Update on project activities:
In continuation, our group has been divided into three sub-groups which are working on four distinct projects. For the BayAreaCommunity.org (BAC) User Testing Project, Romuald and Sarah have accomplished their goals for Week 4 – preparing documents and interview protocols – and are ready to begin the interview process. While they’ve reached out to various personal contacts asking for interested participants, few people have followed through on their requests. Our partners at unBox recently offered to help us make connections with their own community organizations; we will take them up on that support. For the sub-group focused on user testing for SNAP Online Guides, Alex, Marilyn, and Mariah have also formulated an interview consent form alongside a set of interview protocols. In terms of interviewees, the group already has a few participants that are interested. In regard to the sub-group focused on content creation, Kei and Wesley have begun making efforts in updating resources for public free food distribution, domestic violence, and other abuses on the BayAreaCommunity.org website. This includes gaining familiarity with unBox’s data infrastructure and verifying sites of food distribution so that their data is up to date. Finally, our work focusing on content creation for the SNAP Online Guides is to be determined by the user testing interviews, which should happen shortly. These will advance quickly as each interview can provide insight into how to more carefully conduct the next. What we observed and learned: For the BAC User Testing and SNAP Online Guide projects, the sub-groups have been surprised to see just how many moving parts there are in preparation for interviews, and how each of these moving parts affects one another. For example, there has been a collective agreement to not record our interviews in order to increase user comfort, but this requires a second interviewer to be present as a notetaker. We believe this is the right choice– these resources are for the interviewee, after all, and we want to create the most comfortable environment for users to give us bold and honest feedback – but we must also keep in mind our own limitations as a student-and-volunteer run organization. This challenge we face – the lack of accessible information and resources – is in stark contrast to the advantages we had perceived we’d have as an organization of driven, skilled, young people. This will be an important piece to navigate moving forward. On the content creation side, we have realized how difficult it is to track down information on food distribution. Sites will often have outdated schedules or no longer serve food, which makes for a logistical nightmare for social workers who need to provide this information. A resource like BAC can help alleviate this problem and it has been incredible to see an organization of volunteers collaborate. Critical analysis/Moving forward: Moving forward, the user testing sub-groups will dedicate its energy to conducting interviews and relaying findings to the content creation team. Throughout this process, we will be vigilant in tweaking interview questions and protocol so they are more clear and comfortable for the user. It may be a good idea for one of the two interviewers present in each session to take note of nonverbal cues from the interviewee (such as shifting in seat, looking around the room, hesitating, etc.) which might indicate that parts of the interview are stressful and should be introduced/executed more gently. This will be a good use of the second teammate that we will have present in each interview, and is a silver lining to not recording our sessions. It is important that both interviewers create a welcoming environment that is conducive for both parties and allows the interviewee to be open about their struggles and/or frustrations. It is also important for both interviewers to be considerate of interviewees and their given situation and to be accommodating for them in an appropriate manner. Comments are closed.
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