May 7, 2007

Interpretation Session

User MK

• Records in planner: concerts, exams, birthdays
• Doesn’t Record: laundry and grocery because there are external cues for need
• Color codes different types of tasks
• Incomplete tasks would be carried over to the next day
• Uses planner for note taking
• Switched from post its to planner to feel more secure
• Uses planner due to life style change to make everything organized
• Prints out tritonlink weekly planner and puts it in the cover of the binder
  • Refers to it on a as needed basis
• Reprints for changes, but end up writing changes on it
• Doesn’t use google calendar, because you have to log in from a computer
• No wall calendar
• Professors gives dates and she writes it down on the planner right away
• Finds out university events through emails and flyers
• Remembers meeting schedules by writing them down on the planner
• Uses music department websites or academic calendar on tritonlink to search for events; tough
• Uses clip to keep track of pages that falls under the week

User 2 (NS)

• 27 years old, undergraduate student, works at Calit

• Tells wife his events, wife writes it down in her planner, he asks wife about his schedule and she tells him
• E-mail screen shots of weekly planner to people (including his wife)
• Wife prints out his TritonLink weekly planner and puts it in her planner
• Puts syllabi in binder at beginning of quarter
• Looks up finals schedule under ‘classes & wait lists’ and prints it out
• Uses search function in email to look for emails
• Uses e-mail to coordinate meeting times w/ colleague (breakdown: requires multiple iterations)
• Opportunistic in what he refers to
• Refers to TritonLink weekly planner when signing up for classes (breakdown: too cumbersome to resubmit the form each time he changes something)

User GC

• User GC Interpretive Notes
•  Carries over assignments to the next day when incompleted
•  Checks off tasks in planner when completed
•  Takes down miscellaneous notes in planner (eg website addresses, funny things)
•  Different annotation in planner signifies differing degrees of completion
•  Uses random sheets of paper for shopping lists
•  Keeps miscellaneous notes on Post-its when at desk at home
•  Uses MS Notepad on laptop while traveling
•  Easier to plan on a weekly basis than monthly
•  Gets HW assignments, midterm dates, etc. from online syllabi
•  Relies on facebook and phone to schedule things with people and send/receive last-minute changes
•  All “soft” deadlines in planner collective constitute to-do list
•  Prints tritonlink weekly planner to carry with them
•  Updates tritonlink weekly planner by hand, then updates online after some time passes (probably too hard to do online)
•  Refers to planner regularly, at least once per class
•  Keeps track of TA/professor office hours inside lecture notes
•  Gets meeting notices by email and transcribes them to planner
•  Gets university event info from the Guardian because that is easiest
•  Prints out Tritonlink weekly calendar to carry always
•  Tritonlink class planner beta is too clonky to be useful
•  Annoyed that tritonlink class planner beta cannot add arbitrary appointments
•  Likes Berkeley class planner, because it maps class locations
•  Uses Gcal as tritonlink backup
•  Wrties down midterm dates immediately, so he has lots of warning
•  Integrates 4-year plan, degree audit, and schedule of classes to plan his class schedule