Institute Of Design Project Submission

1. Methods
Visualization Tool
Communication Design Workshop
Fall 2007
Prof. Vijay Kumar
Saurabh Gupta :: Caroline Little :: Ruth Schmidt :: Ming-Shan Wu :: Erica Yamada

2. ing
Index:
project introduction + hypothesis p 2-3
research methods p 4-6
insights p 7-8
early concepts p 9-11
final concept p 12-44
Barney p 13-24
Indira p 25-34
Eduardo p 35-44
steps for moving forward p 45
1

3. ng
Project Introduction:
Currently, data about and supporting ID methods exists
in three separate locations:
• The ID Wiki
• The Innovation Exchange
• Project Gallery on Institute of Design website
ID Wiki Innovation Exchange Project Gallery
2

4. Project Hypothesis:
Create a user-friendly system that combines:
information...
about methods from the ID wiki
case studies...
from the Innovation Exchange
student project examples...
from the project gallery
3

5. Research Methods:
Overview
(14) interviews conducted with the
following constituents:
• Recent alumni
• ID staff
• Foundation students
• First year students
• Second year students
1.5 hour long in-class workshop
conducted to explore preliminary
ideas and gain feedback on what
kind of information is most important
to users
4

6. Research Methods:
Personas
Personas were created out of information gathered from
interview responses. Because the audience for the
Methods Visualization Tool encompasses users with a
wide range of experience with methods, the Tool needs
to provide different levels of information.
(3) main types of users were identified:
• beginner (incoming ID student)
• intermediate (second year ID student)
• expert (ID alum)
5

7. Research Methods:
In-Class Workshop
Workshop participants were given
a one of the three personas and a
use case scenario and then asked
to brainstorm types of information
needed to perform the user goal
in the Methods Visualization Tool.
Then, participants used a target to
rank the types of information, with
the bulls-eye marking the most
important data and the outer rings
being less important.
6

8. Insights:
User Needs
• Ability to search by class in which method was taught, or by
“trusted source”
• Filters to narrow methods by process step, inputs, outputs, etc.
• Visual cues as memory prompts: names don’t always stick
• Case studies/real world examples
• Ability to view methods in context/by relationships, not just by
individual pages per method
• Identification of “packages” that indicate which methods work
well together
• Increased profile of Innovation Toolkit
• Multiple visualizations of underlying data to support various
user goals
7

9. Insights:
Information Analysis
All information presented by the Methods Visualization
tool can roughly be broken down according to granular,
concrete information or higher-level, abstract thoughts.
In this way, all types of users are accommodated.
concrete abstract
detailed method basic method
description information
higher-level connections
method use case
between sets of methods
information
innovation case studies
student projects that not linked to a particular
support a specific mode method
of method use
8

10. Early Concepts:
ideas explored:
use of methods timeline
pop-up window for more information
keyword search for quick access to data
color to separate and differentiate methods
9

11. Early Concepts, continued:
ideas explored:
“favorite” methods
tabs on pop-up window to organize
information
different colors to represent stages in
innovation process
10

12. Early Concepts, continued:
ideas explored:
showing visual connections between methods
using target shape to visualize methods and
year information
11

13. Final Concept:
The final concept is illustrated through use cases of the
three personas established earlier in the process.
12

14. Barney
1st year ID student:
new to methods
Needs:
• multiple, intuitive ways to browse
the methods collection
• examples of how other students
have used methods and comments
on which methods were most
effective
• the ability to see the granular
detail within the context of the big
picture
13

15. Barney’s goal:
Choose a research method for his Observing Users project.
Kind of information Barney needs:
concrete abstract
14

16. Once signed in to the Methods Visualization Tool, Barney uses the quick search module
to search for methods taught in the Observing Users course.
15

17. A list of all methods taught in the class appears in alphabetical order. Barney can see the
overall rating of each, as well as the relative time required and the innovation phase for
each method.
16

18. Barney narrows the list by selecting “show only network recommended” option.
17

19. Barney has heard good things about the Ethnographic Interview method, so he clicks
on the name to see more information and read the summary.
18

20. Based on the summary info, Ethnographic Interviews looks like a lot of work, so he
checks out Field Observation instead. This method sounds more promising, and takes
less time. 19

21. He moves the granularity slider in the summary to show specifics and clicks ‘“view details.”
20

22. Detailed information about the Field Observation method enlarges as a pop-up window.
21

23. Barney clicks over the the “Read Reviews” tab to see what other members said about the
usefulness of the Field Observation method.
22

24. He then clicks over to the “Project Examples” tab and reviews other projects to see
how previous students have used Field Observation in projects. He can tell in which
innovation phase Field Observation was used based on the position of the white dot.
The length of the colored bars also tells him the relative length of time of each phase.
23

25. Barney selects a project to review further and it loads as a pdf.
24

26. Indira
2nd year ID student:
comfortable with methods
Needs:
• quick ways to mark and access
“favorite” methods
• the ability to see methods
within the scope of an overall
project toolkit (connections
between methods, etc..)
• a network of community sources
she can trust to review method
usefulness and time input required
25

27. Indira’s goal:
Use the Methods Visualization Tool to increase the scope of her
methods knowledge. She currently uses similar methods together
on a regular basis and is hoping the tool can help her discover new
toolkits suitable for upcoming projects.
Kind of information Indira needs:
concrete abstract
26

28. Indira has frequently used the Compelling Experience Framework and is looking for a
similar method to map experiences, so she uses the quick search box to go directly
to CEF.
27

29. The search page returns the result and shows her summary information about the
Compelling Experiences Framework.
28

30. Indira switches the view of the list by choosing “browse by goal” from the pull-down
menu. This allows her to see which methods are similar to the Compelling Experiences
Framework.
29

31. Indira selects ELITO to look at the summary information. Wanting to know more, Indira
selects the medium level of detail and clicks “view details”.
30

32. In the pop-up window, she sees information about how ELITO is associated with other
methods, which reflects Indira’s need for less granular information. She notices that
the Compelling Experience Framework is listed as an analogous method, then selects
the comments tab.
31

33. On the comments tab, she gets information at a glance—the diameter of the circle
indicates how many people viewed a comment, and the amount of yellow indicates how
many people thought that comment was useful. Lines indicate which other comments
were considered useful by those who viewed the selected one in the center.
32

34. She then selects the project view in the pop-up window to see student projects that
have used this method in the past. It looks like ELITO would be a good fit, so she clicks
the “add to favorites” button.
33

35. The ELITO toolkit now appears under Indira’s favorites.
34

36. Eduardo
ID alum:
experienced methods practitioner
Needs:
• efficient way to search for and
visualize real-world innovation case
studies
• a personalized page that stores
personal methods toolkits used
• quick search options that allow direct
access to the information
35

37. Eduardo’s goal:
Refresh memory on the use of specific methods and research
past method toolkits he used in school to help inform successful
strategies for future work projects.
Kind of information Eduardo needs:
concrete abstract
36

38. Eduardo clicks on “my toolkits” and sees a list of his current work projects.
He has just started working on a project on healthcare and is curious what
archived projects from school he has on the subject.
37

39. Eduardo searches the archives for the healthcare. A list of projects appears,
including his Healthcare Planning Workshop project.
38

40. Eduardo selects the Healthcare Planning Workshop and, by expanding the
scratchpad, is able to see the methods toolkit his team used.
39

41. Eduardo selects a specific method, the Field Observations, for a refresher
on its use and current student comments.
40

42. Satisfied with his search for his healthcare project, Eduardo clicks over to
InnovationXchange to search for real world innovation examples.
41

43. When Eduardo searches for healthcare and emerging markets, case studies
are removed from the matrix. 42

44. Eduardo zooms in on the capabilities quadrant and names of specific case
studies appear.
43

45. Eduardo selects one of the case studies for a brief description and link to a
pdf download.
44

46. Steps for moving forward:
• link tool to Project Gallery to allow for access to
student projects
• ask user community to tag past projects with
comments and input ratings and comments on
methods themselves
• allow users to input their own methods for
community review
• attempt to classify new InnovationXchange case studies
according to method to create new type of data
45