User Analysis

1. Students:

• Age: mostly 17 - 30
• Gender: Any
• Culture: College students
• Language: Any.
• Education: College undergraduates.
  3. physical limitations
  Some of them have myopia
  4. computer experience (typing? mouse?)
  5+ years of experience with using a computer; comfortable with keyboard and mouse.
  5. motivation
  a student registered in the class, either to satisfy a curriculum requirement or to acquire useful knowledge for personal interest or future research.
  6. attitude
  Ranges greatly. On the one hand, one user (industry-bounded) wants to learn just enough information to do well on the problem sets and exams. On the other hand, another user (PhD-bounded) has a more mixed approach: if the class materials are interesting and unfamiliar to him, he will be willing to do a lot of work; otherwise, he will look for shortcuts to get an A..
  7. domain experience
  Familiar with the idea of annotating a document; most of them have done it on paper materials at least. Often receive and share annotated paper materials that are either handed down from the professor or distributed among known students.
  8. application experience
  Ranges from none to having annotated for 2+ years with Microsoft Office, Adobe, or Google Doc.
  9. work environment and other social context
  college environment, knows some friends in the class most of the time
  10. relationships and communication patterns with other people
  Ranges from working alone to working in groups. In the former case, the user does not want to share all his information, but would like to ask input/inspiration from discussions with classmates occasionally. In the latter case, study is highly coordinated within the group; and ideas are constantly bounced back and forth among group members.