Now that you have chosen a design, it is time to iteratively refine that design. This group assignment, spanning multiple weeks of the course, tackles the problem of getting the design right through paper prototyping, inspection, and user testing. Design refinement culminates in a digital mockup.
This assignment is worth 20% of your overall course grade:
In this assignment, you will iteratively improve your design. You will construct a paper prototype informed by your earlier work. You will then use inspection to identify and correct issues in the paper prototype. You will next conduct a series of three usability tests, further identifying and correcting issues in your paper prototype. You will create a digital mockup that captures the result of your design process. Finally, you will present your design process in a report and presentation.
Develop a paper prototype for your design. It should convey all critical aspects of your design, including support for testing your two primary tasks.
This prototype has been informed by your prior sketching and storyboarding. But it also contains more details than your prior exploratory designs. If necessary or appropriate, revise your tasks or scenarios based on what your learn in prototyping.
Conduct a heuristic evaluation of your paper prototype. You will perform an evaluation in class, and can supplement this with your own evaluation.
Revise your paper prototype based on what you learn in heuristic evaluation. Your tasks and scenarios are likely stable, but revise them if your evaluation reveals a need.
Conduct usability tests with three participants, each completing your two primary tasks.
Make a log of critical incidents during the test, including both positive and negative events. For example, a person might make a mistake or might comment on something they like. Write it down along with a description of the context of the incident. Later you will discuss and prioritize these events, assigning a severity rating to problems (ranging from 0 for no problem to 4 for usability catastrophe).
You should not use friends, members of the class, or people you know to have engineering backgrounds. You also should not use people who have been previously exposed to your project. Target an appropriate set of participants based on your contextual inquiry and resulting design.
Be sure to divide your team into roles when conducting the usability test. There is simply too much for a single person to conduct a test. As discussed in class, these roles include the facilitator, the computer, and one or more observers.
As part of your introduction, have your facilitator show the participant how to interact with your design. Do not show participants how to perform your tasks you will later test. Instead show them how paper prototyping works, how your system generally works, and give an example of something specific that is sufficiently different from your tasks.
Consider recording your tests to allow you to see exactly what happened. If you do this, ensure your recording preserves the anonymity of the participant. Frame your shot such that you capture interaction with the prototype without unnecessarily capturing the participant.
Each participant should perform both tasks. Keep the data separate for each participant and each task. Keep participant names confidential, and preserve anonymity in your reporting. Remember participation must be voluntary, participants should be free to stop at any time, and you should emphasize that your focus is on identifying usability issues in the design.
Revise your paper prototype based on what you learn in usability testing. This can and should include fixing major issues as soon as they are detected, before additional tests. Your tasks and scenarios are likely stable, but revise them if your evaluation reveals a need.
After refining your paper prototype based on your usability testing, construct a digital mockup of your design.
Do not begin working in digital prototyping until you finish revising your paper prototype. It is much easier to iterate on your design in the paper prototyping phase. As you transition into digital prototyping, you will consider other aspects of the design. These details you may not have considered (e.g., visual design, layout, color, typography), but can also include constraints or mismatches introduced by the technology itself.
We have no strong preference to what digital tools you utilize to create your mockup. But it must be digital (e.g., you may not use pictures of a hand-drawn sketch).
Some recommendations from the course staff include:
You will use this digital mockup to effectively communicate your design in your final report, website, and poster. Some tools support creation of interactive mockups (e.g., allow clicking active regions to move between screens). This would add additional capabilities to your website, and you are welcome to use such a tool. But interactive mockups are neither expected nor required.
Implement your digital mockup to include key frames that illustrate your design. It should convey all critical aspects of your design, including walkthroughs for your two primary tasks.
Summarize your design process in a report and presentation.
Develop a paper prototype for your design. It should convey all critical aspects of your design, including support for testing your two primary tasks.
Submit detailed images of your paper prototype. Include both:
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 Canvas here:
https://canvas.uw.edu/courses/946041/assignments/2756905
Bring your prototype to class. You will need it to conduct Heuristic Evaluation.
This milestone is worth 1% of your total grade. It will be graded based on:
Conduct a heuristic evaluation of your paper prototype. You will not be able to complete this if you do not bring your prototype to class on Tuesday, Feb 10, 2015.
Each team will split in half to conduct heuristic evaluations, pairing with another half-team from a different project. For 15 minutes, one half-team will conduct a heuristic evaluation of the others’ paper prototype. After 15 minutes, groups will reverse roles. Each half-team will therefore conduct and receive one heuristic evaluation. Each team will therefore receive two evaluations of their prototype.
Evaluators will use the provided sheets to record issues identified in evaluation. Include what heuristic is violated, and a severity rating (ranging from 0 for no problem to 4 for usability catastrophe).
Revise your paper prototype based on what you learn in heuristic evaluation. Your tasks and scenarios are likely stable, but revise them if your evaluation reveals a need.
The evaluated project will keep the completed evaluation sheets, so they can use them to improve their design. The evaluated project should be careful not to lose these, as their contents will be submitted in the next assignment.
At the end of the in-class exercise, the course staff will confirm your participation.
This milestone is worth 1% of your total grade:
You received two heuristic evaluations of your paper prototype. If desired, you may also conduct a heuristic evaluation or cognitive walkthrough for your own paper prototype. Also complete one usability test with your paper prototype.
Present your iterative revisions and your plan going forward:
Discuss your first usability test. Provide a description of the test, including the participant, the environment, why you chose this participant and environment, the test protocol, and the roles of each team member who participated in the test. Discuss anything you learned about the testing process itself, or any revisions you decided you need to make to your testing process.
No more than three pages 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 Canvas here:
https://canvas.uw.edu/courses/946041/assignments/2756911
In section, be prepared to discuss your iterative revision of your paper prototype. Also bring your prototype to section. You will need it to demonstrate for critique.
This milestone is worth 1% of your total grade:
Complete your three usability tests and finalize your paper prototype according to what you learn.
Present the results of your usability testing and your final paper prototype:
Discuss your three usability tests. Provide a description of each test, including the participant, the environment, why you chose this participant and environment, the test protocol, and the roles of each team member who participated in the test. Briefly discuss revisions you made in your process and prototype over the course of your testing.
No more than three pages 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 Canvas here:
https://canvas.uw.edu/courses/946041/assignments/2756913
This milestone is worth 1% of your total grade:
Create your digital mockup based on your final paper prototype. The mockup should effectively communicate your design in a manner appropriate for your final report, website, and poster. Implement your digital mockup to include key frames that illustrate your design. It should convey all critical aspects of your design, including walkthroughs for your two primary tasks.
Note decisions or changes you need to make as you transition from paper to a digital representation.
Present your digital mockup together with discussion of the decisions and changes you made:
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 Canvas here:
https://canvas.uw.edu/courses/946041/assignments/2756914
This milestone is worth 1% of your total grade:
Prepare a report documenting your design process. 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.
Prepare a report documenting your process of getting the design right. 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.
Title
A short, creative, and marketable title capturing the key idea.
Each Team Member’s Name and Role
Problem and Solution Overview: (1 paragraph)
A concise statement of the problem you are tackling and a brief synopsis of your proposed solution. Consider updating this from your previous report to reflect the scope of your final design.
Initial Paper Prototype: (1 page)
Present your original paper prototype, as a baseline against which this report will present your iteration. Convey the critical aspects of your design, including your two primary tasks.
Testing Process: (1 page)
Present your testing process, including your method and your participants. This process probably evolved some in the course of your project. For your report, present a retrospective on how you refined your design.
Testing Results: (2 pages)
Summarize the results of your paper prototype testing and refinement. Present what you learned about each version of your prototype and what changes you made as a result. This will include changes from your heuristic evaluation, usability testing, and design critique.
Final Paper Prototype: (1 page)
Present your final version of your paper prototype, as you did for your initial paper prototype above. Convey the critical aspects of your design, including your two primary tasks.
Digital Mockup: (1 page)
Present your digital mockup. Convey the critical aspects of your design, including your two primary tasks. Briefly discuss any changes you needed to make as you switched to your digital tools instead of paper. Briefly discuss any changes you made in response to critique. Include descriptions of how your design supports each of your primary tasks (e.g., one paragraph per task).
Discussion: (1 page)
Reflect upon and discuss your project and your results. For example:
Appendix:
Attach copies of all materials involved in your testing. Includes any instructions or task descriptions you handed out or read aloud to your participants. Include identified critical incidents from your usability testing. The appendix materials and screenshots do not count in your page limit.
No more than eight pages of text in PDF format, following the above outline.
Images and your appendix 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/946041/assignments/2756915
This milestone is worth 10% of your total grade:
Prepare a presentation of your process in getting the design right. It should encompass all of your work in Assignment 3.
A suggested organization of this presentation is:
Title:
A short, creative, and marketable title capturing the key idea. Include team member names and roles.
Overall Problem:
Tell this as a story, instead of simply reading the slide. Motivate your audience to be interested in your problem.
Initial Paper Prototype:
Present your initial paper prototype. Convey the critical aspects of your design, including your two primary tasks.
Testing Process and Results:
Describe your testing process, what you learned from it, and how you refined your prototype as a result.
Final Paper Prototype:
Present your final paper prototype. Convey the critical aspects of your design, including your two primary tasks. This might be shorter than your presentation of the initial paper prototype, because you already presented changes and are about to present the digital mockup. Keep your presentation appropriately paced instead of getting bogged down here.
Digital Mockup:
Present your digital mockup. Convey the critical aspects of your design, including your two primary tasks.
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.
Note that we have not provided recommendations for the number of slides in each section of this presentation. You can deliver your presentation using as many or as few slides as you want, as long as you successfully address the above points and the presentation falls within the eight-minute time restriction.
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:
Canvas link to be added
Presentations will be split across the class time and the two sections. Those teams who are not presenting in the section should still attend the section. The distribution of the teams across class versus sections will be flipped for the final presentation.
Feb 26, Thu, 10:30-11:50am (class)
Feb 27, Fri, 10:30-11:20am (section A)
Feb 27, Fri, 1:30-2:20am (section B)
The presentation is worth 5% of your total grade. The evaluation criteria include the following.
The delivery of this presentation will contribute to the individual presenter’s participation grade (1% of total grade) and will be evaluated based on: