Contextual Inquiry Check-In

Describe your first inquiry:

For our first contextual inquiry we observed a current Williams senior, Vinny¹, talking to his cousin (via Skype), who is applying to the Williams class of 2022, about Williams and the college search process. Vinny plays rugby on campus and has been involved with sketch comedy groups. He does not have any formal capacity in which he represents the college to applicants, but rather described his involvement as “casual conversations with relatives and friends.”

What did you learn?

The most important aspect of these conversations to Vinny was their casual nature. The removal from a formal setting allows the conversations to be more genuine and free flowing than the “marketing-like” relationship that develops between admissions offices and applicants. Recalling his own college search experience, Vinny stated that these kinds of personal conversations were particularly useful, and that he hopes to provide this same form of personal information to future applicants. While he did feel that he could have this same kind of conversation with an applicant he did not know, Vinny said that he would not be likely to use this platform without prompting.

What tasks, problems, or opportunities did you uncover?

There are two central take aways from this observation. First, we need to ensure that our design promotes the kind of relaxed discussion that Vinny found most valuable. We should emphasize that our platform is intented to be part of the search process, not the application process. Second, we need to make sure that the platform works for the college-aged users. We need to think about what purpose College Connect will serve for these users, and how we can design the product to accomplish this.

Did you encounter any difficulties establishing rapport or getting the information you need?

Developing a good flow of information during the observation portion of the inquiry was difficult. Because we did not want to interupt the flow of Vinny’s conversation with his cousin, we tried to limit our questions during the conversation. While we continued the interview after the end of their conversation, it was still hard to develop a master-apprentice relationship. We feel that we got the information that we needed from the interview, but this required us to take more of a driving role in the inquiry than we hoped to.

Plan for Future Inquiries:

For our next two inquiries, we plan to contact the Williams College admission office and schedule a time when we can participate in information sessions and observe/interview participants. For admission officers, we will schedule an appointment after an information session. For prospective students and their parents, we will ask them ahead of time if we could observe them during the information session and interview after. Then, during the information session, we will take note of what aspects of the college the students are most interested in. After the information session, we will interview students/parents and admission officers separately. During a group meeting, we will write our notes onto post-its and make an affinity diagram. Then using the affinity diagram, we can find out what common elements college are viewed as crucial across all participant, and thus come up specific features to suit our users. We will also reflect on our next two inquiries in the next assignment we turn in. We’ve found the schedule for information sessions, so our next two inquiries will be Tuesday, Februrary 27th at 1:45 pm and Wednesday, Februrary 28th at 1:45 pm.

How do you plan to change your protocol based on what you learned in your first inquiry?

Because our next inquiries will also involve somewhat separate observation and interview periods, we will arrive earlier to introduce ourselves and communicate the groundrules of the inquiry. We hope that by addressing this upfront, we will be able to more effectively develop the master-aprentice relationship.

¹ The names of inquiry subjects have been changed to maintain their privacy.