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.

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.