learning curve

Launch

elinchen — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 03:55:54 +0000

With the official launch of our new departmental website, I am reminded of this blog. I have been a lousy and inconsistent blogger but that is something I hope to change.

So something I learned from this whole process is that web development will be an ongoing project. I was naive to think that after November 10th, I would not have to worry about the website anymore. In reality, there are still tons of areas to develop and improve. I guess the only way to get rid of this project is to be preggers like Est. :P

But in the meantime, I’m going to take a breather and enjoy the momentary glory.

First Focus Group

elinchen — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 21:02:06 +0000

Along with Est, we ran our first website focus group today. I say first because I have a feeling there are a lot more to come. The turnout was a little disappointing, only 6 students made their way to our focus group. However, their input was very valuable.

Some interesting findings:

Gimme answer quick. Students want live chat with advisors and counsellors.
A face to the name. Students want pictures of staff but they don’t want ones that look like “passport photos.”
Show me the money. Students want to attend focus groups that give good prizes.

Resource sharing

The University of Texas at Austin offers great tips in designing questions for usability testing.
Poll Daddy is more than helpful in data collection. The 10 question limit for non-paying users also made us think twice about our questions and made sure they are good ones.

Birth of a new blog

elinchen — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 20:44:36 +0000

So today Laura asked me about my blog, I realized I didn’t have one to share. Sure, I had a blog from my university days that I used to distract myself from the mundane papers I had to write but it certainly isn’t something I wanted to share with my colleagues or fellow professionals (if I may consider myself as one). So voila, a new blog, a place where I hope to share lessons I learn as a career counsellor and tools and resources I encounter as a geek-wanna-be.