Occupation: Student
Age: 18-23
Gender: Evenly split between male and female
Language: English to varying degree of proficiency (due to international students)
Computer-literate.
Primarily interested in specific areas of HASS.
In general, students are busy. In a survey of 70 students, 78% reported that it is very important that a HASS class fits into their schedule.
68% said it was very important that the material be enjoyable to them.
Are subject to HASS requirements.
Students at MIT
Ursula Bradshawe is a member of the incoming freshman class. She chose MIT primarily for its renown in engineering and science, and she isn’t really sure what to make of this HASS requirement. In fact, she has been quite overwhelmed with the amount of information MIT has been sending her and she isn’t really sure what to make of anything. She enjoys playing the sarangi and has an interest in Ottoman poetry and would not be against taking some interesting HASSes, but she intends to focus on her core studies. She doesn’t really care what HASS she takes and just wants to make sure it fulfills the requirements, whatever they are.
Isabel Savill’s friends think she’s weird. Why, they ask, would any self-respecting MIT student take more than two HASS classes a term? In truth, prior to college, Isabel’s heart was hopelessly torn between a career as a computer scientist and a career as a street artist and musician. She only chose computer science because she thought it offered more financial security. Even though she enjoys her technical studies, she retains a deep, unquenchable thirst for humanities classes, particularly those with relevance to musical performance and mural composition. She is highly self-motivated, and will take on any humanity class related to her interests, so long as it fits into her tight class schedule.
Tomas Yates is a second-semester senior who desperately needs a CI-H which is not Cat.1 or 4 to graduate. His parents are refusing to pay for another semester at MIT, so these criteria are really all he is looking for in a HASS class. He is a man with simple needs.
Edmund Hyde despises humanities like the plague. He never cared much for old, dead people, and his essay-writing capacities are not very well. Nor has he ever understood why anyone would read a book for pleasure or “literary significance” (which, Edmund maintains, is nothing more than “a load of bollocks”) when they could instead be frolicking in the fecund fields of unstable homotopy theory. Edmund wants a HASS class that fulfills as many of his humanities requirements as possible, and also has no essays, no required readings, no final exams, no homework, and, preferably, no lectures.
Task analysis
Search
Goal: Search for HASS classes
Preconditions: (optional) User knows times they will not be available in the upcoming semester, or knows course numbers of other classes they are planning on taking
Subtasks:
Sift
Goal: Pick best classes from search results
Preconditions: A search is already in progress
Subtasks:
Sync
Goal: Export schedule based on selections
Preconditions: User has a Google calendar, OR access to a printer
Share
Goal: Let friends know what HASS classes you are taking, or alert friends to HASS classes you think they may be interested in
Preconditions: User knows friends’ email addresses
Save
Goal: Save criteria and selections for later
Preconditions: User has an MIT certificate