VirtualC

VirtualC aims to create opportunities for university professors to find the right collaborator.

Problem

As professors conduct more interdisciplinary research and global communications open new doors, the pool of potential collaborators increases significantly. Professors can easily screen people by their skills without taking personality into account leading to problems down the line in partnerships. How can professors find the collaborator that not only has compatible skills but also harmonious work style?

Research & Design Process

We conducted the following research methods in order to understand our users, narrow the scope of our project, and inform the final product design.

Contextual Interviews

We interviewed 5 Cornell professors in groups of two, one interviewer and one note-taker (sometimes with an additional member as support). Immediately after each interview, we would review and gather key parts of the interview that we thought we were important given the lens of our problem. Below, you can see our key takeaways from each individual.

Affinity Diagramming

We sorted all of the previous interview takeaways into clusters of related issues, as can be seen below.

Literature Review

coming soon.

Cultural Probes

We created a set of 8 digital probes to gather more data and receive inspiration from our target audience.

Using what we learned from our research, we moved onto solution ideation and creation. Due to COVID-19 schedule disruptions, we were unable to conduct testing and iterations on the prototype like we planned.

Design Process

• Brainstorming and sketching
• Idea selection and development
• Prototyping

Solution

We decided to leverage modern technology to create a new way to allow professors to meet, get to know, and decide if they want to do research with someone else. VirtualC is a VR activity implemented at conferences across the world that facilitates meaningful discussion. Participants can choose a location to explore with their partner(s), allowing for common ground. Text prompts will appear every five minutes to initiate constructive discourse.

VR Environment Prototype

 

Companion App Prototype

A companion app is used to help search for people to meet with and schedule meetings. People can search other registered attendees by name, interests, or availability. If professors would like to meet someone random, they only need to sign up for a time slot. Professors can meet either one-on-one or in groups of up to five. Time slots are 30 minutes, allowing for 20 minutes of meeting and five minutes of set-up and clean-up each.

 

Context

This project was the result of the Advanced Human Computer Interaction class with a team of four including myself, Suzanne Lee, Gaby Maurice, and Adeyemi Oyemade.