You are to propose a problem and an approach that could form the basis of a project for this course. Successful projects will observe the need for good human-centered design in an interactive computing system, analyze the needs and opportunities in the problem, explore potential designs, and propose a compelling solution.
This assignment is worth 3% of your overall course grade:
This is an individual assignment, consisting of three milestones.
Assignment 1a: Proposal Brainstorm
Due: Uploaded the night before section Friday, September 26, 2014
Assignment 1b: Project Proposal
Due: Uploaded the night before class Tuesday, September 30, 2014
Due: Uploaded the night before class Thursday, October 2, 2014
The theme for projects in this course is personal informatics:
Personal informatics systems are systems that help people collect personally relevant information for the purpose of self-reflection and gaining self-knowledge.
Personal informatics relates heavily to the Quantified Self movement, which emphasizes:
Self-knowledge through numbers.
Current widely used examples of personal informatics systems include:
Individuals have gone much deeper into their own data:
Researchers have also studied current processes, challenges, and opportunities:
Your proposal must go beyond a technology-centric proposal of a webpage, phone application, or interaction. Think about the problems that people face in their lives, how we can approach those problems, and the role for interactive computing. This first assignment is your opportunity to think broadly about identifying a problem. Subsequent assignments will provide opportunities to focus on designing a specific technological solution to a specific set of tasks.
You should identify and consider goals and activities that are important to people. Potential domains include:
Activities within personal informatics can include:
Do not start with a focus on concrete one-time tasks (e.g., logging into your bank account). Instead identify problems in long-lived activities that span many different social or technological contexts. If you want to help people manage their money, do not immediately propose a website that addresses one specific task. Consider the range of other opportunities (e.g., personal mobile devices, shared family computers, point of sale systems).
Focus on creating or improving a specific application or service that addresses the issues of an actual community. You must be able to create and evaluate a design within the timeframe of this course, so consider whether you can reasonably gain access to the necessary people. We encourage you to think big, expanding upon your application to include new ideas for interaction techniques or technology platforms.
Do not feel constrained by current devices, but instead aim to explore an exciting design that could potentially motivate the development of new enabling technology. For example, see how Artefact presents the Dialog concept:
The course staff will select a subset of submitted proposals for sponsorship. Sponsored proposals will be posted, and students will then bid on the projects they want to pursue in this course. Your proposal is thus an effort to convince both the staff and your classmates that a problem is interesting, tractable, and worthy of investigation.
Due: Uploaded the night before section Friday, September 26, 2014
Propose three ideas as starting points for brainstorming. Ensure the ideas are significantly different, not small variations on the same idea. Each idea should be a single sentence.
No more than one page of text in PDF format. Submit via Catalyst here:
https://catalyst.uw.edu/collectit/dropbox/jaf1978/32994
If you are still attempting to add, or otherwise unable to access Catalyst, submit via the instructor email address.
In section, be prepared to discuss your initial ideas as part of a larger brainstorm.
This milestone will be graded on a scale of 3 points: One point for each unique proposed idea (i.e. don’t submit small variations on the same idea).
Due: Uploaded the night before class Tuesday, September 30, 2014
In one paragraph, describe the problem and motivation. This description should convince the reader that this is a difficult and interesting problem, worth spending a quarter considering. State what the problem is and why it is a problem, or describe a new idea and why it will enhance an existing application or work practice.
In another paragraph, analyze the problem or idea to give more background and context. Do not just focus on the negative aspects of the current situation, but also identify some positive aspects that may be beneficial to retain. A few salient examples from existing systems or work practices should be used to support those claims. If appropriate, you may conduct this analysis by describing a scenario that illustrates how someone might encounter and resolve the problem.
Ensure your report is appropriately clear and easy to read. This includes:
Be sure your presentation looks good:
No more than one page of text in PDF format.
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 Catalyst here:
https://catalyst.uw.edu/collectit/dropbox/jaf1978/32994
This proposal will be graded on a scale of 10 points:
Due: Submitted before class Thursday, October 2, 2014
Review the sponsored projects and course instructor comments regarding those projects:
https://catalyst.uw.edu/gopost/area/jaf1978/133826
You will submit a bid on projects and potential partners. Course staff will use your bids to assign projects and groups.
Submit your bid on projects and potential partners here:
https://catalyst.uw.edu/webq/survey/jaf1978/248720
Submitting a project bid is a requirement for proceeding in the class.