Student Projects: expoSItion

The School of Information thanks expoSItion sponsors, the John Deere Foundation and Yahoo! The following organizations also participated in SI's 2008 Employer Information Fair the morning of the expoSItion. Most also visited the expoSItion to view projects and meet students. Alpena Public Library Ann Arbor District Library Brooksource Canton Public Library DRAFT FCB Eastern Michigan University Library Enlighten Flint Public Library Ford Motor Company Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library ICON Interalab, Inc. Kansas State University Libraries Media Genesis, Inc Michigan State University Libraries Microsoft Oberon Technologies Organic ProQuest Roland Berger Strategy Consultants Sapient UM Art, Architecture, Science & Engineering Libraries UM Development Office UM Graduate Library UM Library Knowledge Navigation Center & Faculty Exploratory UM Health Sciences Library UM History of Art UM Kresge Library UM Language Resource Center UM Law Library UM Library, Human Resource UM Scholarly Publishing Office UM, Center for Behavioral & Decision Sciences in Medicine (CBDSM) Washtenaw County Wayne State University Library System Wolverine Technical Staffing, Inc Wunderman, Team Detroit ZAAZ Zattoo, Inc

expoSItion 2008

Overall Competition Winners

• First Place: MuseComp
• Second Place: doGooder: Fostering Volunteer Communities to Serve the Homeless
• Third Place: Portalis: Using Competitive Online Interactions to Support Aid Initiatives for the Homeless
• Honorable Mention: TalkingPoints

Social Computing Project Competition Winners

• First Place: CourseNav
• Second Place: Audience-Aware Displays

expoSItion 2008 Projects

SI Students: Gaurav Anand, Sunny I. Beach, Jessica D. Duverneay, Beilei Zhang
Other Collaborators: Michael McGregory, MBA, Nigel Melville, Business School,
Other Integral Courses: BIT 678 Service Innovation Management
This project began with the simple question: What do you do if you need more information to make an in-store product purchase? Using a cell phone with integrated camera, our service connects consumers, products, and related information. Product information includes manufacturer information, product reviews, recall information, coupons, price comparisons, and more. How will ubiquitous computing change retail shopping?

SI Students: Pratibha Bhaskaran, Liz A. Blankenship, Christian Hanrath, Chia-Hui Lin, Jason S. Stewart
Faculty: Michael McQuaid
Other Collaborators: Evonne Plantinga, Business School,
Course Project for: SI-682: Interface and Interaction Design,
This is an evaluation and design of a tool that suggests possible course pathways based on combinations of courses taken by students in years past, perceived success by students in the class, and prerequisite knowledge. This tool will help students tailor an academic program to their specific interests and goals.

SI Students: Kumud Bihani, Michelle R. Escobar, Jakob Hilden, Jason S. Stewart
Faculty: Mark Newman
Other Collaborators: Sara Baumann, LS&A Undergraduate, David Chesney, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Jim Knox, ITCS Adaptive Technology Coordinator
Course Project for: SI-791: Independent Study,
TalkingPoints is a GROCS-funded collaborative project whose aim is to enhance the walking journey for those who are blind or visually impaired. By using a mobile computer to read Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags positioned around a city, such as Ann Arbor, contextual location information is audibly presented to the user. Information about each location on which the tag placed is stored in an online database. This information is retrieved by the cellular data connected mobile computer when the user comes within close proximity to a "Talking Point." The information for each Talking Point is maintained by the TalkingPoints community which will not be exclusive to blind users. Users of the TalkingPoints system is not limited to the blind or visually impaired; anyone with an RFID enabled mobile internet device can access the TalkingPoints database.

SI Students: Daniella M. Lee-Garcia, Dejah T. Rubel
Faculty: Shannon Zachary
Course Project for: SI-581: Preserving Information,
This is an assessment of the Jim Toy Library housed in and maintained by the LGBTA Office at the University of Michigan. From this assessment, our team made recommendations that could be implemented given the limited staff, space, and funding constraints. Considering there is no current preservation policy for this collection, we chose to focus on low cost measures that would reduce damage to the collection as well as form the basis for comprehensive preservation plan in the near future. Specifically, we targeted housekeeping, shelving, security, and disaster planning as the four main areas the Jim Toy Library can improve upon without major changes to its space or function.

SI Students: Jacqueline Cerretani, Sameer A. Halai, James H. Laing, Joshua J. Morse, Melissa R. Perez
Course Project for: SI-682: Interface and Interaction Design,
Other Integral Courses: SI 622: Evaluation of Systems and Services
We developed an online system, doGooder, to foster volunteer social networks. Through an extensive user-centered design process, including interviews and a literature review, we learned that people experiencing homelessness face a wide range of issues. Most organizations helping the homeless depend heavily on volunteers to enhance their service capacity. One agency we studied was able to extend its budget by 30 percent as a result of volunteer labor. Research shows that social relationships play a key role in galvanizing potential volunteers and motivating existing ones. doGooder connects volunteers with opportunities and service organizations, and builds a community of volunteers to encourage each other. Preliminary usability testing indicates that doGooder will successfully help organizations to recruit, retain, and organize volunteers to meet the diverse needs of various populations facing homelessness.

SI Students: Maureen L. Hanratty, Rupa A. Patel
Faculty: Kai Zheng
Other Collaborators: Jenna Johnson, School of Public Health Paul Saxman, Medical School, Graduate Program in Bioinformatics Ashish Shah, School of Public Health,
Course Project for: SI-542: Introduction to Health Informatics,
Little research exists on the usage of Web 2.0 technologies in medical and health education. Despite the lack of evidence, we believe that the collaborative benefits of Web 2.0 features can enhance case-based learning. Based on the results of a contextual inquiry, we envision eventually creating a rich, user-structured repository of medical narratives that provide the medical community a dynamic collaborative educational channel. A moderated reputation system can manage the credibility of contributions, and subsequently, the site. This prototype also allows patients to browse or search for clinical scenarios of their interest, as well as to reflect their vision on the cases and directly connect to the contributing physicians or other patients who share similar health concerns or interest. Our goal is to enable discourse beyond blogs and wikis through a flexible platform that can transform the way users contribute loosely structured content to repositories.

SI Students: Hung K. Truong
Faculty: Lada Adamic
Course Project for: SI-508: Networks: Theory and Application,
Traditionally, high-quality temporal social network data has been difficult to obtain. Large online social networks are fairly common, but access to their data is not. Using the Facebook Developers Platform, it is possible to create an application and use its data as a subset of the complete Facebook network. In this study, I observed and analyzed the network structure, diffusion and growth of the network over time of a Facebook application.

SI Students: Michelle R. Escobar, Leanna M. Gingras, Eileen S. Quintero, Tanuj Shah
Faculty: Mark Newman
Course Project for: SI-622: Evaluation of Systems and Services,
This presentation presents several usability tests for the Sony eReader PRS-505 using the traditional usability heuristics developed by Nielson, additional heuristics developed from our user testing -- such as interviews and surveys -- and heuristics developed from Wilson & Landoni's e-book-specific guidelines. The goal of the evaluation is to identify general usability issues of the Sony eReader as well as e-reader specific issues, and to provide usability recommendations for the design of future e-readers.

SI Students: Ahmad K. Aljadaan, Kumud Bihani, Meseret Gebrekristos
Faculty: Michael McQuaid
Course Project for: SI-682: Interface and Interaction Design,
Other Integral Courses: SI 501: Contextual Inquiry
We propose a system to use QR (quick response) codes and cheap cell phones to alleviate some challenges faced by the chronically homeless. We propose combining the affordability, simplicity and portability of cell phones with the fast emerging QR code technology to develop an information system which could augment current data entry methods utilized by homeless service agencies. The system offers simple interfaces which employ QR codes for configuring cell phones to perform basic functions such as setting up reminders.

SI Students: Sameer A. Halai, Yarun Luon, Matthew A. Rubinstein, John A. Suciu
Faculty: Lada Adamic
Course Project for: SI-508: Networks: Theory and Application,
A huge dataset was scraped from World of Warcraft servers to analyze characteristics of guild affiliations and arena team success. We found a correlation between closeness of arena teams and how well they do which has implications on how arena teams are formed and sustained and provides insights on the correlation between social connections in gaming virtual worlds with competitive goals.

SI Students: Lisa B. Emery, Tammy C. Greene, Michael J. Hains, Krystle R. Williams
Other Collaborators: Cathie Toshach, recent SI grad ,
Course Project for: SI-682: Interface and Interaction Design,
Other Integral Courses: SI 501: Use of Information
The MI Talk initiative is a university-wide project that provides students at all three University of Michigan campuses with online mental health information and resources. As part of a group project in a graduate class dealing with interface and interactive design at the School of Information, a group of students has organized with a purpose: to apply principles taught at the School of Information to help in the development of the University of Michigan MI Talk initiative.

SI Students: Tao Dong, Jonathan M. Ponder, Eileen S. Quintero, Ning Wang
Faculty: Michael McQuaid
Course Project for: SI-682: Interface and Interaction Design,
Other Integral Courses: SI 501
The JET Project is an effort to redesign the Web interface and user experience of the Wayback Machine at the Internet Archive (archive.org) by creating improved visualization of search results, a system of user-created metadata through tagging and personal collection building, a more varied set of search capabilities, and a new home page that serves as a more effective portal to the Wayback Machine.

SI Students: Gaurav C. Bhatnagar, Maureen L. Hanratty, Jeffrey S. Honeyman
Faculty: Mark Ackerman, Paul Resnick
Other Collaborators: Robbie Routenberg, IGR Tracy Welch, SERVE
Course Project for: SI-631: Practical Engagement Workshop: Content Management Systems,
Other Integral Courses: SI 634
Just Connect is a joint initiative by two University of Michigan social justice organizations, SERVE and IGR, to create an online community for current members, staff, and alumni. Our project goal is to provide a site where current and former members of these groups can find and engage each other, find resources related to social justice, and maintain ties to the organizations. We hope the site will facilitate dialogue and collaborations among a geographically dispersed membership. Just Connect will allow current and former members to find each other without staff assistance using robust profile searching. Just Connect will also help SERVE and IGR to disseminate information to and receive feedback from its members, allowing staff to be more strategic about their long-term programming and development goals.

SI Students: Ayse G. Buyuktur, David K. Hutchful, Cheng-Lun Li, Satyendra K. Nainwal
Faculty: Michael McQuaid
Other Collaborators: Natasha Sant, Tracy Ebron,
Other Integral Courses: SI 682: Interface and Interaction Design, SI 622: Evaluation of Systems and Services, 689: Computer Supported Collaborative Work
We designed a Web-based system with game-like properties that utilizes crowdsourcing to facilitate the beneficial transfer-of-knowledge to case managers (CMs) working with the homeless. This has two significant impacts. First, Portalis allows CMs to make informed decisions in managing client cases. Second, it enables individuals who would like to volunteer their services but are limited by time constraints to contribute.

SI Students: Ben W. Congleton, David K. Hutchful, Mouly Arun Prabhu Kumaraswamy, Hung K. Truong, Perry Wong
Faculty: Mark Ackerman
The era of the public display is upon us. In the past year, two public display projects have been deployed inside of SI: Paul Resnick's "thank you display" and more recently, Josh Palay's MichiPoster. This project demonstrates cool public display applications that "play" and "explore" the audience aware-display design space.

SI Students: Jonathan G. Cohen, Anindita De, Nik Ahmad Rozaidi B. Nik Abdul Rashid, Benjamin D. Worrel
Faculty: Mark Ackerman, Paul Resnick
Course Project for: SI-631: Practical Engagement Workshop: Content Management Systems,
Other Integral Courses: SI634: Application Platform Configuration, SI501: Contextual Inquiry and Project Management
The Interdisciplinary Committee for Organizational Studies unites students, faculty, and thought leaders from around the world to research organizations. Even though its weekly seminar is known for cutting-edge presentations, its circa 1998 Web page was a bit dated. We're working to make this great community hub even better with feedback from our clients. Our redesign process started with contextual inquiry and took shape through ideation, storyboarding, workflow analysis, and a new information architecture. The new ICOS site is built on the Drupal content management system, which allows for fast prototyping and rapid iterations. We're developing new community features like blog platforms and profiles, bringing a rich heritage of 200-plus seminar recordings to the surface, making administration easier, and creating many roads to discovery with tags and recommendations.

SI Students: Ahmad K. Aljadaan, Valentina Karimova
Faculty: Lada Adamic
Course Project for: SI-508: Networks: Theory and Application,
There is no single way to search for information on the Web. Depending on users' knowledge about search engines, familiarity with investigated topic, and the purpose of the research (preliminary research, high-level research), users might choose to apply different search strategies. When users are using search engines to locate needed resources, search query is determining factors of success. In this project we focused on how navigational and informational queries might differ, since very little has been done to understand how the search results differ for these types of queries. By constructing query connection subgraphs, we find that navigational queries will have more densely connected search results and more pronounced hub structure

SI Students: Tao Dong, Maureen L. Hanratty, Adan A. Torres, Lingyun Xu
Faculty: Mark Newman
Other Collaborators: Nicholas Senske, PhD student, Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning,
Course Project for: SI-622: Evaluation of Systems and Services,
Other Integral Courses: SI-501
This project focuses on a usability evaluation of Syntax2D, an open-source licensed spatial analysis software program developed by the Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning. Space syntax is an application that allows researchers and practitioners to analyze spatial configurations of interior and urban spaces.

SI Students: Christopher J. Barney, Amy M. Barritt, Jaime E. Bourassa, Dominique R. Daniel, Megan M. Esseltine, Katherine C. Goodwin, Emiko O. Hastings, David B. Jackson, Malisa A. Lewis, Lauren Lippert, Bethany G. Panozzo, Barbara A. Pezet, Jonathan M. Ponder, Dejah T. Rubel, Derek D. Spinei, Lance T. Stuchell, David M. Zande
Faculty: Paul Conway, David Wallace
Other Collaborators: Liz Carlson, Canton Historical Society
Course Project for: SI-580: Understanding Records and Archives: Principles and Practices, SI-632: Appraisal of Archives, SI-692: Practical Engagement Workshop in Archives and Records,
The Society of American Archivists student group, with the help of a some SI professors, has decided to start working with local archives and businesses around Ann Arbor who need help creating, appraising, inventorying, organizing, policy writing, digitizing, and storing their collections for the long-term. We currently have three different projects going: the Ann Arbor Civic Theatre, the Ark, and the Canton Historical Society.

SI Students: David K. Hutchful, Timothy M. Vollmer
Faculty: Joseph Hardin
Other Collaborators: Garin Fons, Office of Enabling Technologies; Pieter Kleymeer, Office of Enabling Technologies; Ted Hanss,Office of Enabling Technologies; David Stern, MD. PhD, University of Michigan Medical School
Course Project for: SI-691: Internship/Independent Study,
Other Integral Courses: SI-519: Special Topics: Intellectual Property and Information Law
The dScribe model is a cost-minimizing system leveraging the existing faculty-student educational relationship to gather, vet, and publish course material in an Open Educational Resources environment. This portable, adaptable process provides institutions worldwide with a set of tools to not only begin but also sustain a grassroots OER initiative.

SI Students: Jeremy J. York
Faculty: Margaret Hedstrom, David Wallace
Other Collaborators: Yolisa Soul, Lovemore Nalube, Mark Snyders, and Mosoabuli Maamoe of the University of Fort Hare
Course Project for: SI-681: Internship/Field Experience & Seminar in Practical Engagement,
Other Integral Courses: SI 631: Content Management Systems
This is a reorganization and enhancement of the Liberation Archives Web site at the University of Fort Hare, South Africa.

SI Students: Manisha Gupta
Faculty: Darlene Nichols
Other Collaborators: Winnie Ho Sarah Raux Katheryn Stine,
Course Project for: SI-649: Information Visualization,
As part of the course, SI 649: "Information Visualization," we worked on a semester-long project in which we designed a visualization for the online image database of the University of Michigan Museum of Art (UMMA). The project engages high school art educators and encourages them to both explore the collection and use the images in their personal lesson plans.

The goal of our visualizations was to quickly give art educators a sense of the art museum's online collection, to aid its image searches, and to support collaboration between art educators. We achieved this by designing a visualization based largely on the concepts of tree-maps and clustering.

SI Students: Min Hu, Nayeoung Kim, Ping Yu
Faculty: Lada Adamic
Other Collaborators:
Course Project for: SI-508: Networks: Theory and Application,
Youtube.com is one of the many rapidly growing social networking Web sites out there. However, the site is definitely different from other social networking sites, such as Facebook and even Slashdot, in that users are mainly connected through videos. Looking at these differences, we wanted to answer questions that deal with the users of YouTube and how they interact with each other, through videos.

SI Students: Mohammad K. Hadhrawi, Ashutosh Kaushik, Tanuj Shah, Jiang Yang
Faculty: Michael McQuaid
Course Project for: SI-682: Interface and Interaction Design,
Musecomp is a user-interface designed on a Nokia N800 allowing for better understanding of the exhibits by children visiting the museum. The device facilitates learning using animation instead of write-ups in the museum and provides inbuilt chat and quiz options.

SI Students: Geoffrey Ho, Wenbo Wang
Faculty: Mark Newman
Course Project for: SI-622: Evaluation of Systems and Services,
In this semester-long project, our team worked directly with our client, the University of Michigan Medical School, to evaluate its prototype Web-based CV system, known as M-CV. In this project we gained hands-on experience in assessing and critically analyzing a real-world, Web-based system. The evaluation process included several milestones, ranging from the creation of personas and scenarios to the conducting of heuristic evaluations and usability tests.

SI Students: Jason S. Stewart
Other Collaborators: Paul Theron - Department of Computer Science and Engineering. David Vorobeychik - Department of Computer Science and Engineering., Dr. David Chesney - Department of Computer Science and Engineering.,
The goal of the Accessible Interface (AIF) project is to develop a computing environment that is useful for those with cerebral palsy and focuses on ease of input, minimal user fatigue, and streamlined task accomplishment. The keyboard and mouse were replaced with a two-button interface designed to work within the AIF software environment. In its current state the software includes two modules: notes and trivia. Both modules use a contextual rotating menu designed to utilize the two-button interface. Users make selections by scrolling through the options using one button and selecting an option using the other. Future improvements include further contextual recommendation algorithms for word suggestions and an intuitive interface redesign. Although user testing is critical to produce an useful product, this project is still in alpha and has not yet been tested with potential users.

SI Students: Joshua M. Gerrish, Andrea L. McVittie
Faculty: Mark Ackerman, Paul Resnick
Other Collaborators: Michigan Peaceworks
Course Project for: SI-631: Practical Engagement Workshop: Content Management Systems,
Other Integral Courses: SI 501, SI 622
Michigan Peaceworks is an Ann Arbor based nonprofit that promotes peace, democracy, civil rights, and civil liberties through community organizing, education, and advocacy. The goal of this project is to convert their current site to an interactive community that fosters interaction and involvement among members. Using Drupal, we will provide tools to assist the staff, volunteers, and community members with content creation and management.

expoSItion 2007 Projects

• First place ($500): txt bus: Wait Time Information on Demand
• Second place ($250): altVerto
• Third place ($125): Pathfinder: Enhancing Museum Visits

SI Students: Mary A. Williams
Faculty: Bonnie Dede
Course Project for: SI-666: Organization of Information Resources,
Other Integral Courses: SI 580: Understanding Archives and Records, SI 539: Design of Complex Websites
Academic Program(s) Featured: LIS
Animated graphics pose challenges to metadata management and access. Creative combinations of established classification schemes can serve as a more dynamic solution.

SI Students: Yarun Luon, Joshua J. Morse, Satyendra K. Nainwal, Joshua P. Palay
Faculty: Michael McQuaid
Course Project for: SI-682: Interface and Interaction Design,
Academic Program(s) Featured: HCI
We developed and tested a Web site and public display to connect and sustain carpoolers in the workplace. We arrived at this design through a study of traffic congestion and its causes. After finding that many problems are deeply rooted in transportation infrastructure, we discovered several that could be addressed through design of an interface to carpooling. We found that people are often hesitant to carpool with unknown drivers. Our system offers numerous features to create and nurture sustainable carpools, bringing together design principles with organizational principles and workplace knowledge. Preliminary testing of our system encourages us that its combination of features could increase the success rate of workplace carpools.

SI Students: Andrew T. Schuck
Faculty: Maurita Holland
Other Collaborators: Michael Galloway, IPL,
Course Project for: SI-596: Digital Librarianship,
Other Integral Courses: SI 503, SI 502
Academic Program(s) Featured: LIS
The IPL Teen Poetry Wiki is an online poetry environment for teens to: post, receive comments on, and revise their own poetry; collaborate on poetry with other teens; review and practice poetry writing exercises; and discuss anything poetry related, including famous and not so famous poets, popular media, and each writer's influences.

SI Students: Martha V. Gukeisen, David K. Hutchful, Pieter C. Kleymeer, Sean A. Munson
Faculty: Michael McQuaid
Course Project for: SI-682: Interface and Interaction Design,
Academic Program(s) Featured: HCI,IEMP
We seek to motivate drivers who regularly use Web-based local and mapping services and have access to viable alternative transit methods -- such as public transportation, carpooling, walking, or bicycling -- to use these alternatives instead of driving alone. AltVerto works with users' existing habits to intervene during trip planning, and then sustains long-term positive behavior through progress tracking and community-building around alternatives to driving. Our study investigates how computer-mediated intervention at decision-making moments and online transit-related community motivates and sustains the use of alternative transit methods.

SI Students: Amy L. Grude, Matthew R. Scholl, Robert L. Thompson
Other Collaborators: Carl Collins (MSI '06),
Other Integral Courses: SI 622
Academic Program(s) Featured: HCI
Our project describes an SMS-based text messaging system that delivers real-time bus information to users' mobile phones. Many public transit systems provide schedule and fare information on their Web sites, and a small subset of these have recently experimented with bus stop countdown displays. In contrast, an SMS-based delivery system allows users to receive real-time updates wherever they may be. Given that lack of information is an often cited barrier to transit use, particularly among "choice riders" (i.e., those who have access to other forms of transit), such a solution also creates an opportunity for transit organizations to improve their services, thus promoting ridership.

SI Students: Kathe Frassrand, Elizabeth A. Meier, Margie R. Morris, Nicole O. Scholtz
Faculty: Mark Ackerman, Paul Resnick
Course Project for: SI-631: Practical Engagement Workshop: Content Management Systems,
Other Integral Courses: SI 501, SI 505, SI 622, SI 682, SI 553
Academic Program(s) Featured: HCI
The award-winning docent program at the University of Michigan's Museum of Art (UMMA) plays a direct and substantive role in the museum's ability to promote the discovery, contemplation, and enjoyment of art. The goal of this Drupal-backed Web site is to create a virtual space that will help the docents fulfill the UMMA's mission and goals. The UMMA main building is closed for renovation and expansion from June 2006 to early 2009, during which time the museum is engaged in a massive reinterpretation project. The docent Web site engages docents in their community and in new technology during this time of transition to a more vital University of Michigan Museum of Art.

SI Students: Catalina M. Oyler, Sarah M. Walch
Other Collaborators: Greg Kinney, Bentley Library Chris Powell, DLPS Suzanne Chapman, DLPS Barbara DeWolfe, Clements Library,
Course Project for: SI-692: Practical Engagement Workshop in Archives and Records,
Academic Program(s) Featured: ARM
EAD (Encoded Archival Descriptor) is a widely accepted format for publishing archival finding aids. During the course of the semester, we examined the systems that supported EAD at the Bentley Historical Library and adapted those systems to the finding aids at the Clements Library. This project included marking up finding aids, designing a Web page to publish the finished products, and generating MARC records from the EAD, all of which will greatly increase access to the Clements' collection.

SI Students: Andrew S Hunt, Meghan R. Lyon, Bethany G. Panozzo
Course Project for: SI-692: Practical Engagement Workshop in Archives and Records,
Other Integral Courses: SI-580: Understanding Records and Archives, SI-581 Preserving Information
Academic Program(s) Featured: ARM
Willliam J. Baroody, Jr., was the assistant to the president for public liaison under President Gerald R. Ford from 1974-77. Our internships this semester have involved working with his papers, a collection at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library. We have worked on different aspects of the archival process. The collection contains approximately 50 linear feet of papers from his time in the White House, and about 150 linear feet from his time at the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research (AEI). Our poster takes you through the various steps of preparing a collection for researchers, including looking through boxes, creating folders lists and series titles, arranging documents in folders and boxes, creating a container list and series descriptions, and writing a finding aid to assist users in their research.

SI Students: Rohit Laungani, Rachel V. Pooley
Faculty: Elizabeth Yakel
Other Collaborators: Kent Norsworthy, University of Texas at Austin,
Course Project for: SI-692: Practical Engagement Workshop in Archives and Records,
Other Integral Courses: IA, 615, 637, 580, 503
Academic Program(s) Featured: ARM,HCI,IEMP,LIS
This is a preliminary investigation into how both digital libraries and digital archives could make use of Google analytics.

SI Students: Farah Nazihah. Faisal, Michael R. Schleif, Sheri L. Washington, Jeremy J. York
Faculty: Mark Ackerman, Paul Resnick
Course Project for: SI-631: Practical Engagement Workshop: Content Management Systems,
Academic Program(s) Featured: HCI,IEMP,LIS
This project explores the use of Web 2.0 features, such as commenting and tagging, to interact with works published online by the University of Michigan Press. The digitalculturebooks project is a collaborative imprint of the U-M Press and the University of Michigan Library.

SI Students: Ayse G. Buyuktur, Ryan Cannon, David K. Hutchful, Cheng-Lun Li, Sean A. Munson, Rupa A. Patel, Melissa R. Perez, Matthew H. Wilson
Faculty: Suresh Bhavnani, Barbara Mirel
Other Collaborators: Joseph Norman, School of Medicine,
Course Project for: SI-622: Evaluation of Systems and Services, SI-649: Information Visualization,
Academic Program(s) Featured: HCI
Hospitals across the country have been moving toward a general electronic medical record to provide a single point of access to patient data for clinicians and staff. Since 1997, the University of Michigan Health System (UMHS) has adopted an inhouse-developed Web interface to present patient information drawn from a large data warehouse. This electronic medical record is called CareWeb. Students at the University of Michigan School of Information have undertaken class projects to evaluate the CareWeb's interface and propose innovate designs for selected features. The body of work is currently being refined and will be distributed to Medical Center Information Technology administration to provide a perspective from students in the field of human-computer interaction.

SI Students: Robin R. Carter, Nisha G. Erinjeri, David S. Hsiao, Cheng-Lun Li
Faculty: Mark Ackerman, Paul Resnick
Other Collaborators: Cory Knobel (GSI) Eric Goldhagen (Openflows.org) Shoshana Krieger (GOLES) Wassim Lone (GOLES)
Course Project for: SI-631: Practical Engagement Workshop: Content Management Systems,
Academic Program(s) Featured: ARM,HCI,IEMP,CIC
Using Drupal (an open source content management system), we created a tool that manages complaints and tenant/landlord disputes for a tenant organizing group (GOLES) in the Lower East Side of Manhattan. The tool will be used by tenants to keep a history of their complaints to government enforcement and preservation agencies, and by GOLES staff to track resolution of issues.

SI Students: Jiarong Ding, Clark W. Matthews
Other Collaborators: Joe Matthews, CEO, EVproductions
Course Project for: SI-658: Information Architecture,
Other Integral Courses: SI 622
Academic Program(s) Featured: HCI
The EVproductions music label has long been at the heart of Chicago's vibrant underground Hip Hop scene. Unfortunately, EVproductions.net, with ambitions to both sell music and promote the label, has not shared in its success. This project explores some of the site's greatest issues and uses comparative analysis, usability testing, and Web analytics to develop a set of blueprints for a site that can really perform.

SI Students: Sameer A. Halai, David K. Hutchful
Faculty: Paul Resnick
Other Collaborators: Arnab Nandi, CSE,
Other Integral Courses: SI622, SI682
Academic Program(s) Featured: HCI
The mood of an academic environment is an important factor for its effectiveness. Our project, entitled !alone (read "not alone") identifies loneliness as a prevalent negative influence on the university environment and seeks to rid the campus of it. To this effect, we propose the installation of a simple but elegant campus-wide collaborative, multiplayer game located at bus stops across the U-M bus network, enabling students waiting for the bus to communicate and collaborate with each other using a shared audio space. The !alone nodes also serve as location-specific information hubs providing useful information, such as live bus status information, and also serve as an interactive audio service. All student interactions across the !alone network will be viewable in real-time at a Web site using streaming audio and animated visual representations.

SI Students: Sara E. Alloy, Jill M. Griffiths, Jessica Amy. L'Esperance, Lev I. Rickards
Other Collaborators: Jessica Coloma, Kellogg Foundation
Course Project for: SI-631: Practical Engagement Workshop: Content Management Systems,
Academic Program(s) Featured: HCI,IEMP,CIC
The W.K. Kellogg Foundation, wishing to encourage greater diversity in nonprofit leadership roles, wanted to "get inside the minds" of young, diverse future leaders. The foundation's hope was to use the Web to interact more directly with its target demographic than has been previously possible. Using the Drupal content management system, we are building a Web site to meet these specifications.

SI Students: Michaela D. Willi Hooper
Course Project for: SI-637: Research Seminar on Archives and Institutions of Social Memory,
Other Integral Courses: SI 580: Introduction to Archives
Academic Program(s) Featured: ARM
I developed this project for a research seminar on archives and institutions of social memory. John C. Early (1878-1932) was an American official in the Philippines whose papers are housed at the Bentley Historical Library. I explore how the then-dominant ideologies of imperialism, progressivism, and social Darwinism influenced Early's story.

SI Students: Ayca Aksu Erkan, Lev I. Rickards
Other Integral Courses: Arch 531: Networked Cities
Academic Program(s) Featured: HCI,IEMP,CIC
Excessive energy use, personal consumption, and credit card debt are real problems facing the public. Using emerging technologies in locative media and pervasive computing, we designed a wallet that will alert users when they have gone over a spending threshold for a particular product category.

SI Students: William R. Cron
Faculty: Marilyn Kiefer
Other Collaborators: Rachel Erdstein, Burns Park Elementary School Library Media Specialist
Other Integral Courses: SI 616 - Topics in School Media
Academic Program(s) Featured: K12
I worked with the media specialist at Burns Park Elementary School to develop marketing materials for the school's media center. The project included an analysis of demographic and economic characteristics of the surrounding community, as well as a needs assessment survey for the media center's publicity needs. Among the materials produced was a brochure targeting parents of new kindergarteners at Burns Park.

SI Students: Manisha Gupta, Jessica Amy. L'Esperance, Therese M. Nielsen
Faculty: Michael McQuaid
Other Collaborators: Ann Arbor Hands-on Musuem,
Course Project for: SI-682: Interface and Interaction Design,
Other Integral Courses: Networed Cities
Academic Program(s) Featured: ARM,HCI,K12,CIC
This project aims to enhance the interactivity of museum exhibits and facilitate long-term retention of patron learning. To achieve this, we have designed an electronic scavenger hunt to run on a Nokia n800. Our primary users are students on field trips and teachers bringing their classes to the museum. Museums suffer from two major challenges -- firstly, communication is usually one way, and secondly, it is temporary. We hope to address this lack of interaction and temporariness through the development of a mobile device and interface.

SI Students: Christopher J. Demeniuk, Cheng-Lun Li, John A. Suciu
Faculty: Michael McQuaid
Course Project for: SI-682: Interface and Interaction Design,
Other Integral Courses: BIT 358/578: Human Interface to Information Technology
Academic Program(s) Featured: HCI
Events such as those of September 11, 2001 and the Hurricane Katrina disaster have spelled out the need for improved communication and coordination among emergency response personnel. We approach this problem on a smaller scale, however, by examining local regions and communities and soliciting the needs of their emergency response agencies. Our findings revealed a need for improvement among current modes of communication and collaboration, along with special design considerations that take into account the environment within which collaborative technologies would be used. We are presenting evaluation versions of both a computer-supported mobile unit and dispatch interface that were tested by representatives from local police, fire, and EMS agencies. We also are discussing what information was learned from the design process and the questions that are leading us toward future research in this area.

SI Students: Ahmad K. Aljadaan, Martha V. Gukeisen, Xiaomin Jiang, Nayeoung Kim, Cathrynn E. Toshach
Faculty: Suresh Bhavnani
Other Collaborators: Corey Seeman, Director, Kresge Business Administration Library Jennifer Lammers Zimmer,Digital Services Librarian,Kresge Business Administration Library,
Course Project for: SI-622: Evaluation of Systems and Services,
Other Integral Courses: SI 501: Contextual Inquiry and Project Management
Academic Program(s) Featured: HCI
The Kresge Business Administration Library is an academic library that serves specifically the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan. With an aim to provide better quality service to the Ross community, the Kresge library incorporate its Web site with a variety of online services. Unfortunately, the Web site, expecting to offer rich business-related academic and career information, has not won the same high reputation as its excellent librarians. To help improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the Kresge Web site, this project uses comparative analysis, heuristic evaluation, and usability testing to develop a feasible recommendation to the Web site's re-design plan.

SI Students: Nicholas B. Godwin
Faculty: John King
Course Project for: SI-690: Internship/Field Experience,
Academic Program(s) Featured: IEMP
This is an analysis of the impact customer problems have on their loyalty. Project includes the creation of a profile for customers using the Customer Value Model (CVM) Profile outputs, an analysis of customer verification methods and improvents to customer marketing, and an analysis of the Point of Sale data from John Deere pilot dealer business systems.

SI Students: Satyendra K. Nainwal
Other Collaborators: Prof. Pradeep Yammiyavar, IIT Guwahati
Academic Program(s) Featured: HCI
In India there is an inequitable distribution of wealth and resources; while 70 percent of the population lives in villages, about 80 percent of ophthalmologists practice in cities. India has one ophthalmologist per 100,000 of its population and this ratio is even more dismal for rural areas. In such circumstances, an ophthalmologist-based model is not a cost-effective screening method. On the other hand, an ophthalmologist-led screening model offers a cost-effective and feasible screening model for screening of eye diseases. Such a model can be beneficial in filling the critical gaps in government health services. Based on ethnographic studies conducted in Assam, India, we propose and discuss the design of an experimental interactive interface that can help trained rural health workers diagnose and classify the extent of cataract in the preliminary stages. This has two significant benefits:
1. Cataract patients, usually old and living in rural areas, do not have to travel miles away from home only to be told to come back a few months later as the cataract was not sufficiently mature for a surgery yet.
2. It provides for a more efficient system that helps the already overburdened ophthalmologists concentrate their time on patients who actually need immediate surgeries, thus directly influencing the quality of eye care.

expoSItion 2006 Projects

SI Students: Robin R. Carter, Carl R. Collins, Kyle P. Conner, Rachel V. Pooley
Faculty: Elizabeth Yakel
Other Collaborators: Edward Ginsberg Center for Community Service and Learning
Academic Program(s) Featured: ARM,CIC
The presenters are a small group of concerned students who set out to help the archival community in the wake of Hurricane Katrina's destruction. Over winter break, the four students traveled to New Orleans to help restore the library and archive at Newcomb College's Center for Research on Women. They also had the good fortune to meet with several other archivists in the area, which led to valuable insights about disaster preparedness, cultural resource awareness, and the archival profession. Their intent is to share these insights for the benefit of future and current archivists, as well as to inspire students to pursue creative ideas to help the hurricane-ravaged Gulf South, which continues to be in need. The project was funded in part by a grant from the Edward Ginsberg Center for Community Service and Learning and by generous student and other private donations.

SI Students: Eric L. Frierson
Other Collaborators: David Michener, Matthaei Botanical Gardens and Nichols Arboretum,
Course Project for: SI-690: Internship/Field Experience,
Other Integral Courses: SI 539: Design of Complex Websites
Academic Program(s) Featured: HCI,LIS
The Nichols Arboretum Plant Finder is a Web-based database of selected plants at the Nichols Arboretum. The project culminated in the creation of a Web site that allows visitors to find maps to plants based on a search (either by attribute or by name, or by the time of year). The Web site presents users with three kinds of data:

• Photographic -- pictures of the Nichols Arboretum instance of the plant (not some stock photo from another Web site or a book)
• Geographic -- maps to the plant (latitude and longitude collected with a GPS device)
• Interpretive -- interesting facts about the plant and its relevance to Michigan and the arboretum (provided by assistant curator David Michener)

SI Students: Andrea K. Wiggins
Faculty: Lada Adamic, Michael McQuaid
Course Project for: SI-614: Special Topics: Networks: Theory and Application,
Other Integral Courses: SI 682: User Interface Design
Academic Program(s) Featured: HCI
Using social network analysis and information visualization techniques, this study explores the network formed by indirect institutional relationships as described by the number of doctoral degrees granted that are held by faculty of the 18 schools participating in i-Conference 2005.

SI Students: Donna Olendorf, Georgia M. Portuondo
Faculty: Karen Markey
Other Collaborators: We used the ARTstor database.
Course Project for: SI-665: Online Searching and Databases,
Academic Program(s) Featured: LIS
This poster project highlights the ARTstor database, a visually rich repository of over 300,000 images brought together to serve the needs of students, faculty, and art historians. By researching this database for "SI 665:Online Searching and Databases," the presenters explored an under-utilized resource and increased their experience searching retrieval systems and databases.

SI Students: Noor Ali-Hasan, Diana Gavales, Andrew Peterson, Matthew M. Raw
Faculty: Barbara Mirel, Barbara Mirel
Other Collaborators: Dr. Caroline Richardson, UM Department of Family Medicine,
Course Project for: SI-649: Information Visualization,
Academic Program(s) Featured: HCI
Fitster is a social visualization interface that supports fitness motivation among busy people struggling to exercise. Among the pilot group of busy graduate students, the presenters found that a popular time-saving strategy is to recast exercise in terms of everyday, informal activities. Fitster employs pedometer data to support activity tracking, goal setting, and motivation through virtual competitions and teamwork. It contributes to the human-computer interaction and health domains by identifying a new facet of exercise behavior and by offering a lightweight social interface to promote fitness motivation and enjoyment.

SI Students: Olga Khroustaleva, Christopher Korintus, Ricah R. Marquez, Julie K. Shadford
Other Collaborators: Crysta Metcalf, Motorola
Course Project for: SI-501: Use of Information,
Academic Program(s) Featured: HCI
Motorola has conducted extensive research on the topic of Content Enhanced Presence (CEP) and would like to launch a new service that taps into the fundamental human need for feeling connected. However, the client needed to discover types of content that can enable or help people to feel more connected with each other. In essence, the research question for this project was a matter of how "presence" can be conjured through technological means. This question was addressed via research and analysis conducted by students from the School of Information. The goals of the research project were stated as follows:

• To define "connectedness"
• To produce a list of types of content that could be shared to make people feel more connected
• To present the client with data to enhance its brainstorming process as it relates to developing new services

SI Students: Fengfeng He
Other Collaborators: Mentor: Rachel North, Marketing Director, oneUpweb,
Course Project for: SI-690: Internship/Field Experience,
Other Integral Courses: SI 503: Search and Retrieval; SI 652: Electronic Commerce
Academic Program(s) Featured: IEMP
Is mobile search the future of online marketing? This project explores the technological facts and the developments of mobile browsing. Based on the analysis of a current target audience, existing applications, and business patterns, the project reveals the implications of mobile search for search engine marketing and the opportunities for future online marketing.

SI Students: Jeremiah L. Mason
Course Project for: SI-681: Internship/Field Experience & Seminar in Practical Engagement,
Academic Program(s) Featured: ARM
During summer 2005, the presenter worked as an archives technician at Keweenaw National Historical Park in Calumet, Michigan. While there, the presenter processed incoming archival collections, provided reference service to park staff and the general public, worked in the park library, conducted historical research to contribute to the park's on-going Historic Resource Study, and provided assistance working with the park's museum collections.

SI Students: Nancy S. Jacobson
Other Collaborators: Thomson Gale
Course Project for: SI-690: Internship/Field Experience,
Other Integral Courses: SI-666: Organization of Information Resources
Academic Program(s) Featured: ARM,LIS
This project highlights the concerns and pitfalls of creating/modifying MARC records for nontraditional works and items (in addition to monographs and serials) that are not clearly covered in the AACR2r rules. Specifically items like "prompt books" (works of mixed responsibility) and "electronic resources" (records created when only the electronic surrogate is present and the original physical object, from which the surrogate was made) is unavailable.

SI Students: Erika J. Doyle
Course Project for: SI-684: eCommunities: Analysis and Design of Online Interaction Environments,
Other Integral Courses: EDU 758: Leadership, Learning Organizations and Technology
Academic Program(s) Featured: HCI
This is a case study of the "Becoming a Webhead" international E-community for the professional development of English as a Foreign Language instructors.

SI Students: Linda G. Choo, Farah Nazihah. Faisal, Kaveri Misra, Maddalena Rumor
Other Collaborators: Cory Dunham, College of Engineering (Computer Science),
Course Project for: SI-501: Use of Information,
Academic Program(s) Featured: ARM,HCI,IEMP,LIS
This project involves evaluating the information flow from the School of Dentistry's Admissions Office and prospective dentistry students. The aim was to identify whether the current way of sending and receiving materials from students is efficient, as well as to identify ways to further improve communication between the Admissions Office and applicants.

SI Students: David P. DeKorte, Farah Nazihah. Faisal, Sun-Mi Kim, Michael R. Schleif
Faculty: Judy Olson
Course Project for: SI-622: Evaluation of Systems and Services,
Other Integral Courses: SI 501: Use of Information
Academic Program(s) Featured: HCI
This project helps evaluate how receptive students and faculty are to the introduction of eBooks on campus. The aim is to evaluate one of the available eBook reader devices on the market (the eBookwise 1150) to see how well it corresponds to the needs of students and faculty members, as well as obtain feedback (through focus groups and surveys) regarding the overall attitude toward eBooks.

SI Students: Ayca Aksu Erkan
Faculty: Paul Resnick
Course Project for: SI-684: eCommunities: Analysis and Design of Online Interaction Environments,
Academic Program(s) Featured: HCI,IEMP,CIC
43 Things is a social networking site where registered users can create and manage a list of personal goals. This case study identifies the major social and technical elements of the online community behind 43 Things, and it uncovers the implications of specific design choices, drawing on relevant social science theories.

SI Students: Richard A. Brown
Other Collaborators: Robert Widell, Volvo AB Group, Sweden
Course Project for: SI-503: Search and Retrieval, SI-504: Social Systems and Collections,
Academic Program(s) Featured: HCI
A plethora of collaborative software tools exist to share documents and discussions. Most of these groupware tools are topic-centric in that they are designed to dwell on single topics. This project demonstrates the need for collaborative tools that are tightly integrated with business processes. Workflow is identified as the way people work and suggests this methodology to track these formal processes. The need to develop workflow tools that manage several hundred tasks, rather than a few, is addressed. The trend toward dynamic product development (DPD) is addressed and workflow tools are identified as ideal solutions for this form of project management.

SI Students: David H. Choi
Faculty: Paul Resnick
Course Project for: SI-684: eCommunities: Analysis and Design of Online Interaction Environments,
Academic Program(s) Featured: HCI
This is a case study of the Fighting 44s online community. The Fighting 44s is an online community devoted to "exploring North American Asian Art, expression, and identity." The purpose of this study is to analyze and understand the community's practices, activities, roles, joint enterprise, shared repertoire, and mechanisms for regulating behavior.

SI Students: Matthew M. Raw
Faculty: Paul Resnick
Course Project for: SI-684: eCommunities: Analysis and Design of Online Interaction Environments,
Other Integral Courses: SI 502: Choice and Learning, SI 689: Computer-Supported Cooperative Work
Academic Program(s) Featured: HCI
The Cool Running community uses a set of message boards to offer runners support, advice, and encouragement. The community is characterized by many positive attributes, among them: it has an absence of open conflict, it creates motivation to run through accountability to others, and it facilitates easy comparisons for runners of any skill level.

SI Students: Pietrek F. Glowacki, Amy L. Grude, Swapnaa Jayaraman, Nicole O. Scholtz
Course Project for: SI-682: Interface and Interaction Design,
Academic Program(s) Featured: HCI
Snapmail is an interaction design mockup for an E-mail client. Snapmail attempts to help people use E-mails to organize their life and tasks.

SI Students: Kathe Frassrand, Mark T. Joseph, Jim Maynard, Tonya R. McCarley, Elizabeth F. Pickard
Faculty: Joan Durrance, Soo Rieh
Course Project for: SI-501: Use of Information,
Academic Program(s) Featured: LIS
An examination of the social impact of the Holocaust Memorial Center using ethnographic observation, interviews, and survey techniques.

SI Students:
Faculty: Robert Frost
Other Collaborators: Charles Du, Aerospace Engineering Damon Dance, MBA Phoebe Kwan, BBA Jenny Lee, Industrial and Operations Engineering Kiko Dontchev, Aerospace Engineering, Ken Ludwig, IOE Frank Yates, Business and Psychology, Albert Banks, Web Developer, myJive LLC Nathan Gilder, Graphic Designer, Nathan Gilder Studio Kurt Riegger, New ventures coordinator, SPARK Jon Shackelford, Patent Attorney, Dickinson Wright PLLC
Course Project for: SI-110: Introduction to Info Studies, SI-614: Special Topics: Networks: Theory and Application, SI-684: eCommunities: Analysis and Design of Online Interaction Environments,
Other Integral Courses: Psych 449: The Psychology of Decision Making
Academic Program(s) Featured: HCI,IEMP
Eventrue offers a Web service that provides its members with local business reviews (restaurants, mechanics, entertainment centers), activity itineraries (suggestions of what to do on a Friday night), and exclusive coupon deals (controlled Eventrue affiliates in real-time). The team uses the latest trends in Web 2.0 technology, including AJAX, collaborative filtering, RSS, social bookmarking/nonhierarchical editorial control, and blogging.

SI Students: Kathe Frassrand
Faculty: Karen Markey
Other Collaborators: Nabeeha Mohammed (MSI '05) Raul De La Rosa, Computer Science and Engineering, United States Forestry Service
Course Project for: SI-553: Multimedia Production,
Academic Program(s) Featured: HCI
This project was designed to raise awareness of the Kirtland's Warbler and encourage increased public interest. The Kirtland's Warbler Life Cycle calendar is a Flash-based, interactive environment that enables users to direct their own experience as they explore a year in the life of this amazing bird. In addition to text-based information, supplementary photographic and audio-visual materials are included to enhance the user's experience.

SI Students: Narayan Kansal, Prashanth Nooguri
Faculty: Daniel Klyn
Other Collaborators: Rohit Laungani, Karen Jordan Frank Desanto
Course Project for: SI-658: Information Architecture,
Other Integral Courses: SI 622 Evaluation of Systems and Services
Academic Program(s) Featured: HCI
As part of the group project in the "Information Architecture" class, Narayan Kansal, Prashant Nooguri, and Rohit Laugani developed a Web strategy for the School of Information Alumni Web site. Using various methods, they looked at the various aspects of the site, such as search, navigation, organization, labeling, layout, functionality, usability, and credibility. The team found strengths of the site as well as areas for improvement. For each of the areas of improvements, they made recommendations to the stakeholders following the IA principles discussed in the class. They incorporated many recommendations in wireframes.

SI Students: Ayca Aksu Erkan, Michael L. Hess, Brian A. Kerr, Lev I. Rickards
Faculty: Paul Resnick
Academic Program(s) Featured: HCI,IEMP,LIS
Small Things Loosely Connected is a programming club that was e