CSE 440 - Introduction to HCI - Winter 2025

Assignment 5: Poster

Due: Wednesday, March 12, 11:59pm

Revision Due: Friday, March 14, 3:00pm

This assignment is a component of Milestone 5. Be sure you have reviewed that larger context for this assignment.

The goal of this assignment is to create a poster and a pitch that communicate your design to a broad audience.

Create a poster that communicates your design and your design process. Present your work in a visual form that quickly conveys its most important aspects. Your poster should include:

  • Project Title
  • Logo
  • Group Names
  • Problem
  • Key Idea or Approach
  • Key Functionality
  • Key Design Insights

Your poster should emphasize images and include limited amounts of text. For consistency and ease of printing and display, your poster should be 32" x 40" (i.e., portrait, vertical).

The staff have assembled several templates you can use as a starting point:

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

Make sure all images you include are clear and legible (e.g., with appropriate contrast). Re-make images as necessary to ensure this (e.g., by taking new photos in better lighting, by instead using a scanner, by re-creating a piece of a paper prototype using ink that will create a better image).

Poster Session

During the final poster session, your team should be ready to give a 30-second pitch to a small group of judges. Prepare a pitch that summarizes the problem and your design. This pitch should convince an audience that your problem was worth investigating and that your design suggests a compelling direction.

The final poster session is not graded, but instead serves as a celebration of your work.

Submission

Due: Wednesday, March 12, 11:59pm

Revision Due: Friday, March 14, 3:00pm

Submission via Canvas is required. Due to frequent challenges in printing, submit both:

  • A PDF of your poster.
  • The source file for your poster (e.g., a PPTX file, a text file containing a Figma link with edit access).

Be sure:

  • This is a group submission. Ensure your section and names of all group participants are appropriately clear.

  • Review and follow guidance on Clarity and Presentation.

  • Names of participants should be replaced with pseudonyms in all documents. It is important to protect participant anonymity, even in the case that reporting seems harmless.

Submit via Canvas here:

https://canvas.uw.edu/courses/1779838/assignments/9882203

Submit a revision via Canvas here:

https://canvas.uw.edu/courses/1779838/assignments/9882202

In Class

We will bring 8.5" x 11" printed copies of your initial poster for in-class critique and refinement.

Completion Grading

Initial submission of this assignment will be graded on completion of the following components:

  1. Complete Draft

    A complete draft sufficient for in-class discussion and critique. This draft should include an appropriate attempt at each of the final components of the poster. It might also include specific notes or questions to support in-class discussion.

Grading

Final submission of this assignment will be graded on a scale of 28 points:

  1. Design Name: (2 points)

    Choose a short, creative, and marketable name that captures the key idea or approach in your design.

  2. Logo: (2 points)

    Include an attractive project logo.

    This may be the same logo you prepare for your web post, or you may use a variation that you feel is more effective in a poster format.

  3. Group Member Names: (1 point)

    Appropriately include the full names of each member of your group.

  4. Problem: (3 points)

    Concisely and effectively convey the problem your design addresses.

  5. Key Idea or Approach: (3 points)

    Concisely and effectively convey the key idea or approach of your design.

    If needed as context for key functionality, include an image that provides high-level design context for key functionality.

  6. Key Functionality: (6 points)

    Concisely and effectively convey at least 2 key aspects of design functionality.

    This does not require walkthrough of your focus tasks, but should instead effectively convey key functionality in a poster format.

  7. Key Design Insights: (6 points)

    Concisely and effectively convey at least 2 key design insights that shaped your design. These can be key insights you want to share from any point in your design process (e.g., developed during your design research, developed during your iterative prototyping).

    Provide enough context for a person to understand how you reached these insights (e.g., concisely convey evidence from design research or iterative prototyping).

  8. Clarity and Presentation: (5 points)

    Clarity and presentation are weighted more heavily than in prior assignments, corresponding to the expectation of a polished presentation of your work.

Prior Samples

Samples are from prior offerings that had different requirements. Samples are also intended only to illustrate a variety of approaches, and were not selected to be ideal or exemplary. These may help to see how prior students approached elements of a project, but be sure to understand and consider requirements and feedback in your own work.