Artistic Review Database
Client / Organization
Goal
Role
Workflow Development
Implementation Manager
At New York University’s Drama Program (Tisch Drama), all prospective students are required to schedule a live interview and an artistic review as part of the admissions process. Artistic reviews focus on creative and performance skills, runs for four months, and employs approximately 100 department members, connecting individually with over 3200 applicants annually.
Challenge
How do we build a unified planning and grade management system that supports each constituent’s needs, while consolidating the user experience into a single, secure solution?
01.
Survey & Interview
Initially, I organized a group of knowledge workers whose input are critical to the existing Artistic Review process. They formed an investigative committee, exchanging and documenting their user stories and pain points. Together, we developed a visualized narrative of the current collaborative process. Our team then led a series of interviews with university IT and Admissions teams to better understand the current and future technological infrastructure of our central collaborators, and how Tisch Drama can safely access and synchronize our data with these systems. From this combined input, we developed a new process specifically adopted to the central admissions system, Slate.
02.
Collaborative Development
Compiling our report and proposal, my team identified crucial ways to improve the current workflow and reduce redundancies. Seeing an opportunity to develop a more comprehensive system, I led a round of requests for proposals, ultimately contracting The Support Group on behalf of Tisch Drama. I shared our findings and process design, and served as the Product Owner and liaison between NYU teams. Filemaker was chosen because it provided a malleable platform to build and serve a custom database solution that can easily be easily managed. It also eliminated the involvement of multiple platforms by streamlining each process into a deeply integrated and automated workflow.
Priority features included responsive design, automation, flight and lodging itinerary management, event scheduler, interview prompts, grade book, and communications tools for real time management of simultaneous Artistic Review Events.
Ultra Violet
Black
NYU Violet
Magenta
Medium Gray
Results
The Artistic Review Process is the single most important event for any aspiring Tisch Drama student. Applicants should feel inspired as they journey through their auditions and interviews, and evaluators should feel empowered to probe their creativity, without technological distractions. At the same time, we had a vision to build an end-to-end solution that provided comprehensive functionality and flexibility. The Artistic Review Database continues to be deployed yearly as the central planning and management system supporting the admissions process within NYU Tisch – Department of Drama.