Role: Project Manager
Size: 6 MHCI Students
Client: Novabase Collab
Duration: 1 year (in progress)
Skills: User Research | Prototyping & Development | Branding
Methods: Contextual Inquiry | Personas & Scenarios | Fly-on-the-Wall Observation | Cultural Probes

Download Full Report (Part I – Spring 2011)
* best viewed in a PDF viewer as 2-page continuous layout

Overview:
This Capstone Project, covering two semesters, involves applying our skills developed in the Masters in Human-Computer Interaction (MHCI) Program to solve a real-world problem for a real-world client. Our team is partnered with Novabase Collab, one of Portugal’s largest IT and Contact Center Solutions Companies. Our goal as HCI consultants in training is to understand the conversations in social media that could ultimately affect consumer behavior. We plan to deliver a prototype that uses social media channels to promote mutually beneficial interactions between users and businesses.

Problem Description:
With the arrival and spread of social networks comes benefits and challenges for both individuals and businesses. While businesses have been able to take advantage of social networks to improve their visibility, marketing efforts, and customer support; they also have had to tackle the difficulty of reacting to and managing negative publicity that disseminates extremely quickly and is difficult to reach to and control.

This project tackles the challenges of social networks for companies like Collab’s clients. It explores how companies should expose themselves or use social networks as part of their existing portfolio of communication technologies. In particular, the project will try to take advantage of existing platforms at Collab (e.g. OneTouch and OneContact) to explore new ways that companies can use social networks to track, manage, monitor and expose their brand, products, and services.

Process:
Our project road map takes the form of three stages: Exploration, Generation, and Evaluation. In the first semester, we have employed several research methods to explore social media behavior and interactions with businesses and users. After synthesizing and analyzing our data, we came to key insights from which we generated our initial concepts. In the fall semester and final stage, we have completed ideation and concept validation. We look forward to three design iterations, each with user testing, and completing the project with a functioning prototype by the end of the year.

For an in-depth look at our process in the first semester, including research method details, synthesis, and analysis, see our Spring Final Report.