BLOSSOM - Using Bingo to Facilitate Diverse Dynamics
Time: 2023 - ongoing
Tools: Figma, qualitative and quantitative research methods
Type: Human Computer Interaction Research
Role: Research Lead
Team: 10 (Irene, email for names) + web developers
Overview
This project is an ongoing project with the Tech4Good lab surrounding how to support dynamic interactions within community networking events. The details to this project will remain “ambiguous” and without photos (sadly) as it is an ongoing research project. However, I will discuss the general timeline and tasks that I completed throughout the duration of the project. As the research lead for this project I worked on a lot of project management (along with another undergrad) as well mentoring in addition to doing the tasks mentioned below. It’s a bit difficult to specifically specify what I did as I wore a lot of hats throughout this process, but I’ll make sure to mention where necessary.
Conceptualization
Spring 2023
During this quarter, the team was first constructed and a general interest area was introduced to us. The professor had wanted a way to engage members during lab sessions (typically consisting of anywhere from 20-50 students) to act as icebreakers, and ways to facilitate other discussions such as mentorship or working together on a project. This quarter consisted of literature reviews and narrowing down our focus. Additionally, we had multiple meetings discussing the features and what that might look like within our designs. We sketched out a general task flow and journey that users would have both within the application and how the interaction would work within the context of a networking event.
Scoping
Summer 2023
During the summer, we began writing our concept paper from our literature reviews. We also worked coming up with initial designs for our application and had it informally tested within another members group meetup. There were a lot of iterations on designs based on the task flows that we had created. We designed both for mobile and projector as having a central community view is useful in events where people are moving around.
Fall 2023
Near the end of summer and beginning of Fall, our designs really ramped up. The design that we ended up being most similar to the one I had initially designed because it was really simple, clean, and easy to edit/customize for future purposes.
Execution
Fall 2023 - Winter 2024
Our designs (not shown) were then finalized and tested within our lab (50-60 students each) for two separate meeting times as well as within a classroom setting. These tests then led to interviews, more iteration on the design, research protocol, and interview guidelines that we then used to test during Winter 2024. During Winter, I believe this was the time when a PhD student joined the team and we were able to get a lot more things done efficiently. Paper writing was easier and designing the protocols was aided with the help from someone more experienced.
Spring 2024
We conducted out final study during Spring and began collecting data both from interviews and surveys. We wrote majority of our paper, the introduction, abstract, systems, and methods.
Results
Summer 2024
Throughout summer, there was a lot of paper writing happening as we had to synthesize a year’s worth of work. I was in charge of editing the introduction and updating the related works as a lot had changed throughout this course. I was also in charge of writing up the quantitative section of the paper. The paper was ultimately a qualitative study, but we had quantitative variables that we thought would be insightful to display/explain it’s significance.
This paper is still in the works, but by the time this portfolio is looked at (~late January?), this page can be updated.
thank you for looking
- iren w