Portal Project Research Proposal

Authored by the students of Dr. Read’s Research Methods for Technical

Communicators Course

Authored for Amy Spring, Community Research and Partnerships Director, PSU

Office of Strategic Partnerships

Submitted April 27, 2018

Portal Project Research Proposal

2

Table of Contents

Contents Table of Contents .......................................................................................................................................... 2

Introduction & History .................................................................................................................................. 3

Project Background ................................................................................................................................... 3

Current Understanding ............................................................................................................................. 3

Project Overview ....................................................................................................................................... 4

Objectives, Measures & Scope of Study ....................................................................................................... 4

Research Methods ........................................................................................................................................ 5

Interviews — Primary Method .................................................................................................................. 5

Interview Questions .............................................................................................................................. 5

Wireframe Activity — Secondary Method ................................................................................................ 6

Wireframe Objectives ........................................................................................................................... 6

Wireframe Diagram .............................................................................................................................. 7

Wireframe Procedure ........................................................................................................................... 7

Card Sort Activity — Tertiary Method ...................................................................................................... 8

Participants — User Profiles ......................................................................................................................... 8

Recruitment & Incentives ............................................................................................................................. 8

Proposed Schedule & Responsibilities .......................................................................................................... 9

Portal Project Research Proposal

3

Introduction & History

“Let knowledge serve the city.”

Portland State University plays a crucial role in the greater metropolitan region and serves the state’s

only urban research and teaching university. Partnerships and community-based learning (CBL) are part

our university’s DNA as a hub of innovation in scholarship.1

Pursuant to our mission to extend PSU leadership in community engagement, PSU’s Strategic

Partnerships program is exploring alternatives for a web-based solution to support the university’s

diverse portfolio of partnership activities.

This project studies the attitudes, goals, and usage habits of interviewees with regard to a potential

online collaborative solution. Interviewees include PSU faculty, students, and staff as well as community

partners. Research results are provided in the form of rich user personas, which will include user

profiles, user scenarios, and user requirements.

Project Background

With an estimated economic impact of $1.44 billion each year2, PSU is a key partner in the city’s

evolution. It serves as a national model for urban universities that are focused on enhancing their

metropolitan communities through work with partners.

Through the combination of classwork, academic research, and field experience,PSU students and

faculty provide nearly 1 million combined service hours to local businesses, nonprofits, and government

organizations each year3. Internships, classroom projects with community partners, and other civic

engagements provide students with experience in areas such as community health, business

administration, social work, sustainability, and urban design. This work has been recognized by the

Carnegie Foundation, the Peace Corps, the Corporation for National & Community Service, and recently

by U.S. News & World Report.4

Current Understanding

A number of steps have been taken toward establishing a web-based software solution that facilitates

the work of the Strategic Partnerships program.

1 “Research & Strategic Partnerships Administrative Overview,” PSU Office of Research & Strategic Partnerships (June 7, 2017), pg. 1, URL. 2 “Portland State University Strategic Plan 2016–2020,” PSU Office of the President (2016), pg. 12, URL. 3 “Research & Strategic Partnerships Administrative Overview,” pg. 1. 4 “Most Innovative Schools: National Universities, #10,” US New & World Report (spring 2017), URL.

Portal Project Research Proposal

4

The Office of Strategic Partnerships (OSP) piloted an online application called “Collaboratory”

(TreeTop). Due to a lack of systems capability and product maturity issues, the vendor contract was not

renewed. The system is no longer in use.

The OSP performed market analysis of commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) and software as a service (SaaS)

solutions, demoing GivePulse and Cleveland State University’s Engagement Project. In addition to third-

party software vendors, PSU is also open to custom software design and development..

To provide a more thorough understanding and prioritization of high-level stakeholder needs and

objectives, the OSP held an Agile-hybrid work-group session with primary stakeholders and analyzed the

results. Takeaways from this work highlighted the need for more user-experience research. This led to

the current “UX research” phase of this project.

Project Overview

Building on previous high-level work-group sessions, the program has secured assistance from the

graduate-level Research Methods for Technical Communications class in the Technical and Professional

Writing program, led by Dr. Sarah Read (W410/R510-001). This partnership is meant to gain an even

clearer understanding of the solution’s user base and experiences.

Graduate students will develop user personas and profiles from interviews with approximately twenty

stakeholders, including students ,faculty, community partners, and institutional partners. Students will

develop deliverables during the spring term and submit them in mid-June 2018. Research and analysis

documentation from this phase will inform the Partnership Portal’s design and development phase.

This document outlines the following:

Project objectives, measures, and scope of study

Research methodologies

Participant user profiles

Recruitment and incentives

Schedule and responsibilities

Objectives, Measures & Scope of Study

Objectives of this study are as follows:

Establish the goals and motivations of the users when using a Partnership Portal.

Understand how each type of user will perceive and engage with a Partnership Portal.

Establish the user’s idea of “must have” “should have”, “could have”, and “won’t have” features

in a Partnership Portal.

Measures of this study are as follows:

Portal Project Research Proposal

5

Interviews of study participants--By utilizing interviews, we will gather users’ comprehensive

attitudes about their needs and goals with regard to a Partnership Portal.

Creation of a wireframe of a portal--By using a wireframe, we will glean information about what

would bring a user to this type of portal by giving the interviewees a different way to think

about their potential goals and needs.

We will use the information gathered from this activity to create comprehensive user personas and

scenarios. These personas and scenarios will aid in the design or selection of a Partnership Portal that

best benefits all users.

Research Methods

Interviews — Primary Method

As a method of research, an interview is a guided conversation in which one party seeks information

from another. For the purposes of this project, we will be conducting in-person interviews with a group

of stakeholders from the Strategic Partnerships program. These users have agreed to be interviewed,

and consist of the program’s faculty, administrators, community partners, institutional partners,

students, marketing/communication professionals, metrics/reporting professionals, and product

owners.

We will work in teams of two to conduct in-person interviews. Teams may interview more than one

person as necessary. All of the interviews will be recorded and transcribed for research purposes.

The timetable for these interviews is May 7th to May 18th, depending on the schedules of all parties

involved. These interviews will take approximately 45 minutes, and will be coordinated by the Writing

410/510-002 class with cooperation from the Office of Strategic Partnerships. The interview will take

place at a mutually agreed upon location.

Interview Questions

Background

What role do community partnerships play in your work?

o Do you have plans to change/expand that?

o What types of partnerships would you say you usually have?

Process

Can you describe your process for getting involved with your most recent community

partnership?

o Was that a representative example of your process in general?

Portal Project Research Proposal

6

o Did you have to fill out forms or enter data during that process?

o How long did it take?

How do you exchange information with other participants in the partnership?

o How much time do you spend coordinating your partnership?

What types of information do you currently track for your project?

o Or in general?

o What information is most important to you?

o Does your tracking involve formal records?

o What additional information would you like to track?

What outside reporting does your current partnership require?

o Is there additional reporting that would be beneficial to you?

Pain Points

What limitations or challenges do you experience in your current process?

Is any information you want often unavailable or difficult to access?

Solution

What do you like about how things work now that you would like to see included in the new

portal?

What types of information or data would you like to see in the portal?

How would you like the information or data you compile to be used?

o How would you like to make the information or data about your work available?

What information or data would you like to be excluded from the portal?

o Or there, but not accessible to the public?

Who else is involved in documenting and coordinating community partnerships?

o Is there anyone else you would like to be involved?

Wireframe Activity — Secondary Method

A wireframe is a simplified visual layout of a web page or on-screen interface. Wireframes can be

utilized during research-gathering to generate ideas about user needs and the processes by which they

interact with a product interface and its features.

We propose a wireframe activity be introduced in the last ten minutes of each user interview. We

recommend a basic low-fidelity wireframe, a diagram with few or no specific details in order to gather

feedback about how it might work, rather than how it might look.

Wireframe Objectives

Provide users with an alternative tool with which to think through a process or a design.

Portal Project Research Proposal

7

Engage users with a tangible representation, enabling them to shift their thinking from abstract

to concrete.

Employ a visual method for users to synthesize their needs and inspire new ideas about

potential solutions.

Gather information to inform design decisions at later stages of the project.

Wireframe Diagram

Figure 1. Low-fidelity Diagram for Wireframe Activity. The purpose of this diagram is to elicit ideas from

users about process-flow and functionality; it does not represent a future Partnership Portal design.

Wireframe Procedure

Interviewers will introduce a wireframe diagram on a sheet of paper in the last ten minutes of user

interviews. The wireframe will depict a generic web page with a number of untitled feature boxes (see

Figure 1). The interviewers will have sticky notes available during this activity on which to write down

process steps or feature suggestions if helpful, and the user can make notes directly on the wireframe as

well. The interviewer will ask the following questions:

(Show user the wireframe.) “When you arrive at this hypothetical community partnership portal…”

1. What’s a common thing you would come to this portal to accomplish?

2. What would you expect to do first, second, third...

3. What other things would you want the portal to do for you?

Portal Project Research Proposal

8

Prompting Questions

1. What information or data do you want to see on the home page?

2. What information or data do you need or expect to find about the faculty member(s) associated

with the partnership?

What information or data do you need or expect to find about the institution’s school or

program?

What information or data do you need or expect to find about the community partner’s role

in this joint endeavor?

Card Sort Activity — Tertiary Method

After preliminary research and further discussion of the pros and cons of card sorting methodologies,

our recommendation is to reserve card sorting for later stages in portal development. While card-sorting

is a powerful tool for understanding user behavior, card-sorting sessions are likely not viable at such as

early juncture in the elicitation phase without knowing more from subject matter experts and

leadership. Card sorting could be a more viable tool for learning valuable information and data about

user behavior when information architecture and UX navigation becomes more relevant.

Participants — User Profiles

Name Email Background

Redacted for privacy.

Recruitment & Incentives Recruitment for interviews will be based on the participant data provided by the Office of Strategic

Partnerships. This list is a summary of past participants who are invested in the project as future users.

Incentives for participation are a useful tool as they signal not only “thank you” but also “we value your

input.” Incentives do not have to entail great cost. For this project, perhaps the sentiment it’s the

thought that matters applies. One free method for incentivizing participants would be to highlight a

participant’s work on a social media outlet (e.g., re-tweeting or -posting through a PSU account of high

visibility). Another option would be to provide a lottery-style incentive, such as tickets to a coveted

event to which Portland State Strategic Partnerships has easy access. Client input on past or future

incentives is welcomed.

Portal Project Research Proposal

9

Proposed Schedule & Responsibilities

STAGE 2: Study Design

Activity Deliverable Estimated Time To Complete

Date Forecast Owners

Card Sort activity Feasibility exploration

Write notes in Wiki 4. Report to class.

2-3 hours? Wed. April 18 Redacted for privacy

Refining Study Research Questions

Refine questions in Wiki #3. Be ready to connect questions to methods in Wiki 4?

1-2 hours? Wed. April 18

Requirements Editing to Reveal gaps about what we know about users

Refine Wiki 3 requirements text--write brief para about gaps in what we know about user requirements. Report to class

1-2 hours? Wed. April 18

Wireframe activity feasibility exploration

Write notes in Wiki 4. Report to class.

1-2 hours? Wed. April 18

Organize info about users in proposal doc and reconcile with users info in Wiki 3. Propose approach to organizing class to interview users.

Write draft notes in user section of Wiki 4 and draft notes in interview section about process. Report to class.

1-2 hours?

Author complete draft of research proposal

Complete draft of research proposal

1-2 hours? Monday April 23

Create an edit deliverable proposal document to client

Proposal document to deliver to client

2-3 hours? Wed. April 25

Draft Author Field Guide

Complete draft of Field Guide

1-2 hours? Monday April 30

Field-ready Guide Final Field Guide for field use

1-2 hours? Wed. or Thurs. May 2 or 3

Portal Project Research Proposal

10

STAGE 3: Collecting Data

Activity Deliverable Estimated Time

To Complete

Date Forecast Owners

Interviews Transcriptions of interviews

Approximately 90 minutes for two interviews; approximately two hours to transcribe the interviews(?)

May 7-18 for interviews; transcripts due on May 21

Redacted for privacy.

STAGE 4: Analyzing Data

Activity Deliverable Estimated Time To Complete

Date Forecast Owners

Case Study Presentation May 21 Redacted for privacy Data Analysis May 23

STAGE 5: Reporting Study Findings and Conclusion

Activity Deliverable Estimated Time To Complete

Date Forecast Owners

Oral Presentation to Portal Client June 4