Project Title: Improved Course Selection

Brendan Wilson

Daniel Jin

Project Assignment 2

Project Title: Improved Course Selection

Problem: The problem that we intend to solve with this project is the very difficult interface of the current course selection system. It requires a high cognitive load as you juggle several windows and pieces of information such as CRN’s, schedules, and descriptions. There is also no good way to search for classes that are being offered which is something that should be fixed on such an interface.

Users: The primary stakeholders in this project are going to be current Northeastern students who use and have trouble with the system that is in place now. They are generally between the ages of 18 and 25. For the most part, they are intelligent and perceptive to the use of technology for these sorts of tasks. Course selection often falls during stressful times of the year so our users will be prone to frustration if they are unable to efficiently construct their schedule. Many will also likely be looking to create their weekly schedule while having to consider other commitments which emphasizes the importance of easily being able to locate relevant scheduling information.

Secondary stakeholders: The registrar is considered to be a secondary stakeholder because they are the ones that fill the catalog with the current courses and also are those responsible for course registration

Persona Example

Sam is a Junior who is in the midst of completing the more advanced courses in his degree program. He is 21 years old and just finished his second co-op so he needs to select courses for the first semester of his senior year. He has a fairly good idea of what classes he needs to take, but he also wants to carefully craft his schedule so he has Fridays off so he can take more hours at his part-time job that he got from his previous co-op employer. To select courses with this in mind, he needs knowledge of what courses he needs to take, and easy access to his weekly schedule as he adds classes to his schedule so he can attempt to avoid classes on Fridays.

Task Diagrams:

1. Adding a course

2. Searching for a course

3. Checking weekly schedule

Problem Scenarios:

1. Adding a course

Steven is a sophomore Physics student at Northeastern University. He has chosen classes several times before this point during his freshman year. He has already determined which course he needs to take to fulfill his advanced writing requirement in the NU Core, and has used the search function to locate it inside the course selection tool. Now all he has to do is actually add it to his schedule. He notices that there should just be an easy way to add the course from the page he is already on, rather than memorize a lengthy CRN number to enter on a different menu.

2. Searching for a Course

Sara is a senior finance major at Northeastern University. She has already picked 3 of her classes that she needs to graduate and now just has an elective spot to fill. She hasn’t fully decided on which class she would like to take yet. Her friend, Sam mentioned that she was going to be taking a class called “Natural Disasters” as an elective. Sara thinks it would be fun to take this class with Sam, but needs to locate the class in the selection tool so she can read the course description and check to see if there are seats left.

3. Sally is an incoming freshman who is undecided in her major. She has picked 3 of her classes but has to pick her college writing course. This is a required course for all freshmen which means that there are many sections available for her to take. Since she has 3 of her courses picked, she needs to make sure the section she chooses fits in her schedule. In order to do this, she has to check her weekly schedule. Her schedule will tell her what slots during the week she has open so she can pick a section of the college writing course that fits to the classes she is already taking.