Assigned readings are worth 5% of your overall course grade.
We expect to assign approximately five readings over the length of the quarter. Each assigned reading has a corresponding open-ended question that will be submitted and graded. We have set reading deadlines that give you the flexibility to read before or after the related lectures. Do whichever is best for your personal learning style.
Responses are expected to be at most a couple paragraphs. Their role is to get you engaged with and thinking about the material. They will be graded according to whether they provide evidence you understood and considered the material in responding.
We will make additional resources available for students to read as interested.
Beyer and Holtzblatt (1997). Contextual Design. Chapter 3.
Due: Uploaded by the end of the day Friday, October 3, 2014.
After reading, consider how you might apply this approach to the project you proposed in Assignment 1b.
This reading thus serves as some practice planning a contextual inquiry before moving on to your primary project.
No more than one page of text in PDF format.
Submit via Catalyst here:
Pausch. Tips for Working Successfully in a Group.
Due: Uploaded by the end of the day Friday, October 10, 2014.
After reading, please think back to your previous experiences working in groups, particularly an experience that could have been improved.
These readings thus reflection on receiving feedback, prior group experiences, and how to maximize your success in this course.
No more than one page of text in PDF format.
Submit via Catalyst here:
Due: Uploaded by the end of the day Friday, October 24, 2014.
After viewing, consider what approaches were more or less effective in these examples.
These videos thus support your reflection on how to effectively develop and illustrate a design.
No more than one page of text in PDF format.
Submit via Catalyst here:
Optionally, check out this video on paper prototyping:
Due: Uploaded by the end of the day Friday, October 31, 2014.
After reading, consider how you might apply this approach in your paper prototyping for Assignment 3a.
Your thoughts here should be specific. You are already required to do a paper prototype with usability testing, so that is obviously too high-level. Convey a specific idea that indicates you did the reading and thought about how to apply it in the context of your project.
This reading thus serves to get you thinking about these methods in the context of your project.
What actual techniques your team applies will depend on your larger decisions as a team. Nothing about this reading is intended to require that you actually apply the ideas you individually develop here.
No more than one page of text in PDF format.
Submit via Catalyst here:
Due: Uploaded by the end of the day Friday, December 5, 2014.
Researchers and designers often re-invent. Instead it is valuable to take advantage of what is already known. To do this, you need to find and understand prior results. Find and read a research paper related to your project. The paper does not necessarily have to describe an app or device. For example, the research paper may describing the results of surveys or interviews on how people currently track something related to your project.
We have discussed a number of research papers in this class from HCI-related conferences such as:
But you might find a research paper in another related field, such as psychology or medicine.
Two sites that work well for finding research papers are Google Scholar and the ACM Digital Library. The search tool for the ACM Digital Library is pretty terrible. Google search of the Digital Library can often help, like this. These resources are easiest to access while on the UW network, but you can also access them off campus using the UW Libraries proxy.
If you wish, you can do this assignment in pairs from your project team. Please have only one person submit, and remember to include both of your names in the submission.
No more than one page of text in PDF format.
Also submit a PDF of the research paper you read.
Submit via Catalyst here: