Jaideep Godara

Social Networking Website for AdvanceVT-2006 Conference (2005)

Client: Program Director, AdvanceVT, Virginia Tech
Duration: 4 months

Conference mission:
To increase the number of women and minority women who pursue careers in academia in the science and engineering fields.

Design process:
Data collection process included a preliminary survey (1008 graduate students responded), personal interviews with faculty, focus groups with female graduate students belonging to different minorities to understand their needs, statistical analysis of survey findings.

Mid-fidelity Prototype of the website

Information Flow Diagram for Screening Functionality

Objective:
Design a website to fulfill the pre-conference needs of participants of the AdvanceVT Conference-2006

Deliverable:
Deliverables included Information flow diagrams, low-hi fidelity wireframes and front-end user interface. The Website caters to the needs of Graduating Doctoral and Post-doctoral female students, participating speakers and faculty, and college administration interested to recruit potential faculty members. It provides the following:-

• Registration information
• Career advancement tools
• Networking tools to find mentors and role-models
• Tools to Screen potential female faculty candidates
• Visitor Information

The salient features of the website design:

• Designed for scanning of information rather than reading intensive design
• Progressive disclosure of information to reduce memory load
• Meaningful chunking and grouping of information
• Orderly composition based on Gestalt principles
• Contrast and perception issues: used in choosing color schemes & fonts for visual clarity & aesthetically sound design

Screening Tools for Faculty