Information Consulting & Contextual Inquiry

September 2017 - December 2017

The Center for Sustainable Systems is an interdisciplinary research center within the University of Michigan School for the Environment and Sustainability (SEAS). As of Fall 2017, the center had little strategy in place for posting and sharing material or events, and was generally unaware of best-practices for reaching their different audiences via social networking sites. Through the School of Information course, "SI 501: Contextual Inquiry and Consulting Foundations," my team and I, working under the name "Something Blue," partnered with the Center for Sustainable Systems with the goal to construct an effective solution to their outreach and information-related problems by re-vamping their online presence and social media activity.

Project Summary:

Specifically, the center's staff members wanted to use social media to call attention to the sustainability fact sheets that are created each year, as they value these tremendously but do not believe they are getting enough traffic. However, after extensive background research, contextual interviews with staff members and SEAS faculty, synthesis of the collected information, and affinity wall construction (videos shown below), we found that a major barrier to entry for the center's staff regarding social media was their collective lack of proficiency with social networking sites and thus an overall hesitant attitude towards social media’s effectiveness.

Final Presentation:

For our final recommendation to the client, my team and I recommended that the center connect and collaborate with the existing communication team at the SEAS school in order to best utilize the resources that are currently present and available to them. We came to this decision based on our research and interviews that demonstrated the CSS is in need of advice, and the SEAS communication team is ready to help. We delivered our recommendations and presentation (shown below) to the center who is now working on implementing the change in infrastructure over the coming year.