Hello, again!

As I previously stated in my blog, this Monday, we met and did pilot interviews. The experience was interesting, and I learned that pilot testing is critical in research. I am the type of person who likes to jump right into things, but conducting a pilot interview was very insightful. From the pilot interview we decided to reword certain questions because they seemed confusing to participants.  We also had to reword questions so that they flowed well. Later in the day, I did some wire framing using Lucidchart. Max and I also went through the reviewer response table that we created, and tried to make changes accordingly.

On Tuesday, we were supposed to interview. However, the number was out of service. It was a possibility that her phone bill may not have been paid. So, Patrick suggested Anna offer reimbursement for our participant if she has to pay for minutes. His suggestion was a new angle that I learned while working on my project. In order to iterate on this, Anna suggested emailing the person a day before to verify availability.  Wednesday I began reading my paper for my weekly peer review. The paper I read was excellent and well-written. I enjoy the peer review process of this program because it allows me to read about my peer’s projects. I can view their mistakes, and implement the positive parts about their paper into mine. Wednesday evening all the ladies in the REU program this summer went out to dinner, and got our nails done! I thought it was fun and empowering to have these intelligent women around me!

Thursday was the first interview that I was able to attend. It went excellent! I was excited to hear their perspective in a raw-uncut form. The surveys have been extremely helpful, but it meant much more for me to hear an actual person. The participant was very open, and did not hesitate to answer any questions. I am very excited to continue on with the project. Hearing her during the interview inspired me to think outside of the box. I am going to continue to brainstorm so that we can provide a helping technology, that anyone can use. I am very happy about my choice for my research project.

This week ended with a review of the wire framing/storyboarding, that Max and I have done this week. Next week is about presenting out lighting talks, preparing our poster, and collaborating so that we can move forward with our prototyping. I think it is also important that we meet to decide if we want to make a change with our focus topic for our  research and paper since there have been several participants who are suicide survivors.

Giving you my personal perspective from the palm trees of SC to the corn fields of IN.

-Meagan Price