For my demo project (big final thesis project) at the Institute of Design I’m looking at learning environments and how students use virtual space within that environment. As part of the ID design process, I asked a dozen students questions about how they use virtual space in their learning environments. I found that the most interesting and common things students use virtual space for can fall under 5 activities.
Communicate
Virtual space that enables user to communicate with other users
Produce
Virtual space that enables user to produce some sort of artifact
Collaborate
Virtual Space that enables users to collaborate with other users
Gather
Virtual Space that enables users to access and gather information
Organize
Virtual Space that enables users to organize information
This research allowed me to begin to catolog tools students use. It also gave me the idea to do fingerprints. And maybe even start to carve out a solution space.
Technorati Tags: User Observations, Design, Virtual Space, Institute of Design
