Evaluation | Faith Jennings

Product Evaluation

Learning Solution

A evaluation report analyzing the client’s current solution and comparing it to possible alternatives

Client

Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT), 2022

Skills & Tools Used

Evaluation, UX testing, personas, interviews

Stakeholder Feedback

“For this project, the evaluation team evaluated current feelings towards the conference management software used by AECT, and then evaluated potential alternatives. This project included interviews of stakeholders and users, product evaluation, and interviews with sales representatives. In the end, the team had several recommendations for AECT, including the need to utilize the accessibility committee in product evaluations, redirecting of organizational resources, and the selection of a new CMS. This report was instrumental in the AECT Executive Committee voting to accept most of the recommendations, including the transition to a new CMS, planned for 2024.”

Dr. Rick West, Evaluation Course Professor

Project Story

The Challenge

Our client had received informal feedback that some attendees were unsatisfied with AECT’s current Conference Management System. Our task was to evaluate any such gap and recommend how to proceed.

My Role

Working on a team with three other graduate students, I interviewed stakeholders and conducted UX testing of the current product and alternative products. We explored questions like “How do users interact with the current product?” and “What are the different needs of the users regarding a CMS?”

The Solution

We recommended that AECT utilize their existing accessibility committee in evaluating products and that AECT select a new Conference Management System (CMS).

After reviewing our findings, the AECT Executive Committee voted to select a new CMS.

Process Details

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Recommendations that Matter

We synthesized our evaluation findings and recommendations in a 70-page report. Our client chose to follow several of the recommendations we made, including migrating to a new conference management system (scheduled for 2024) and updating some internal processes.

Empathizing with Users

For this product evaluation our team conducted environmental and task analyses: we interviewed stakeholders, performed UX testing, and created user personas and a journey map.

UX Testing

We researched product alternatives, narrowing it down to 10 viable products. For these 10 products, we interviewed sales representatives and conducted additional UX testing.