Master Design Document
Roo Network Challenges
1. Focus
2. Understand
In order to understand exactly what Roosevelt wants, we created a customer profile by
interviewing Dominic Russel, Max Hoffman, and Alan Smith. Unfortunately, due to a slight
miscommunication, Hannah and Jack both interviewed Alan Smith. However, this still turned out
to be very helpful because Alan is so vastly knowledgeable about Roosevelt. He spoke to both
Hannah and Jack for over 20 minutes and gave extended and detailed answers to every
question. Because Hannah and Jack interviewed Alan separately, they both asked different
questions and learned different things about the challenges that Roosevelt faces. Through our 4
extensive interviews we were able to get a holistic picture of the what our client wants for us so
that when we begin designing we will be able to direct our efforts specifically to what they
desire.
Interview with Director of Network Initiatives, Allen Smith
Description: Alan was extremely friendly and accommodating, especially considering the many
technical issues that occurred during his interview with Hannah. He was happy to give lengthy
answers, although sometimes not on topic, and seemed to be very honest in his responses. He
gave specific examples in order to clarify what he was speaking about.
Jobs
Gains
Pains
· Determine what students
are interested in
· Create access points for
students to connect
· Take an idea and give
students the tools to
succeed – often by
connecting students to
others
· Survey, email &
generally communicate
with students
·
Find out who exactly is
in the Roosevelt Network
·
Communicate to all
Roosevelt members across
· Policy change
· Working with strong,
functioning chapters, which
is easier to work with
· Getting people to care
about civic issues
· “Being a teacher is
rewarding”
· Making big change on a
large, comprehensive scale
·
Making communication
with chapters and members
quicker and easier
Creating a platform to
crowdsource work such as
writing policies and peer
· Technology issues with
connecting to students who
aren’t local
· Issues getting heard
beyond local activists and
politicians
· Getting updates on the
status of projects, getting
students to be responsive
with answering requests for
information
· Lack of involvement in
some of the longer surveys
· A “telephone effect”
where he talks to National
Leadership, they
the country
·
Create communication
amongst individual
chapters
Provide good feedback for
the 10 Ideas Campaign
evaluating
·
Getting those who are
unknown in chapters
involved
·
Finding out how large
the network is
communicate to the rank
and file membership, then
the students work on it and
have to go back up the
chain in order to ask
questions, etc. – No direct
communication with
members
· Hard to give everyone the
opportunity to have access
to the challenges
· How to give students
enough information without
overloading
· Hard to get students to
collaborate
· Hard to tell the story of
someone far away with little
direct communication
·
Most communication is
done by hand (i.e. Emails)
·
Leadership team in 5
regions isn’t even aware of
exactly who is involved in
their network
·
Leadership team in 5
regions is the only way for
the institute to connect to
members
·
Members are frequently
more interested in working
on local issues
·
Often only those who
Roosevelt knows have an
interest are asked to write a
policy. This is very exclusive
·
New members struggle
to get involved because
communication is tough
·
It is hard to get expert
evaluation on 10 Ideas
Campaign. The 8-9 are not
experts in every field that is
written
·
Peer evaluation costs a
lot of time because
Roosevelt has to hand pick
those they know can critique
a certain paper
Cannot separate
masses(trying to get many
members involved) from
expertise(want to hear more
from those who are experts
on a certain subject)
Interview with Student Chair of Student Board of Directors, Dominic Russel
Description: Dominic seemed incredibly friendly and open to asking him questions about his
job. He gave answers that we’re long and led into other topics of discussion to help me assess
the jobs, pains, and gains of his job with Roosevelt. He was very knowledgeable about the
organization and clearly very passionate about being apart of it.
Jobs
Gains
Pains
· Student chair of student
board of advisors
· Create different policies
for different projects
· Find out how
Universities deal with
banks and how their
interest rates affect tuition.
· Calling members at over
100 different universities.
· Staying in contact with
everyone
· Weekly board meetings
· Get to create and
promote your own ideas,
not someone else’s
· Very interested in policy
changes and politics so
he’s very invested
· Wants to find ways to
quantify research
· Will be student chair
president next year as he’s
currently the junior VP
Chair.
Chapter level
· Tough going to enact the
policy changes that they’re
promoting.
· Lot of frustrating meetings
· Lot of setbacks
National scope
· Constantly having to email and
call people who don’t respond
back.
· Hard to keep track of who they
have and haven’t contacted
· Getting policy ideas shot down
or rejected.
· Dealing with a lot of people who
need help with fixing problems so
not the happiest people
sometimes.
Interview with Chapter President, Max Hoffman
Description- Max Hoffman is a current member of Northwestern’s Chapter of the Roosevelt
Institute, and is currently serving as the President. He was very helpful in providing a student’s
perspective on some of the pains and gains of the policy and challenge distribution processes.
Having been in the Roosevelt Network for 4 years now, he spoke confidently and extensively on
the subject, and gave honest and critical answers to my inquiries.
Jobs
Pains
Gains
·
Communicate with the
National Board and Brenna
to disseminate essential
information among the local
chapter members
Facilitate the
development of certain
policy initiatives
Submitting Policy
challenges to the Roosevelt
National Chapter
Planning exec meetings
Reviewing policies
·
·
The quarter system is
not conducive to an
effective policy writing
timeline
·
Communication
between the Roosevelt
Network nationally and the
individual chapters is solely
through the exec board of
the local chapters, so
information can fall through
the cracks
Unclear deadlines and
rubric for policy
submissions
·
Getting hands-on
experience with policy
writing
·
Doing meaningful work
·
Connecting with the
local community
Exposing new students
to the process of policy
development
Key Findings:
There are three main issues we see with Roosevelt that need to be addressed. The first
key dilemma is motivating members to work on policy. The Institute's main goal is to give help
members write policy, so it is pretty clear that this is their biggest challenge. Roosevelt is
comprised of many chapter nationwide, and helping every member in these chapters write
policy is a difficult goal. Roosevelt needs to find policies that interest members, and then provide
them with the tools to help them write. A key component to this goal is the second large
dilemma we see; communication. How does Roosevelt communicate with each of each
chapters and many members? Often, members come and go without ever being addressed by
the organization. How can they become more connected to their members and make sure they
are reaching out to all of them? At this point, Roosevelt does not even have a count of the exact
number of members it has. Most communication in Roosevelt is done by hand (emails and calls)
which is not efficient enough for a large network. The third dilemma also ties directly into this
idea. It is Roosevelt’s job to disseminate challenges to all of its members, this is one way that
they interest their members in policy and help them write. Currently Roosevelt disseminates
challenges to those members who they believe would be interested. This is not inclusive, does
not encourage collaboration, and leaves out a large portion of the members, since most are
unknown to Roosevelt. They need a more democratic way to spread their challenges to all
members, and to give all members the opportunity to engage in policy.
Notes on Alan Smith Interview
What are some of the challenges you’re facing with communication right now?
● cross collaboration between chapters, finding the “best smart people”
● communication with “leadership team”- the coordinators of the 5 regions
● not even the individual coordinators know specific numbers of members
○ how large is the network? Is it a chapter of 10 or 50?
How are you communicating with your members right now?
● email blast to every email they have- doesn't get out to everyone or is not taken
seriously enough
● single out a couple people who they know would be interested in the policy topic
○ after Sandy Hook 15 people worked together on a project
■ sometimes cross communication does work but not a lot
Tell me about your 10 Ideas Campaign
● it is very open ended you can write about anything you want
● only have a staff of 8-9 so they are not knowledgeable enough on every subject to
provide feedback for everything
Does Roosevelt have any peer editing system?
● There is a system but the editors have to be hand picked by Roosevelt so it is very
inefficient
● It takes a lot of time to marshal people
What would you like to see as a solution to this?
● A platform based system to reach everyone/build communication
● How do you separate “masses” from “experts”
○ they want to hear from everyone, but want to hear the most from those who know
the most and have the most valuable input
● Beth Novak
○
Author- when does crowdsourcing work and when doesn’t it
Notes from Interview with Dominic Russel:
So what exactly is your job or position within roosevelt?
● Student chair of student board of advisors and will become senior chair.
● He job networks and reports to FDA - overseas and tired direction of network
What do you do on a and day-to-day basis?
● We have to do weekly meetings with the board members.
● breakouts of what we do each week, what projects are being done, and my current job of
how Universities deal with banks, study through case studies - how different varying
interests affect tuition.
● The case studies come from students other schools
Why do you do what you do?
● was at the U of M at a student fair met the president at Michigan like to talk about policy
analysis and realize that through this organization he got to think of his own ideas and
advocate what is being taught. He also gets posted in national journals.
So you talk about the things you love, what about the things you don't like. What would you say
the hardest part of it all is?
Chapter level
● -going to enact policy changes
● -frustrating meetings with setbacks
National scope
● emailing constantly lack of responses calling people and keeping track of who they
calling who hasn't responded
What makes it worth your while to do what you do?
● -The biggest thing is not promoting someone else's ideas it's promoting his own
2.1 Expertise
●
2.2. Learners
Learners are the student members who have joined local chapters. The Learners’ struggles are
limited access to challenges, limited information about the challenges, lack of understanding of
the Loft platform and limited abilities to collaborate with other members across the country.
2.4 Existing solutions
Define: Goals
Organizational need
The Roosevelt Institute works to empower students to get involved in policy writing for civil
change. Their issue is that there is currently no platform for disseminating their policy
“challenges” to all students equally, which is creating a trend of only offering these opportunities
to certain students in an exclusive way. The Roosevelt Institute is therefore looking for a forum
that will allow their organization to make these challenges available for all member students to
collaborate on.
Learning task
Roosevelt students will have access to and collaborate on policy challenges that expose them
to real policy developing experiences in a more inclusive and well-rounded Roosevelt Scholar
experience.
Skill hierarchy
Performance Objectives
Objective
Taught
Problemsolving?
Rulebased
Automate
1
After following the training programs,
learners will be able to empower
Roosevelt members to create policy with
the aid of our Loft guide: the learner will
be able to engage in a higher number of
national policy challenges that are shared
equally with all members and preventing
the current knowledge loss trend.
x
X
2
Members will be asked to create a loft
profile as a requirement of membership;
the learner will be able to view all
challenge postings and ultimately join
teams to work on addressing the
challenge.
x
x
3
After receiving an email about a new
challenge, members will be able to
demonstrate their interest by filling out a
google form; the learner will then be put
into a group and able to work
collaboratively with his or her team.
x
x
4
After being put into a team, one member
will accept the challenge using the how-to
guide; the learner will be able to then
work within the team project page along
with the rest of his or her team.
x
x
5
After gaining access to the challenge, the
learner will be able to work collaboratively
with his or her team to work on the
challenge.
x
x
5.1
After beginning to work on the challenge,
learners will be able to increase
collaboration amongst Roosevelt chapters
with the aid of an online platform to
connect members; the learner will be able
to encourage members to work
collaboratively on policies by providing
them an easy way to communicate online.
x
x
5.2
After viewing the guide tab within the
studio page, the learner will be able to
x
x
use Roosevelt provided instructions on
how to address policy writing.
6
After completing the necessary steps to
writing the policy, the learner will submit
the policy challenge to be reviewed for
feedback and potential submission.
x
x
Assessments
Standards in Performance Objective
1
2.
3.
Empower Roosevelt member to create policy (non-recurrent)
Attitude: Member interacts more frequently with
nationally issued challenges
-yes
-no
Criterion: Member has access to all national
challenges
-yes
-no
Member can confidently create a personal profile on loft (recurrent)
Criterion: Member knows how to create a
personal profile on loft
-yes
-no
Attitude: Member believes completing a personal
profile will contribute to a more complete Loft
user experience
-completely
-somewhat
-not at all
Member is organized by Roosevelt into project team to work on national
policies (non-recurrent)
Criterion: Member is given the opportunity to
participate in many national challenges
4.
Scale of Values
-member receives
national challenges
-member only receives
certain challenges
-member receives no
challenges
Member accepts challenges on the Loft (recurrent)
Attitude: Member engages in and accepts any
national challenge that they find interesting
-Always
-Mostly
-Sometimes
-Never
Please explain
your answer
5.
Member works on challenges (non-recurrent)
Attitude: Member is uses the Loft to work on
challenges instead of outside communication
methods
5.1
5.2
-yes, only uses loft
-Yes, but still uses outside
application
-No, only uses outside
applications to
communicate
Member utilizes the Loft message board (recurrent)
Criterion: Member knows how to collaborate on
challenges using the Loft message board
-Member knows how to
use the message board
-Member struggles to use
the message board
-Member does not
understand the message
board
Value: Using the Loft message board will
increase the ease of collaboration between
groups which will decrease the knowledge loss
that stems from using outside communication
methods
-Member believes using
Loft is more effective
-Member doesn’t believe
using Loft is more
effective
-Member is ambivalent
attitude: Member reaches out to other members
for policy collaboration
-Member reaches out to
many chapters
-Member only
communicates with
certain chapters
-Member does not
communicate with others
Roosevelt member understands how to navigate through Loft with the
assistance of our guides (non-recurrent)
Criterion: Member understands how to navigate
within project groups
-member can navigate
through project group
page
-member cannot navigate
through project group
page
Criterion: Member understands how to navigate
the challenge studio page
6
-member can navigate
through the studio page
and access all of the
challenge information
-member does not
understand all of the
information about the
challenge on the studio
page
-member cannot navigate
the studio page
Member knows how to submit challenges to the Loft (recurrent)
Criterion: Member submits challenges through
the Loft
-Yes
-No
Attitude: Member feels comfortable and confident
submitting challenges to Roosevelt via the Loft
-Yes, member submits
challenges via the Loft
-Yes, member
understands Loft but
chooses to use other
platforms
-No, member does not
have access or
understand how to submit
challenges via Loft
4. Conceive
Value Proposition: Our challenge platform helps the Roosevelt Institute employees who want to
encourage members to address policy challenges by reducing the amount of time spent on
communicating challenges and enabling members to collaborate on the policy creations, unlike
the currently inefficient means of spreading information.
4.1 Stakeholder map
If you have a stakeholder map, describe that first.
4.2 Design argument
Describe your impact map or design argument.
4.3 Blueprints
BACKGROUND
(a) learning goals - The learning goals include: posting challenges and collaboration capabilities. None of these
skills will be automatic but they will require an understanding of how to accept Loft challenges and use the message
board. Procedural information will include a worked-out explanation of how to use the Loft platform.
(b) assessment - We will assess how relevant the system is and how easy it is to understand based on traffic
numbers and requests from tech support.
(c) learners - Learners are the student members who have joined local chapters and have created a Loft profile. The
Learners’ struggles are limited access to challenges, limited information about the challenges, lack of understanding
of the Loft platform and limited abilities to collaborate with other members across the country.
(d) instructors - The instructors are the Roosevelt Institute faculty who wish to disseminate national challenges to all
chapter members. Their abilities include access to chapters, access to policies, and knowledge of the Loft platform.
(e) context - The Roosevelt Institute is an organization that empowers undergraduate students to become involved in
civil policy creation and change. Because this is an extracurricular activity for undergraduate students, they are not
paid for their involvement and time is a very limited resource. The fundamental resources made available to members
are the Loft platform and explanatory videos.
(f) instructional approach - We will be designing a course that Roosevelt employees can use to instruct Roosevelt
members to take advantage of the Loft platform and capabilities it has to promote Challenge collaboration across
chapters.
BLUEPRINT
Marketing: Roosevelt Institute faculty will need to market the new Loft platform to each chapter in order to
ensure that each member has access and knowledge of the platform.
Motivation: By using the Loft platform in order to complete challenges members will be able to view policy
challenges and collaborate with other members in a simple and complete platform. Loft will enable
members to engage in more policy challenges that fit their interests. Additionally, simplified collaboration
will allow members to work together without the confusion and knowledge loss that stems from using
external devices. This will help members create more comprehensive and well written policies to be
submitted to Roosevelt.
Task Class 1:
Roosevelt students will be able to complete a challenge including accepting the challenge, collaborating
with other students, and submitting the work via the Loft platform.
Supportive Information:
Accepting challenges allows for Roosevelt members to become involved in policy creation for an issue
that has organizational support. Rather than coming up with their own initiatives, students are able to
become involved in issues that have been requested by outside members through the challenge program.
Accepting these challenges on Loft will allow all students who would like to get involved in a challenge to
have the same information and find other students from around the country to collaborate with.
Supportive Information: Presentation of mental modes
-
Conceptual model showing chapters and separate niches of knowledge
Learning task 1.1: Worked out
problem
Case study of a member filling out
a challenge interest form and
being assigned into a challenge
team
Learning Task 1.2: Respond to
the challenge email sent out by
Roosevelt
Procedural Information: List of steps detailing how Roosevelt Institute
will create a new challenge page on Loft
Learning Task 2.0
Procedural Information: Photos of steps showcasing the functionalities
of Loft including how to log in, access the tabs, and accept a
challenge.
Log into Loft and accept a
challenge for your project team
Procedural information: Example email from Roosevelt Institute
describing a new challenge with an attached GoogleForm to fill out
interest
Supportive Information: SAP for teamwork and collaboration on challenges. Explains the basics of
teamwork and why it is important for Roosevelt members to collaborate on policies.
Learning Task 3.0 Worked out
problem
Case study of students using the
Loft to collaborate on challenges
Learning Task 3.1
Use Loft to send an example
message to another project team
Procedural information: Structural video showcasing the functionality of
each tab listed on the homepage of Loft and how to accept a
challenge.
Procedural Information: Read direct message directions and navigate
to the direct message page
Procedural Information: A page with directions explaining all of the
functions of the messaging platform
Procedural Information: SAP for commenting on a file that has been
uploaded to the page
Learning task 4.0
Procedural Information: See procedural information form Leaning task
Submit a challenge for review
2.0 to see how to submit a challenge through Loft
Assessment: Summative assessment to test members knowledge of the Loft platform and ability to
collaborate on challenges.
5. Build
Deliverable 1
Our first deliverable is an example Loft page for the challenge, “Food Insecurities in Northern
Illinois”. Members will be put into project teams based on their responses to the challenge email.
Project groups will then be invited to join the challenge page. Here they can accept the challenge,
communicate with other project teams, and submit their final work. Our page has examples of each
of these functions.
https://loft.io/fake-roo-challenges-studio/
Deliverable 2
Our second deliverable is a how-to guide for the Roosevelt Members. This is a powerpoint that
walks members through each step regarding how to navigate the challenge page and accept the
challenge. The powerpoint contains images and simple steps to follow in order to familiarize yourself
with the challenge page.
https://loft.io/dole-f15/challenge/93/?project=524
Deliverable 3
Our third deliverable is an outline of the entire challenge process that begins with members creating
Loft profiles and finished with members submitting challenges. The outline shows every step that
must occur to complete this process and fully integrate Roosevelt challenges on Loft. Many of the
steps on the timeline also refer to other deliverables that we have created to show the entire
process. We have created 7 deliverables in all.
https://loft.io/dole-f15/challenge/94/?project=524
6. Test
Test 1
This first test occurred on Monday, November 2 during our midpoint presentation to Brenna. During
this test, we presenting our deliverables as they looked at the time and allowed Brenna to give us
feedback through Loft. Below are the feedback that she left to us through the comment section on
Loft.
1. You should have given background explanation before jumping into the project in order to ensure
that we are on the same page on the basics such as what a challenge is
2. You should have spent less time going over the background research and more time showing
deliverables, it would have been very helpful to see the challenge page you made
3. I wish you would have sent me the video you made as the first deliverable
4. Not all of the challenges are necessarily national policies, some are regional policies that we do
not want sent out to every member in the nation
5. Focus more on how we get students to participate in the challenges; motivation
6. You can demonstrate to me by the site you build... walk me through how that should happen and
how we promote
7. I am most interested in what the visuals will look like
After receiving feedback from Brenna in class on November 2, we set up a conference phone call
with Brenna to speak with her on November 6. Before the phone call took place, we sent Brenna all
of our deliverables so that she could take a closer look at them. During the conference call, we
talked more thoroughly about what we had accomplished, what she wanted to see done, and where
we were misaligned.
1. We already have a Loft plan to transfer our site onto the Loft, that is not what we need to see
2. We already have a home page for Roosevelt Institute on Loft
3. We want to see what goes on inside the challenge page, how are challenges set up
4. We want to know have to motivate members to do the challenges and how to keep them
engaged
5. We want to limit the number of people who can work on these challenges, we do not have 100
people we can use to edit a thousand policies we receive
6. I will send you an example challenge, the 10 Ideas campaign is not the type of challenge we will
post individually, it is too large
7. How will members know when we have uploaded a new challenge to the loft, maybe an email?
8. Make the video look more professional, I need something I can present to Roosevelt and prove
to them exactly how this is going to work when we post something on the loft
9. Visuals are key, I need to prove to other faculty exactly how this will look
Interpretations:
During this test, we were able to learn most importantly, that Brenna was looking for real
deliverables that she could supply to Roosevelt to prove to them why they should switch to Loft.
They did not need a starter guide to Loft, but rather a full plan about how exactly the challenge
portion of Roosevelt would look and work while translated to Loft. This was incredibly important as
our first test as we needed to align ourselves with Brenna before we could test a Roosevelt user. If
we were not completing what Brenna was looking for, it would not matter whether we created
something that a user could use.
Redesign:
Before the call with Brenna, we were focusing mostly on how members were going to communicate
with each other, via a message platform on the loft. After speaking with Brenna, we realized that the
problem is far more comprehensive than this. We went back to the design board and began creating
deliverables that explain from the very beginning how the challenge feature will work when
translated to loft. While we kept the message platform as a part of our deliverables, we learned that
this should not be the most important part. The most important part is envisioning how challenges
will be posted to loft and accepted by members. After this test, we created new deliverables such as
our Roosevelt how-to-guide to explain how to create a challenge page, as well as an intro email that
will be sent out to Roosevelt members explaining why there has been a switch to Loft.
Test 2
Test Subject: Robert Howle, Northwestern Sophomore, ISBE Analytics Group Member.
Date: December 3
For this test, we chose a Northwestern student not involved in Roosevelt in order to get
feedback from a student with no previous knowledge or experience. We believed this would provide
with the best baseline, because if a student with no knowledge could follow our directions, then it
would signal to us that they are as clear as can be. Many new Roosevelt students will have to follow
these directions, so it is important that they make sense to a student with no previous knowledge. To
keep this base knowledge low, we gave Robert very little information before the tests. We solely
gave him minimal information about Roosevelt and its goals. In the first step of this test, we showed
Robert the example email from Roosevelt that will be sent out to members explaining the switch to
Loft.
After viewing the email, we asked Robert a couple of questions to gage how he would
respond to it. We believe Robert, as an unbiased student, provides us with very good data about
how any average Roosevelt member, new or old, would react to an email from Roosevelt explaining
the transition to Loft
Questions
Response from Robert
How likely are you to believe that Roosevelt
switching to Loft will improve your experience
LIkely 1 2 3 4 5 not likely
How likely are you to believe that the Roosevelt
transition is in the your best interest
likely 1 2 3 4 5 not likely
How likely are you to contact Roosevelt with
doubts
likely 1 2 3 4 5 not likely
How likely are you to be excited about the
Roosevelt transition
likely 1 2 3 4 5 not likely
How likely are you to be frustrated with the
email from Roosevelt
likely 1 2 3 4 5 not likely
Do you have any other suggestions
I would be more likely to be excited about the
switch to a new platform if the email said more
explicitly that Roosevelt is excited. I do not
know anything about this platform, but if the
organization says they are very excited and
cannot wait for the change, I am more likely to
believe that it is going to be something that will
help me a lot.
We then tested Robert on his ability to navigate Loft after looking through our member howto guide. Without giving Robert any more information, we had him read through the following guide:
After reading through the how-to-guide, we took Robert to the home page of Loft and asked
him to navigate to a challenge and accept it. This is where we had Robert begin:
We then witnessed as Robert navigated his way through Loft. We asked him to speak out loud about
all of the steps that he was accomplishing as he did them.
Step given in how-to-guide
Action of Robert
Understand how getting put into teams works
Robert repeated to us what he read, and said
that he understood how a member is given a
challenge
Sign into Loft
Rob looked to the upper right corner and
ensured that we were signed into Loft
Go to the challenge page
Here, Robert struggled. In our model, Roosevelt
will send out an email and through a link in that
email, the member will arrive at the challenge
page. However, we did not provide that email
so Robert could not arrive at the page. It would
be good for us to insert instructions on how to
search for and arrive at the challenge page in
case the email link does not work, or a member
does not receive it.
Follow the challenge page
Robert navigated to the follow button and
understand following the challenge allows you
to receive notifications
Favorite the challenge page
Robert navigated to the favorite star and knew
that this allows you to add the page to your
favorites
Look to the tab to see the challenge
After favoriting the challenge Robert navigated
to the tab and found the challenge saved there
Navigate to the challenge tab
Rob then scrolled through the page to the
challenge tab
Read about the challenge by clicking on it
Robert clicked on the challenge and knew that
there he would find more specific information
about it
Accept challenge
After reading about the challenge, Robert
clicked on the accept challenge in the upper
right hand corner and finished the test
Interpretation:
Our interpretation of Robert’s reponses about our intro email are very positive. Overall, we
believe that the email is professional, to-the-point, and answers most questions members will
have. We believe that the email provides plenty of context as to why Roosevelt is transitioning
to loft which is the most important aspect to solve. The email must provide members with
incentive to agree with and become a part of the transition, and this one was part that Robert’s
responses led us to believe was very good. Our only negative feedback was that we should
spend a little bit more time explaining how excited Roosevelt is for the change in order to instill
excitement in the members. In addition, our results from the how-to-guide are vey positive.
Robert was able to accomplish all of the tasks that are necessary to complete a challenge on
loft without difficulty. He was able to perform all of these tasks quickly, proving that the how-toguide is complete, and easy to follow. This is most important, because we do not want members
to feel confused or frustrated when they begin navigating through loft. Once again, we only had
one negative result. This was that we did not explain how to search for and arrive at the
challenge page. This is a key feature since we cannot guarantee that members will receive an
email with a link taking them directly to the page.
Redesign:
After this test, there are two main designs that we must change. They are both very simply,
since overall, our deliverables achieve their goal very well. The first is to add an additional
sentence to our intro email highlighting how excited Roosevelt is for the transition. Since the
goal of the email is to get all members on board with the change, it is important they have
confidence in its purpose. If Roosevelt can express that they are very excited, members are
more likely to believe that the change will be very beneficial and will be more likely to be on
board with the transition. With regards to our how-to-guide, we need to add a slide or two
explaining how members can search for the challenge page. Our original plan was that
members will receive a link directing them to the page. However, we still need to teach
members how they may search for pages as they may want to see other challenges, or may not
receive the link. Once Robert had navigated to the page, everything was easy. The only addition
we have to add is this slide at the beginning of the PowerPoint showing how to search for
challenge pages when you are on the loft home page.
Test 3
Test Subject: Victoria Nelson, Northwestern Junior, Roosevelt Scholar.
Date: December 4
For this test, we chose a Northwestern student in Roosevelt in order to get feedback from a
student with context as to what to expect from a program like loft. We wanted to see how the main
users of the Loft would engage with our step-by-step guide of how to navigate Loft. Many new
Roosevelt students will have to follow these directions, so it is important that they make sense to the
average Roosevelt user who isn’t totally familiar with the Loft. To keep this base knowledge low, we
gave Victoria very little information before the tests, but instead presented her with the email
describing the transition to Loft.
She responded well to the email, reading through it in about 30 seconds. She said it makes
sense why the switch was taking place, and that she would be inclined to follow the link. The link
was not actually in the email, which is something that we could implement in our next iterations of
tests. We took her straight to the page that she would be linked to and explained that she was
logged in to a temporary account. We then watched as she navigated the Loft site according to the
Loft walkthrough we provided her.
Step given in how-to-guide
Action of Victoria
Understand how getting put into teams works
Victoria synthesized the information she read,
and commented on the lengthiness of the text in
the instruction. She said it would be more
engaging if there were more visuals.
Sign into Loft
Victoria glanced and made sure that she was
signed in.
Go to the challenge page
Victoria had no problem finding the challenge,
but noted that that she wasn’t sure if she could
get to the page without the aid of the link.
Follow the challenge page
Victoria easily found the follow button and
pressed it.
Favorite the challenge page
Victoria found and engaged the favorite button,
noting that she thought it was a good idea to
make people aware of that feature and walk
through what it meant.
Look to the tab to see the challenge
Victoria found the community tab and seemed
satisfied with the feature.
Navigate to the challenge tab
Victoria scrolled down to the challenge tab. She
stated that she understood the purpose of the
guide, but wished she had some more time to
explore the other tabs on the Loft.
Read about the challenge by clicking on it
Victoria read the challenges and clicked on the
Food Insecurities challenge without issue.
Accept challenge
Victoria accepted the challenge and finished the
test. She noted that she didn’t yet feel fully
comfortable with the software, but did feel like
she could retrace her steps and teach someone
else.
After conducting this test we concluded that the walkthrough was helpful for getting the user off
to a good start with using the Loft, but did not make the user feel as if they truly had a good grip
on the interface. Next steps could include creating a more elaborate instruction guide that
illustrates how to navigate the Loft site without the use of an introductory email, or at least
instructions as to how the user could find the Loft tutorials on their own.
7. References
Include any references or resources you used in researching or creating your learning environment.
8. Appendices
Name
Contact Information
Contact Method
Hannah Brock
(914) 874-7055
hannahbrock2016@u.northw
estern.edu
either
Jack McCarter
(317) 753-6499
johnmccarter2018@u.northw
estern.edu
either
JR Reimer
(847) 254-7051
jonathanreimer2018@u.north
western.edu
either
Nick Davis
(310) 702-3090
nicholasdavis2017@u.northw
estern.edu
either
Team Member
Strength
Weakness
Hannah Brock
Organization
Delegation
Jack McCarter
Creativity
Computer Savvy
JR Reimer
Creativity
Organization
Nick Davis
Creativity
Availability
1. What are your team’s goals for the collaboration?
Our team will be collaborative throughout the design process, which will lead to
many levels of work being shared between the four of us. When we are presenting
deliverables, however, the quality of work will be professional and client-ready. All
team members will be timely in responding to emails, phone calls and messages. As
a team we will hold each other accountable for properly completing each task and
being available for each other throughout the process.
2. Who is responsible for each activity? What roles will each member have?
As a team there are many roles that we will expect everyone to fulfill. We will all
challenge each other to think outside of the box and push the design to the next
level. We will all present potential challenges and objections. Additionally, we will all
be responsible for asking for help when needed and communicating with other
group members, our professor, and TA whenever necessary or wise.
Hannah: Note-taker and Communicator with Client Jack: Meeting Scheduler and
Manager of Deadlines Nick: Delegating Assignments
JR: Review all Deliverables Before Submission
3. What is your timetable for activities?
We will be holding meetings twice a week in order to stay on schedule for
deliverables to the Roosevelt Institute. The first of our meetings will be a weekly
iteration planning meeting in order to keep our iteration cycles very short and our
team on task. We will set specific due dates for individual work during the iteration
meetings. During our second meeting we will hold our weekly stands and
showcases so that each member may present their individual weekly progress.
4. What are your team’s expectations regarding meeting attendance (being on
time, leaving early, missing meetings, etc.)?
Our expectation is that everyone attend meetings that are collaboratively
scheduled, unless there are extenuating circumstances. Members arrive within 5
minutes of agreed meeting time, unless the team is notified ahead of time. Leaving
meetings early is acceptable only when the reason fulfills the criteria for an
acceptable excuse (see 5.) and/or the team unanimously agrees on the validity of
the excuse. Missing meetings is not acceptable unless the team is notified of the
absence at least 2 hours prior to the scheduled meeting time or in the event of
extenuating circumstances.
5. What constitutes an acceptable excuse for missing a meeting or a deadline?
What types of excuses will not be considered acceptable?
Due to the non-negotiable schedule of this project, we will not be lenient on missing
meetings. Excuses that are acceptable include; baseball games and practice
(Jonathan), family emergency, any situation that may involve the safety of a
member, serious illness(this does not, for example, include a common cold).
Excuses that are not acceptable include; social events, work from other campus
involvement, fatigue, or forgetting the time of the meeting.
6. What process will team members follow if they have an emergency and cannot
attend a team meeting or complete their individual work promised to the team
(deliverable)?
The team will utilize its GroupMe conversation board to inform everyone of their
emergency situations. Additionally, members can call or email another team
member if writing in the GroupMe would be uncomfortable or inappropriate.
7. What are your team’s expectations regarding the quality of team members’
preparation for team meetings and the quality of the deliverables that members
bring to the team?
All team members will be prepared for each meeting in regards to readings and
materials that we are meant to review and work on. We understand that there may
be times where collaboration is needed to complete a task, in which case we expect
that members will come with an attempt at completing the task that can be worked
on together.
8. What are your team’s expectations regarding team members’ ideas, interactions
with the team, cooperation, attitudes, and anything else regarding team-member
contributions?
All team members will be respectful of each other's ideas and encourage each other
to present “half-baked” ideas without hesitation. We expect each member to be
cooperative and willing to collaborate, both in regards to accepting feedback and
offering it. All members will contribute to each deliverable, while this contribution
may manifest in different ways.
9. What methods will be used to keep the team on track?
All team members will keep track of the progress of the google docs, and if one
notices discrepancies between the work agreed upon and the progress of the
assignment, then Jack will be notified. Jack can then check in with the team
member. If Jack is the member who is off-task, Nick will check in with him as he is
responsible for assignment delegation. In the event of consistent lack of
participation, a team meeting will be arranged in which the team can discuss
actions to be taken in order to get back on track and ensure participation. If the
issue continues to persist after group interventions, we will set up a meeting with
Professor Easterday to brainstorm new solutions. In the event of a team member
exceeding team expectations, then Nick will be responsible for balancing the
workload and ensuring that the excess work is delegated to someone else.