more team members, including a trip to IUPUI, meeting with the group manager and director, and hopefully moving forward with concrete goals and objectives for the project. One of the difficult tasks ahead is putting together an inventory of images, visualizations, and whatever other digital assets are deemed relevant.