On our gallery day we had Principal Eid and Ms. Willis come to the Stayer Center to check out the progress of our work. Having both the administrative perspective of Principal Eid and the teacher perspective of Ms. Willis allowed for a full discussion of situation. We had a ton of information to share with them from all of our work including user interviews, a journey map, and immersion experiences. Our feedback from current students on our graffiti wall done by Pat and student surveys done by YoungJae and Guillermo gave us a lot of different perspectives on the current environment in Clay, while some of our user and expert interviews provided us with parent, principal or school board views that provided an outside look at Clay.

Some of the key takeaways I had following gallery day were:

• The distinction between focusing on the parent or student user experience is key. If we focus on designing for the one user that impacts the issue the most that will be our best bet.
• Improving the view of Clay as a school aesthetically can make a major difference in the view of Clay overall. One thing that Principal Eid mentioned is the difference between how walking into Adams high school and Clay high school is in terms of aesthetics. With the skill of Clay arts students, aesthetic improvements to Clay should be very doable.
• Finding ways to interact with local colleges is an area for opportunity. Currently the only interaction seems to be when college counselors come to Clay to give a talk on their school, but we see going to the college campuses as an experience that may make Clay more attractive. Ms. Willis really liked the idea of possibly going to a college library to do research for an English project as an opportunity to visit a college.
• There is a discrepancy between how administrators and students want administrators to be viewed. Mr. Smith is the disciplinary administrator and many students noted that they disliked Mr. Smith. Principal Eid said that that was a good thing because it meant that Mr. Smith was doing his job.

Design Criteria for Clay High School

Design Goals

• We have multiple users in this situation, with both the parent and student perspective. We view the student as the customer in this situation.
• Students want to get a number of different things out of their high school experience, but every student is unique in their needs
• Certain basic functional needs must be met for students, such as having bathroom doors on the bathroom stalls, and feeling safe from fights and harassment. We will present guiding principles through the lens of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs to reflect how some of these basic needs are currently unmet, preventing students from taking full advantage of their opportunities.
• The design needs to provide a result that does not mislead students, but rather helps to make Clay the best school possible, and to accurately portray all that Clay High School can offer to potential students. 

User Perceptions

• There are aesthetic attributes necessary to succeed with the target customer. Clay High School needs to fix the bathroom stalls that do not have doors and they need to create a more vibrant, welcoming environments in the school.
• The Clay High School reputation needs to be improved. Clay is often perceived to be solely the Fine Arts school that does not focus as much on academics, despite them having numerous AP offerings and strong standardized test scores.
• Clay is perceived to be an unsafe school, and reports in the media suggest that fights are common.
• One perception we have discovered when talking to students is the “gay Clay” perspective. This seems to both help and harm the school at times as some students want acceptance for everyone and others are put off by the image.

Problems/Needs/Opportunities

• Our target users, high school students and their parents, have many needs with regard to their high school.
• Students may want to be challenged, want to grow, want to feel safe and comfortable, and want to prepare themselves for the future. Parents likely want their students to be happy, safe, and academically challenged.
• Current pain points with regard to selecting high schools might be informational voids, conflicting opinions from parents, negative press about certain schools, negative experiences in their current school, and negative interactions with staff or faculty.
• With the emergence of social media and online information about schools, parents might have a difficult time choosing a specific school for their child. Sometimes, too much information can lead to inaction and frustration.
• As more students explore the options of private schools, public schools as a whole are having a difficult time attracting and retaining kids, especially when they have a negative reputation due to fights, thug culture, or a lack of resources in the classroom.

Functional Attributes

• Every student that goes to high school will have a unique experience. In this sense, there will be a unique user case for each individual student.
• The primary issue relating to compatibility is the way in which a student fits into a certain school. One student might thrive in a large, busy school, while another might prefer a smaller, more personalized experience. This has to do with Clay in their ability to market themselves as a school that appeals to a large audience, rather than simply a niche group of students interested in the arts.
• Essentially, Clay will likely be appealing to a few primary groups of students
  • Students who attend Clay because it is close to their home
  • Students who attend Clay because of recommendations by friends or siblings
  • Students who attend Clay because of its magnet program and commitment to the arts
  • Students who attend Clay for reasons other than the three above (lack of uniforms, sports, CTE courses, etc.)
• Clay can either focus on improving the experience for students in these existing groups, or create a “new group” by finding a way to draw in students. This could include new program offerings or courses, but most likely it will just involve marketing certain elements of the school more effectively. It seems like the AP program could be a good candidate for this.

Constraints

• We could face constraints from the South Bend Public School district. There could be certain marketing tools or proposed changes that are not allowed by the district.
• Clay High School has budgetary issues to deal with and it does not seem that our solutions can be very costly.
• Change often takes a lot of time, and implementing it within the semester might be challenging.
• Principal Eid and the rest of the staff might not agree with our conclusions relating to the issues facing the school.
• We don’t necessarily fully understand the dynamics of the school, and although we have strong research and data from interviews and surveys, it is hard to fully grasp the complex challenges of a school in just a few weeks of working with them.

The first workaround is an extension cord sitting on top of a table. This table is used as a place where people can place food that is intended to be shared with the whole office. At times a crockpot or coffee maker is on this table so the extension cord was put on top of the table so that the short cords of a crockpot or coffee maker could easily be plugged in.

The second workaround is ziplock bags being used as a way to store small papers. Larger folders would not be ideal to store small sheets of paper in so the ziplock bags provide a much better way to store the papers.

The final workaround is books being used to support the middle of a couch. The couch sinks badly in the middle so it needed some extra support so that it would still be usable. These books are strong enough that they can support the couch and make the middle of the couch the right height to be used.

Great immersions at Clay.  I really enjoyed the video clips.  That is one talented group of students!

The analogous immersion at O’Rourkes does not quite seem on par with the decision of where to go to high school, unless you are really serious about your beverage options.  I’m intrigued.

There are some interesting patterns beginning to emerge.  If kids, and parents, rely mostly on their friends for guidance on which high school to choose, I wonder how diverse is there friend set?  I look forward to reviewing the rest of your team’s research.

Steffen Timmer went to O’Rourke’s Public House for trivia night and was faced with a decision about what beer to get.

Date: 3/6/2017

Type: Analogous Immersion

Location: O’Rourke’s Public House

Team participants: Only team member immersed, but had non-team members facing the same decision with me.

User Characteristics: Notre Dame business student

Male

Likes to save money

Generally enjoys darker beers

Immersion:

At O’Rourke’s for trivia night and was faced with a nightly special of a $4 beer with 4 beer options to choose from

• Guinness
  • Past Experience with Guinness
  • Irish Dry Stout
• Smithwicks
  • Irish red ale-style beer
  • Never had before
• Harps
  • Euro Pale Lager
  • Never had before
• Magners
  • Irish Cider
  • Had once and enjoyed it

The Decision

Price was not an issue in this situation so the four beers were on a level playing field in that instance, much like how public schools all compete at about the same price level. I really like darker beers but a nice cider to relax with also sounded promising. The waitress on this night did not provide me with an opinion, which disappointed me. In the end I chose to go with Guiness because I had the most previous experience with it and knew it would be a reliable option to have.

Top 3 Learnings:

1. When making a decision, familiarity is a major player. With respect to choosing a high school, a person is much more likely to choose a school if they have heard good things about it in the past or knew someone who went there. Choice of school is a decision a person makes for four years generally and a person would not want to have much risk with the school they are choosing.
2. Name recognition is big. Guinness has the most recognizable name out of the four beers mentioned above and that name recognition is key to it being chosen. If Clay is the first name that comes to mind when people think of South Bend public schools it can gain an advantage.
3. The description says a lot about a brand. Clay has school is branded as a performing arts school and that turns a lot of people off. In this beer choice I faced I saw that Smithwicks was an ale-style beer and because I am not a big fan of IPAs when I saw ale-style I decided not to go with that option.

Key Insight – (1) Sometimes there is not much depth in a decision. If a person is familiar with an option and does not have much information or recommendations on the other options than they will go with the familiar choice. (2) Both uniqueness and quality is key in this decision. If the option can differentiate itself and do so at a high level than it will set itself apart. (3) Appearance helps. Guiness is always served in a nice glass and that plays a roll in people enjoying the product. If Clay looks like a good school then people will see it as one.

Steffen Timmer interviewed Jim, a Notre Dame professor who has sent two kids to Penn High School.

Date: 3/6/2017

Type: User Interview

Location: Mendoza 244

Team participants: Conducted interview alone

User Characteristics: Notre Dame Economics Professor

Male

Two children, one boy, one girl

Son just graduated from Penn High School, son went to Christ the King middle school which is near Clay High School

Daughter is a freshman at Penn High School

Live in Penn High School district

What is this person about – what drives him/her? Jim wanted to find the best school for his children. He wanted a school where they could succeed in academics and extracurricular activities.

What is this person’s biggest point of pain? Paying for a private school. He did not want to take on the added expense.

Memorable quotes from interview:

“I didn’t really consider Trinity and St. Joseph’s because I didn’t want the added expense if it was not necessary”

“I really like AP courses because I am heavily involved with AP testing”

Top 3 Learnings:

1. Parents will move to a school district in order to get their children into the public high school they want. Jim had planned ahead of time when moving to South Bend where to live based on what high school he wanted his children at.
2. AP courses and dual credit courses are attractive to parents. Both types of courses provide ways to attain college credit and save money for parents.
3. Son really enjoyed Penn and that was a big reason why they also had their daughter go to Penn.

Key Insight – (1) AP courses and dual credit courses can be marketed as better than IB courses. Jim did not know much about the IB courses, but knew about AP courses and also liked the fact that Penn offered dual credit courses through Indiana University and Ivy Tech. (2) Sports and size may play a role in creating opportunities at the high school. Kids want to compete to be the best, and with a size of 3600 students, Penn has a lot of money to offer various programs that can attract students.

Steffen Timmer interviewed Giancarlo, a Notre Dame junior who went to St. Joseph’s High School.

Date: 3/4/2017

Type: User Interview

Location: Giancarlo’s dorm room in Fisher Hall

Team participants: Conducted interview alone

User Characteristics: Junior Notre Dame student, Aerospace Engineering Major

Male

Soccer Player

Father is a professor at Notre Dame

Went to St Joseph’s Grade School in South Bend for grades 1-6

Went to Trinity school for grades 7 & 8

Went to St. Joseph’s High School for grades 9-12

What is this person about – what drives him/her? Giancarlo wants to succeed in all academic pursuits while having a good time. He wants a good overall high school experience.

What is this person’s biggest point of pain? Having friends and extracurricular opportunities at a school are key. Did not want to be in an environment that was not an enjoyable time.

Memorable quotes from interview:

“I had friends going to St. Joseph’s High School”

“St. Joseph’s is generally the better high school to go to”

Top 3 Learnings:

1. The only public school he considered was Adams because it was close to his house, had the IB program, and is known for placing kids in Ivy League schools.
2. Family plays a big role in the decision. His parents preferred him to go to Catholic school and he had an older sibling who went to St. Joseph’s.
3. Sports were a nice benefit at St. Joseph’s. While academics were the #1 reason for choosing St. Joseph’s High School, he played soccer and dove in high school and St. Joseph’s had strong teams and facilities for those sports.

Key Insight – (1) Clay does not have a good reputation for some locally. Giancarlo saw Clay as the 3^rd best out of the 4 local public schools and did not consider Clay at all. (2) The IB program is not an end all advantage for Adams. Giancarlo saw academics as a very important reason for choosing high school, but was satisfied with the AP program offered by St. Joseph’s.