Getting Started

The month program concludes on a final project that integrates a website and a SQL Server Database hosted on a WIMP stack. The object of my focus came in re-designing the project so it most naturally integrated all of the course content that preceded it, therein creating purpose for the aforementioned knowledge.

User Interviews

My initial research found me exchanging dialogue with former program students. The qualitative interviews brought to light many common pain-points, more specifically pertaining to role clarity and PHP complexities (as a month is a short time to learn several languages). My takeaway was to communicate project requirements in a more visual manner in lieu of walls of text.

Persona Development

I fabricated user archetypes in persona development to engage design thinking on my part. The persona renditions came in the form of a lazier professor and 3 students of different technical skill levels and expectations. This encouraged new web responsive requirements for the final project so the professor could grade clearer requirements. Students, regardless of skill, require the most skimmable yet sticky instruction possible.

The Product

To provide a cerebrum of visually driven knowledge, a host had to exist. Given the final project was a website, I developed one of my own that replicated all of the original requirements. This website would both act as an example of a completed project and host the wiki I am to create.

Information Architecture

A platform of this density carries with it the opportunity of damaged clarity. However, the notion of simplicity and the utilization of card-sorting techniques below led us to a simple Information Architecture of the to-be system.

Wireframe Process

At some point, research must take a back seat to execution. Given all of the constraints discovered, I used Balsamiq Mockups to quickly concoct several low-fidelity designs. One of which is represented below of the ‘Study’ screen where the Wiki will be accessible.

Conclusion

Design’s capacity to improve hybrid education exists in it’s capacity to disappear and be self-explanatory. Our online platform (akin to a W3 School for our program’s final) will act as a reference of practiced knowledge and instruction. By maintaining a flat Information Architecture with an approach to sharing via a no nonsense Wiki, we will manage to answer most questions before they are known to be unknown and provide an Amazon-direct path to answers in both content and form.

Current Status

Development was completed by April 2016. Technologies utilized were: PHP, HTML, CSS, JS (w/ jQuery), SQL Server and an AWS WIMP Stack. The solution was deployed for the 2017 CIS study abroad group.