Our class has been presenting their capstone presentations for the last 2 weeks. Each student is required to create a 5 minute presentation about their project, their progress, and their future directions. Who knew it would be so hard to fit an entire semester worth of work into 5 minutes!

While each person presents, the rest of the class has small slips of paper to write down comments and questions for the presenter. I gave my presentation last night and have gone over the feedback my peers presented me. It was really helpful and allowed me to pinpoint areas of weakness in my project and note things I did not articulate very well in my presentation.

I’ll upload a video of my presentation soon!

Q & A

There were some comments and questions I want to revisit. Here’s a list of a few select pieces of the more critical feedback I received and my responses. I’ve grouped them into rough categories and combined some of the questions that were similar.

Opportunity Space & scope

I would have liked to have seen see a deeper reason for HCI/d in this space more than the fact that “there’s not much HCI literature on this”
HCI/d is centered around designing for users. For the most part, this population has not been addressed from an HCI/Interaction design/User Experience design perspective. Considering the large number of families who are directly affected by divorce, and that in the United States divorce is somewhat of a cultural norm, it’s surprising that this demographic has been, in a sense, marginalized by HCI.

I think that HCI can offer a user centered approach to the struggles, both emotionally and logistically, that dynamic family structures might encounter. There are many different types of digital calendar systems, online, in the homes, and in a mobile domain. Applying design method and thinking to the issues at hand for this group, as well as technological solutions to scheduling, can assist families.

Are you focusing more on efficiency, effectiveness, or emotions?

In an ideal world, this research would focus equally on efficiency, effectiveness, and emotion. However, that is a fairly ambitious scope. For this capstone project, I’ll be focusing primarily on the efficiency and effectiveness of a system. Emotions will be a secondary focus. This isn’t because I feel it is less important, but rather because it is directly affected by the efficient and effectiveness of the system. By working to ease the logistical strain of co-parenting, custody, and scheduling, stress and tension between parents can be reduced. This directly affects the amount of emotional tension, stress, and conflict families might encounter. Emotional needs will be taken into consideration for the guidelines, research methods, and design; it just might not be a primary focus for this project. I hope to continue working on this in the future and give equal weight to all of these.

I think you have a very large project scope. Perhaps you should focus either on design methods or principles for this project.

This is somewhat related to the previous question. I do have a fairly large scope for this project, so in order to accomplish my goals, I have tried to prioritize different aspects of it. I mentioned wanting to have 3 outcomes: 1) a set of guidelines, 2) explore research methods for sensitive topics 3) design a system, or aspects of a system , to support the problem space.The set of guidelines and design implications is my primary focus. The research methods and the design are directly related to the guidelines and support them. The research methods will support gathering data from the users in order to build insight, empathy, and understanding. It is from this data that I will build the guidelines. The guidelines will directly inform my design.The guidelines are also primary because I’d like to publish this work and encourage others to think about this demographic. In a sense, it’s a call to action for HCI designers and researchers.

Target Group

What significance does divorce in the first 3 years play over those that have been divorced longer but still have the same issue?

Narrowing my target group has been a bit of a struggle and this question lead me to do a lot of thinking and reflection about my target group. My initial thought on keeping this fairly narrow was that I was hoping to focus on more recently divorced families in order to ease the transition from one household to multiple households.After thinking about this a bit more, I’ve opened my target group. The participants and target group of my study won’t be limited by the number of years since a seperation.  Instead, my focus will be just families with children, joint custody arrangements, and having the households within driving distance of each other.

Some divorced couples refuse to contact each other because of various reasons (but they are all interested in their children’s lives). How can your design work for them?

Right now, I am not focusing on parents who do not contact each other. It would be a possible future direction, but for this project I’m focusing on more amicable relationships. Psychologist Constance Ahrons has done work on post-divorce relationship types and grouped couples into 4 different categories: Perfect Pals, Cooperative Colleagues, Angry Associates, Fiery Foes. The group decibed in this question would fall under Fiery Foes. I’ll be looking more at the Cooperative Colleagues and Angry Associates.  These two groups still maintain contact and can successfully co-parents. However, there are emotional tensions between the two parents. The difference between the two groups is how they express their anger; Cooperative Colleagues tend to be more productive in how they express anger and can do it in a way that does not interfere too much with parenting responsibilities where as Angry Associates express their anger in a way which impacts all of the relationships in a family. [2]

Are you focusing on helping the parents to live easier with a better calendar, or helping children to live better?

For this project, parents will be my primary focus and children will be secondary. Much of the rationale for this is the same my focus and project scope.

Methods

Won’t the worst case design scenario evoke similar problems to asking deep questions about divorce? You are worried about offending or upsetting the users but then want them to think about the worst possible situation?

It could, but I hope that won’t be the case.  The purpose of doing a participatory design session that focuses on creating an awful solution is more to make personal issues more abstract. The session will be designed to be more playful in nature than serious. I plan on making a posted dedicated to just this method and the rationale behind it soon.

Have you looked at exemplars that do not involve a web app?

Yes!  I’ve looked at a variety of calendar types that range from children’s magnetic calendars to iCal, paper planners to whiteboard calendars. I’ve tried to explore digital, analog, domestic, enterprise, shared, private, mobile, stationary, and a variety of other scheduling tool characteristics. The calendars shown in this presentation all fell under the category of online, shared, web-based calendars made for scheduling custody arrangements. This was mostly because of time constraints on the presentation.

Design & outcomes

How do you manage who gets master control of the calendar?

My initial thoughts on this are that the parents would have equal control in managing the calendar. This will be something I will be addressing in my primary research.

Do children need input in the calendars? How/why would children be involved in time/calendar management?

Yes! This is something I’ll be exploring in my primary & secondary research. I am very interested to see the processes families are using to keep track of children’s activities — particularly as they get older and manage their own schedules a bit more (perhaps starting in junior high and high school). From the secondary research I’ve been doing, I’ve found that children tend to become more responsible and accountable for their schedule after divorce compared to before divorce [1].

How do you see this calendar being accessed? Is it a software that you purchase and upload into different devices? Internet & phones with data plans?

I think the design will be some sort of interactive, digital system. Since the calendar will be shared, it will be something requiring internet connectivity. The details will emerge as I continue with my research. Perhaps accessibility types will be one of my guidelines?

Have you considered incorporating emergency action plans into these calendars? ie if someone didn’t show up or if an earthquake happened?

I hadn’t thought of this. It’s something to think about in the future. For now, this is outside my scope and won’t be addressed for this project.

What are you thinking the final design approach will be? Do you see this being a digital system? Do you want to design a calendar? Does a scheduling system need to be a calendar? What alternative types of systems might you consider?

These make fantastic golden questions. The final design approach will be some sort of digital system that is shared. I think a calendar will be a part of the design, if not the focus. Other systems, or parts of a system, could be considered too. Examples might include having a mediator or 3rd party person handle scheduling, reminders/notification of events, a place to share common scheduling artifacts (such as lunch menus from a school, soccer game details, etc) communication methods for when plans change, or a robot who takes care of the children – who knows!

What separates your design from what is already out there? Can you defeat Google Calendar? What are the benefits over Google Calendar?

Google Calendar  and other existing solutions out there can be great and may work well for a lot of families. One weakness of using Google Calendar in this problem space include privacy (what if one parent is going on a date and the other one or children find out?).  Google Calendar is great for logistics but does not provide any sort of support for the emotional issues accompanying divorce. It’s been a fantastic exemplar, as well as a saving grace for scheduling my own life. Moving forward the design for this project will take some of the positive aspects and insights from Google Calendar but adjust them to meet the needs of dynamic family structures more so than it does currently. We’ll see what the research data says!

Strategy

How can you motivate families that don’t really use calendars to start using your design?

This system might not work for every family. I’d like to explore this topic more through my primary research by seeing what types of systems families are currently using. I’ll keep you posted!

Have you considered working with a law firm on this project?

Yes, I’ve also thought about looking to support groups, family counselors. If you know anyone in any of these fields, perhaps you could introduce us?

Have you thought about cost issues for your design, especially with separated incomes?

I think this is a very important question to ask. Research has shown that generally speaking, financial resources decrease after a divorce. This particularly affects women post-divorce [3]. Many of the exemplars I have explored do cost families to use, where as options like Google Calendar are free. In my research and design, I hope to keep costs at a minimum so this system can be easily accessed by families who need it.

Just a funny comment or two

Looking forward to using this with all my ex-wives.

This comment made me laugh. Best of luck to you and your love-life, sir!

<3 the contrarian model. I’m going to marry it and have babies

The Contrarian Model is pretty fantastic. I’ll write a post on that soon, too. You know, in my free time! If you and the Contrarian Model don’t work out I’ll be sure to recruit you to do some user tests for this project…

Thanks!

Thanks to everyone who provided me with feedback on my presentation. Going through these questions was extremely helpful!

I thought English class was a joke in high school. I resented the readings and the assignments we had to do and didn’t understand the point of going through exercises of finding the symbolism in every novel we read. I thought that disecting metaphors was a waste of time and made it impossible to enjoy anything that was assigned to us.

In the last 2 years, I’ve had to make a lot of life changing decsions and so many times I’ve felt lost. Each time I go through a transition or have to make a big decision, I come back to sitting in my sophomore class, second to last row, 3 desks in from the right. We were reading from chapter 7 of Sylvia Plath’s novel, The Bell Jar:

“I saw my life branching out before me like the green fig tree in the story.  From the tip of every branch, like a fat purple fig, a wonderful future beckoned and winked.  One fig was a husband and a happy home and children, and another fig was a famous poet and another fig was a brilliant professor, and another fig was Ee Gee, the amazing editor, and another fig was Europe and Africa and South America, and another fig was Constantin and Socrates and Attila and a pack of other lovers with queer names and offbeat professions, and another fig was an Olympic lady crew champion, and beyond and above these figs were many more figs I couldn’t quite make out.  I saw myself sitting in the crotch of this fig tree, starving to death, just because I couldn’t make up my mind which of the figs I would choose.  I wanted each and every one of them, but choosing one meant losing all the rest, and, as I sat there, unable to decide, the figs began to wrinkle and go black, and, one by one, they plopped to the ground at my feet.”

I feel like Ester Greenwood sitting in her fig tree quite often. When I start to get anxious about my decisions this image always pops into my head and for some reason or another, I find it comforting and I don’t feel so alone in my liminal state.

Mr. O’Keefe, I’m sorry for taking your American Literature class for granted. Who knew The Bell Jar would end up being one of my favorite books.

For the last 4 years I’ve had one goal, one dream, and one place I wanted to live: the San Francisco Bay Area. I’d tell everyone I knew, whether they cared or not, that the Bay Area is where I’d move to one day. I’m on my way to making that dream a reality. For the last 6 weeks, I’ve been living in San Francisco and interning at Oracle in their Applications User Experience group. I feel extremely fortunate to have this opportunity.

Although I’m living my dream this summer (and sadly half way through), I’ve had quite the streak of bad luck. Friends joked that I should make a list of everything that has gone wrong in my life these last few weeks. My roommate, Kat, suggested something a bit more positive. She suggested that I make a list of everything I’ve learned, realized, and experienced so far this summer. So here it goes:

101 experiences, lessons, thoughts, discoveries, realizations, things I’ve done, and random musings from my first 6 weeks in San Francisco:*

1. Conquered learning and navigating the CalTrain
2. Conquered learning and navigating the Bart
3. Learned that eye sight can actually improve with age
4. Experienced heartbreak
5. Learned that Kathy Ems is an awesome roommate
6. Planned on moving back to SF in May 2011 (and moving in with Kat again)
   

   Roommates getting ready to go out for the night!

7. Discovered how great a produce box is
8. Lived in an actual city for the first time
9. Living without a cell phone for almost 3 weeks
10. Lived without a car over a month
11. Went out to a latin dance club and enjoyed every second of it
12. Tried Ethiopian food (Loved it!)
13. Tried Calamari (didn’t like it)
14. Tried Tuna (didn’t like it)
15. Tried Shrimp/dim sum (shrimp is one of my least favorite foods ever, and will continue to be avoided at all costs)
16. Tried Hot Pot in a restaurant (very fun!)
17. Rode cable cars
18. Did touristy stuff like buy an I <3 SF tshirt
    

    Visiting Chinatown with John Wayne and Ankit

19. Went on a date with someone unexpected
20. Started an internship at Oracle
21. Longest commute to work (an hour!)
22. Decorated my own cubical
23. I have an iPad for the summer
24. Learned that I like red wine much more than I thought I did.
25. Learned that design industry is even more different from school than I would’ve imaged.
26. Learned some plumbing basics
27. When you don’t have a cell phone – watches are important
28. Tried Filafel (and liked it!)
29. Learned that I like eggplants
30. Discovered how great it is to have awesome people around me
31. …and even those 2000+ miles away from me
32. Reminded that I can’t get anywhere without the support of my friends
33. …and even more so, my family
34. Learned that my enniagram type is a 4 (with a type 3 wing)
35. Went to the SF Pride parade
    
36. Struggled to stay positive through some pretty bad luck
37. Learned that I dislike the “check engine light in my car’
38. Learned how quickly unexpected expenses can arrive
39. Learned that I should always have emergency money saved up for issues like huge car bills
40. Learned what an ignition control module does
41. Learned what a Crank sensor does
42. learned what an IAC sensor does
43. Learned the value of a AAA membership
44. Learned how to get several places without a GPS
45. Bought ridiculously large pink sunglasses
46. Learned that an iPad really can function as a large phone
    

    After loosing my cell phone and unable to get a new one right away, I used Skype and the iPad as my phone!

47. Learned that it *is* in fact possible to live without a car and phone – although it does tend to make things more difficult
48. Went shopping in Chinatown
49. Discovered that Welch’s Mango Passion Fruit drink is by far one of the most amazing drinks in the world
50. Ate lavender ice cream (it’s amazing)
51. Learned that being completely thrown out of my comfort zone with little control helped me grow exponentially as a person.
52. Re-discovered the wonders of hula hooping
53. Walking a longer distance to avoid hills is actually quicker than taking the direct route up and down San Francisco hills
54. Summers without much humidity are so awesome
55. Drove cross country with my mom (Nebraska is super boring)
56. Went to the Makers Faire
57. A new look can give you an entirely new attitude (new glasses, hair cut, and hair color! woo!)
    

    San Francisco Make Over! (photo by John Wayne Hill)

58. Experienced San Francisco fog
59. Sat in the Giants dug out
60. Walked on the field at AT&T park
61. Saw The Fray perform
62. Saw Alkaline Trio perform
63. Saw Andrew WK perform
64. Saw All American Rejects perform
65. Danced around to Ska music
66. Bought new eye glasses for the first time in 5 years
    

    These weren't going to get me very far

67. Realized how lucky I am to have gone to IU
68. …and how great IU’s software deals are
69. Met some fantastic IU HCI/d alum
70. Met some awesome people
71. Saw Frog Design
72. Saw Adaptive Path
73. Saw IDEO
74. Saw Hot Studio (which I *really* liked)
75. Realized I want a Hot Tub when I grow up
76. realized how glad I am to have had the professors I have
77. Walked up Lombard street
78. Went to a huge and awesome farmers market
79. Went to IKEA, and learned that no matter where the IKEA is – it is always magical and the meatballs are always delicious
80. Went to the Haight Street Fair
81. Went to the California Academy of Sciences
82. Made a SF Bucket List
83. Went to the Golden Gate Bridge
    

    Typical Golden Gate Bridge picture (photo by John Wayne Hill)

84. Ate at In-N-Out Burger (which although is SUPER good, still does not compare to a Steak ‘n Shake Frisco Melt)
85. Decided that I hate my portfolio and I want to re-do it…again
86. Read about Expectations Hangovers
87. Ate at a Tapas restaurant for the first time
88. Had composting at both an apartment in the city and at work – which is awesome!
89. Furthest I’ve lived from Cincinnati for an extended amount of time
90. Learned how awesome I feel if I’ve made a good homemade meal and eaten it
    

    Homemade chili - one of the many yummy meals Kat and I have made

91. Visited 13 different winery’s in the Russian River Valley (more on this in a later post)
92. Hung out in Golden Gate Park
93. Sat in a field of wild-growing calla lilies (my favorite flowers!)
    

    Calla Lilies in Golden Gate Park

94. Learned that when you don’t things thinks can get worse, they can
95. Learned that when you think things can’t get any better, they can
96. Was told “Have great adventures” one day instead of “Have a great day”
97. …decided I liked that phrase and I would adopt it
98. Felt more sure of myself and who I am than ever before
99. Felt more unsure of myself and who I am than ever before
100. Video chat is such a fantastic way to keep in touch with people
101. Realized that I’ve got a lot to do to finish my bucket list and only 6 more weeks to do so…

* These aren’t in any particular order, and I have many more photos from my first 6 weeks. You can find them on facebook!

Another project proposal

This semester, I am taking a course in typography (through the School of Fine Arts) as my elective class. Technically, this is an undergraduate course. Since I am a graduate student, I need to propose and complete an extra semester long project in this course.

I decided to do something personal that was for me and unrelated to academia or professional development. I think it will be a nice change and a break for me to focus on something I will enjoy outside the realm on which I usually focus. The project will be similar to an artists book, but it will be a book of love quotes.

The goals of the book are to communicate emotion, historical context of the quote, and incorporate elements of my personal connection to the quotes. The project will also give me practice and exposure to paper qualities, paper making techniques, communication through typefaces and presentation, printing techniques, and binding techniques. It’ll also look great on my coffee table.

Research topics

Throughout this project, I will explore the following topics:

Quotes

Love quotes can be found in any number of places: books, movies, poems, song lyrics, love letters, etc. I plan on researching for quotes that have either resonated with some aspect of my personal life or elicit a strong emotion from reading it. I will also research quotes that are popular and well-known.

Quote context

In addition to finding the quoted, I plan on researching the context of the quoted. For example, the quote “In vain have I struggled. It will not do. My feelings will not be repressed. You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire & love you” comes from Jane Austin’s book, Pride and Prejudice. I would research lifestyles, font/handwriting styles, and other elements of 1800s aristocratic culture that would provide context for the quotation.

Paper types & printing methods

I plan on exploring different types of paper and paper making techniques. I hope to reflect the context of the quote displayed on the page through paper and a tactile experience. This will be done through books, blogs/internet resources, experimentation with paper-making, and discussions with others who are familiar with such topics.

Artists books

By looking at artist books, I can see different methods of presenting very personal material. I plan on looking at typefaces used, paper qualities, presentation, binding, and content. I will take these exemplars and consider how aspects of them can be incorporated into my design.

Emotion through type

Finally, I will research how emotions can be conveyed through type. !is includes, but is not limited to,alignment, placement, type faces, sizes, and inks. I plan on exploring books, internet resources, and scholarly journals for this information.

Contribute your love quotes!

Do you have a quote or two or ten? Send me (or comment! I like those!) your favorite quotes relating to love, heartbreak, or any of that jazz.

Hopefully, I’ll be able to keep up to date with my progress here. I’m excited to work on a more personal project — it should be fun!

Proposal Changes

Yesterday, I spoke with my professor for CSCW about my project proposal. She gave me some really great feedback and suggestions for my project as it moves forward. Thanks to her, I’ve made some changes to my timeline in order to make the most out of the methods I’ve chosen to use. All of the interviews and the methods involving exemplar papers will be done a bit later in the semester when I have a better focus and understanding of the domain. Hopefully, this will help optimize the opportunity I have to speak with different users.

With this project, contextual inquiry will be extremely valuable. However, with the other methods, its great to be able to do some data triangulation. I’ll also be focusing a bit more on the comparison of tools used in the past and with the launch of the new Budget Blog in order to help support my final rationale later on in the semester.

User research begins – IDS Slash Meeting

Today I attended a Slash Meeting at the IDS. The Slash Meeting is a full staff meeting where the management team leads a group critique of the last few papers, makes announcements, and generally reflects on how the paper is going. Since I have a very limited background in journalistic practices, I wasn’t sure exactly what to expect. It was a really great experience and a really good starting point for my primary research.

I also got to meet a few more of the IDS staff members — all if which were super friendly, helpful, and enthusiastic about the project. It was really fantastic.

The Budget Blog will actually launch on Sunday, rather than Friday as originally planned. This will give the managing editors a chance to show an example to the desk editors and better explain the process, goals, and system as a whole.

Relevant research

While sitting in on the Slash Meeting, I found some interesting comments and discussions that could pertain to my project. Generally, these dealt with planning and communication. Here is a list of some things I noted:

• Communication (between reporters, desk editors, and photographers) about photos wanted, needed, or appropriate for a story needs improvement. This came up in several critiques and is one of the primary goals of the launch of the new Budget Blog.
• Center piece stories are not always planned and can be spontaneous. This affects many aspects of the paper and ideally would be decided upon at least a day in advance. This is relevant to planning the stories on the front page of the paper.
• Planning what goes on P1 (front page) of a story should be more organized and thought out in advance, This is another one of the goals of the Budget Blog.
• Desire for stronger planning about what goes into a story, being sure that reporters are given a strong understanding about the desired scope of a story, and again, communication with photographers (or other people working on different types of multimedia)

It was really great to see another field do critiques. There are a lot more similarities between HCI and journalism than I originally though. I’ve really enjoyed learning about the IDS and picking up on new terminology. I can’t wait until Sunday when the Budget Blog launches. Hurray user research!

As mentioned before, I am taking a CSCW course taught by Professor Shaowen Bardzell. One requirement for this class is to research and work within a domain that uses computers to facilitated cooperation and collaboration. I had several friends who have worked in the Indiana Daily Student (IDS) newsroom and I felt that it would be a great domain in which to work.

Thanks to my friends Nina Mehta and Rachel Skybetter, both alums from the IU School of Journalism, I was able to meet with the Editor in Chief, Brad Zehr and Editorial Advisor, Ruth Witmer. They have been such great resources — so friendly and enthusiastic about the project. By talking with them, I learned they are launching a new system called “Budget Blog” on Friday to try to centralize the planning of the stories for the upcoming week. This launch comes at a great time for this project. I hope to be able to run some user tests, as well as conduct some primary user research (ethnography, contextual inquiry, interviews, and perhaps some participatory design sessions). Thanks to Nina and Rachel, I will also be able to talk to other journalists at other papers (both commercial and collegiate) as exemplars. In doing all of this research, I will be able to help shape and design their next iteration on the budget blog.

It’ll be great to work with a “client” located right here on campus that affects so many of our students on a daily basis.

Interested in learning more? Download the proposal: CSCW project proposal (PDF)

Hi, I’m Katie!
And I’ll come right out and say it: I’m not very good at blogging. I am a graduate student in the Human Computer Interaction Design program at Indiana University’s School of Informatics and Computing. I get really excited about post-it notes, making lists, and color-coordinating things. If that’s too nerdy for you, I also like to take part in indoor rock climbing, yoga, running, and being crafty in a whole bunch of ways.

My favorite color is pink, I am a Sagittarius, and if I could only eat one meal for the rest of my life it would be chicken hibachi and Reese’s cups. (If I could pick a second, it would be noodles with butter). I am originally from Cincinnati, Ohio. My 3 younger siblings & my parents mean the world to me.

Right now I am taking courses in CSCW, Typography, and Experience Design. To learn more, visit my portfolio.

Why I am blogging

I’m sure the goals and content of this blog will evolve over time. Right now, the main reasons I want to blog are to document process of my projects, comment on what I am currently learning, and reflect on miscellaneous aspects of design. Hopefully I can keep up with it!

Comment!

I like comments, they are validating! I’d love to hear what you have to say!