Reading Assignment
For this week, I'd like you to read two pieces on the needs assessment approaches I have focused on for this lesson. The first paper covers the scenario-based design approach. It goes into fairly deep detail on how scenario-based design should play out. The second paper focuses on personas, how they are developed and why they are useful, and then provides a case study example of their application to the design of an online atlas.
For these and other papers that we read, remember, scientists/scholars are people, too, so you're getting a particular viewpoint here that you can safely assume is not always agreed upon by everyone. So, some of the things I will have you read will take a stance on an issue and defend that stance. As you read the two papers (and others during the term), read “critically,” thus consider the authors’ stance and arguments for it; papers that take a stance often spark useful class discussion.
Read
- Scenario-Based Design by Mary Beth Rosson and John M. Carroll (available in Canvas)
- Mapping Personas: Designing UX Relationships for an Online Coastal Atlas by Guiseppe Getto and Christina Moore (available via the Penn State Library or in Canvas)
Think About
While you're reading, I'd like you to consider the advantages of scenario based design and persona mapping and/or create a mash up of how you both can be used together to identify and respond to a design or analysis need in your organization, an application that is relevant to you, or in your term project. What resources (financial and/or personnel) might be required to implement processes that apply the ideas? In what situations might you need to scale things back and do something that builds from the basic principles described but that does not take as much time and effort?