Project Pitch
Over the course of the semester, everyone will work on a group project. To select the projects and the groups, everyone in the class will present an idea for a project. Then, we’ll select 3-4 of the projects presented as the group projects for the semester based on interest.
The project pitch may be a new idea that you would need to start from scratch or it may also be an idea for modifying or adding to an existing project. For example, you might have a great idea for a new app that tracks your location and tells you how often you are late to work. For an existing project, you might suggest adding a new feature, like computing statistics with the R programming language inline, in Microsoft Word.
For this assignment, you’ll need to do two things:
- Write a 1 page project pitch.
- Deliver a 2-3 minute in-class presentation describing your proposed project.
Both of the written and presentation version of your pitch should address the following questions:
1. What problem do you propose to address?
Identify your audience and describe a concrete problem that audience has that you intend to solve. Provide supporting evidence that demonstrates this problem is an opportunity for a new technology. Supporting evidence might include documenting the population that might need this technology and a comparison with similar technologies.
2. What kind of technology might address the problem?
What kind of solution do you envision for this problem? How will it impact your proposed audience?
3. Is your proposal achievable?
Over the four milestones, you’ll need to do a fair amount of user testing, which means that you’ll need a pool of users. How will you get access to the population of users your project is intended to help? Are there enough of them? (You can’t repeat users from one user test to the next).
Keep in mind that there isn’t a budget for buying software or equipment. If you need any special equipment to complete your project, you should talk about where it’s going to come from.
FAQ
1) What’s an appropriate scope for a project?
The ideal project will allow you to concentrate on designing, building, and testing a user interface. As a consequence, you don’t want to pitch something that will require extensive back-end work. However, it is entirely fair game to simulate a functional back-end. You do need to be able to make your system appear to work to users for the purpose of user tests. For example, one team in the past designed a system for coordinating use of on-campus laundry facilities. Their system never talked to a washing machine/dryer and did not actually interface with student accounts, but appeared to users to do both.
From a size perspective, keep in mind that you will be spending a fair amount of time gathering requirements, developing designs, and testing/refining those designs before you begin to implement your system. You should consider the kind of system that you can reasonably build in a couple of weeks.
2) What if I don’t have an idea?
The CHI conference (the main conference for Human Computer Interaction) runs a student design competition with a different theme every year. This year’s theme relates to assistive technologies. More details here. If you don’t have an idea you’re passionate about, this is a great space to think about.
Alternatively, think about a piece of software or an app that you have used that annoyed you or that was missing a feature that you wanted. Maybe you wished that google maps would only show restaurants ahead of you when driving on the highway. Just make sure that if you choose this route, the feature is big enough for a semester-long project. Just adding a share button to an app isn’t going to cut it. Also, if you don’t have access to the app’s source code, make sure you have a plan and present it for how to fake-out testing the app with your feature.
Submission Instructions
Please submit one PDF file of your proposal and one PDF file of your slides via e-mail to the instructor before noon the date the pitch is due. The subject of this e-mail should be “CSE 556 Project Pitch”.
Milestone 1
During this milestone, your group will develop a set of requirements for your system based on user research. The goal is to develop an accurate picture of your user community and their needs. You should be consistently on the lookout for sources of bias in the ways that you collect information. Also, make sure that as you gather data you are focused purely on needs. Beware of assuming a design and asking your users for their preferences. When collecting data, keep thorough and detailed notes.
Specifically, your goal is to answer these questions:
- Who are your users?
- What are their tasks?
- How do they complete those tasks?
- Why? What are the goals behind the tasks?
- Where? In what context do these tasks occur?
To complete this assignment, you will need to turn in:
- 2-3 page written update. You may need up to 5 pages though.
- All team members will need to complete team member evaluations.
Your write-up should include two types of information:
Methods
How did you collect your information (include what techniques you used)? Describe what you did in enough detail that another member of the class could go and collect additional information using the same process. If you did an interview, for example, include what specific questions you asked. What potential sources of bias do you need to worry about (bias can come from an unrepresentative set of users, the techniques you used and the ways in which you used those techniques). Throughout this process, be skeptical and maintain an awareness of ways in which the information you are collecting might be flawed. In the write-up, you should mention things you did to ensure that your information represents an accurate picture.
Example Tasks
Summarize the results of your user research in a set of example tasks. Remember to use the criteria presented in the reading.
Submission Instructions
Please submit one PDF file of your write-up via e-mail before midnight the date the milestone 1 is due. The subject of this e-mail should be “CSE 556 Milestone 1″.
Instructor Discussion
Your group will have a 20-30 minute one-on-one discussion with the instructor the class period after turning in milestone 1. Bring your raw data to this meeting. Be prepared to accept critical feedback of your milestone. Accepting critical feedback can be difficult, check these slides for a useful guide. You are free to disregard the instructor’s feedback, however the point of this meeting is to better position your group for success on your future milestones.
Milestone 2
In this milestone, you are going to take the design requirements from milestone 1 and use them to design a paper prototype. Then, you will iteratively refine the prototype with three rounds of testing. Each round of testing should include at least 3 users. You may not repeat users (i.e. there should be a minimum of 9 distinct users). Keep thorough and detailed notes for the user testing. When taking notes, think like a sportscaster; give the play-by-play of what your user did. Use your notes to analyze why something didn’t work. Do not just write that x didn’t work, instead say that x confused users because they didn’t realize that they could interact with it as stated by user 3: “I didn’t know I could click on that button.” etc. Tip: Quotes from your users often provide good evidence in your write-up.
To complete this assignment, you will need to turn in:
- 3-5 page written update(+ as many pages as you need for pictures and whatever additional appendices are appropriate to include).
- a paper prototype.
- in-class demonstration.
- All team members will need to complete team member evaluations.
Your grade will be based on the following:
- Additional Requirements / Revised Tasks – 0%
- Paper Prototype x 3 – 45%
- User Testing Results – 45%
- Demonstration – 10%
Your write-up should include the following:
Additional Requirements Info
Take a critical look at your data from Milestone 1. If there are any shortcomings, please correct them. Include a description of the shortcoming, the technique you used to collect the missing information, and the results. Additionally, if you uncover a need for additional information through your design and user testing process, please collect that information. Describe the information need, collection technique, and results. There should be enough information here to enable someone to collect additional data and to allow the reader to evaluate its validity. As in milestone 1, you should present your results in terms of either new or revised detailed task examples.
User Testing Results
For each of your three versions of your paper prototype, show and describe a walk through of your example tasks. Then, summarize the problems that your users encountered in attempting to complete these tasks. Finally, describe the changes that you made to your prototype to alleviate the problems your users encountered. This is easiest to do if you record this information along the way, rather than trying to reconstruct it all at the end. Quality notes will help you describe your results.
Demonstration
Be prepared to demo your final paper prototype using the document camera in the classroom. You should demo some or all of your tasks in front of the class. An individual or the entire class will run through your tasks with the paper prototype. This will help you get additional feedback to improve your design for the next milestone.
Submission Instructions
Please submit one PDF file of your write-up via e-mail before noon the date the milestone 2 is due. The subject of this e-mail should be “CSE 556 Milestone 2″. Please bring all versions of your paper prototype to class to submit for grading. Since there may be lots of little pieces in your prototype, please submit it in a sealed bag, folder, or something similar. I don’t want to return your paper prototype with missing pieces.
Milestone 3
During this milestone, your group will create a digital prototype of your interface. The main goal here is to be able to test the interface tasks that are important for your domain. So, if there are ways that you can reduce the overall work by simulating needed behind the scenes functionality, feel free to do that. However, the interface should work from the user’s perspective and allow a reasonable level of exploration.
To complete this assignment, you will need to turn in:
- 1-2 page written update
- 15 minute demo of representative tasks
- All team members will need to complete team member evaluations.
Your grade will be based on the following:
- Write-up investigation of prototype tools – 15%
- Write-up justification of shortcuts – 15%
- Fully functional prototype – 30%
- Prototype is populated with sufficient AND sensible content – 20%
- Demonstration of ALL tasks in your prototype – 20%
Your write-up should include two types of information:
Investigation of Prototyping Tools
Some tools will make your job of constructing a prototype easier than others. Before you begin implementing, investigate at least two different potential ways to implement your prototype. Discuss the pros and cons of each choice as well as your decision in your write up.
Please note, this is not a programming/software engineering class. The instructor will not look at your code. You will receive no credit for beautiful well-engineered code. I encourage you to save time on the coding; hack your working prototype together with duct tape and glue. A quick prototyping option that probably all your group members know is HTML + Javascript. You might want to try using something like Framer too. Also, you may have decided to create your project on a specific platform/device, like an iPhone, Android, ATM, or Roku, etc. Learning these platforms and their toolkits takes time. It is perfectly fine to say that you created a phone app and not actually run it on that platform/device. You can just write it for a browser and then just resize the browser window to the device’s size for testing.
Shortcuts
Please describe any shortcuts you take in implementing your prototype and discuss their potential implications on your ability to get good data from user testing your prototype. It is completely acceptable to use shortcuts and hacks, just choose them carefully so they do not negatively impact your ability to evaluate your interface.
If you fake-out your back-end, describe how you faked your back-end. You should also describe how you believe your fake back-end should enable a full user experience for testing purposes.
Submission Instructions
Please submit one PDF file of your write-up via e-mail before noon the date the milestone 3 is due. The subject of this e-mail should be “CSE 556 Milestone 3″.
Milestone 4
In the final milestone, you will do additional user testing and apply a non-user based evaluation technique to further improve your interface. You should complete two rounds of user testing with at least 3 users in each round for a total of six distinct users. These should be different users than have worked with your interface in previous milestones. In addition, you should select an evaluation technique appropriate for use without users (heuristic evaluation, GOMS, cognitive walkthrough) and use it to further improve your interface. Alternating user testing and non-user based evaluation is often a good strategy.
To complete this assignment, you will need to turn in:
- 3-5 page written update.
- 15 minute in-class presentation including a demo of your final prototype.
- All team members will need to complete team member evaluations.
Your grade will be based on the following:
- Write-up of the issues your found in two rounds of user testing and how you addressed the issues in the first round or how you would address them in the 2nd round. You must have 3 unique users in each round. Provide summary demographics. – 60%
- Write-up of your non-user based evaluation: what issues did you find? How did you address these issues? – 30%
- Demonstration and presentation – 10%
Your write-up and presentation should include:
User Testing Results
For each of your two versions of your prototype, show and describe a walk-through of your example tasks. Then, summarize the problems that your users encountered in attempting to complete these tasks. Finally, describe the changes that you made to your prototype to alleviate the problems your users encountered. This is easiest to do if you record this information along the way, rather than trying to reconstruct it all at the end.
Non-User Based Evaluation
Please describe why the evaluation technique that you chose is likely to provide the greatest benefit for your interface (not necessarily the one that seems easiest). Then, summarize your findings using this evaluation and the changes you made to address problems you identified.
Submission Instructions
Please submit one PDF file of your write-up and a PDF copy of your slides (if you have them) via e-mail before noon the date the milestone 4 is due. The subject of this e-mail should be “CSE 556 Milestone 4″. Please bring a copy of your final prototype to demo during our final slot.