Maryland+Matters+Final+Report


 * __Maryland Matters Final Report __**

Tammy Tran (tnt@cs.umd.edu) Ian King (iking@terpmail.umd.edu) Taylor Lovett (admin@taylorlovett.com) Rahul Monga ( rahulm5000@gmail.com )

Communication between Maryland students is inefficient when it comes to gathering opinions on people's experiences on various topics. Currently, there is no efficient way to ask questions and get responses from a large student population. For example, if you want to know other students' opinions about a class they took or a restaurant, etc. there is no direct way to access that information.
 * INTRODUCE THE PROBLEM YOU ARE ADDRESSING **

Moreover, with over 100 academic departments, 100 facilities and 500 clubs and organizations offered at the University of Maryland College Park, student feedback is crucial to the existence and maintenance of such services. Student feedback can help these departments, facilities and organizations make student-related decisions such as: determining appropriate spending budgets, creating new or eliminating useless services, etc. Each department, facility, or organization has their own means of gathering student feedback; whether it is dispersing paper/handheld surveys on campus, sending out emails, using alternatively collected data (i.e. grades or student profiles), etc.

Current university means of gathering student feedback can be very cost effective, inaccurate and in return, produce very lower response rates. Furthermore, feedback from the numerous survey services can be inefficient, unreliable and sometimes nonexistent.

The following table breaks down the tasks that each team member performed throughout the entirety of the project:
 * CREDITS: DESCRIBE WHO DID WHAT **
 * || **Tammy **  ||  **Ian **  ||  **Taylor **  ||  **Rahul **  ||
 * **Phase #1: Proposal ** ||
 * Brainstorming || X || X  || <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; text-align: center;">X  || <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; text-align: center;">X  ||
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Proposal write-up || <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; text-align: center;">X || <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; text-align: center;">X  ||   || <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; text-align: center;">X  ||
 * **<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Phase #2: User Needs ** ||
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Step 1 write-up || <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; text-align: center;">X ||   ||   ||   ||
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Step 2 write-up ||  || <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; text-align: center;">X  ||   ||   ||
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Step 3 write-up ||  ||   ||   || <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; text-align: center;">X  ||
 * **<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Phase #3: Design ** ||
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Homepage || <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; text-align: center;">X ||   ||   ||   ||
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Register ||  ||   ||   || <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; text-align: center;">X  ||
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Search ||  ||   || <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; text-align: center;">X  ||   ||
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Login ||  ||   || <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; text-align: center;">X  ||   ||
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Manage Account || <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; text-align: center;">X ||   ||   ||   ||
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Edit Account Info ||  ||   ||   || <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; text-align: center;">X  ||
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Create/Edit Survey || <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; text-align: center;">X ||   ||   ||   ||
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Vote ||  ||   || <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; text-align: center;">X  ||   ||
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Display survey ||  ||   ||   || <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; text-align: center;">X  ||
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Evaluation write-up ||  ||   || <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; text-align: center;">X  ||   ||
 * **<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Phase #4: Prototype ** ||
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Homepage ||  ||   || <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; text-align: center;">X  ||   ||
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Register ||  ||   ||   || <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; text-align: center;">X  ||
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Search ||  || <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; text-align: center;">X  ||   ||   ||
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Login ||  ||   || <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; text-align: center;">X  ||   ||
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Manage Account ||  || <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; text-align: center;">X  ||   ||   ||
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Edit Account Info ||  ||   ||   || <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; text-align: center;">X  ||
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Create/Edit Survey ||  ||   || <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; text-align: center;">X  ||   ||
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Vote ||  ||   || <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; text-align: center;">X  ||   ||
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Display survey ||  ||   ||   || <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; text-align: center;">X  ||
 * **<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Phase #5: Usability Test ** ||
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Usability Test Plan || <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; text-align: center;">X ||   ||   ||   ||
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Distributed Usability Test || <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; text-align: center;">X ||   ||   ||   ||
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Usability Test Result || <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; text-align: center;">X ||   ||   ||   ||
 * **<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Phase #6: Final ** ||
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Presentation || <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; text-align: center;">X || <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; text-align: center;">X  || <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; text-align: center;">X  || <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; text-align: center;">X  ||
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Report || <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; text-align: center;">X || <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; text-align: center;">X  ||   || <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; text-align: center;">X  ||

<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Ideally, //Maryland Matters// was designed for UMD faculty, staff, students, professors, and anybody who wants to inquire about the Maryland community. For example, people who recently moved to the Maryland area, UMD freshman, or people who have to analyze community data for a class will find //Maryland Matters// especially useful.
 * <span style="color: red; font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">DESCRIBE WHO YOUR AUDIENCE IS **

<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">There are many techniques used to gather public information but technology has greatly improved these data collection methods. Online surveys have become one of the most convenient and useful means of gathering customer feedback. Free online survey software, such as //SurveyMonkey, Google Surveys, Yelp.com, ClickSurvey, e-Questionnaire, MobileSurvey, SmartSurveys, Web-Based Survey, ZipSurvey, Websurveyor//, etc., allows any business, organization, or individual to create and disperse personalized surveys via the World-Wide-Web. Unfortunately, many of the free software comes with commercial limitations. For example, //SuveryMonkey.com// will only allow their customers to create a survey with up to 10 questions and 100 responses for their basic, free version.
 * <span style="color: red; font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">DESCRIBE COMPETITIVE SOLUTIONS AND WHAT DEFICIENCIES ARE WITH THOSE SOLUTIONS. **

<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">As opposed to these alternative services, //Maryland Matters// limits its data collection to people who attend the University of Maryland. Other websites collect data but often do not record where the data originated. Unless the author of a response specifies exactly what they are writing about, the survey’s creator may accidentally record data that refers to restaurants, or activities in other cities such as New York, Chicago, etc. This data has no bearing on UMD students and can confuse new students and residents. //Maryland Matters// aims to eliminate that extra data and make survey results more accurate.

<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Our project will be able to provide users with opinions directly from your fellow Maryland students by enabling a student to post questions about classes, interests, campus life, etc. that other students can vote on. The main idea behind our project is to give Maryland students a way to access personal opinions from people who matter without having to know other UMD students personally. We feel that students will embrace this and use this as a medium to communicate with other students about topics they care about in their day to day activities. <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Generally, younger individuals, especially college students, are more comfortable and responsive to participating in Internet research. In addition, college students are especially more likely to participate in a general survey if the topic is of high //salience//. By combining the convenience of web-based surveys with topics related to University of Maryland College Park, researchers and UMD community members may then be able to effectively and efficiently gather more student feedback. Furthermore, social networking has become such a big phenomenon; college students are especially fascinated in their peers’ interests, therefore, such students might be more appealed to the idea of survey participation in exchange for survey feedback (i.e. seeing survey results generated by participation of their peers).
 * <span style="color: red; font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">DESCRIBE YOUR SOLUTION. **

//<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Maryland Matters //<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;"> is a social tool that will enable users to communicate any and all information about the University of Maryland. The //Maryland Matters// product will perform similarly to online survey software. UMD members will be able to access this service via a web interface to post questions/surveys, participate in a fellow UMD member’s survey, and/or display current survey results. //Maryland Matters// aims to filter out all of the data that has no bearing on the University of Maryland by requiring a valid UMD login and password and will only be accessible to University of Maryland students. Ideally, //Maryland Matters// will be a product that is easy to learn, helpful to use, and conventional to employ.
 * <span style="color: red; font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">GIVE OVERVIEW OF YOUR APPROACH **

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">The following table includes screenshots of each web page that comprises //Maryland Matters// and a short description of each screen:
 * <span style="color: red; font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">PRESENT ALL SCREENS YOU HAVE DESIGNED WITH COMMENTARIES **
 * **<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Screen Descriptions ** || **<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Screenshots ** ||
 * **__<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Homepage __**<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">: This allows any user to view the most popular (most participated) surveys and most recently created surveys. Users are also able to search for a survey. || <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">[[image:MMHomepage.png width="800" height="421"]] ||
 * **__<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Register __**<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">: This page allows a new user to create a new account. || <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">[[image:mmregister.png width="800" height="418"]] ||
 * **__<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Search __**<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">: This page displays a list of searched survey and allows a user to filter through his/her results. || <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">[[image:mmsearch.png width="800" height="418"]] ||
 * **__<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Logout __**<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">: This page is displayed when a user tries to access a page that requires the user to be logged in to see, or when a user clicks on the logout link. || <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">[[image:mmlogout.png width="800" height="418"]] ||
 * **__<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Manage Account __**<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">: This page allows registered users to manage their account activities (i.e. manage created/draft surveys, view participated surveys). This page also provides a link to redirect a user to the //<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Edit Account Info // page or the //<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Create New Survey // page. || <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">[[image:MMManageAcct.png width="800" height="437"]] ||
 * **__<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Edit Account Info __**<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">: This page allows a registered user to edit his/her account info (i.e. name, username, password, etc). A user can also deactivate his/her account on this page. || <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">[[image:mmeditacct.png width="800" height="437"]] ||
 * **__<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Create Survey __**<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">: This page allows a user to create a new survey or edit a previously saved survey. || <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">[[image:mmcreatesurvey.png width="800" height="443"]] ||
 * **__<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Vote __**<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">: This page allows any registered user to participate/vote on an existing survey. || <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">[[image:mmvote.png width="800" height="443"]] ||
 * **__<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Display survey __**<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">: This page allows any user to display current results of a survey. || <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">[[image:mmdisplaysurvey.png width="800" height="560"]] ||

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">The following diagram depicts the flow of screens: <span style="color: red; font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">
 * <span style="color: red; font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">SHOW TRANSITION DIAGRAM FOR SCREENS IN YOUR DESIGN. **

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">The first page that shows up is the //Homepage//. From here, the user has various options: login, register for an account on the //Register// page, search for a survey on the //Search// page, or view a survey on the //Display Survey// page. If the user clicks on a survey title link, it will redirect the user to the //Display Survey// page for that survey.

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">From the //Register// page, the user can go back to the //Homepage// or go directly to the //Search// page. Once the user has registered for an account, he/she can return to the //Homepage// to log into his/her account.

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">On the //Search// page, the user can search for a particular survey by typing in a search query. From the list of survey results, the user can click on a survey title link to view the survey results on the //Display Survey// page.

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">On the //Display Survey// page, there is a link that can redirect the user to the //Vote// page for that survey.

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">On the //Vote// page, after user submits his/her vote, the submission is confirmed and the user is redirected back to the //Display Survey// page.

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">If logged in, the user can access the //Create Survey// page to create a new survey or the //Manage Account// page to view all the surveys created and participated in by the logged in account. From the //Manage// Account page, the user can go to the //Edit Account// page to update his/her account information.

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">At any point, the user can log out of the website which will redirect the user to the //Logout// screen.

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Other than a short, informal, verbal description of the general purpose of the Maryland Matters software, no official tutorial or manual guidance was given to subjects that were introduced to this software. The informal description simply revealed to the users that this software is “an online survey software that allows users to create personalized surveys, view currently live surveys, and/or participate in a UMD community related survey”.
 * <span style="color: red; font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">DESCRIBE THE TUTORIAL, HELP, OR ANY ASSISTANCE YOU GAVE TO LEARNERS OF YOUR SYSTEM **

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;"> Several UMD students from various backgrounds were asked to participate in a usability test for this software by performing a list of assigned tasks (as defined in our User Needs assessment). The list of tasks tested was as followed:
 * <span style="color: red; font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">DESCRIBE YOUR USABILITY STUDY **
 * 1) <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Register for a //Maryland Matters// account
 * 2) Search for a survey
 * 3) <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Vote/participate in a survey
 * 4) <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Comment on a survey
 * 5) <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Manage one’s account (i.e. editing one’s account information)
 * 6) <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Create a new survey
 * 7) <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Manage a created survey (i.e. deploy, undeploy, and delete a created survey)

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">In order to present diversity in the population of test subjects, the selected students included males and females, undergraduates and graduates, and each from a different major. The following describes the demographic characteristics of the four selected test subjects: <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;"> **Test Subject 2**: A female graduate student at UMD studying telecommunications. <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;"> **Test Subject 3**: A 22 year old, male 4+ year undergraduate student at UMD majoring in psychology. <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;"> **Test Subject 4**: A 22 year old, female graduate student at UMD studying computer science.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Test Subject 1 **<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">: A 23 year old, male 4+ year undergraduate student at UMD majoring in economics and English.

<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Overall, the test subjects were able to perform all the assigned tasks with various levels of difficulty. The general consensus of the overall look and feel of the software was described as "simple", "easy", "convenient", "straightforward", and fairly "intuitive". Registering for an account and commenting on a survey were ranked as the easiest performed task, closely followed by searching for a survey and participating in a survey. Unfortunately, there were certain tasks/features that were not favorable to any of the test subjects, including the //Create a survey// feature, the size of the comment box, and the design/layout of the survey participation page. <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">According to all four test subjects, the //Create a survey// task should include a "preview" feature to allow the user to approve of the overall look and layout of the survey before deployment. In addition, all four test subjects stated the "comment box could be bigger", and the "layout" of the survey participation page was "not very appealing" and "could be presented better to catch the person's eye". Furthermore, a couple of the test subjects expressed concern that the search feature was "not very intuitive" and "needs more instructions".

<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">In response to the test subjects’ comments, the following changes were made to the final prototype:
 * <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">The //Search// page was redesigned to initially display only one search box. In addition, search filtering options were removed.
 * <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">The comment box size was increased.
 * <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Various pages (//Manage Account, Create New Survey,// and //Display Survey//) were redesigned with minor revisions to improve the appeal and understand of each page’s functions/features.
 * <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">In addition, the created survey edit options on the //Manage Account// page was revise.
 * <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Better feedback on performed actions (i.e. after registering for an account, after logging out, after submitting a vote)

<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">In general, test subjects expressed some of the reasons for not using this system/method was "[Maryland Matters software] might be biased because only people who are really opinionated will vote" and did not allow for anonymous voting”. In addition, Maryland Matters was recognized as a potentially "great tool to use in order to get feedback", but it would only be useful once it gains a "high volume of students to participate".
 * <span style="color: red; font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">FINALLY, DESCRIBE OPEN ISSUES YOU ARE AWARE OF, AND WHAT THE NEXT THINGS YOU WOULD DO IF YOU WERE TO CONTINUE WORKING ON THIS PROJECT. **

<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Some potential ideas for future development might include:
 * <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Implementing a //support/////reject// feature (like Facebook’s like/dislike feature) that would allow users to express support for a topic
 * <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Allowing users to post statuses on their account (like Twitter) to express opinions about UMD matters
 * <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Possibly creating a smartphone app
 * <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Implementing a “watch list” that would allow users to add interested surveys to the list to easily keep track
 * <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Implementing account profiles so people to view what UMD topics friends or fellow UMD members support