Assignment 2: Getting the Right Design

Overview

Even for a well-understood, well-motivated problem, choosing a design to invest time into is a difficult and laborious process. This group assignment, spanning multiple weeks of the course, tackles the problem of selecting the right design through contextual inquiry, task development, generating multiple potential designs, and finally selecting a design to pursue.

This assignment is worth 21% of your overall course grade:

The content of the associated presentation is worth 5% of your overall course grade.

Your delivery of the associated presentation is worth 2% of your overall course grade.

Milestones

This is a group assignment, consisting of nine milestones.

Project Description

In this assignment, you will brainstorm a large set of possible tasks and design ideas for your project. You will then use contextual inquiry to learn more about your problem and the current practices of people who might use your design. You will draw upon the ideas developed in your brainstorming and the observations made in your contextual inquiry to help develop a set of potential tasks your design might support. You will next sketch how a set of initial designs might support those tasks. You will choose a design to pursue in the remainder of the course and storyboard the details of your design in the context of important tasks Finally, you will present your design process in a report and presentation.

More specifically, you will do the following:

  1. Generate ideas for potential problems, tasks, features, and interactions using a group ideation exercise.

    (Assignment 2a)

  2. Use the contextual inquiry method in observing and interviewing at least three people who might use your design.

    (Assignment 2b), (Assignment 2c), (Assignment 2d)

  3. Develop six tasks that might be performed with your design.

    Select these to capture the important aspects of the problem you are solving and to provide coverage of the designs you will explore. Create these based on your observations and analyses of existing tasks as well as your vision for new tasks enabled by potential designs. Remember that tasks say what is accomplished, while leaving open how to accomplish it.

    As you progress through your project, you can and should consider revising your tasks. Expect to refine or change your tasks as your understanding of the problem matures or according to feedback you receive. The tasks you report in this assignment therefore must be appropriate but are not necessarily final.

    (Assignment 2e)

  4. Brainstorm and sketch three very different initial designs for your interface. Each design should support four of your tasks.

    Do not illustrate the entire design, but instead sketch key aspects needed to illustrate the functionality. These should be rough sketches on paper (i.e., not digital mockups), including illustrations of their relations (e.g., arrows showing transitions and relationships).

    The purpose of these sketches is to explore the design space before you lock yourself into a single design. They must demonstrate significant consideration of substantially different approaches to your problem.

    (Assignment 2f)

  5. From your sketches, select one design to pursue for the remainder of the quarter and two tasks that emphasize critical functionality of your design. These tasks should be non-trivial, critical to solving your problem, and should emphasize long-lived or repeated activities. In contrast, a one-time login screen for a social networking application is not worth being the focus of your project, does not define your project functionality, and is not interesting.

    Storyboard your chosen design for your chosen tasks, illustrating how the tasks are accomplished in your design.

    (Assignment 2g)

  6. Summarize your design process in a report and presentation.

    (Assignment 2h), (Presentation)

Deliverables

2a: Project Ideation

Due: Completed in section on Friday, October 9, 2015

Generate 5 to 10 different ideas related to each of the following aspects of your project proposal:

  • Forms: types of technology on which a design might be developed (e.g., desktop, phone/tablet, sensor, watch, wearable).
  • Data: types of data that a design might track or help a person track.
  • Features: a specific capability a design might have.
  • Tasks: what a person might accomplish with a design.

We will provide large sheets of paper. Divide a large sheet of paper into 32 squares, each approximately 2in by 2in. Sketch your ideas, one in each square. Each idea should be either a quick doodle with a caption or a one-sentence idea. A person familiar with your project but not in your group should be able to understand the idea each sketch conveys.

The goal is to begin exploring the space of possibilities, not attempting to polish some particular possibility. Focus on the quantity of ideas, not the quality of any one idea. You may include ideas from existing products. No two ideas should be alike. When you get stuck, find a context to inspire new ideas.

Given a space of possible directions, your project needs to begin to gather information on how to generate and consider ideas. Following up on the above, additionally brainstorm:

  • People: types of people you might work with to learn more.
  • Foci: potential foci you might apply in your learning.

The goal is to begin thinking about how to plan effective contextual inquiries toward your design process.

Submission

In section, one of the course staff will sign off on what you completed.

You will be able to take your paper with you, and you should continue brainstorming throughout your project.

Grading

This milestone will be graded on a scale of 3 points based on participation in generating ideas during the brainstorming exercise.

2b: Contextual Inquiry Plan

Due: Uploaded the night before class Tuesday, October 13, 2015

In one paragraph, describe the people who might use your design and other stakeholders for your design. Describe the particular contextual inquiry participants you plan to pursue, including some details of their background and the environment where you will observe their current practices. Give enough details to convince us that you can actually find and interview your target participants in the next week.

For example, your target participants should not be “doctors” but instead a specific group of doctors (e.g., Family Practitioners in the UW Roosevelt Clinic). If gaining access to the target participants is non-trivial (e.g., as with busy doctors), describe the steps you have already taken to gain access and your plans to recover if you are unable to gain access. Indicate when you will be conducting your three inquiries, being as specific as possible.

In another paragraph, describe how you will interact with your participants and your role as the “apprentice”.

  • Will you be observing their current behaviors?
  • Will you be interviewing them about recent behaviors?

Please be as specific as possible, providing potential examples of your observation focus or interview questions.

Examples from Prior Offerings

Examples from prior offerings include:

Submission

No more than one page of text in PDF format. Submit via Canvas here:

https://canvas.uw.edu/courses/987987/assignments/3016432

In-Class Peer Critique

In lecture, be prepared to discuss the plan with other teams and the course staff.

Be sure to take notes during critique. We will provide a worksheet you can use:

2b-critique-worksheet-ciplan.pdf

After class, submit images of your notes in PDF format. Submit via Canvas here:

https://canvas.uw.edu/courses/987987/assignments/3017985

Grading

This milestone will be graded on a scale of 3 points:

  1. People and Plan: (1 point)
  2. Feasibility: (1 point)
  3. Specificity: (1 point)

2c: Contextual Inquiry Check-In

Due: Uploaded the night before section Friday, October 16, 2015

Complete at least one contextual inquiry prior to this check-in. You hopefully learned something about the needs of people who might use your design, but also about how to conduct a contextual inquiry.

Describe your first inquiry:

  • Who you observed or interviewed, their background, and the environment.
  • What did you learn?
  • What tasks, problems, or opportunities did you uncover?
  • Did you encounter any difficulties establishing rapport or getting the information you need?

Discuss what remains to be pursued after your first inquiry. We fully expect changes will be necessary, as inquiries can be difficult to get right and often important topics are left unresolved.

  • What are your plans for the remaining inquiries?
  • How do you plan to change your protocol based on what you learned in your first inquiry?

Examples from Prior Offerings

Examples from prior offerings include:

Submission

No more than one page of text in PDF format. Submit via Canvas here:

https://canvas.uw.edu/courses/987987/assignments/3016469

In section, be prepared to discuss your contextual inquiry with other teams and the course staff.

Grading

This milestone will be graded on a scale of 6 points:

  1. Information from First Participant: (3 points)
  2. Plan for Remaining Participants: (3 points)

2d: Contextual Inquiry Review

Due: Uploaded the night before class Tuesday, October 20, 2015

Themes

Complete all three of your contextual inquiries. Discuss your process and what you learned:

  • Who you observed or interviewed, their background, and the environment.
  • Note anything unique about each inquiry and comment on the rationale behind these events.

Across the three inquiries, we expect some emergence of common themes, problems, and practices.

  • Identify high level themes the participants share in their practices.
  • Do these themes, problems, and practices suggest tasks to important to design for?

Task Analysis Questions

Provide brief answers to the following questions. These should help you begin to identify tasks essential to your design.

  1. Who is going to use the design?
  2. What tasks do they now perform?
  3. What tasks are desired?
  4. How are the tasks learned?
  5. Where are the tasks performed?
  6. What is the relationship between the person and data?
  7. What other tools does the person have?
  8. How do people communicate with each other?
  9. How often are the tasks performed?
  10. What are the time constraints on the tasks?
  11. What happens when things go wrong?

Examples from Prior Offerings

Examples from prior offerings include:

Submission

No more than four pages of text in PDF format:

  • summary of key findings or takeaways (one paragraph at beginning)
  • contexutal inquiry participants (less than one page)
  • contextual inquiry themes (less than one page)
  • task analysis questions (less than two pages)

Submit via Canvas here:

https://canvas.uw.edu/courses/987987/assignments/3022206

In-Class Peer Critique

In lecture, be prepared to discuss your contextual inquiry with other teams and the course staff.

Be sure to take notes during critique. We will provide a worksheet you can use:

2d-critique-worksheet-cireview.pdf

After class, submit images of your notes in PDF format. Submit via Canvas here:

https://canvas.uw.edu/courses/987987/assignments/3024240

Grading

This milestone will be graded on a scale of 6 points:

  1. Description of Participants and Quality of Themes Developed: (3 points)
  2. Answers to Task Analysis Questions: (3 points)

2e: Task Review

Due: Uploaded the night before class Friday, October 23, 2015

Building on what you learned in your contextual inquiry, design six tasks that you believe are integral to your overall design goal:

  • You should include existing tasks (i.e., tasks people already do) and new tasks (i.e., tasks that will be enabled by your design).
  • These should be real world tasks that have details (e.g., instead of “programming a DVR”, details like “programming a DVR to record the Simpsons on Sundays”).
  • These tasks should not have any specific relation to the exact design sketches you will brainstorm next.
  • Your six tasks should span a wide range of functionality and difficulty, from easy to hard tasks.

Each task should be described in text. Tasks say what is accomplished, leaving open how to accomplish it. So be sure that your task conveys a problem and what is accomplished, rather than a step-by-step walkthrough of scenario with a particular design.

Examples from Prior Offerings

Examples from prior offerings include:

Submission

No more than two pages of text in PDF format:

  • six task descriptions (one paragraph each)

Submit via Canvas here:

https://canvas.uw.edu/courses/987987/assignments/3022211

In section, be prepared to discuss your tasks with other teams and the course staff.

Grading

This milestone will be graded on a scale of 6 points:

  1. Each of 6 Tasks: (1 point)

2f: Design Check-In (“3x4”)

Due: Uploaded the night before class Tuesday, October 27, 2015

You have identified and described six important tasks for your design problem. You will now brainstorm and sketch three very different initial designs for your interface:

  • Each design should support four of your tasks, but they do not necessarily need to all support the same four tasks.
  • Sketch key aspects needed to illustrate the functionality in your four tasks. A design may imply additional tasks, but do not illustrate the entire design.
  • These should be rough sketches on paper (i.e., not digital mockups), including illustrations of their relations (e.g., arrows showing transitions and relationships).

The purpose of these sketches is to explore the design space before you lock yourself into a single design. They must demonstrate significant consideration of substantially different approaches to your problem.

Examples from Prior Offerings

Examples from prior offerings include:

Submission

No more than three pages of text in PDF format:

  • six task descriptions (one paragraph each, updated as needed from prior assignment)
  • for each of three initial designs
    • the high-level idea of the design (one paragraph)
    • scanned images of the design (sketches, not digital mockups)
    • how to complete each the four sketched tasks (e.g., a list of steps, one or two sentences per task)

Images do not count against your page limit, and are therefore effectively free. You should embed images throughout your PDF, keeping them near the text that references them. The limit applies to the approximate amount of text you would have if all images were removed.

Submit via Canvas here:

https://canvas.uw.edu/courses/987987/assignments/3022221

In-Class Peer Critique

In lecture, be prepared to discuss your design sketches with other teams and the course staff.

Be sure to take notes during critique. We will provide a worksheet you can use:

2f-critique-worksheet-designcheckin.pdf

After class, submit images of your notes in PDF format. Submit via Canvas here:

https://canvas.uw.edu/courses/987987/assignments/3029342

Grading

This milestone will be graded on a scale of 6 points:

  1. Each of 3 Designs: (2 points)

2g: Design Review (“1x2”)

Due: Uploaded the night before section Friday, October 30, 2015

From your design sketches, select one design that you will refine in the remainder of this course. Then select two tasks that will be the focus of your design refinement. The selected tasks need to be representative of the experience of using your design.

Prepare one paragraph describing why you selected the design you did. Draw upon feedback from critiques and data from your contextual inquiry.

  • Why this design and these tasks?
  • What makes the design better suited to the people for whom you are targeting your design?
  • Why are these tasks more compelling than the others?

Convey a strong understanding of which design you chose, which tasks you chose, and why you chose them.

Then Create a storyboard of each task for your selected design. These should be done on paper, then scanned (i.e., do not create or recreate them in a drawing package). They should clearly indicate the functionality of the design and what the interface will be like, conveying the major aspects of the design in enough detail that a person not in your group can understand how the design supports each task. As needed, add descriptions that explicitly reference the storyboard, add more sketches, or annotate them in multiple colors.

Examples from Prior Offerings

Examples from prior offerings include:

Submission

No more than one page of text in PDF format:

  • discussion of your design and task choices (one paragraph)
  • scanned images of your storyboards and associated descriptions

Images do not count against your page limit, and are therefore effectively free. You should embed images throughout your PDF, keeping them near the text that references them. The limit applies to the approximate amount of text you would have if all images were removed.

Submit via Canvas here:

https://canvas.uw.edu/courses/987987/assignments/3029616

In section, be prepared to discuss your choices and storyboards with other teams and the course staff.

Grading

This milestone will be graded on a scale of 6 points:

  1. Rationale for Choosing a Design Focus: (2 points)
  2. Each of 2 Storyboards: (2 points)

2h: Final Report

Due: Uploaded the night before class Tuesday, November 3, 2015

Prepare a report documenting your process of getting the right design. Your report should follow the outline below, and will be graded using the guidelines that follow. The provided page allocations are estimates, intended to help convey how to divide up the space.

If you completed all of your milestones above, you will have much of the content for this report. But it is critical that you revise and update that content. You have received extensive feedback throughout your design process, and evaluation of your report will include how you have addressed and incorporated that feedback to improve relative to your prior milestones.

  1. Title

    A short, creative, and marketable title capturing the key idea.

  2. Each Team Member’s Name and Role(s)

  3. Problem and Solution Overview: (1 paragraph)

    A concise statement of the problem you are tackling and a brief synopsis of your proposed solution.

  4. Contextual Inquiry Target, Stakeholders, and Participants: (1 page)

    Describe your contextual inquiry, including the participants, their background, and their environment.

    Describe why you chose the particular participants in your inquiry.

  5. Contextual Inquiry Results and Themes: (1 page)

    Discuss common themes, problems, and practices that emerged in your inquiry.

    Include any updated themes that emerged when considering your contextual inquiry in your design process.

  6. Answers to Task Analysis Questions: (2 pages)

    Provide brief answers to the task analysis questions.

    These should be updated according to your evolved understanding of the problem and your design.

  7. Proposed Design Sketches - “3x4”: (1 page)

    Present scanned images of your three initial designs in the context of their four tasks.

    Include one paragraph for each design, discussing how it supports your tasks.

    Include one paragraph discussing your choice of design and tasks to further pursue.

  8. Written Scenarios - “1x2”: (1 page)

    Convert your two tasks into written scenarios for your design. Scenarios include the steps a person will go through to accomplish the task, including references to your design.

    Scenarios do not need to detail every little step, but should be realistic, should be dependent upon the design you have chosen, should appropriately reference elements of your design, and should communicate how a person will accomplish the task using your design.

  9. Storyboards of the Selected Design

    Include updated storyboards of your design. Reference these appropriately in your scenarios.

Ensure your report is appropriately clear and easy to read. This includes:

  • text should be clear and concise
  • use section headings as appropriate
  • include images in the body of the write-up with appropriate figure numbers and captions
  • refer to the figures in the body of your text
  • check for typos, spelling, and grammar errors

Be sure your presentation looks good:

  • choose appropriate colors, fonts, and styles
  • make liberal use of whitespace

Examples from Prior Offerings

Examples from prior offerings include:

Submission

No more than eight pages of text in PDF format, following the above outline.

Images do not count against your page limit, and are therefore effectively free. You should embed images throughout your PDF, keeping them near the text that references them. The limit applies to the approximate amount of text you would have if all images were removed.

Submit via Canvas here:

https://canvas.uw.edu/courses/987987/assignments/3029620

Grading

This report will be graded on a scale of 25 points:

  1. Title: (1 point)
  2. Team Member Names and Roles: (1 point)
  3. Problem and Solution Overview: (2 points)
  4. Contextual Inquiry Target, Stakeholders, and Participants: (2 points)
  5. Contextual Inquiry Results and Themes: (3 points)
  6. Answers to Task Analysis Questions: (3 points)
  7. Proposed Design Sketches - “3x4”: (3 points)
  8. Written Scenarios - “1x2”: (3 points)
  9. Storyboards of the Selected Design: (3 points)
  10. Report Clarity and Presentation: (4 points)

Presentation

Due: Uploaded the night before class Thursday, November 5, 2015

Prepare a presentation of your process in getting the right design. It should encompass all of your work in Assignment 2.

  • Two members of your team should deliver the presentation, each speaking to relatively equals portions.
  • An eight minute time limit will be strictly enforced, with additional time for questions.

A suggested organization of this presentation is:

  1. Title:

    A short, creative, and marketable title capturing the key idea. Include team member names and roles.

  2. Overall Problem:

    Tell this as a story, instead of simply reading the slide. Motivate your audience to be interested in your problem.

  3. Contextual Inquiry:

    Include images that give your audience a feeling for your fieldwork. Convey that you have seen and understand the challenge.

  4. 6 Tasks:

    At most one sentence per task. Convey the breadth of tasks you have considered.

  5. 3 Design Sketches:

    Convey the breadth of designs you considered.

  6. Selected Design Storyboards and Tasks:

    Convey your rationale for choosing a design focus.

    Present your storyboards, ensuring they effectively illustrate your selected design and tasks.

  7. Summary:

    Summarize the lessons learned in your design process.

We strongly recommend rehearsing your presentation beforehand. For example, arrange to practice together with another group or two, giving each other feedback on your presentations.

Examples from Prior Offerings

Examples from prior offerings include:

The projects we have been posting this quarter:

Additional projects from the same prior offerings:

Additional examples of CSE 441 presentations. These cover a different scope of content, but were polished based on an initial round of feedback. So their structure will be different than your talks, but you may benefit from seeing their presentation.

Submission

Your presentation may be in PPT, PPTX, or PDF format.

To minimize switching time, we will have all presentations on a single laptop running Microsoft Windows. You should optimize your presentation for portability (e.g., ensure any necessary fonts are embedded). If we detect any obvious formatting issues on the presentation machine, we may fix them or contact you to fix them. But you are ultimately responsible for your presentation.

Submit via Canvas here:

https://canvas.uw.edu/courses/987987/assignments/3029622

In-Class Feedback Forms

The course staff and your peers will have feedback forms they keep during your presentation:

2h-presentation-instructor-form.pdf

2h-presentation-student-form.pdf

Grading

The content of this presentation will be graded on a scale of 10 points:

  • Presentation shows appropriate preparation, with visual aids that are effective, properly prepared, and properly employed.
  • Slides are legible, such that people in the back of the room can still see them.
  • Presentation should not have an outline slide. It is short enough to be told as a story of your process.
  • Problem is presented in a manner that is compelling and achievable.
  • Contextual inquiry is carried out in an appropriate manner.
  • Contextual inquiry results are illuminating in terms of the problem.
  • Tasks presented provide coverage of the functionality.
  • Tasks were neither too easy nor too hard.
  • Tasks were motivated by the contextual inquiry.
  • Design ideas have a strong connection to results of contextual inquiry.
  • Design ideas are appropriate for the supported tasks.
  • Design ideas and storyboards were at the proper fidelity.
  • Presentation covered the required scope within the 8 minute time period.

The delivery of this presentation will be graded on a scale of 4 points:

  • Presenter makes eye contact with the audience.
  • Presenter projects their voice well and is audible throughout the room.
  • Presenter feels casual and engaged with the content, not just reading it.
  • Presentation covered the required scope within the 8 minute time period.