Interactive Prototype- Delta Sigma PI

PROBLEM & process 

CULTURAL PROBE KIT

To start our user research, we as a group created and designed a cultural probe kit to  gain a true understanding of the group’s culture, behaviours and attitudes. We carefully selected the items that we thought are interesting and enjoyable and at the same time meaningful. Each item in our culture pop kit has instructions on how to use it and what to do. We tried to make the overall design of the kit interesting in order to get a useful response from our user group.

CULTURAL PROBE Poster

The following posters describe our culture results. We tried to focus on insights about your user group. We created two posters. 

• First poster iteration

• Second  poster iteration

SEMI-STRUCTURED INTERVIEWS (PROTOCOL AND QUESTIONS)

In our second phase of the user research, we went through a semi-structured interview process with Delta Sigma Pi. Our primary goal is to better our understanding of the organization by gathering as much data as possible through a set of inquiries. We wanted to learn more about the internal details within their structure such as team operations, management difficulties, and individual’s responsibilities. More importantly, in this analysis, we want to create an emphasis on the data we gathered while utilizing it, to narrow down DSP’s common values, and characteristics. Therefore, this will help us, to lead to our potential design problems.

Interview Analysis

With this platform, it will solve the issue of members not receiving any updates in regards to DSP. With all that we have gathered, we still have a few questions we would like ask them on our future questionnaire. (Questions are below).

• What kind of formal procedure do students have to go through in order to initiate a Delta Sigma Pi at their own school?
• Will the platform you wanted help you in terms of planning for events?
• What are DSP’s methods to connect with other organization, businesses, guest speakers, etc.?
• How many members are actually active?
• How many members aside from the executive committee attend the general meeting?

Questionnaire

In our following research phase, we used the approach of questionnaire to further our examination of Delta Sigma Pi. The questionnaire is consisted of general questions regarding the effectiveness of the organization’s meetings, team’s communications, and the use of technology. We have separated the survey into two forms, one is dedicated to the executives while the other is aimed towards the common members. Using this strategy, our goal is to learn more about the details of their operations and communications through individual member’s opinions.

Questionnaire Analysis

According to the results, we were able to find out the commonalities as well as the different wants and/or needs between the two types of members. Both parties have expressed that Involvement and Communication are the essential qualities to look for in an organization. However, at the same time, the general members have indicated their desire for more social events to be incorporated while the executives were expecting more commitment from their members – especially coming from their own colleague officers. We also have asked how and Delta Sigma Pi is important to these members, both sides have mentioned examples of brotherhood and building connections. As one participant emphasized, “Relationship is crucial within any organization.”

Additionally, it seems that all types of DSP members want to pursue similar goals –specifically in terms of building new career connections while expanding professionalism, not to mention, the ability to create new friends and socialize among each other. According to the group’s comments, both sides have mentioned positive messages regarding each other’s experiences. Particularly, the executives have underlined their passion for Delta Sigma Pi, and how they want to support students with similar interests and goals through the means of networking opportunities. Whereas, the general members have mentioned that the fraternity have helped providing them a stimulating college experience. Some even went to express that they have established a comfortable relationship with the group while also achieving new personal growth.

As stated before, we came across the reliability in Facebook, and how it was mainly used to pass along information whether they are regular conversations, club updates, or events notifications. As a result, the use of emails and verbal communication were proved to be either ineffective or neglected. However, with the given information, our design team has made the assumption that Facebook is more accessible among the members mainly due to its popularity and user-friendly functionalities. We also noticed that this could be a possible cause of miscommunication within the organization, as complained by an executive.

Another potential problem we could draw out within these data is the executive having to settle with what they have. In relation to the ratings given the executives regarding their meeting efficiency, and what they think about the reach for their goals. The officers explicitly explained that the meetings sometime do not go as planned, however, they had to come to a bargain that this was the best approach they could work with.

With all that we have gathered within these data, we hope to design a prototype that could support accommodate both the executive and the general members’ needs. We wish for a product that could potentially help the executives find the commitment they were looking for – while also putting an emphasis on the fun factor for the general members.

storyboard

We sketched our story to organize it and a list of its contents. We  had three scenarios:

THE SOLUTION

From our observations, we have come up with a mobile application, or a platform dedicated to Delta Sigma Pi. This platform will track team operations, view progress on an event, and most of all, strengthen communication between general and executive members. The platform solves several club issues that DSP is facing in terms of team operations. Some being general members missing out on valuable information. Executive members do not have an effective way to check other member’s performance. Other features of the platform include member profiles and messenger. 

Paper Prototype

We created a  paper mockup of our design intervention that provides a physical approximation of our design ideas using low-fidelity sketches and wireframe.

MOOD BOARD

A video of the APP / RESULTS