SIMS Alumni Network Keeping us connected

Goals Accomplish its original mission 1.Maintain contact with SIMS alumni –Inform them of SIMS news and events –Get support from SIMS alumni 2.Maintain contact among SIMS alumni –Create social network and support –Make SIMS Alumni site a gathering place –Fulfill goal number 1

Discovery Interviews: 4 alumni (2 current SIMS, 2 old school) 2 administrative staff After interviews with SIMS alumni… Appearance not appealing and contents static Information seems out of date and not very well organized Most importantly, alumni want to use this site for social network

Home SIMS Alumni Network (Screen shot)

Find Alumni SIMS Alumni Network (Screen shot)

News and Events top SIMS Alumni Network (Screen shot)

News and Events bottom SIMS Alumni Network (Screen shot)

Personas Maggie Stevens –55 years old, has worked in California Digital Library (CDL) for 20 years –graduated in 1985 with a Ph.D. degree in Library Science –not a heavy computer user –actively in touch with a small group of alumni, primarily contact each other via and telephone

Personas Maggie’s important tasks –publish academic information –search for alumni –read SIMS news and events

Personas Amit Bansal –graduated in 2001 –currently working for Oracle as a Database Engineer –very techno-savvy. –believes in the power of networking, loves to hear news regarding his old classmates and friends.

Personas Amit’s important tasks –publish professional information –search for alumni –view and post news and events

Personas Jia Ming Tsai –joined the staff at SIMS as the new Director of Alumni Relations in the fall last year –very excited about improving alumni relations at SIMS –believes the SIMS alumni website will be an important venue for strengthening alumni relations

Personas Ming’s important tasks –search for alumni –read and post SIMS events and news

Personas Gina Ramos –graduated in 2004 with a Master’s degree –worked as a research assistant at a biotech company –looking forward to finding a career that blends her biology background and HCI experience

Personas Gina’s important tasks –publish professional information –search for alumni –search for job opportunities

Current Design and Changes from Low-fi Generally: –Now more focused on the alumni users vs. the administrative users. Specifically: –Reorganized information on the site. –Eliminated categories in “News and Events” –Made sections directly accessible –Vocabulary and Search Changes –Miscellaneous

1. Reorganized information News & EventsBulletin BoardMy Home Sims events Social Networking About Jobs Misc. announcements Alumni News To Career Sims Happenings Read and Post

2. Elimination of categories

3. Interactive section directly accessible

4. Vocabulary and Searches Class notes or life updates or diary updates or alumni notes or Alumni News …what do we call it? Just give examples! Added an “Advanced Search”

5. Miscellaneous “ all selected records” was confusing. Added some indication of required fields. Removed view of all the different 'tabs' until after user logs in.

Demo of Interactive Prototype

Lessons Learned Who’s the boss? –ALWAYS the users…Nielson –Overly sensitive to admin users –New design similar to original design Vocabulary problem –Very difficult! –Ex: Bulletin board, forum, post & read –Need card sorting and more testing Categories overlap –Job postings, searches, bulletin board –Use “Also see”

Questions?

Thank you!

Interaction Flowchart