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 Thursday, September 28, 2017 (before section on Friday, September 29,2017)
Assignment 1b: Project Proposal
Due: Uploaded Monday, October 2, 2017
Due: Submitted Wednesday, October 4, 2017
The theme for projects in this course is tracking beyond the self, an extension of personal informatics:
Personal informatics systems are systems that help people collect personally relevant information for the purpose of self-reflection and gaining self-knowledge.
Self-tracking and personal informatics are closely related to the Quantified Self movement, which emphasizes:
Self-knowledge through numbers.
As a focus for Autumn 2017, we will ask students to explore tracking beyond the self. Instead of limiting self-tracking to dashboards for an isolated self-analyst, we will ask students to consider the many different ways people might gather and interact around personal data.
Tracking can therefore take many mobile forms:
Tracking can include many social contexts:
And tracking can explore new forms of interaction:
Any problem where people gather or seek value in personal data introduces opportunities and challenges in designing for effective interaction around that data.
Examples of widely-used personal informatics systems exist in a variety of domains. Some designs emphasize passive tracking (e.g., via sensing), while other designs emphasize more active engagement (e.g., via journaling). Of course, there also many axes along which designs can vary:
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. Instead 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. Instead 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 specific people. 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 your thinking to include new ideas for interaction techniques or technology platforms. Do not feel constrained by current devices or immediate implementation, 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. This concept has not been implemented, and might not even be immediately possible. But it has been developed in substantial detail, understanding implications for design and implementation:
Similarly, projects from prior offerings can help you be comfortable thinking beyond immediate implementation:
Finally, the project theme requires your proposal present some opportunity for tracking beyond the self. But you will ultimately follow your design process where it leads you, which may or may not emphasize tracking. Focusing on problems and opportunities, rather than specific design features, will leave room for your design to emerge and be refined in the course of this project.
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 within the timeline and constraints of this course, and worthy of investigation.
Due: Uploaded Thursday, September 28, 2017 (before section on Friday, September 29,2017)
Friday’s section will focus on brainstorming potential directions for project proposals.
The goal of this milestone is to help get you started in thinking up some ideas, which will also help seed brainstorming.
Propose three starting points for brainstorming domains, problems, and goals that might be supported via self-tracking.
By domain, we mean an aspect of life. Domains that are already common in self-tracking include:
Be sure to focus on problems and goals, not potential design solutions. One way to help yourself identify a hierarchy of problems and goals is to ask “why?”. For example:
Each idea should be a single sentence, identifying the domain and the problem or goal. At most one of your ideas may come from any of the domains above. You other two ideas should be from domains not in this list, in order to broaden the brainstorm. Ensure the ideas are significantly different, not small variations on the same idea.
Ensure your name and section are at the top of your submission.
No more than one page of text in PDF format. Submit via Canvas here:
https://canvas.uw.edu/courses/1173784/assignments/3902386
If you are still attempting to add, or otherwise unable to access the submission system, submit via the instructor email address.
In section, be prepared to contribute your initial ideas as part of a larger brainstorm.
This milestone will be graded on a scale of 3 points:
Due: Uploaded Monday, October 2, 2017
The goal of this milestone is to propose and analyze a problem that could form the basis of a design project for this class.
In one paragraph, describe the design 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 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 practices could 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:
Samples from prior offerings include:
Note that details of assignments may have changed since prior offerings, so their reports may not map to the current project. Also note these samples are intended to illustrate a variety of approaches, none of which is intended to be ideal or exemplary. Be sure to understand and carefully consider project requirements and feedback from the course staff in the context of your own work.
Ensure your name and section are at the top of your submission.
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/1173784/assignments/3902388
This proposal will be graded on a scale of 10 points:
Due: Submitted Wednesday, October 4, 2017
Review the sponsored projects and course staff comments regarding those projects:
https://canvas.uw.edu/courses/1173784/discussion_topics
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://goo.gl/forms/AdQ11KQeQpMZgDv72
Submitting a project bid is a requirement for proceeding in the class.