Written by Rita Francois as final assessment of the course Design Thinking and Innovation    offered by the University of Virginia at the platform of Coursera.org 

 Reflection - Visualization 

 Challenge & Selection 

 At the beginning of my internship as an HR Assistant I noticed that the HR department   stored data at different places on their network . Sometimes it took them a while to find   certain information about their employees , which was time - consuming and very ineffective .   The existing file where they kept track of the attended trainings had become difficult to use   over the past few years . This was due to the fact that some data were manually entered ,   which led to different ways of writing , typos and inconsistency . As my internship went on , I   discovered other administrative problems as well . I asked myself whether I could help them   solve their problems in an efficient way . I decided to focus on simplifying a part of the HR   department ’s administrative process . I used design thinking to accomplish my goal . Since I   knew that the HR team was not used to work with a lot of technology I had to make   everything more tangible by creating a logical structure using a lot of images and making   everything as simple as I could . The main tool that I used was visualization . 

 Application 

 I had a conversation with my mentor to have a better idea of her expectations . I started   drawing some ideas and presented them to the team . After they gave me some feedback I   had an even better understanding of their needs . I started by filtering all the data , making a   distinction between the necessary data and the redundant data . After that I started creating   a database : a structure in which data only needs to be entered once . 

 To make the database easy to use and to visualize as much as possible , I created a   switchboard ( a main interface ) that gave access to all underlying forms and reports ( in one   single click ) . The macros that I included were made of little drawings that made it very easy   to return to the switchboard . 

 I explained all the technicalities in a well - structured and visual manual so the HR team can   continue to simplify and automate their administrative processes . 

 When I finished the project and before I presented the manual to the team , I placed myself   in the minds of my colleagues . I knew and understood the tool that had created but they did   not . It was crucial to include more visual elements in the manual so the team would clearly   understand the functionalities of this new database . Therefore , I also created user stories . 

 With this in mind , I had the idea of re - building the old way of registration with Lego cubes   and the new database with Duplo cubes ( to have a better idea of what I mean I included a   photo on the next page ) . Each cube in the front contains data from different categories . The   blue cube i.e. contains personal information ( that comes from the green cubes in the back ) ,   information on training courses ( that comes from the yellow cubes ) and information on   training courses ( that comes from the red cubes ) . The database provides a link structure ( if   you look closely at the picture you can see some wires ) . These categories can be linked to   each other . In addition , relationships with primary keys can be selected . Of course I was   using a lot of hand gestures while explaining this and as you can see from the blue cube at   the side of the panel , I was holding it during the presentation , so that I could show it more   visually . 

 Written by Rita Francois as final assessment of the course Design Thinking and Innovation    offered by the University of Virginia at the platform of Coursera.org 

 Insight & Approach 

 When I presented the manual and the cubes to the team I realized that it really depends on   the type of learner that I have in front of me because there are some profiles that are more   visual than others . I decided to adjust the strategy and to take visualization to the next level   by organizing 5 workshops that allowed me to conduct the team through the actual workings   of the database . 

 Later I also got to the idea to not only visualize how to use the tool but also why they should   continue using it . I tried to stimulate them in a different way . I made it very evident to the   leadership team that this database would represent savings to the company . 

 I can not say that I would use this tool again in the future for this type of project seeing that   it depends on the public you are working with . In my case , I adjusted the strategy based on   the type of profile that I had in front of me as future users . 


EMAIL: 
ID_NUM: 
NAME_STUDENT: Rita Francois, Rita Francois
PHONE_NUM: 
STREET_ADDRESS: 
URL_PERSONAL: 
USERNAME: 

### Task: You are a PII (Personal Identity Information) Detection. Given a essays written by students, you have to identify ONLY the following:
NAME_STUDENT - The full or partial name of a student that is not necessarily the author of the essay. This excludes instructors, authors, and other person names.
EMAIL - A student’s email address.
USERNAME - A student's username on any platform.
ID_NUM - A number or sequence of characters that could be used to identify a student, such as a student ID or a social security number.
PHONE_NUM - A phone number associated with a student.
URL_PERSONAL - A URL that might be used to identify a student.
STREET_ADDRESS - A full or partial street address that is associated with the student, such as their home address.
### Input: Written by Rita Francois as final assessment of the course Design Thinking and Innovation    offered by the University of Virginia at the platform of Coursera.org 

 Reflection - Visualization 

 Challenge & Selection 

 At the beginning of my internship as an HR Assistant I noticed that the HR department   stored data at different places on their network . Sometimes it took them a while to find   certain information about their employees , which was time - consuming and very ineffective .   The existing file where they kept track of the attended trainings had become difficult to use   over the past few years . This was due to the fact that some data were manually entered ,   which led to different ways of writing , typos and inconsistency . As my internship went on , I   discovered other administrative problems as well . I asked myself whether I could help them   solve their problems in an efficient way . I decided to focus on simplifying a part of the HR   department ’s administrative process . I used design thinking to accomplish my goal . Since I   knew that the HR team was not used to work with a lot of technology I had to make   everything more tangible by creating a logical structure using a lot of images and making   everything as simple as I could . The main tool that I used was visualization . 

 Application 

 I had a conversation with my mentor to have a better idea of her expectations . I started   drawing some ideas and presented them to the team . After they gave me some feedback I   had an even better understanding of their needs . I started by filtering all the data , making a   distinction between the necessary data and the redundant data . After that I started creating   a database : a structure in which data only needs to be entered once . 

 To make the database easy to use and to visualize as much as possible , I created a   switchboard ( a main interface ) that gave access to all underlying forms and reports ( in one   single click ) . The macros that I included were made of little drawings that made it very easy   to return to the switchboard . 

 I explained all the technicalities in a well - structured and visual manual so the HR team can   continue to simplify and automate their administrative processes . 

 When I finished the project and before I presented the manual to the team , I placed myself   in the minds of my colleagues . I knew and understood the tool that had created but they did   not . It was crucial to include more visual elements in the manual so the team would clearly   understand the functionalities of this new database . Therefore , I also created user stories . 

 With this in mind , I had the idea of re - building the old way of registration with Lego cubes   and the new database with Duplo cubes ( to have a better idea of what I mean I included a   photo on the next page ) . Each cube in the front contains data from different categories . The   blue cube i.e. contains personal information ( that comes from the green cubes in the back ) ,   information on training courses ( that comes from the yellow cubes ) and information on   training courses ( that comes from the red cubes ) . The database provides a link structure ( if   you look closely at the picture you can see some wires ) . These categories can be linked to   each other . In addition , relationships with primary keys can be selected . Of course I was   using a lot of hand gestures while explaining this and as you can see from the blue cube at   the side of the panel , I was holding it during the presentation , so that I could show it more   visually . 

 Written by Rita Francois as final assessment of the course Design Thinking and Innovation    offered by the University of Virginia at the platform of Coursera.org 

 Insight & Approach 

 When I presented the manual and the cubes to the team I realized that it really depends on   the type of learner that I have in front of me because there are some profiles that are more   visual than others . I decided to adjust the strategy and to take visualization to the next level   by organizing 5 workshops that allowed me to conduct the team through the actual workings   of the database . 

 Later I also got to the idea to not only visualize how to use the tool but also why they should   continue using it . I tried to stimulate them in a different way . I made it very evident to the   leadership team that this database would represent savings to the company . 

 I can not say that I would use this tool again in the future for this type of project seeing that   it depends on the public you are working with . In my case , I adjusted the strategy based on   the type of profile that I had in front of me as future users .
### Output: 