Data, Observations, and Theories

Over the past week, the team has been busy conducting more interviews and doing a lot of user research. We’ve also been keeping an eye on several hotspots for collaborative study on campus, and taking note of how people interact with the space.

Collaborative Education

Last week, our group’s challenge was to brainstorm problem spaces,
refining those ideas into a general topic we could really dig into. After
settling on the idea of collaborative education, our task this week was to
clearly define the problem space. Exploring the nooks and crannies of…

Consolidating

This week we organized all of our ideas into an affinity diagram as a step
towards consolidating all of our thoughts into a cohesive framework. After
analyzing the diagram and deliberating, we decided to tackle design of the
physical environment because we felt this would be the most effective…

Testing: Round One Complete

Below is a diagram of the Geisel Collaborative Study Space, sketched out by our very own Royce. We made multiple copies on large sheets of paper in order to record where people were sitting and to calculate percentages of whether they were working alone vs. with a group on the…

Post-It to Permanent

I walked into the library, half eager and hopeful that the signs we had
placed the weeks prior had made an impact on the metrics we had decided
on. The other half was hesitant, worried about walking into the space and
finding that our signs had been trashed the night before by a custodian.

Brainstorming

Being a part of this student-run, design-centered class is a dream come true. Experiencing a room filled with design thinkers with the same goal is a great feeling, and being able to work with a close-knit group of them is even better!

And The Prototyping Begins!

This week marks the gradual, exciting move towards the prototyping phase! Last week’s observations at the Galbraith study spaces, as well as the affinity diagramming exercise we did, led to preliminary ideas for our first iteration of prototyping, which centered around the…

Testing

This past week was a huge step for our team — after all of this time user testing, theorizing, infinity diagrams, and the like, we will finally begin acting on our ideas.

Tomorrow we will be going to Geisel library to rearrange the furniture, change the ambiance, and increase awareness…

The Final Stretch

This week involved much reflection and wrapping up any loose ends with our timespan in mind. In our last critique session, we asked for feedback on how we should deal with our skewed success metrics and undependable quantitative data (as mentioned in our previous blog post). We were reminded of…