Weekly Journal Repository
Week 1 (May 29 - June 2)
During my first week of research under Dr. Gilbert of the University of Florida, I met my fellow DREU research peers, Koran Wright, Chauncey Rogers and Joshua Uduehi, as well as had an overview of what was expected of us during our assigned project and our lab area. Moreover, we also met the other REU students also working at UF for the summer and had a tour of their respective labs. In addition, on Wednesday, one of our mentors, Jessica Jones, assigned a simple program that required us to reinvent Microsoft Paint using the programming language of our choice in which my case I chose Swift. Afterwards, another mentor, Jeremy Waisome, assisted us in obtaining our UFIDs and Gator1 cards, which are essential to obtaining access to faculties and resources around campus and online, as well as a general tour of campus life. Thursday, we attended a workshop giving an overview of the faculty and staff in the engineering/computer science department at UF as well as a few icebreaker activities to get to know everyone doing research this summer. Friday, we once again attended a workshop, but this time involving how to write a research paper as well as how to read a research paper. Also, we looked at examples and constructed opinions on how to construct the best paper possible as well as the differences between research papers and scientific journals.
Week 2 (June 5 - June 9)
During my second week at the UF HXR Lab, I learned about implementations involving IRB, ethics and special populations. The next day, Tuesday, we had a workshop involving user experience design, which is a crucial part of my project due to its involvement with making a ballot for disabled users, easily accessible and legible for easy submission when voting. Moreover, on the following day, we had a workshop involving how to conduct a literature search online, which also helps in terms of finding out was is relevant to design involving voting officials. Thursday, involved establishing basics for agile development as well as basic troubleshooting tactics. Friday, we simply attended a CHI reading group session. Lastly, Saturday, we had a social event which was a nature trail walk on a path known as La Chua.
Week 3 (June 12 - June 16)
During my third week at the UF HXR Lab, on Monday, we submitted our CITI training completion form, which we completed online over the weekend. Also, on Monday, we discussed user/system needs and revised our personas from last week. Tuesday, we discussed our ballot generator design drafts from the day prior and later in the week we emailed our revised versions to Simone (one of the graduate students within our lab). Based on the feedback, we improved our wire frames and added details to our pages. Moreover, we had a couple of research related meetings such as HCC@UF and a CHI reading. Lastly, we ended the week with a social event that consisted of fun and games.
Week 4 (June 19 - June 23)
During my fourth week at the UF HXR Lab, I developed design drafts for the ballot generator that accommodated all disabilities while being easy enough for the user despite their technical abilities. I also decided to discard the idea of the drag and drop feature to create the ballot because it seemed somewhat unnecessary after actually designing a possible implementation. Although, deciding what the most efficient layout for the system was the ultimate dilemma. Moreover, on Friday we once again received feedback from the whole lab and once again made adjustments based off their feedback in hopes of having a finalized wire frame for the ballot creator by the following week that includes each DREU student's best features. On the other hand, on Wednesday, we had an affinity diagram info session where we worked in groups and applied affinity diagramming practices. Lastly, on Saturday, we had a social event that involved watching the famous UF "Flight of the Bats" at the Bat Research Center.
Week 5 (June 26 - June 30)
During my fifth week at the UF HXR Lab, I faced the following problems when altering my wire frames for their final iteration: efficient layout website navigation for easy use, eliminating repetitiveness as much as possible while retaining needed information for user and accessing needed parameters, adding new design elements without completely reinventing the already created design. Although, ultimately, I formulated a solution to each barrier and was approved to start constructing my design prototype. Lastly, on Friday, we had a social event that involved bowling on campus at UF's Reitz facility.
Week 6 (July 3 - July 7)
During my sixth week at the UF HXR Lab, I faced the following problems when designing my prototype: deciding what software to use to implement my design prototype, learning how to implement a prototype the proper way, and learning how to navigate the prototype developing software I chose. Although, after doing some detailed searching, I gathered everything I needed to begin forming my prototype. My goals for next week following creating my prototype by the end of the current week, consisted of developing a joint prototype that added each student's (Koran and Chauncey) best qualities from their personal prototype. Also, I hope to begin actually developing given the feedback from the lab meeting and mentors. Lastly, on Saturday, we had a social event that involved tubing at Ichetucknee River.
Week 7 (July 10 - July 14)
During my seventh week at the UF HXR Lab, I had my personal ballot generator prototype critiqued and finalized once my last adjustments were made. Afterwards, I began to integrate my prototype into InVision in order to develop an inactive prototype sample which I planned to later use to develop a demo script. Also, I plan to use that demo script to make adjustments and integrate new features in the future that might have been overlooked during the developmental stages of the system. Moreover, during the week we had two meetings, a REU lightning update meeting as well as a HCC@UF meeting. Also, we had a talk that consisted of statistical techniques tips and tricks and a CHI paper reading. Lastly, on Friday, we had a social event that involved visiting the Harn Museum of Art.
Week 8 (July 17 - July 21)
During my eighth week at the UF HXR Lab, I made some changes to my prototype within InVision involving how the ballot creator functionality works. To eliminate any confusion, I decided to show what the system would look like for a first-time user with no previous ballot(s) versus what I previously had which was showing the system in a state of a returning user. Also, I constructed several different demo scripts that would be used in different situations in conjunction with the system in order to evaluate different approaches for the system. In addition, I also evaluated a few REU students using the system that had not seen the system beforehand to eliminate as many outliers or biases as possible while obtaining observatory data. Lastly, on Saturday, we had a social event that involved going to Saint Augustine Beach.
Week 9 (July 24 - July 28)
During my ninth week at the UF HXR Lab, my co-workers and I combined our prototype ideas into one by extracting the pros and cons of each of our personal designs and applying as many pros as we could into our final design. Afterwards, we constructed our research posters that we then had reviewed by graduate students and our DREU/REU lab members. After receiving feedback, we took the advice into consideration and made the appropriate changes to our posters. Also, we constructed our personal power point for our research presentation next Tuesday. Lastly, on Friday, we had a social event that involved going to the Museum of Natural History.
Week 10 (July 31 - August 4)
During my tenth week at the UF HXR Lab, I added more information to my research power point presentation as well as made sure I had all requirements needed for a successful presentation on Tuesday. On Tuesday, I presented my research findings to the UF faculty, DREU/REU students and UF graduate students. On Wednesday, I attended our final IMHCI talk which consisted of learning how to apply to graduate school and receiving funding. Also on Wednesday, I submitted my final paper draft for review. The rest of the week consisted of editing my final paper for submission as my final report as well as making any needed changes to my website before submitting my fourth and final milestone to DREU.
During my first week of research under Dr. Gilbert of the University of Florida, I met my fellow DREU research peers, Koran Wright, Chauncey Rogers and Joshua Uduehi, as well as had an overview of what was expected of us during our assigned project and our lab area. Moreover, we also met the other REU students also working at UF for the summer and had a tour of their respective labs. In addition, on Wednesday, one of our mentors, Jessica Jones, assigned a simple program that required us to reinvent Microsoft Paint using the programming language of our choice in which my case I chose Swift. Afterwards, another mentor, Jeremy Waisome, assisted us in obtaining our UFIDs and Gator1 cards, which are essential to obtaining access to faculties and resources around campus and online, as well as a general tour of campus life. Thursday, we attended a workshop giving an overview of the faculty and staff in the engineering/computer science department at UF as well as a few icebreaker activities to get to know everyone doing research this summer. Friday, we once again attended a workshop, but this time involving how to write a research paper as well as how to read a research paper. Also, we looked at examples and constructed opinions on how to construct the best paper possible as well as the differences between research papers and scientific journals.
Week 2 (June 5 - June 9)
During my second week at the UF HXR Lab, I learned about implementations involving IRB, ethics and special populations. The next day, Tuesday, we had a workshop involving user experience design, which is a crucial part of my project due to its involvement with making a ballot for disabled users, easily accessible and legible for easy submission when voting. Moreover, on the following day, we had a workshop involving how to conduct a literature search online, which also helps in terms of finding out was is relevant to design involving voting officials. Thursday, involved establishing basics for agile development as well as basic troubleshooting tactics. Friday, we simply attended a CHI reading group session. Lastly, Saturday, we had a social event which was a nature trail walk on a path known as La Chua.
Week 3 (June 12 - June 16)
During my third week at the UF HXR Lab, on Monday, we submitted our CITI training completion form, which we completed online over the weekend. Also, on Monday, we discussed user/system needs and revised our personas from last week. Tuesday, we discussed our ballot generator design drafts from the day prior and later in the week we emailed our revised versions to Simone (one of the graduate students within our lab). Based on the feedback, we improved our wire frames and added details to our pages. Moreover, we had a couple of research related meetings such as HCC@UF and a CHI reading. Lastly, we ended the week with a social event that consisted of fun and games.
Week 4 (June 19 - June 23)
During my fourth week at the UF HXR Lab, I developed design drafts for the ballot generator that accommodated all disabilities while being easy enough for the user despite their technical abilities. I also decided to discard the idea of the drag and drop feature to create the ballot because it seemed somewhat unnecessary after actually designing a possible implementation. Although, deciding what the most efficient layout for the system was the ultimate dilemma. Moreover, on Friday we once again received feedback from the whole lab and once again made adjustments based off their feedback in hopes of having a finalized wire frame for the ballot creator by the following week that includes each DREU student's best features. On the other hand, on Wednesday, we had an affinity diagram info session where we worked in groups and applied affinity diagramming practices. Lastly, on Saturday, we had a social event that involved watching the famous UF "Flight of the Bats" at the Bat Research Center.
Week 5 (June 26 - June 30)
During my fifth week at the UF HXR Lab, I faced the following problems when altering my wire frames for their final iteration: efficient layout website navigation for easy use, eliminating repetitiveness as much as possible while retaining needed information for user and accessing needed parameters, adding new design elements without completely reinventing the already created design. Although, ultimately, I formulated a solution to each barrier and was approved to start constructing my design prototype. Lastly, on Friday, we had a social event that involved bowling on campus at UF's Reitz facility.
Week 6 (July 3 - July 7)
During my sixth week at the UF HXR Lab, I faced the following problems when designing my prototype: deciding what software to use to implement my design prototype, learning how to implement a prototype the proper way, and learning how to navigate the prototype developing software I chose. Although, after doing some detailed searching, I gathered everything I needed to begin forming my prototype. My goals for next week following creating my prototype by the end of the current week, consisted of developing a joint prototype that added each student's (Koran and Chauncey) best qualities from their personal prototype. Also, I hope to begin actually developing given the feedback from the lab meeting and mentors. Lastly, on Saturday, we had a social event that involved tubing at Ichetucknee River.
Week 7 (July 10 - July 14)
During my seventh week at the UF HXR Lab, I had my personal ballot generator prototype critiqued and finalized once my last adjustments were made. Afterwards, I began to integrate my prototype into InVision in order to develop an inactive prototype sample which I planned to later use to develop a demo script. Also, I plan to use that demo script to make adjustments and integrate new features in the future that might have been overlooked during the developmental stages of the system. Moreover, during the week we had two meetings, a REU lightning update meeting as well as a HCC@UF meeting. Also, we had a talk that consisted of statistical techniques tips and tricks and a CHI paper reading. Lastly, on Friday, we had a social event that involved visiting the Harn Museum of Art.
Week 8 (July 17 - July 21)
During my eighth week at the UF HXR Lab, I made some changes to my prototype within InVision involving how the ballot creator functionality works. To eliminate any confusion, I decided to show what the system would look like for a first-time user with no previous ballot(s) versus what I previously had which was showing the system in a state of a returning user. Also, I constructed several different demo scripts that would be used in different situations in conjunction with the system in order to evaluate different approaches for the system. In addition, I also evaluated a few REU students using the system that had not seen the system beforehand to eliminate as many outliers or biases as possible while obtaining observatory data. Lastly, on Saturday, we had a social event that involved going to Saint Augustine Beach.
Week 9 (July 24 - July 28)
During my ninth week at the UF HXR Lab, my co-workers and I combined our prototype ideas into one by extracting the pros and cons of each of our personal designs and applying as many pros as we could into our final design. Afterwards, we constructed our research posters that we then had reviewed by graduate students and our DREU/REU lab members. After receiving feedback, we took the advice into consideration and made the appropriate changes to our posters. Also, we constructed our personal power point for our research presentation next Tuesday. Lastly, on Friday, we had a social event that involved going to the Museum of Natural History.
Week 10 (July 31 - August 4)
During my tenth week at the UF HXR Lab, I added more information to my research power point presentation as well as made sure I had all requirements needed for a successful presentation on Tuesday. On Tuesday, I presented my research findings to the UF faculty, DREU/REU students and UF graduate students. On Wednesday, I attended our final IMHCI talk which consisted of learning how to apply to graduate school and receiving funding. Also on Wednesday, I submitted my final paper draft for review. The rest of the week consisted of editing my final paper for submission as my final report as well as making any needed changes to my website before submitting my fourth and final milestone to DREU.