CS 565 Project: Spring 2019

CS 565 Project, Spring 2019

Your mission is to re-design a substantial user interface, carefully and thoroughly following the methods and principles from CS 565. Guide your efforts by following the PRICPE process.

Project Ideas

As announced in class, choose a "patient" from the list here.

Project Part 1: Introduction and Scope: (PRICPE)

Due date: See the main class web page. For the electronic part, use TEACH.

Your proposal should include the following:

  1. Name of team members
  2. Project description: what do you want to do. What's interesting about your project from a usability perspective: concerns with the patient, etc. (about 1 paragraph).
  3. At least 3 scenarios you want to be able to support in a way that is much more usable than the system currently is for these scenarios. Each scenario should be some kind of "main" task your user would probably want to accomplish, not something trivial like just logging in. Example if your patient is "google map for the inside of a bookstore": "Scenario 1: Abi wants to find science fiction books using this app.").
  4. Your representative user will be "Abi". Customize their background to make them a suitable user for your project. Abi cannot be a software developer and cannot be a Computer Science student unless the student is just taking their first programming class. Turn in an edited version of customizable Abi. You'll be using this persona all term.
  5. You'll need to find someone to observe who is similar to the background portion of Abi's background section (as you customized it). Who do you have access to that you can observe, who is "like" Abby?
  6. "P": predispositions. (From the perspective of factors that could affect USABILITY, what do you know, what do you NOT know?). Sample predispositions from a prior course (under slightly different requirements).

Tentative Grading Criteria for Project 1

Graded by: TBA, Total of 30 points

Project Part 2: Heuristic Evaluation (PRICPE).

Due date: See class schedule.

This is about doing "E", evaluating where problems lie in your patient UI, using an analytical method, namely Heuristic Evaluation using The GenderMag Heuristics. This will also become Chapter 2 of your final recommendations report.

Tentative Grading Criteria for Project 2

Graded by **TBA**, Total of 25 points

Project Part 3: Your users (PRICPE)

Due date: See class schedule. For the electronic part, use TEACH

This is part of the "R", mainly from your formative empirical work, stemming from the "P" part of your proposal above. It's also part of "E". Note that since the process is iterative, it is indeed allowable to expand the "P" (research questions) as you progress with finding out more about your users.

In this part, you'll observe 1-2 people who could be your users doing one of your scenarios from Project Part 1.

What to turn in:

  1. What are the research questions/goals (initially derived from the "P" in your proposal).
  2. Process: How did you proceed to answer these questions? Be detailed. For example, if you conducted an interview, list all the questions. Where and when did you collect the data? How did you set up to allow triangulation, etc.
  3. An exhaustive inventory of the elements we discussed in class:
    • The people in the space
      • 1. Who are they, what are they like?
      • 2. What are they doing?
      • 3. How are they doing it?
      • 4. What do their emotions, purposes, reactions seem to be?
      • 5. What problems do they encounter with their activities?
    • The objects (technological and otherwise) in the space and with the people
      • 1. What are the functional elements of the objects?
      • 2. What are the decorational elements?
      • 3. Which objects do people look for (perhaps to somehow interact with)?
      • 4. Which objects do people bring with them that matter to the activities they are trying to do?
    • The environment: spaces, architecture, lighting etc
      • 1. What is the layout?
      • 2. What is the environment like?
      • 3. How does it influence the activities people engage in?
      • 4. How does the environment support the objects above?
  4. Attach your raw data: detailed observations (verbal and non-verbal)
  5. With the detailed observations, point out the places that provide Results/Insights and say what they are ("I"):
    • What are the answers to your research questions?
    • What other insights did you get from this that are relevant to your "patient"?

What am I looking for:

Expected length: 6-10 pages, including words and sketches. For sketches, feel free to scan them in instead of drawing them on the computer.

Note: You can combine things into one file, or turn in separate files if it's easier (eg, a separate one for sketches?). The TEACH site will support several separate files.

Tentative Grading Criteria for Project 3

Graded by: **, Total of 30 points

Project Part 4: Concepts and early Prototype #1 (PRICPE):

Your team will fix some of the usability problems you've found, and show the resulting designs at Design Studio 1, for brainstorming and feedback. See main class web page for the date.
You'll turn in everything below by 11:59 pm. Make sure everything turned in is readable. Use the TEACH hand-in page.

Turn in the following:

How you will be graded: This prototype will be graded based on how well you addressed the details I asked you for (see list in this subsection), and the "correctness" of your fixes. This score will contribute a portion of your eventual grade for the prototype portion of the project.

You can give feedback to other teams here from Design Gallery #1 (until 5/19)

Grading Criteria for Project 4

Graded by: TBA, Total of 30 points

Prototype #2 (Mockups) (PRICPE):

Your prototype should show that you've made progress toward your final project, since last time:

Turn in the following, using the TEACH hand-in page:

Final Prototype (Mockups) and Team Presentation:

Due date is on the main class web page.
Turn in (1) your "runnable" Mockups prototype and 1-page "run instructions", (2) your recommendations report, and (3) your team's powerpoint presentation electronically on the due date. Use the TEACH hand-in page.

(1) Your runnable Mockups prototype plus 1-page run instructions:

(2) The recommendations report should contain the following:

(3) Your powerpoint file and your 20-minute team presentation (you can update it to improve it before you finally hand it in):

You can give your feedback on teams from their final presentations here (until June 7 at 2:30pm)

Date of last update: June 5, 2019