Slate
Interviewed stakeholders across the university to learn how data related to recruitment, applications, and student events are currently managed to facilitate data-informed decision-making during implementation of the Slate CRM tool.
Role: UX Researcher
Timeline: Oct. 2017 – May 2019
Overview
Between October 2017 and May 2019, I worked as a UX research intern with the Office of Enrollment Management’s Slate implementation team. I conducted dozens of contextual interviews with stakeholders across the university about how data related to recruitment, applications, and student events are currently managed. Then, in most cases, I mapped how information flows between departments and offices, providing the implementation team a clear visualization from which to base subsequent administrative decisions about how the Slate tool should be configured.
Background
Here, I’ll describe one advisory project I did in January 2018: I created a swimlane diagram to visualize how information was received, altered, and sent between departments and offices during the planning and execution of an admitted student event.
Methodology
I conducted a contextual interview with an OUA (Office of Undergraduate Admissions) senior recruitment coordinator. Following a semi-structured protocol, I learned about the event logistics, especially
- how students and their families register for and get information about the event and
- how OUA works with academic units and Conferences & Events Services to plan and host the event.
In cases where the coordinator was unsure about the details of the planning and execution processes, I followed up with others to fill in the gaps.
Findings
I presented the following swimlane diagram to the Slate implementation team, and it was used as a visualization of the current planning and execution process for this admitted student event: a baseline for how those processes could be simplified, performed completely within Slate.
