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
implementation of design thinking and would fit into our A/B testing
nicely.

Our goal could still be further specified, but on a high level it is to
promote a space meant explicitly for collaboration. Ideas we have to
achieve this would involve simple modifications of the collaborative
space — moving a whiteboard to a more convenient location may increase
usage and effectiveness of the space as a place to collaborate. Other
ideas include changing the table configuration or adding some background
music/noise in order to promote a livelier atmosphere.

We realized further observation was necessary in order to really pin down
which solutions had the most potential for impactful change of the
collaborative space. So this week, we went into Geisel’s 1st floor
collaborative space to get a sense of how it is currently being utilized.
That way our observations could potentially serve as a “control group”
when compared to our experimental group. This A/B test won’t be perfect
due to time and class constraints, but we hope to create a change that
will have lasting impact on utilization of the space.

A few questions we kept in mind during our initial observation included:

1. How many students are alone and using the space like any other part of
   the library?
2. How many students were actively collaborating on a homework assignment or project?
3. How many students were there to hang out with friends while doing
   unrelated work?

We felt it would be a good idea to diagram out the space as a way to
organize all of our observations. With graph paper in hand, we created a
sketch of the space and set out to survey all of the students within the
observable area. After some simple surveying, we recorded specific answers
for the three questions listed above. In addition, we recorded where signs
that encouraged collaboration were posted and what kinds of things were
said.

From here, we’ll be carefully analyzing our recorded data and finding
potential areas for improvement. Afterwards, we’ll be implementing a basic
prototype of our propose solution for further analysis through A/B
testing. We’ll keep you posted!