language: en

CS-TR-3692 Sept. 1996

Putting Visualization to Work: ProgramFinder for Youth Placement

Jason Ellis, Anne Rose, Catherine Plaisant
Human-Computer Interaction Laboratory Institute for Advanced Computer Studies University of Maryland,
College Park, MD 20742-3255
jellis, rose, plaisant-@cs.umd.edu

Abstract 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 centers to secure residential facilities. The seemingly straightforward journey of the ProgramFinder from an existing user interface technique to a product design required the development of five different prototypes which involved user interface design, prototype implementation, and selecting search criterion. While HCILs effort focused primarily on design and implementation, DJJs attribute selection process was the most time consuming and difficult task. We also found that a direct link to DJJs workflow was needed in the prototypes to generate the necessary buy-in. This paper analyzes the interaction between the efforts of HCIL and DJJ and the amount of buy-in by DJJ staff and management. Lesson learned are presented for developers.