GR1 - Task analysis

User analysis

General User Characteristics:

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.

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.

All students are subject to HASS requirements.

Most students are at least somewhat familiar with the HASS categories.

However, users may not be aware of more obscure policies. In our discussions with users, even upperclassmen expressed some confusion over the complexities of the system. One second-semester senior did not even realize that he had not completed the requirement, because of a little-known caveat that only allows students to count one class towards both the HASS distribution requirement and a HASS minor.

User Classes

Students at MIT

• new student, doesn't know the HASS system well.
• love HASS classes and want to cram more into schedule.
• graduating and need to satisfy a certain requirement
• despise HASS classes and want to do the minimal amount of HASS work

Personas

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

Global precondition: User is familiar with HASS category system, designations like CI-H, and course numbers

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:

• Set criteria (HASS-D category, has no final, fits my schedule, etc)
• Input current schedule
• Edit search criteria

Sift
Goal: Pick best classes from search results
Preconditions: A search is already in progress

Subtasks: 

• Sort classes by different criteria (department, time, HKN rating, etc)
• Select/deselect classes from search results

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’ athena names

Subtasks:

• Add other users to "friends" list
• Select/deselect classes from search results
• Flag classes for other users' consideration
• View what classes users on "friends" list have selected

Sync/Save

Goal: Make choices available after user has exited site

Preconditions: User has an MIT certificate, User has a Google calendar, OR access to a printer

Subtasks:

• Save criteria and selections on site for later
• Export or print schedule based on selections

Domain analysis