Usability Analysis & Redesign

CALO (Cognitive Agent that Learns and Organizes) is a DARPA funded, SRI sponsored project. It is an AI-powered desktop application that learns user's work behaviors to maximize their efficiency and organization. Its target users are overburdened knowledge workers who juggle between multiple projects and collaborate with other individuals and groups. SRI recruited us to come up with a front-end interface for series of applications run by the powerful AI.

For this capstone project, a group of five applied a variety of usability evaluation methods we acquired in the program to a real-life problem. We conducted 14 Contextual Inquiries on both the primary (project managers and executives) and the secondary target users (coordinators and secretaries). We consolidated our results into CI models, personae and use case analysis. The design concepts were validated with target users, and then made concrete iteratively using paper and Java-based implementation. We tested our design rigorously throughout the ideation phase using Heuristic Evaluation and Wizard of Oz Think Alouds. Please refer to the project website for our solution, processes, presentations and reports.

Project Website

iLogos is a digital argument mapping tool for students in logics-related courses (e.g., philosophy). We were asked to redesign a simple application that supported basic text-in-box drawings. What emerged at the end of CIs, Heuristic Evaluation, Cognitive Walkthrough, and redesign was not only a a tool for students to map arguments but also to deepen their understanding for logical arguments. Our design supported this both individually as well as collaboratively by encouraging paraphrasing and enabling them to share their knowledge with peers and instructors. We aimed to accommodate users' existing work habit as well as paying careful attention to learning literatures to create a system that leads to robust knowledge.

Project Report (pdf)