Important!
This year we would like you to submit a contribution statement along with each group submission (for all assignments, not just for Assignment 1!). Include this contribution statement at the top of your submission, along with the names of your group members. Please note that we will not grade submissions where this statement is missing.
An example contribution statement for Assignment 1b is:
Please know that we do not expect everyone to contribute equally to each assignment, but you should try to work as a team and support each other. You should also discuss and agree among each other what each of you contributed and how much this contributed to the overall assignments. We know these percentages are subjective and messy, so don’t overthink them (we wont either).
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 5 out of 100 points of your overall course grade:
This assignment consists of three milestones.
Assignment 1a: Project Brainstorm
Due: Friday - April 5, 2019
Assignment 1b: Project Proposal
Due: Wednesday - April 10, 2019
Assignment 1c: Revised Project Proposal
Due: Friday - April 12, 2019
This quarter’s project theme will be “Improve something out there”! This means you will have a unique chance to pick some interactive piece of tech that already exists and re-think it to make people happier about using it. Although you can start with something you know and love (or hate) you will also need to design for another group of people who is different from yourself. We will aim to make a really exciting design contribution to a product or service that will improve the user experience for different groups of people.
As part of your project, you will start from a design domain that you are really interested into, for example, traveling, gaming, health care, etc. Then, you will need to define what are the specific user needs your project will support and what activity you would like to design that will help address these needs. Think about how that activity is currently supported, what doesn’t work about current ways of supporting it, and how your solution will do this better. The specificity of addressing particular groups of people allows you to deeply think about what makes each group unique and how your solution will best support them. So, dive in and see what you can come up with!
Think about the problems that people face in their lives, how we can approach those problems, and the role for interactive technology. Your proposal MUST go beyond a technology-centric proposal of a webpage, phone application, or interaction. This first assignment is your opportunity to think broadly about identifying a real and relevant problem. Subsequent assignments will provide opportunities to focus on designing a specific technological solution to a specific set of tasks.
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 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, 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:
Finally, the project requires that your proposal presents contrasting diverse groups of users. But you will ultimately follow your design process where it leads you. 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.
Due: Friday - April 5, 2019
Friday’s section will focus on brainstorming potential project directions. You will get started on thinking, and help seed this brainstorming project, with some individual ideas.
You should upload the assignment individually, building on the ideas that your group had during the brainstorm in section. (It is okay to upload the same ideas as others in your group.)
Propose three sets of domains, problems, and goals you would like to tackle in this course.
By domain, we mean an aspect of daily life. Domains 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. Your 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/1271349/assignments/4770556
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 1 point:
Due: Wednesday - April 10, 2019
Propose and analyze a problem that could form the basis of a design project for this class. (Making use of high-quality references is strongly recommended.)
In one paragraph, describe the problem you want to tackle and motivations behing it. 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:
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/1271349/assignments/4770557
This proposal will be graded on a scale of 3 points:
Due: Friday - April 12, 2019
Update the project proposal based on the feedback you received from the staff. Describe the changes that you made from the previous version in one to two paragraphs.
The submission should describe the changes made from the previous verion on the first page, followed by the updated proposal.
https://canvas.uw.edu/courses/1271349/assignments/4770558
The revised proposal will be graded on a scale of 1 point: