This past week, I attended meetups, sought out NYU existing resources, started user study recruitment, and drafted usability testing plans which will be discussed with my thesis advisor tomorrow. Here's the draft of my methodology.
Thoughts from 10/5/17 Conversations in AI
When working with AI, we need to include emotional element and credibility, so that users can rely and trust your design
Use cases (i.e. Happy Path, Happy Accident), content curation, and flows are more important than before because it's not longer a single touch point but the whole journey
Script writing is a good tool to prototype the interaction! It'll help us answer who, where, what, when, and why!
AI in a nutshell is just Data + Content + Math
Intelligent products essentially are created based on meaningful information, so the data we feed the product is the key
Having a persona is like having a brand logo in the past, it gives people your brand image
As always, it is a service that should aim to solve human problem! Empathy & Humanity are key!
Thoughts from 10/10/17 Focus | AI
AI has existed for a long time. Any recommendation system is essentially a work of AI!
AI is just fancy term of analyzing a big set of data that will feed to the human brain
AI is simply using smaller dataset to train bigger dataset
Deep learning is composed with good dataset
Backward design will help creating good experience in AI Economy
As more things are getting automated, we will have more time to consume; therefore, content creation is more important than ever
Understanding how programming works will help understanding how to design with AI
There is not best practices but we are responsible to keep it humane
Interesting Finding from 10/10/17 Wasserman 1-on-1
Part of my research is to find out 1) what existing resources NYU provides for student to gain financial literacy, 2) whether students are utilizing it and 3) how does a coach or counselor engage with the students during 1-on-1 session; therefore, I made an appointment with career coach in Wasserman Center. On my appointment day, I went in and asked my assigned coach to provide me guidance and resources on personal financial management given that I did not find resources on careernet about "what happens after I get a job". Most resources I found were solely relevant to "getting a job" but nothing about "after I get a job". I explained to the career coach that "in my mind, school only teaches us and provides us resources to get a job but what happens afterwards? Our career development DOES NOT stop after we get a job but rather just begin. So I want to learn if there are resources that will help me to gain the basic knowledge before I graduate".
Here's the learning of 1) what existing resources NYU provides for student to gain financial literacy, 2) whether students are utilizing it
I was the FIRST student ever asked to learn about such knowledge (at least to the counselor I spoke to)
The coach looked through brochures on her desk, searched in NYU Career Network, and found nothing
The coach shared her own personal experience with me but nothing concrete or constructive to takeaway
The coach gave me advice on simple life hacks, such as saving rent, budgeting, and reading/following bloggers to gain area of knowledge that I'm interested in
I was advised to check with Student Link for resources
Here's the learning of 3) how does a coach or counselor engage with the students during 1-on-1 session
She welcomed me with warm greeting and asked me how she could help me with today
Even though there were no obvious resources available in NYU's Career Network, the career coach shared her personal experience with me as well as trying to google for some information during our session
She walked out and checked with other career coaches and receptionists to see if there are resources she missed (but apparently she didn't miss anything)
She sent me the search result after our session
She added me on LinkedIn and told me to reach out anytime if I have any more questions
Another interesting fact is, as the coach walked me out to the front desk, she asked her colleagues if there are resources in NYU that she missed. 6 people at the front desk said there must be but they don't know. One woman suggested I just go online and take some free courses, then I should be fine. I told her I will check out Lynda and explained to her my "anxiety" on the uncertainty of "life after college" and told her that's why I wanted to learn more about financial literacy before I graduate. As I was walking away, down the staircase, I overheard the office had a heated discussion on "Oh that was a great question, why didn't we think about what happens after they get a job?" I guess, apparently, not many people have thought about it or even if they did, they didn't take action on it.
Interesting Finding from 10/10/17 Student Link 1-on-1
Similar to my research done at Wasserman, I wanted to find out what is available within the university, so I stopped by Student Link and did a drop-in 1-on-1. As I walked to the office, the receptionist asked why I was there. I told him I wanted to know more about how to manage my personal finance especially I'm about to graduate. He said the best thing to do is just to go online. He directed me to a computer and showed me iGrad. But I asked him if the counselor would have other tools or advice I can get, he said most likely not but he won't stop by from seeing one. So I checked in and saw a counselor. See below for my finding ....
I was the FIRST student ever asked to learn about Financial Literacy (at least to the counselor I spoke to)
I was advised to check with Wasserman for resources (just like when Wasserman told me to check with Student Link)
I was once again advised to just go on iGrad (just like what the receptionist suggested)
The counselor said only students with Federal loan is required to have an "exist counseling" but if I don't have one, I can't even get a counseling even if I wanted to
My experience with Wasserman and Student Link got me thinking, where can student go when they really need help? and yes, googling our questions to get an answer is something we're all familiar with but is that enough? I am more sure of my idea on the virtual financial coach path more than ever!