iSchool Capstone

Award Winner

2015

Never Forgotten

People with Alzheimer’s disease constantly struggle remembering daily tasks. Much of the current scheduling systems still remains paper‐based. In addition, communication between caregivers, family members, and the patient largely happen through phone calls and many events continue to overlooked due to miscommunication. To face these challenges, we proposed to build a kiosk application for the Alzheimer’s patient to use that will digitalize the paper‐based system in place and ease the process through automation. Additionally, the kiosk application will be paired with mobile application for the caregivers and family members to easily track and monitor daily events. Our features aims to make a difference by lessen the cognitive load of the user by creating a one‐place‐to go therefore, replacing the confusing paper‐based system. Respectively, this will help the patient be more independent thus, helping the caregivers through shared reminders and calendars to see all that is going on.

Observational Research Toolkit for Libraries

For-profit institutions have long tailored their space to best grab and retain people's attention. To address this need, some libraries hire firms to help them optimize their space based on unobtrusive observation. Our objective was to develop guidelines and protocols for libraries to conduct their own unobtrusive observational research in order to better understand patron behavior, and ultimately, to better serve their patrons. From these guidelines and protocols, we created a toolkit for community libraries. As an extension of a previous directed fieldwork at Sno-Isle Libraries, and in conjunction with Spokane County Library District, this toolkit includes video tutorials, observation instruments, and analysis tools. By putting these tools in the hands of librarians, any library will have the ability to collect and analyze more data at a lower cost, gaining valuable insight and feedback to help improve the patron experience.

OnTheFly

The popularity of internet-based social networking services such as Facebook has surged over the previous decade, with more people than ever using these tools to connect with their friends and family. These services are lacking, however, when it comes to helping users engage with others based on mutual interests for daily, location-based activities such as going to the gym, sharing a meal, or studying for an exam. OnTheFly is a multi-platform mobile application which leverages the user's existing Facebook connections to help facilitate this process, providing users with an easy, intuitive method for creating short-term events they want to share with others. OnTheFly is designed to both support existing friendships as well as encourage new ones; users can invite their existing Facebook friends to events, and privacy settings allow users to choose whether they share their event with existing friends only, or open it up to the entire OnTheFly community.

Our Changing Stories: The Effects of Technology/Social Media on Personal Storytelling

Storytelling is an intrinsic part of human nature. It is how we communicate; pass down traditions, morals, history, our individual pasts, our present thoughts, and future hopes. Our project seeks to discover how much of the art of storytelling has been lost due to social media and how that can affect self-image in Internet users. Research has shown there are different types of user experiences based on the level of connectedness people feel with others online. Positive storytelling experiences can be found on websites that create support systems where users receive encouragement from others. Negative experiences generally center on social media sites that enable people to be self-centered, often causing other users to feel lonely, alienated, and envious. Our desire for this project is to help others understand we must make conscious efforts to create support systems for ourselves and others. Storytelling cannot exist in a vacuum.

PACER data extraction and manipulation

Lawsuits are filed every day and can cost about $350,000 on average, per commercial tort lawsuit. Organizations are looking to reduce their exposure to such lawsuits as well as reduce the costs related to litigation. Having an indicator of possible inappropriate communications, allows an organization to be proactive in mitigating legal risk and better managing legal expenses. This project, “PACER Data Extraction and Manipulation,” represents a starting point towards an early warning of possible legal liability. The extracted relevant text from the Public Access to Court Electronic Records (PACER) will be used in a future project to create subject matter taxonomies. We are taking the first steps towards electronically managing, if not avoiding, potential legal liability for an organization.

Point

Communication is an essential tool to express our needs. Unfortunately, not everyone has the skills or foundations necessary to communicate. Children who fit this description require additional support to build their verbal skills and may need training to interpret what others are trying to say. Point is a free tablet application aimed at giving children who have yet to build the foundations of communication an alternative voice. It does this by providing prepackaged line drawn icons that cover words commonly used among young communicators, but also gives you the ability to create your own words. Point focuses on the first words of communication rather than complex sentences like other applications do. Whether your child is at school, the park, or at the dinner table, Point provides your child with a large vocabulary in a quick and easy to access format.

Pricing Optimization Project for Test Innovators

Students nowadays are facing tremendous competition and pressure while applying for higher education. One of the most difficult parts is preparing for the tests. Test Innovators focus on promising the students with a brighter future by providing preparation online tests for different exams. Although the company has thrived in the business, it could maximize the profit by executing different pricing strategies. Combining lore in machine learning and business, our team conducts several experiments on the websites to observe the behavior of users, including free trial demo, subscription pricing and website A-B testing. We collect both user behavior and transaction data to perform analysis helping the business to grow its customer base and maximize revenue per capita simultaneously. Our work not only benefits the business, but also helps the students to have a prosperous future by increasing their chance to be admitted to an ivy-league college.

Prizmiq Analytics

To help online retailers understand how customers are interacting with their products, we created Prizmiq Analytics. Prizmiq, a startup based in Seattle, is paving the way for 3D product experiences on the web by providing scanning and hosting solutions for 3D product models. Prizmiq Analytics records online-user interactions with 3D models and provides a visual dashboard that helps deliver and display the most important information to retailers. The analytics dashboard will help provide information like how long users are interacting with a product or what color of a product users like the most. Also, for the first time, we are allowing retailers to see how their users are moving in 3D space with interactive 3D visualizations. This will enable retailers to understand their customers’ behavior, the successes and failures of a certain product’s design, and how to make the product better.

Putting It Back Together: The Howard Clifford Photograph Collection

Howard Clifford, a photographer for the Tacoma News Tribune and Pacific Northern Airlines, donated to the University of Washington Libraries Special Collections Division a large collection of his life's work spanning the 1930s to the 1960s. In the 1970s when a portion of the collection was donated, items were commonly dispersed into general subject files, robbing researchers of the important context only a complete collection provides. My efforts to re-establish the collection’s original integrity through archival processing are resulting in new physical and intellectual arrangement and description as well as digitization of items for access on the UW Libraries’ Digital Collections website. Not only will a comprehensive finding aid provide detailed narrative descriptions, but for the first time, researchers will be able to see Clifford's photographs from anywhere in the world.

Rediscover the Chateau Ste. Michelle Winery Archives

The Chateau Ste. Michelle Winery has an archive room where they store a collection of historical photographs, brand material, maps, and anything that relates to the history of the winery or property. One of the pain points for this archive is the usability of the room; people do not know what is available in the room. To assist in this problem I centered my project on creating catalog and index records for the archive. The company will be able to access these records through a SharePoint Team site that lists the contents of the archive in smaller collections, sorted by relevant categories. I also used Value Sensitive Design to figure out stakeholder needs, specifically how they could be integrated into making the archive room an asset for the winery. Marketing and Guest Services will now be able to find answers to historical and brand questions about the winery.