Putting Visualization to Work -- ProgramFinder for Youth Placement

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Date
1998-10-15Author
Ellis, Jason
Rose, Anne
Plaisant, Catherine
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Show full item recordAbstract
The Human-Computer Interaction Laboratory (HCIL) and the Maryland Department of
Juvenile Justice (DJJ) have been working together to develop the ProgramFinder,
a tool for choosing programs for a troubled youth from drug rehabilitation cente
rs to secure residential facilities. The seemingly straightforward journey of t
he ProgramFinder from an existing user interface technique to a product design r
equired the development of five different prototypes which involved user interfa
ce design, prototype implementation, and selecting search criterion. While HCIL
's effort focused primarily on design and implementation, DJJ's attribute select
ion process was the most time consuming and difficult task. We also found that
a direct link to DJJ's workflow was needed in the prototypes to generate the nec
essary "buy-in". This paper analyzes the interaction between the efforts of HCI
L and DJJ and the amount of "buy-in" by DJJ staff and management. Lesson learne
d are presented for developers.