Using a thesis project board

Introduction

Thesis project boards are physical visualization tool that will help folks with both planning and monitoring a Master or PHD thesis. They also are social tools, i.e. on display in an office or a living room, a project board will show others where your are.

Project boards can be created with any sort of materials, e.g. a whiteboard or wall plus PostIts. In this article we will focus on boards made with Legos.

For the moment, the purpose of this wiki page is twofold:

• Track the evolution of pilot user's appropriation of the concept
• Write down ideas, etc.

User testing

In november 2012, we started involving PhD students in the project.

User 1

Subject: PhD student in an earlier stage of thesis (project accepted by thesis commission)

User 1 went through several stages. Below we just summarize some elements:

Stages (so far, nov 2012 to March 2013)

1. Used the project board
2. Used a bigger standard Lego board in order to regroup, add extra handwritten bricks, add progress stairs.
3. Use a still bigger standard Lego board in order to create connections, add "stories", etc.
4. Destroyed the structure
5. Designed visualization that focuses on a small set of essential current elements she is working on.

We define stage as a major shift. Within each stage, there have been variations that are just documented with pictures.

Stage 2

nov 19 2012

• Includes labeling of chapters
• Adds a general progress indicator (stairs brought in from home)
• Identifies more issues
• Adds "play" bricks
• Two other PHD students want one

Version 2 proto

Version 2

Stage 3

nov 22 2012

• Adds connectors (the arcs) visualizing how a task and an issue and 2 issues are connected
• Uses extra bricks (e.g. a gate-in)
• Adds persona (thesis advisor, kids, ...)
• Identifies yet more issues
• Layout is often changed/updated (sometimes several times per day)

Version 3

Stage 3b

• This layout starts attracting other users for play. On 11/29 a colleague moved up the persona on the stairs.

Stage 4

January 8, 2013.

In the cloud. User feels that the project doesn't advance enough.

In the cloud

In addition, there is some focus on essential issues:

In the cloud, focus on essentials

Stage 5

February, 2013

Focus on two tasks

User 2

Subject: PhD student in an earlier stage of thesis (project accepted by thesis commission). Some literature review and development done.

User 2 shares office with user 1 and immediately wanted to work with a large board.

Stage 1

Nov 23 2012.

• Separated issues into two different kinds (these related and external/others)
• Associated chapter bricks with task bricks

The following pictures show a prototype after a few minutes into the "game"

First layout (prototpye in progress)

First layout (prototpye in progress)

Stage 2

8 January 2013

User 2 associated types of bricks next to each other and also added other artifacts

Second Layout

Stage 3

On february 2013, the same type of layout was used. Changes:

• A new visualisation of some kind of pilot using handles
• A broken link (pink arc that doesn't connect)
• Some progress meters going up

Third layout showing some progress and new custom visualization

Third layout showing some progress and new custom visualization

User 3

User three (on a short visit, from a different institution) was shown the boards from use 1 and 2, liked the idea. Since we didn't print any special purpose bricks, he only given standard Lego pieces:

• A medium-sized base plate
• 3x3 tiles
• 4x2 tiles
• 2x2 tiles
• 2x2 tiles with a question mark

His PHD project includes the design of a collaborative "knowledge tool", i.e. some kind of applied computer science, the kind that can be done in an interdisciplinary research lab....

Phase 1

Feb 26 2013 (about one week later)

Layout after a week including a printed artifact that represents a core concept of the system developed with the thesis

Layout after a week (top view)