All work and concepts presented in the following presentation are ©2010 Adam Howard, Jenny Shirey, Ruqian Zhou and Juliana Diaz Carnegie Mellon University, School of Design

1. 20
20-ten.org
Research & Need Identification
A review of initial research, synthesis of needs and
directions for further inquiry.
Juliana Diaz | Adam Howard | Jenny Shirey | Ruqian Zhou
1

2. Lets review...
We identified an area of focus......
Information Lifecycle &
Distribution
but it was a bit of a monster
20
20-ten.org
Juliana Diaz | Adam Howard | Jenny Shirey | Ruqian Zhou

3. Looking back at stakeholders
3 1
Paper and supplies Janitorial Staff
Provider
Promote Org
Fundraising
?
6
Student Orgs
Promote product
6
make money 1
Individuals
Faculty
Promote company Communicate idea Make money
be efficient/accurate
7
look for employers
6
get message out
5 4 3
files
2 1 Accurate up to date
relevant information
CLarity of message
Recruiters Administrators Advertisers Graphic Designer Printer Distributor
Promote, lecture,
7
book,self
5
Gett message right
please client, make money
Students
get paid, set direction
target audience
Speakers & Market Researchers 1
Lectures
5
Visitors
Copy Writers
2020-ten.org
Juliana Diaz | Adam Howard | Jenny Shirey | Ruqian Zhou

4. Touchstone Tours
The basis of our touchstone tours
We wanted to examine how people deal with information. We knew
that the area was a bit broad so we understood the need to focus our
touchstones in order to get concrete results that would help us
identify needs.
We chose to focus our research efforts on information distribution
within organizations. Organizations have unique information
challenges and understanding how they handled these was key to
understanding information distribution methodologies and styles.
20
20-ten.org
Juliana Diaz | Adam Howard | Jenny Shirey | Ruqian Zhou

5. Jeff - TT # 1
Position: Senior Manager
Company/Organization: Bosch Research and Technology Center (RTC)
Years in Position: 10
“ Email is a burden”
Needs:
better organization/prioritizing of email
less information overload
better communication between RTC and the rest of Bosch
20
20-ten.org
Juliana Diaz | Adam Howard | Jenny Shirey | Ruqian Zhou

6. Jason - TT # 2
Position: Editor of “The Link”
Company/Organization: CMU Computer Science Dept.
Years in Position: 2
“I treat it like a small-town newsletter”
Needs:
Feedback from audience
To reach a wide audience through online presence
20
20-ten.org
Juliana Diaz | Adam Howard | Jenny Shirey | Ruqian Zhou

7. Sonjala - TT# 3
Position: Assistant Director - CFA career consultant
Company/Organization: CMU Career Center
Years in Position: 7 3/4 years
“Students and opportunities, everyone needs
one thing to connect, even it is quite bad”
Needs:
Email and social media most welcomed/acceptable way for students.
The web is used to quickly update information and keep students on
track.
Make students aware of the most relevant and important events.
Find a way to ensure knowledge gets to students without being
overwhelming (emails)
20
20-ten.org
Juliana Diaz | Adam Howard | Jenny Shirey | Ruqian Zhou

8. Jill - TT # 4
Position: General Manager
Company/Organization: Battleworks Dance Company
“…I worked with artists so much. They're so forgetful
and unreliable… email was a great way to keep them
to task without allowing them to waste my time by
digressing into arty conversation like they would in
person.”
Needs:
Consistent information / “paper trail”
Engage potential donors and performance attendees
20
20-ten.org
Juliana Diaz | Adam Howard | Jenny Shirey | Ruqian Zhou

9. Casey - TT # 5
Position: Manager - Team Leader
Company/Organization: Whole Foods -Shadyside
“I literally measure my email in feet”
Needs:
An easy fast method to reach all 250 employees
A better way to sort and flag emails
Be able to remember actionable emails
20
20-ten.org
Juliana Diaz | Adam Howard | Jenny Shirey | Ruqian Zhou

10. More research - Connecting to Info
Getting more information
After we met and decided how we were going to do our touchstone
tours, we realized we needed more data on the other side of the
spectrum. While the tours granted us access to people who were in
charge of information distribution, we now felt it necessary to try
and get the “information consumers” perspective.
For this purpose we created a quick survey looking at how people
consumed various types of information. Service or task based
information, leisure based, knowledge based and passive
sources of information.
20
20-ten.org
Juliana Diaz | Adam Howard | Jenny Shirey | Ruqian Zhou

11. Survey Results (Sample)
20
20-ten.org
Juliana Diaz | Adam Howard | Jenny Shirey | Ruqian Zhou

12. Survey Responses
About effective methods of communication
“I usually only care about events that my
friends feel are relevant enough to me to tell
me about.”
“Given that I am a heavy user of e-mail, I pay more
attention to direct messages with event
advertising. The e-mail should be well formatted so
that it doesn't resemble annoying or useless spam”
“Downside of email is I don't always have
time to look into activities more and then I
forget about them later.”
20
20-ten.org
Juliana Diaz | Adam Howard | Jenny Shirey | Ruqian Zhou

13. Synthesis & Direction
Getting closer and finding opportunities
1. Feedback
How can people who send out mass messages get
feedback?
3 Directions of focus: 2. Filtering
How can receivers of mass messages avoid
information overload by filtering out the most
relevant and important information?
3. Timeliness
How can users avoid out-of-date information, and
consistently receive current information?
20
20-ten.org
Juliana Diaz | Adam Howard | Jenny Shirey | Ruqian Zhou

14. Refining our area
The information cloud
1. The cloud holds the
river of information that
we access on a daily
basis
After our research, our discussions led to 2. We consume multiple
types of information, but
a specific category of information usually are most
interested or worry most
distribution that we were automatically about the information
that requires our specific
drawn to, this was... involvement. Both as
individuals and as
businesses.
3. We manage many
forms of information that
Actionable Information require us to engage or
respond to it. And there
are few tools designed to
address actionable
needs.
20
20-ten.org
Juliana Diaz | Adam Howard | Jenny Shirey | Ruqian Zhou

15. What we discovered
A source in the computer science department pointed out that our interest in
actionable information aligned with a many current research efforts.
Wikipedia says... “
Actionable information logistics addresses people-
centered design of information logistics: the user
actively designs, develops and monitors processes
necessary for delivery and presentation of
information tailored to individual user needs.
”
20
20-ten.org
Juliana Diaz | Adam Howard | Jenny Shirey | Ruqian Zhou

16. Other interesting facts
81% look for information about a service or
55% of American adults connect to the internet wirelessly, product they are thinking of buying
either through a WiFi or WiMax connection via their laptops or (September 2007 - Pew Internet & American Life
through their handheld device like a smart phone. Project)
(source: Pew Internet & American Life Project)
38% send instant messages
(November 2008 - Pew Internet &
46% upload photos to a website so you American Life Project)
can share them with others online
(August 2008 - Pew Internet & American
Life Project)
89% of internet users send or receive email
(September 2009 - source Pew Internet & American Life
Project)
72% go online just for fun or to pass the time
(April 2009 - Pew Internet & American Life Project)
20
20-ten.org
Juliana Diaz | Adam Howard | Jenny Shirey | Ruqian Zhou

17. Directions - (Feedback)
How can people who send out mass messages get feedback?
Based on our conversations with Jill, Jason, and Sonjala, who need to reach a
wide audience but also need to know their information is relevant
Ties in to user engagement, which Sonjala is also concerned with
Example concept: digital bulletin board that knows when users are looking at it
20
20-ten.org
Juliana Diaz | Adam Howard | Jenny Shirey | Ruqian Zhou

18. Directions - (Filtering)
How can receivers of mass messages avoid information overload by filtering
out the most relevant and important information?
Based on our conversations with Jeff and Casey, who report receiving
overwhelming amounts of email, and don’t know what needs a response
Sonjala knows students ignore or delete her emails: needs a way for students
to get relevant information
Our own experiences show that information overload is a huge problem
Example concept: email metadata that facilitates a filtering system
20
20-ten.org
Juliana Diaz | Adam Howard | Jenny Shirey | Ruqian Zhou

19. Directions - (Timeliness)
How can users avoid out-of-date information, and
consistently receive up-to-date information?
Based on our own experiences receiving outdated
or last-minute information about events at CMU
Jeff and Casey said if they don’t take care of
emails right away, they’ll forget about it
Survey responders report also forgetting about
email if it lingers in the inbox too long
Example concept: context-aware email, smart bulletin boards where events delete
themselves after event is over
20
20-ten.org
Juliana Diaz | Adam Howard | Jenny Shirey | Ruqian Zhou

20. Next Steps
A little brainstorming
Targeted research within our chosen directions
Example: have a few participants keep track of outdated
information received
Competitive analysis: what’s already on the market?
Begin concept development: narrow down target audience
20
20-ten.org
Juliana Diaz | Adam Howard | Jenny Shirey | Ruqian Zhou

21. thank you!
20
20-ten.org
Juliana Diaz | Adam Howard | Jenny Shirey | Ruqian Zhou