iSchool Capstone

2013

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Mood Journal

Mood Journal is a web application that allows mental health patients to log their daily moods and behavior in order to help their therapists to better treat them. This project was inspired by the observation that when patients arrive in mental health clinics, they are given questionnaires to fill out that ask them about moods and behavior in the past two weeks. Considering how fleeting and variable moods can be in such a long span of time, it’s impossible for an individual to accurately answer these questions. Therapists often rely on these questionnaires to both diagnose the patient and to help guide the therapy session. It therefore becomes crucial that the responses are as true to the patient’s state as possible. Mood Journal addresses this issue by prompting users to fill out a 3 question, scaled survey every day, asking about their mood, physical energy level and enjoyment of activities. If their survey score is below a certain threshold then they are asked to fill out a short questionnaire that further inquires about their behavior for that day. Mood Journal displays past logs to patients for them to observe trends in their mood and also allows them to send messages to their therapist if they have concerns. In addition, if a patient is experiencing an extreme low, they are redirected to the necessary resources while the therapist is notified. We hope that with our tool, mental health services will run more smoothly and accurately than ever.
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Newspace Library Cataloging Project

As project manager for the Newspace Library Cataloging Project, I planned, organized and cataloged the Newspace Center for Photography’s growing library with the OPALS cataloging system.  The Library includes more than seven hundred physical objects from photography monographs, to anthologies, criticisms, histories, serials, and DVDs.  This process included using the MARC cataloging standard, creating a how-to manual, and a weekly blog post to highlight materials in the Library. The Catalog can now be searched either at the Center or online and the materials have all had subject listings added to make finding those materials much easier.  The blog is also continuing to draw online attention to Newspace Center for Photography and its Library.
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Online App for Cascade Bicycle Club

As the largest bicycling club in the U.S., Cascade Bicycle Club has more than 15,000 members and organizes more than 1,200 free rides a year. Obviously, simplifying the process of signing up rides and strengthening the connections between Cascade Bicycle Club and its members become quite important. Our team worked with Forum One Communications to develop a mobile web app for Cascade Bicycle Club. This app streamlines communication between Cascade Bicycle Club and its members, and it also provides a better experience of exploring, researching and registering free daily rides. Additionally, it could help Cascade Bicycle Club attract more people joining free daily rides, and leading healthier lives.
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Park It: Seattle

Finding parking in Seattle has always proved to be a significant challenge. We, Team Wildfish, created Seattle ParkIt to address this issue. We have developed an Android application that will allow users to search for and locate parking in the Seattle area based on when and where they would like to park. Basing our design choices around user testing, our app is designed to make parking fast and easy. We are leveraging the Seattle Department of Transportation’s parking sign database as a data source. Initially we have an app designed for parking in Seattle, but ideally this can be expanded to cities both around the state and the country.
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Patchwork: A Quilt of Conversations About What Really Matters

In a world without Patchwork, companies that operate unethically continue to make profits, and companies that make ethical choices are not rewarded enough. With no reliable way to investigate what really goes on inside corporations, consumers make purchasing decisions only based on prices and personal reviews. Enter Patchwork: a site that enables people to share, discuss, and rate facts related to companies and products. When a user finds an article pertaining to compelling positive or negative practices of a business or organization, they can post the article to Patchwork for others to discuss and rate. Patchwork will encourage companies to improve their practices or keep up their good work in an effort to attain the highest possible score. We conducted surveys and user studies and found that users would like to know more about what goes on behind the scenes of companies and products. Patchwork will enable people to be more knowledgeable consumers in a world where things are not always what they seem.
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Perception and Quality of Spoken Message v. Texting

Gibberin, a spoken message application for iOS, is an effective alternative to texting. Using Gibberin as a voice communicator with no transcription to text allows recipients to listen instead of read. My research project compares the effectiveness of texting and spoken message in terms of speed and quality.  Through interviews and usability testing, spoken message seemed to be the more effective communication medium, but is it the preferred method of communication remains to be seen.  We have seen voice-to-text change the way users communicate. By taking the next step in changing how we communicate, the value of simplicity and efficiency can be modeled by Gibberin.
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Permazine: Digital Zine Library at the Holdout Social Center

Permazine, the Holdout Digital Zine Library Project, was born out of a collective desire to not only capture and archive valuable cultural information while maintaining the integrity of the zine medium, but also due to a significant need for increased accessibility to cultural and political information. Accessible on the web, its use is promoted through the center’s very popular free-use computers. A notable feature of this library built on the Drupal CMS platform is that its content is constructed not only by the Holdout Bookstore Collective and its volunteers, but also by a greater community of organizations and individuals who have something to contribute - its content is a reflection of community-wide interests. Paramount to the Holdout Digital Zine Library Project’s success is that it reflects an understanding the impact that the digital divide and information inequality have on the library’s significance, accessibility and use.
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Permazine: Digital Zine Library at the Holdout Social Center

Permazine, the Holdout Digital Zine Library Project, was born out of a collective desire to not only capture and archive valuable cultural information while maintaining the integrity of the zine medium, but also due to a significant need for increased accessibility to cultural and political information. Accessible on the web, its use is promoted through the center’s very popular free-use computers. A notable feature of this library built on the Drupal CMS platform is that its content is constructed not only by the Holdout Bookstore Collective and its volunteers, but also by a greater community of organizations and individuals who have something to contribute - its content is a reflection of community-wide interests. Paramount to the Holdout Digital Zine Library Project’s success is that it reflects an understanding the impact that the digital divide and information inequality have on the library’s significance, accessibility and use.
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POSSIBLE: Global Project Catalog

The Global Project Catalog application is an internal application for POSSIBLE. This application is intended to help new business sales team members track previous project work on a global scale for reference in new business pitch work and case studies. Also, it helps internal teams identify and contact fellow employees globally that have worked on projects similar to their own for knowledge sharing or assistance. Currently, we have implemented the Global Project Catalog web version as a knowledge management system. It enables the team to save project information, and provides user-interface to people for project viewing, searching, and sharing. With the Global Project Catalog, worldwide employees of POSSIBLE have the ability to access the project resource, do case studies and encourage knowledge sharing.