ContextualInquiry:Study Buddy

From IEOR 170 Spring 2007

This is the submission from Study Buddy.

Members: Siu Pan Lam, Karena Wong, Onyi Lam, Luciana Cook, Yee Wan Cheung Team Name: Library System Renovation (Study Buddy)

1 Target User:
2 Problem and Solution Overview:
3 Contextual Inquiry:
4 Summary:
5 Task Analysis Questions:
6 Analysis of Tasks:
7 Proposed Design:

[edit] Target User:

“Study Buddy” targets to mostly students. But we can sub-divide the target users into undergraduate and graduate students. We also note that library staff will be managing the operations of “Study Buddy” so we want to inquire their opinions as well, which may add to the design of “Study Buddy”.

[edit] *Customer X:

Background: 2nd year public health graduate student. She finished her double major degrees (mcb + psychology) here at UC Berkeley and started her graduate program here right after her bachelor degree graduation.

Likes/dislikes: She dislikes studying for a long period of time; instead, she prefers quality studying, in which she focuses as much as possible to get the work done efficiently.

Priorities: Her main priority in the library is to locate books for her research. She usually studies at home rather than in the library.

[edit] *Customer Y:

Background: Linguistics undergraduate 4th year student

Likes/dislikes: She really likes the current book lending system but she does not like the fact that there are not enough power outlets in the library and that eating is not allowed. She also does not like that during final/midterms, she has to wait over 20 minutes to use the printing service.

Priorities: She has a couple priorities in the library. One of her priorities it to print off lecture notes in the computer lab, which she does at least once a week. Another priority is to finish homework.

[edit] *Customer Z:

Background: Library Supervisor

Likes/dislikes: He likes that the day-to-day library operations are pretty laid-back but he dislikes that there is not enough challenge in his job.

Priorities: His priority is to make sure that all the daily tasks are taken care of. These tasks include: assigning people to work in the front desk, organize the books being returned, print out bar code for new journals, taking phone calls etc.

[edit] Problem and Solution Overview:

The libraries are especially crowded during finals and students always have a hard time finding open seats. Moreover, students usually have difficulty meeting new friends in class and form study groups even with the growing popularity of facebook. Our solution aims to address these issues by introducing “Study Buddy” at the entrance of the library. If the user only wants to find a seat, “Study Buddy” will immediately tell the user where the open seat is. If the user wants to study with other students, “Study Buddy” will tell the user where the students who are also studying for the same class are located.

[edit] Contextual Inquiry:

[edit] *Customer X:

Approach: We met Customer X in the library, and observed her finishing her book searching in the Moffitt/Doe libraries for her research project.

Environment Observation: Customer X wasn’t able to locate the books in the shortest time possible due to the confusion of the book location system. The insufficient direction in the libraries took her a longer time to search for her books. She mentioned it will be desired if there is a better system can indicate the actual location of books.

Information gathered: She started off describing the main differences of her library experience as an undergraduate and a graduate student. In her undergraduate years, she spent a lot of time studying in the library, namely Moffitt and Doe libraries, with her friends. Now, stepping into her 2nd year of graduate student life, she spends more time in the library for research purpose rather than studying purpose. She mentioned her reasons for not studying in the library in recent years were because of the time needed to find a seat in the library during exam seasons, along with the difficulty to find a seat with electric plug.

[edit] *Customer Y:

Approach:

We met Customer Y at the computing center on the first floor of Moffitt library. She is at the time waiting for the next available computer.

Environment Observation: When Customer Y was waiting for a computer, she told us that she was about to type up a paper for her linguistics class. She had been waiting for 10 minutes by then.

Information gathered: We learned that she goes to the library regularly, usually with 1 or 2 friends – to keep company and someone to walk home with when it gets late. She usually calls up a friend before she goes to the library and meet them there. She mostly goes to the library to study, and noted that seating is usually not a problem except during midterms and finals. She also adds that it would be nice if she can enter her SID instead of showing the SID everytime she walks in the library, in case she forgets her ID.

[edit] *Customer Z:

Approach: One conventional interview over the phone and on-site visiting at the library the next day.

Environment Observations: We observed how he worked from 2 to 2:30 in the library and it was a relatively relax hour with not too many students walking in. He was sitting in front of the computer in his room most of the time.

Information gathered: We collected standard user information such as his title and his experiences in the library. We also talked about his daily tasks and his likes/dislikes about this job. We also asked him when is the library most crowded, whether students usually come alone or as group, the type of questions that students usually approach him for and also how he schedule workers for the shift.

[edit] Summary:

While different people go to the library for different reasons, we were able to identify a common theme shared by the customers in their work practices. And that is, to get work done. As a graduate student, interviewee X spends most of her time in the library searching for relevant research materials and “Study Buddy” can help her locate books that are of her interests. As an undergraduate student, interviewee Y goes to the library to study and also uses the computer center a lot. “Study Buddy” can help her to find any open seats and locates study group mates. Customer Z, the library supervisor, sometime receives questions from students regarding location of books and now he can direct the students to “Study Buddy” and has it answers the questions.

[edit] Task Analysis Questions:

1. Who is going to use system? People who use the system include, engineering and non-engineering undergraduate and graduate students attending UC Berkeley who have library access and who typically have to meet their homework or project deadlines. Other people who use the system also include UC Berkeley Staff. The amount of time that the students spend in the library might occupy a large portion of their daily schedule besides going to class. For example, the linguistics major undergraduate that was interviewed typically spends 4 to 5 hours in the library using the computers for her research paper because of the faster Internet connection and the ease of printing in the computing center. The Supervisor interviewed said that the library was typically crowded between 10-1pm as well as the obvious peak times of midterms and finals.

2. What tasks do they now perform? Tasks that students perform include going to the library for studying purposes, borrowing books for research papers or extracurricular enrichments, and meeting other students for projects. Task that staff perform include, guiding students to locate a book, organizing books, checking bookshelves, and answering phone calls. For student purposes, finding an available seat is essential, and typically prior contact through cell phones with friends in the library is helpful to obtain information on seating availability. For example, the linguistics major undergraduate that we interviewed usually calls her friends before she enters the library to see whether they are present in the library and if so, whether there are seats available. She also mentioned that during finals week finding a seat is an arduous task without friends saving her a seat. Another method to get information on seating availability is to walk around through the floors of the library.

3. What tasks are desired? With our system, “Study Buddy”, the users can get information on seating availability in the library readily by one click, without having to walk around in the library. In addition, users can obtain information on the study groups that are present by typing in relevant course information. Another feature of our system will allow users to find an available computer in the computing center. This feature will eliminate the need to be present at the computing center to find out whether a waitlist for computers is present or not. One of the students that were interviewed told us that she had difficulty locating books due to the insufficient tools to help her navigate the library. Study Buddy serves as an additional tool that can facilitate the location of books. The built in map will give the location of the different genres available in the library. This will be a benefit for both the student and staff.

4. How are the tasks learned? The main advantage of our system is its ease in operation, hence training is not required. The system is self-explanatory and simple to use; any users with college educational background will have sufficient knowledge in operating the system, but to target those that have a hard time figuring out how to operate Study Buddy, we will add a brief guideline on how to operate Study Buddy.

5. Where are the tasks performed? The tasks will be performed at the Moffitt and Doe Library entrances. Library users will have to swipe their Cal I.D. before they can enter the library and before they exit the library.

6. What’s the relationship between user & data? The data requested by the user will be stored in Study Buddy. The student would either have to write down the desired information or return to Study Buddy in case he/she forgets. Study buddy will concurrently update the information on seating and computer availability. Access to this information is restricted to the Berkeley community that has a valid Cal I.D.

7. What other tools does the customer have? Besides Study Buddy, users have the option to ask the staff for the location of books. They can physically walk to the computer lab to check if there are any available seats as well as walk around the library to see if he/she can recognize any classmates.

8. How do customers communicate with each other? Not relevant to Study Buddy because it is not a communication tool.

9. How often are the tasks performed? Going to the library to study is a very typical task for an undergraduate. For example, the linguistics major undergraduate that we interviewed goes to the library at least once per week to work on her homework assignments or to study for exams. Study Buddy will be used every time the user goes to the library. We predict that Study Buddy will be use daily because at any given day there will be at least one student going to the library.

10. What are the time constraints on the tasks? A time constraint would be the time it requires for every student to wait for the person in front to input their information and enter the library. During peak hours or during finals week, we are aware that a line will form but due to the ease of using Study Buddy, this should be a huge problem.

11. What happens when things go wrong? If someone does not know how to use Study Buddy or has a problem with it, there will be a “assist me” button that when pushed will notify the front desk of a problem. Someone working at the front desk will then assist the person in need. If one machine is to break or malfunction, there are at least two more working machines, therefore it can wait to be fixed until the next day. If all machines were to break at the same time, then we can manually open the entrance gate with a key and go back to the old security system.

[edit] Analysis of Tasks:

1. Find a seat in the library to study or to do homework. (Easy) Old way: People have to walk around and find a seat that is available. New way: The user can check for available seat from our machine. This is an easy task to perform because our machine will indicate all the available seats in one click without any specific information. For example, the users will not have to input information on the specific seating area and the subjects of the study groups in order to find a seat in general.

2. Locate an available computer from the computing center on the 1st floor of Moffitt Library. (Easy) Old way: People have to head directly to the computing center in order to find out whether any computer is available. New way: By using this machine, the user can get information on computer availability before they go to the computing center. This is also an easy task to perform because the user only needs to click on the interface to get this information. No further input is needed.

3. Find a person or a group of people from your class to study with. (Moderate) Old way: It’s impossible for the user to locate classmates unless they have contacted each other beforehand. New way: With our machine, the user can check for the presence and location of a classmate. They will be able to join with their classmate without prior contact. However, this task is of moderate difficulty because the user will have to input the information on the subject that he or she wants to study.

4. Find a known friend to study with. (Moderate) Old way: People can walk around in the library to find their friends, or they can contact their friends in advance because talking on the phone is not allowed in the library. Sometimes it is hard for someone to let their friend know where they are sitting. New way: Our machine is able to gather information on the students in the library since it incorporates the use of student IDs to check in. Study Buddy, can let someone know where he or she can find a specific student by inputting his or her name into he system. If someone does not wish to be bothered they can make their location private. This task is ranked as moderate because the user will need to input his or her friend’s name in order to find out the friend’s location.

5. Locate available seats closer to books of interest. (Hard) Old way: First of all, people have to find out through the catalog whether the book is present in the library. Next, they have to write down the call number and locate the book in the library. Finally, they have to look for a seat that is available in that specific area where the book is located. New way: The task is ranked as difficult because in the case when the user is looking for books that are not listed under the machine’s subject database. For example, the user may want to find a seat close to books that are related to World War I. However, immigration is not categorized as an identifiable subject and hence the user will have to use broader terms such as history in order to locate available seats near that subject area.

6. Check to see if people are still in the library after work hours. (Hard) Old way: Staff has to walk through every floor in the library after work hours to determine if there are people still in the library. New way: Staff can use the machine to check not only whether there people still in library after work hours (because they have not checked out with our machine), but also who are still in the library. The task is difficult because the staff cannot directly determine whether the people are still at the same place as when they have first checked in.

[edit] Proposed Design:

Upon entering the library, students will swipe their student ID at the entrance and the following screens will pop up.

Suppose the student choose “By course”, it will then lead them to the next screen.

It will allow the student to choose what class are they studying for, and they also have the option to hide the information. After they chose the class, “Study Buddy” will locate any other students who are also studying the same class and return the results: