CLIENT

College of Information Studies,
iSchool Advising Office

As the number of iSchool students increases each year, it is challenging for advisors to provide adequate attention and advising to all the students. Currently, iSchool advisors must provide advising to students in the InfoSci program, but within the next year, two more programs will be added. This means advisors are more likely to be overloaded, and the students may not receive advising that caters to their specific needs.

PROBLEM

CONCEPTUAL MODELS

Online Advising Workflow

In-Person Advising Workflow

PROCESS

How we got to our final deliverable.

DEFINE

We met with the Director of Undergraduate Operations to understand their expectations and get an overview of the iSchool advising operations. Based on the notes from the meeting, we drafted a study design. We also did some external research by going to the iSchool advising website which was reflected in our study design.

Problem Understanding Interview

Through this project, we wanted to understand the role and perspectives of the three stakeholders: student, student ambassador and advisor as well as study their experiences with the iSchool advising office. Our aim is to immerse ourselves in the experience of all three stakeholders and gain insights about their pain points, workarounds and wow factors to understand the limitations in the current advising workflow. By studying these limitations, we wanted to explore different ways to implement an improved advising process that serves the goals of all three stakeholders efficiently.

Goal

• How does the current workflow and work environment of advisors influence the effectiveness of advising sessions?

• How might we implement an efficient advising process for students by further leveraging student ambassadors to assist advisors?

• What is the tole of each stakeholder and what do they value in an advising session?

• What factors positively and negatively impact the advising process?

• What are the methods, tools, and outside resources that the stakeholders use to meet their advising needs?

Research Questions

RESEARCH

Before conducting interviews, we created an interview script. Our questions centered around having the participants recalling a certain situation to understand their experiences rather than directly asking about their needs. In total, we recruited six interviewees to acquire a balanced perspective. After each interview, we held interpretation sessions with the team to understand out users and to further ensure the quality of the information gathered. I personally conducted one interview, recorded notes for one interview, and participated in three interpretation sessions.

User Interviews

Once the user interviews and interpretation sessions were complete, we started grouping the affinity notes into similar groups using Miro. We iterated on this process frequently to further break down large groups into smaller, distinct groups.

Affinity Diagram

Clear expectations and personal connections

• Preparation plays an important role in advising quality

• Having strong connections lead to more productive sessions

Virtual vs in-person advising

• Virtual advising is more convenient; in-person advising is more personalized

• Camera preferences are dependent on comfort level and personal preference

• Transition to virtual advising has not had much of an impact on the quality of advising sessions

• The hybrid model is a good middle ground between virtual and in-person advising

More intuitive and efficient tools and resources

• Student ambassadors want to do more to help advisors

• Advising sessions meet the needs of the students but the process is inefficient

• Advisors use tools and workarounds to provide effective advising

Key Findings

Upon Finalizing our affinity diagram, we analyzed the patterns that emerged, and put them into models. For this project, we chose to use the identity model and journey maps. The journey maps highlighted the pain points and opportunities at different phases of the advising journey of all the stakeholders, and the identity model established clear identities of various types of people involved in the iSchool advising office. Given the nature and goal of our project, we felt that these two models would do the best job of displaying the data we uncovered.

Journey Mapping & Identity Model

CONCEPTUAL DESIGN

Now it was time to present what we had to our stakeholders. To create an immersive experience for the client, we conducted a wall walk where the client explored the artifacts that we created. We began the wall walk by introducing the purpose of each model and gave an overview of each before inviting the client to derive their interpretations. This method allowed the client to immerse themselves with the work the team had done over the few months and be part of the team in developing a design solution. At the end of the walk, we discussed key insights and gave the client a preview of our suggestions.

The Wall Walk

• Implement a pre-advising survey for students to fill out prior to meeting with advisors

• Advertise student ambassadors more

  • Have their contact information readily available

  • Provide a clear description of their roles and responsibilities

  • Host more drop-in sessions

• Have a complete, regularly maintained FAQ reference guide for the entire advising office so that students do not get conflicting information

• Provide a degree planning worksheet to help students prepare for advising sessions

  • Used in conjunction with student ambassadors’ degree planning workshops

• Offload logistical work to student ambassadors

Final Suggestions

REFLECTION

Overall, this project was a huge learning experience. This project was my first formal introduction to contextual design and was great practice for me to conduct user research, convert data into representative models, and present to stakeholders. Additionally, I am thankful to have worked alongside a team of such talented individuals to create a final project that our client appreciated. Collaborating with a team of six was challenging at times, but working with this team was very productive and rewarding for me!

What I took takeaway from this project