iSchool Capstone

2015

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TapEat

Uncertainty makes us uneasy. When we walk into a busy restaurant and see a long line, we feel uncertain, sometimes even intimidated. We want to know whether it is worth it to wait or find another place to eat. TapEat helps remove that uncertainty. Our application provides the wait time for you, the customers, so that you can make an informed decision of where to eat. You don't have to guess or physically go to the restaurant to find that information—you can access it on your phone anywhere. Better yet, once you make the selection, you can check into the line with the app and will receive a notification when your table is ready. You can use the wait time, otherwise spent sitting in a waiting area, to do something productive. We help make your dining experience more pleasant and enjoyable by reducing meaningless wait time.
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Teamify

Have you ever been in a school project where you felt that you were doing most of the work and a few of your teammates were not contributing much? Imagine your frustration if those teammates also happened to be your friends! We bring in “Teamify”, a mobile application that will help teams keep track of each team member’s tasks using a point based system and provide visibility in their performance. It will reduce the pain points of team work by increasing the sense of accountability among the team members and make communication easier. Students can leverage this app to improve the team work experience and productivity of the team. As a proof of concept, we have designed a high-fidelity working mobile prototype and focused on the user experience of the app to help make team work hassle free and enjoyable!
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Tech Prep Courses: Feedback Study for Improving Design

As student researchers, we took an opportunity to provide feedback about introductory information technology courses currently offered at the iSchool. We’ve dubbed these courses the 'INFX Suite'. The INFX Suite, implemented in 2010, is recommended to graduate level master’s students who don’t have a technological background when they enter the iSchool. As fast as technology progresses, we wanted to investigate the INFX Suite to see if it was still fresh. Using three questionnaires, quantitative and qualitative methods have been used to gather and analyze data from iSchool faculty and students, and top iSchools in the United States. Research results revealed the INFX Suite is still in line with current technology content trends, however; meeting student expectations consistently is an area that is lacking. Research outcomes will serve as a reference for the iSchool about future INFX Suite design.
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The Anti-Cigarette League Mixed Media Collection

This project addressed the archival processing of a historic 35mm moving image and lantern slide collection. Our team focused on the problem of both preserving and maximizing access to this collection. In order to provide access to film of this size, digitization is essential, both to facilitate viewing and to prevent degradation of the original materials. The equipment required for this process, however, is prohibitively expensive. Accordingly, our team experimented with alternative digitization methods that use tools commonly available in archives. We also strove to put the diverse components of this collection into a useful historical context that would maximize its utility to researchers and patrons. Our project seeks to provide a model of processing that can be done to archival collections, even without extensive funding.
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The Appeals Factory Recommendation System for the GAMER Research Group

Our project is part of the Game Metadata Research (GAMER) Group’s Crossmedia Advisory Services based on media appeal factors, which investigates common appeal factors across multiple media formats to better support advisory services in the 21st century. Appeals Factory aims to develop a framework for recommending games to users based on preferences regarding selected factors: Story, Character, Setting, Visual Style, and Mood. Traditional mechanisms for game recommendation rely on a user’s gaming history as well as strict subject and genre metadata, but through our appeals methodology, users with any level of experience can find games suited to their taste based on what draws them to stories in general and games in particular. Our project provides a foundation for game and interactive media advisory for researchers, teachers, librarians, parents, and gamers.
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The Greenwillow Books records: Uncovering a Hidden Collection at the University of Oregon Special Collections and University Archives

Greenwillow Books is a children’s book publishing imprint of HarperCollins publishing. Since 1979, Greenwillow has transferred its publishing records to the University of Oregon for preservation and access. However, a comprehensive finding aid accounting for the numerous accretions to the collection has been unavailable for many years. Under the direction of Stephanie Kays, the UO’s Archivist for Collection Management, I accounted for 280 feet of processed records, processed and oversaw student processing of roughly 200 feet of unprocessed accessions, rehoused a large collection of oversize materials, and deaccessioned over 50 feet of duplicate materials. The result was a 487.5 foot collection of author correspondence, edited proofs, artwork drafts, and more available to researchers in a searchable, published finding aid through Northwest Digital Archives (http://nwda.orbiscascade.org/). Access to this collection will be a boon to researchers of children’s literature as well as educators looking to teach object lessons on the revision process.
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The KING Broadcasting Company Photograph Collection

The KING Broadcasting Company Photograph Collection at the University of Washington Libraries Special Collections department comprises over 5.8 cubic feet of materials including more than 1,000 photographs taken from the Dorothy Stimson Bullitt papers collection. While prior work had been done, the storage of materials and numbering conventions used were inconsistent with department standards and best practices. Project objectives included properly preparing materials for archival storage, the creation of a digital finding aid reflecting an intellectual order, renumbering materials according to department conventions, and reducing the amount of physical space taken by the collection. The results increase access to photographs that provide a unique look into early radio and television broadcasting in the Pacific Northwest as well as special events in the Seattle area. Subjects of interest include early KING personalities, local and national programs and promotions, and local events including some related to Seafair, UW, and Boeing.
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The Play’s the Thing: Literary Management for the Playwrights’ Revolution

Since 2007, Capital Stage has produced the Playwrights’ Revolution: a theater series of staged readings for six unproduced plays, inviting artist and audience feedback for playwrights. The series now receives up to 300 script submissions each year. To address the high volume of submissions, I developed a structured process for shepherding submissions from script to stage that is responsive to the company’s needs. The process includes a script catalog, a scoring rubric for script reviews, and coordinating volunteer readers to ensure all submissions receive equal consideration. This project creates a tested script management process that is scalable to growth of the Playwrights’ Revolution series and transferable to other script management projects. There are not currently industry standards for managing submissions, although there is a recognized need for better organizational strategies. This process uses tools that are already familiar to users, and could be easily implemented by other small theater companies.
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This Library Life

This Library Life Gabbie Barnes, Residential MLIS Rebecca Fronczak, Online MLIS Erin Vonnahme, Residential MLIS Librarians love to share. Despite our love for sharing ideas among ourselves and our patrons, there’s no single, independent repository available to find library programming across the country. Until now. This Library Life (TLL) is an interactive website where library professionals can share ideas, encouraging users to discover diverse library services and initiatives happening across the country. We’ve done a lot of “behind the scenes” work for this online tool, developing a well-thought out structure and metadata schema which will allow users to navigate TLL with ease. These considerations will make future growth and more customization possible. In short, we’re presenting a digital platform that aggregates and visualizes just how dynamic, creative, and vital libraries are to their communities. Just like the library itself, This Library Life is an environment that encourages engagement, interaction, and community growth, one story at a time.
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Track'd

Track’d is a responsive website that helps UW students take better advantage of their time on campus by serving as an informational hub for student organizations and other UW resources to share their events. At UW Seattle alone, there are over 54,000 students who participate in over 800 interest groups, but information about these resources are scattered and oftentimes in obscure locations. Our goal is to facilitate discovery and get students involved by giving them information about everything that’s going on around campus at any given time.