Assignment 4: Communicating Your Design

Overview

You have identified a problem, explored a design space, selected a promising design, and iterated on that design. It is now time to focus on communicating your design and your design process. This group assignment communicates your design through a website, a video prototype, a poster, and a pitch.

This assignment is worth 15% of your overall course grade:

Assignment 4f: Poster Session is intentionally not graded.

Milestones

This is a group assignment, consisting of six milestones.

Project Description

In this assignment, you communicate your design in several forms. You will create a website, a video prototype, a poster, and a pitch to present your work from the entire quarter.

  1. Create a project website that provides an overview of the project, presents your design process, and introduces team members. At a minimum, it must include links to your Assignment 2 report, your Assignment 3 report, your video prototype, and your poster. Optionally, also include your presentations or other materials. Ideally, much of this same content will also be presented in a manner more appropriate for the web.

    Be sure you have updated any documents that course staff said needed fixed before posting (e.g., any report that accidentally included participant identifying information).

  2. Create a video prototype that illustrates your proposed design. Use the storyboards you created as a basis for your video prototype. Be sure you video conveys all of:

    • the problem
    • the design
    • the context
    • the satisfaction

    Refer to the examples provided in lecture, as well as videos from prior classes, for creating an effective video.

    It is critical that your video be short enough to remain engaging while delivering its content. Your video prototype should probably not be more than 2 minutes long.

    A modern phone can capture video of adequate quality for this assignment.

  3. Create a poster that communicates your design and your design process to a general audience. The goal is to present your work in a visual form to interested parties from across campus or from industry. You need to quickly convey the most important aspects of your work. The poster must be 32"x40" (portrait, vertical).

  4. Create a pitch that you can deliver together with your poster. This should summarize the problem and your design. It should be no more than 1 minute long. This pitch should convince the audience your problem was worth investigating and that your design effectively addresses it.

Deliverables

4a: Initial Website

Due: Uploaded Monday, March 11, 2019.

The goal of this milestone is to post an initial project website as part of the course website.

We will use your websites to advertise the poster session. Although this is an initial website on which you will get feedback and will be able to update, you should submit a complete and high-quality version of your website appropriate for advertising the course projects.

Your website will be served from a subdirectory of this course website.

Within the GitHub repository of the course:

https://github.com/uwcse440/web-cse440-wi19

You will submit your website as a set of static files in your project directory:

angular-workspace/src/assets/projects/**projectpath**

It is also linked via a thumb from the projects page:

Projects Page

You should provide an appropriate 150x150 thumb at:

angular-workspace/src/assets/projects/**projectpath**/project_thumb.png

You can build your website however you like, but everything needed for your site must be in your directory. Do not attempt to integrate with the functionality used for this course website. Simply build your website and submit the set of static files to be served from your directory. Because you must provide a set of static files for your website, you may not use external site builders (e.g., Wix).

Because your website will be served from a directory, be sure to use relative paths within your source.

You will later add your video to the website. You may want to plan ahead for that additional content.

Samples from Prior Offerings

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.

Submission

Submit a pull request containing your website. We will merge as quickly as possible. You can submit multiple requests as needed to fix issues or improve your website. Your request should not modify anything outside your project website.

Submit simple pull requests early so that you become familiar with this functionality. Do not wait until the final moments to begin to learn how to do this.

If you are absolutely unable to submit a pull request, submit via Canvas here:

https://canvas.uw.edu/courses/1254716/assignments/4635400

Contribution Statement

This requirement was not included in prior offerings. It does not appear in prior samples.

Your submission must also include a team contribution statement, as an additional page in your submission.

This statement should indicate the name of each member of your team, the percentage of effort in this specific assignment that each member contributed, and the specific activities in this specific assignment that each member contributed.

An example contribution statement is:

  • Name 1: 40%, researched the background of the problem, outlined the content of the document, wrote the first version of one paragraph, selected the images to be included
  • Name 2: 15%, conducted 3 interviews and took notes
  • Name 3: 20%, wrote the first version of the background section, made sure the final document was submitted
  • Name 4: 25%, organized the group meeting, conducted 3 interviews (with Name 2), put together the first draft of the document's results section

This contribution statement is intended to support your own reflection as a team as well as the staff's awareness of your efforts. You should therefore discuss and agree upon this statement of what each of you contributed and how much this contributed to the overall assignment. The staff does not expect each person to contribute equally to each assignment, but you should work as a team to support each other, and we expect all members will contribute over the quarter. The staff also understands that percentages are incomplete and subjective, so we gather them only as a summary indication and will not use them directly in any grade calculation.

Grading

This milestone will be graded on a scale of 8 points:

  1. Completeness of Content: (3 points)
  2. Appropriately Clear and Polished Presentation: (3 points)
  3. Submitted via Pull Request: (2 points)

Your website should be complete and will be evaluated as such. But later critique and refinement will help further improve it before the final poster session.

4b: Initial Video Prototype

Due: Uploaded Monday, March 11, 2019.

The goal of this milestone is to create a video that communicates your design to a broad audience.

Remember it should probably not be more than 2 minutes long.

You are required to include appropriate captions for the accessibility of your video. The staff has prepared simple instructions on how to do that using a script of your video together with YouTube's captioning tools:

https://canvas.uw.edu/files/53767196/download?download_frd=1

Be sure to check the quality of the resulting captions and correct them as necessary.

Samples from Prior Offerings

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.

Submission

Submit via Canvas here:

https://canvas.uw.edu/courses/1254716/assignments/4635407

Contribution Statement

This requirement was not included in prior offerings. It does not appear in prior samples.

Your submission must also include a team contribution statement, as an additional page in your submission.

This statement should indicate the name of each member of your team, the percentage of effort in this specific assignment that each member contributed, and the specific activities in this specific assignment that each member contributed.

An example contribution statement is:

  • Name 1: 40%, researched the background of the problem, outlined the content of the document, wrote the first version of one paragraph, selected the images to be included
  • Name 2: 15%, conducted 3 interviews and took notes
  • Name 3: 20%, wrote the first version of the background section, made sure the final document was submitted
  • Name 4: 25%, organized the group meeting, conducted 3 interviews (with Name 2), put together the first draft of the document's results section

This contribution statement is intended to support your own reflection as a team as well as the staff's awareness of your efforts. You should therefore discuss and agree upon this statement of what each of you contributed and how much this contributed to the overall assignment. The staff does not expect each person to contribute equally to each assignment, but you should work as a team to support each other, and we expect all members will contribute over the quarter. The staff also understands that percentages are incomplete and subjective, so we gather them only as a summary indication and will not use them directly in any grade calculation.

Grading

This milestone will be graded on a scale of 6 points:

  1. Conveys Problem, Design, Context, and Satisfaction: (3 points)
  2. Appropriately Clear, Polished, and Timed: (3 points)
  3. Appropriately Captioned for Accessibility: (3 points)

Your video prototype should be complete and will be evaluated as such. But later critique and refinement will help further improve it before the final poster session.

4c: Initial Poster and Pitch

Due: Uploaded Wednesday, March 13, 2019.

The goal of this milestone is to create a poster that communicates your design to a broad audience.

Your poster should include:

  • Logo
  • Project Title
  • Your Names
  • Problem
  • Value Proposition
  • Key Functionality
  • Design Process and Iteration

Your poster should include images and limited amounts of text.

An effective poster size is 32"x40". A PowerPoint template is available here:

Cow Project PowerPoint template

You should heavily modify the template to be unique and represent your project.

During the final poster session, your team will give a one minute pitch to a small group of judges.

Be prepared to give your pitch. Course staff and other students will give feedback so you can improve before the final poster session.

Samples from Prior Offerings

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.

Submission

Submit your poster via Canvas here:

https://canvas.uw.edu/courses/1254716/assignments/4635408

Your poster may be in PPT, PPTX, or PDF format. We have a color plotter that can print posters this size. Your source file is due as above, we will then coordinate with you for proofreading and printing.

Be prepared to give your pitch.

Contribution Statement

This requirement was not included in prior offerings. It does not appear in prior samples.

Your submission must also include a team contribution statement, as an additional page in your submission.

This statement should indicate the name of each member of your team, the percentage of effort in this specific assignment that each member contributed, and the specific activities in this specific assignment that each member contributed.

An example contribution statement is:

  • Name 1: 40%, researched the background of the problem, outlined the content of the document, wrote the first version of one paragraph, selected the images to be included
  • Name 2: 15%, conducted 3 interviews and took notes
  • Name 3: 20%, wrote the first version of the background section, made sure the final document was submitted
  • Name 4: 25%, organized the group meeting, conducted 3 interviews (with Name 2), put together the first draft of the document's results section

This contribution statement is intended to support your own reflection as a team as well as the staff's awareness of your efforts. You should therefore discuss and agree upon this statement of what each of you contributed and how much this contributed to the overall assignment. The staff does not expect each person to contribute equally to each assignment, but you should work as a team to support each other, and we expect all members will contribute over the quarter. The staff also understands that percentages are incomplete and subjective, so we gather them only as a summary indication and will not use them directly in any grade calculation.

Grading

This milestone will be graded on a scale of 8 points:

  1. Initial Poster: (3 points)
  2. Initial Pitch: (3 points)
  3. Clarity and Presentation: (2 points)

4d: Final Poster, Final Video, Final Website

Due: Uploaded Friday, March 15.

Course staff need your finalized poster as soon as possible, to organize printing and preparing for the poster session.

Finalize your video prototype and website so we can finalize grading.

Submission

Submit your final poster as soon as possible here:

https://canvas.uw.edu/courses/1254716/assignments/4635409

Submit a pull request containing your website. We will merge as quickly as possible. You can submit multiple requests if needed to fix issues or improve your website. Your request should not modify anything outside your project website.

Submit simple pull requests early so that you become familiar with this functionality. Do not wait until the final moments to begin to learn how to do this.

Depending on how you embed your video in your website, it may or may not be part of the pull request. For example, embedding a YouTube or Vimeo player does not give us your video. We therefore explicitly ask that final videos also be submitted via Canvas here:

https://canvas.uw.edu/courses/1254716/assignments/4637124

Contribution Statement

This requirement was not included in prior offerings. It does not appear in prior samples.

Your submission must also include a team contribution statement, as an additional page in your submission.

This statement should indicate the name of each member of your team, the percentage of effort in this specific assignment that each member contributed, and the specific activities in this specific assignment that each member contributed.

An example contribution statement is:

  • Name 1: 40%, researched the background of the problem, outlined the content of the document, wrote the first version of one paragraph, selected the images to be included
  • Name 2: 15%, conducted 3 interviews and took notes
  • Name 3: 20%, wrote the first version of the background section, made sure the final document was submitted
  • Name 4: 25%, organized the group meeting, conducted 3 interviews (with Name 2), put together the first draft of the document's results section

This contribution statement is intended to support your own reflection as a team as well as the staff's awareness of your efforts. You should therefore discuss and agree upon this statement of what each of you contributed and how much this contributed to the overall assignment. The staff does not expect each person to contribute equally to each assignment, but you should work as a team to support each other, and we expect all members will contribute over the quarter. The staff also understands that percentages are incomplete and subjective, so we gather them only as a summary indication and will not use them directly in any grade calculation.

Grading

Your final video, final website, and final poster will each be graded on a scale of 10 points.

Poster

  • Content: (5 points)
    • Includes all of the points listed above
    • Key features of the design are clear
    • Gives insight into the design process
  • Presentation: (5 points)
    • Large images that show the key parts of the design
    • Only minimal and appropriate use of text
    • Text is large and legible
    • Colors and fonts are a pleasing combination and easy to read

Video Prototype

  • Content: (7 points)
    • Conveys the problem addressed by the design
    • Conveys the design itself
    • Conveys the context of interaction
    • Conveys the satisfaction of the design
  • Presentation: (3 points)
    • Reasonable level of production value
    • Appropriately edited and paced

Website

  • Content: (5 points)
    • Includes all of the points listed above
    • Key features of the design are clear
    • Gives insight into the design process
    • Links to your reports and video prototype
  • Presentation: (5 points)
    • Looks professional and is something you would consider including in a design portfolio

4e: Team Peer Feedback

Due: Submitted Monday March 18. 2019.

Submit peer feedback using the form distributed to the class by email.

4f: Poster Session

Due: Attend 4:30-5:30, Wednesday, March 20, 2019.

Come to the poster session to show off your work and engage with your classmates. Present your pitch to a team of judges.

Take the opportunity present your work, chat with judges, engage with other students, and reflect on a busy and productive quarter.

We will not be conducting any evaluation at the poster session itself.