Keweenaw Time Traveler
  • Home
  • ABOUT THE PROJECT
    • About the Data >
      • About the Maps
      • About the Datasets
      • About Sharing Your Stories
    • Behind the Scenes
    • Our Partners
    • Our Funders
    • Meet the Team
    • Citizen Historian Apps
    • Time Traveling Experiences
    • Publications
  • Upcoming Events
  • Project News
  • Help

Keweenaw Time Traveler Design Charrettes

4/12/2022

0 Comments

 
Author - Dr. Sarah Fayen-Scarlett
Building the Keweenaw Time Traveler has always been a group effort. It takes many different people to ensure this resource will be an engaging public history project, a powerful tool for research, and also accessible to as many users as possible. ​
One way that our production team seeks input from future users is through “Design Charrettes.” In urban planning, a design charrette brings together stakeholders to collaboratively develop a solution to a shared design problem. The Keweenaw Time Traveler team has been holding design charrettes since our early years to make sure that users with different kinds of experience will be able to access and enjoy it.
This Spring, as our production team is finalizing the new design and user interface, we have been holding Design Charrettes to guide the development of Help resources. What do users need to know to make the most of the Time Traveler’s resources? Which parts of the interface are less intuitive than others? What should our Help buttons provide?
We held two different charrettes — one to test the data search functions and another to test the map interfaces. We held these charrettes on Zoom to keep everyone comfortable amid changing COVID restrictions, but also because earlier Zoom charrettes in 2020 had alerted us to the advantages of watching people interact with the Time Traveler on their own home computers. ​
We invited users from the immediate community and partners from regional heritage organizations to join us for an hour of online exploration and follow up discussion. After a brief introduction, each participant went into a “breakout room” with two Time Traveler team members. The participants shared their screen and the team member asked them to use the Time Traveler in specific ways – Can you find the home of a certain person? How far did their children have to walk to school in Calumet in 1921? Is it clear how to switch the base maps? Participants always had a chance to explore freely so they could show us how they wanted to use the Time Traveler and how the user interface could be tweaked to improve their experiences. The whole group always came back together to debrief and share observations from the break out rooms. Afterwards, the Keweenaw Time Traveler production team develop a list of changes in direct response to participant feedback. ​
Picture
We appreciate all the time our participants gave these charrettes. Thank you! Participants included local residents who use the Time Traveler a lot, Michigan Tech students and researchers, and staff of Michigan Tech University Archives and Historical Collections and the Keweenaw National Historical Park.
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Archives

    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016

    RSS Feed

Contact Us​

Picture
Picture
HESA Lab
Picture
  • Home
  • ABOUT THE PROJECT
    • About the Data >
      • About the Maps
      • About the Datasets
      • About Sharing Your Stories
    • Behind the Scenes
    • Our Partners
    • Our Funders
    • Meet the Team
    • Citizen Historian Apps
    • Time Traveling Experiences
    • Publications
  • Upcoming Events
  • Project News
  • Help