Project Overview

Client: The Massachusetts Down Syndrome Congress (MDSC), a local Down syndrome nonprofit focused on providing resources to the Massachusetts community

Role: Project Lead & User Experience Researcher

Goals:

• Interpret data and draw conclusions resulting from scientific inquiry

• Critically consider methodology for limitations, reliability and validity

• Develop social scientific inquiry into informed real-world strategic insight

• Clearly and professionally deliver this insight to various members of the community and clientele

• Directly address our client’s questions through data analysis, knowledge of communication theory and review of current literature

• Organize data and present findings in a persuasive, eloquent, coherent manner

Action Items:

• Conduct content analysis of 1,190 Facebook posts from 238 Down syndrome organizations from across the United States

• Code for particular markers such as geographic restrictions (are they local organizations or national?), use of media and hashtags, and how each post was positioned or framed

• Create a comprehensive report on the research problem, process, and solution, which was presented to client, instructors, and peers for critique, evaluation, and potential implementation

• Design a portfolio of the completed project that outlines our findings and transforms them into actionable recommendations for MDSC, the client

How I helped:

• Led communication between our team and the client

• Conducted research on related study in the academic field and helped write the literature review for the academic paper based off these findings

• Served as a coder on the data analysis team and worked with three others to achieve ICR (intercoder reliability)

• Assisted in writing up the academic paper, outlining our methods, results, and further discussion (including limitations of our research and chosen method of analysis)

• Designed the portfolio for the client with infographics, our conference poster, and more.

Project Requirements

This project was required for completion of my master’s program, and because of such, the following guidelines were required.

Academic Paper:

The following academic paper was our final for the course. This paper acted as our comprehensive report for the client, though we created other documents to translate these findings to be more client friendly. The paper is made up of the following sections:

#1. Title Page & Abstract

#2. Literature Review

#3. Method

#4. Results

#5. Discussion (including conclusion, limitations, and future research)

Client Memo:

The Client Memo adapts the content of the academic paper and makes it client-friendly in a concise document. The following components of our research are addressed in the memo:

#1. Introduction: purpose & overview of important information

#2. Research Questions & Methodology: overarching research question leading our study and the method for data collection

#3. Key Findings: major conclusion, answering the client’s important questions and including two infographics for visual representation of data

#4. Recommendations & Next Steps: incorporating conclusions into the client’s strategic plan

#5. Closing: summarizing findings and recommendations, and direct client to where they can find further information and ask followup questions

Client Portfolio:

The Client Portfolio houses all necessary and helpful documents for the client. Along with including the academic paper and client memo, the portfolio also includes:
#1. Extended Abstract (summarizes entire project)

#2. Client and Team Bios

#3. Screentime Conference academic poster

#4. Client Slide Decks

Deliverables

Academic Paper

Framing theory (Goffman, 1974) establishes that the use of frames to present information affects the audience’s response. Our study sought to investigate the extent to which the framing typologies offered by Iyengar (1991) and Semetko and Valkenburg (2000) impact Facebook engagement. To this end, our overarching research question is: To what extent does the use of frames in Facebook content generated by Down syndrome nonprofits impact user engagement? 

Primary analysis explored how the framing of content varies across organizational levels, and how they impact user engagement. Additionally, we analyzed the impact of framing on tonality of user feedback in the form of impressions and comments. Throughout our research, we worked with the Massachusetts Down Syndrome Congress (MDSC) as a case study.

Client Memo

For the Client Memo, my team and I adapted the information found in the academic paper and streamlined it to be more user friendly. In the memo, we discuss our overarching research question, our methods, the results, and our formal recommendations, in a clear and concise manner.

Portfolio

As stated previously, the Portfolio houses an array of documents that convey the findings in our study to the client. Along with a synopsis of our data analysis, we also explain how our findings can be adapted into MDSC’s strategic plan.