Design Spec (Group)

Last revised date: 9/17/2026

Overview

Create requirements document, architectural design, and project timeline based on client feedback

Required Competencies

When you turn in this homework, also turn in these competencies

Assignment Details

Learning Goals for this assignment (competencies)

  • Participation, Effort and Teamwork
  • Inclusive Person Centered Design
  • Accessible Communication
  • Design/Disability Justice

Submission requirements for this assignment

  • Your requirements document (which must be accessible)
  • Your slide deck (Be prepared to present the slides (by sharing your screen) during class)
  • Your contribution statement (same as Client Engagement Spec). Please note that we will not grade submissions where this statement is missing.

Develop a requirements document

1. Overall Goals and Requirements

You have now met with your clients twice. The Inclusive Person Centered Design competency should demonstrate your ability to base design decisions on first person perspectives. This includes understanding the stakeholders; learning from them; and designing for them. With this in mind do the following (you will need about one paragraph for each of the four questions below, possibly more for the last question)

  • Describe goals of your project, including 2-3 specific tasks you will support. Describe the steps the user must take to accomplish each task and how your interface supports this?
  • What requirements will your final prototype be able to fulfill?
  • What user interactions will it support?
  • What data from your first two client encounters guided these decisions?

Note that your proposed design will need to have at least one fully implemented component by the end of the quarter, however any physical parts and/or sensing components can be simulated as part of your design vision.

2. Client Reflection

You’ve now met with your clients twice – once for interviews, and once to test your lofi prototype. Based on your client engagement, reflect on the following questions (to be assessed on the Design/Disability Justice rubric). This will be about 2 paragraphs long (one per question)

  • How did client data influence the tasks you selected?
  • How does your design go beyond surface characteristics of clients to engage with their whole selves intersectionally without oversimplifying (particularly their disability identity plus their racial, cultural, or gender identity or sexuality)?
  • How does it enhance client agency and control while minimizing harm?

3. Storyboard

Use images of your lo-fi prototype or sketches to outline a storyboard of the complete experience of using your system, from the first approach to the system, to walking away from it. Make sure it creates a cohesive experience and that each step is connected to a functionality need. Create 2 or 3 storyboard flows that show off each step for each of the tasks mentioned above. The storyboards should each have at least 3 panels – one to enter the scene, one or more for interaction steps, and one to exit the scene

4. Architectural design document

Turn this proposal into an architectural plan. This may take up multiple pages, since lists can be long

  • Identify the different subsystems and components of your project, how and when they will need to interact. Note that these are not just what the user sees, but also might include things like a backend server, Web API, and so on.
  • Include a figure (diagram) showing how the different systems and components are connected and how they interact and exchange data. Please also describe the figure in one paragraph.
  • Add a list of all the components required for each subsystem.

Here is a reading about Understanding Software Architecture that shows several common design patterns for software architectures.

5. Timeline

Break down how you will achieve this between now and the end of the quarter

  • Include a specific plan for what each member of your group will do each week
  • You should show course milestones, but the timeline must be more specific than the milestones

A common approach to doing this is to use a gantt chart. Here is a reading about how to use a gantt chart for project management

Plan your Presentation

(Graded on Accessible Communication)

Create a presentation that covers the following topics

  • Overall goal of your design (1 slide)
  • Explain how your design reflects what you learned from clients (1-2 slides with quotes) and how it engages them intersectionally (1 slide)
  • Describe your tasks and storyboards (2-3 slides depending on number of tasks)
  • Present your architectural diagram and explain it (1 slide)
  • Show your timeline (1 slide)

Be prepared to present accessibly and ensure your slides are accessible.

Inclusive Person Centered Design (rubric)

  • A link to the first person account(s)
  • A reflection answering the following questions
    • What first person account(s) did you find and does it meet the requirements for a first person account described above
    • How do their intersecting identities (e.g., race, gender, socioeconomic status) shape their experiences of disability? Are there any groups or identities missing from the accounts you found, and what impact might that have on your understanding of the problem?
    • How can your project goals address barriers that arise from multiple intersecting systems of oppression (e.g., racism, ableism, sexism)?
    • What insights or lessons did you learn from them, and how would you define your project goals based on them?
    • How would you define success for this project, and how will you determine if it has positively impacted your target users? What measures will you take to avoid reinforcing existing biases or excluding certain identities?

Accessible Communication (rubric)

  • Your document as required by the assignment. Note: do not submit a PDF. We expect your submission to be a Word or Google Doc in most cases.
  • A list of images and the ALT text you wrote for each of them
  • Which best practices are demonstrated in this document
  • A screen shot showing the accessibility checker results for your document

Design/Disability Justice (rubric)

  • Define and explain two disability justice principles. For each, explain how the subject fails or succeeds to meet that?
  • Address the three additional points
  • Analysis of potential harms and mitigation strategies
  • [TODO: make more concrete or delete] Evidence of engagement with clients' whole selves intersectionally

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