Assignment 2: Personas and Storyboards

Important dates:

  • Assigned: Monday, February 19th
  • Due: Friday, March 1st

Overview

In this assignment, you will create personas and storyboards based on one of a few different scenarios. You will complete and submit this assignment in pairs. You may choose to work with your teammate from the last assignment, or you can pair up with someone else.

Assignment details

Create two personas and two storyboards based on one of the following options. All content should be based on one option. Do not make persona 1 based on option 1 and persona 2 based on option 2; do not make personas based on option 1 and storyboards based on option 3, etc.

Options:

  1. Create personas and storyboards based on your contextual inquiry assignment.
    • The personas can be abstractions/fictionalized versions of the real people you interviewed.
    • For the storyboards, situate the proposed interaction in one of the specific contexts that you used.
  2. Create personas and storyboards based on your in-class task design activity.
    • The personas can be based on the characters that you wrote about when you created task scenarios in class.
    • In the storyboards, present scenarios that are based on supporting the tasks you defined.
  3. Create personas and storyboards based on a topic of your choice.
    • You may want to do this if you feel that your contextual inquiry work and/or task design practice were not particularly fruitful (which is completely okay – it happens in research), or if you already have a topic in mind for your final project and want to preview some ideas (though remember that you may completely abandon the storyboard ideas after your project-related needfinding activities).

You may come up with your own layout or use these templates. You may also search the internet for other template options, but be sure to check copyright and usage requirements and credit creators when appropriate. Regardless, you must include most or all of the same elements and at least the amount of detail specified by each of the templates above.

You may choose to make your personas and storyboards by hand with paper and pen, digitally, or via a combination (e.g., sketches by hand and text on the computer). Please make sure any handwritten text is legible.

Remember that the readings from last week and lecture 5.2 contain detailed explanation and numerous examples of both personas and storyboards. Additionally, there are some links in the Resources section of the website that may useful if you want to read more about personas/storyboards and/or see more examples.

What you’ll turn in

Your final submission should take the form of a single PDF (one document for the both of you). The document should include your two personas and two storyboards (1 page each = 4 pages in total), plus a cover page that addresses the following:

  1. Which of the three options above did you choose? Specify the design context and goals.
  2. How do your two personas complement each other and, together, ensure a broader coverage of the design space than one would alone?
  3. If you were to test your two storyboards with stakeholders, what would you hope to learn? What are the needs that you would be validating?
  4. Contributions: How did you divide the work? What was each partner’s role in creating the personas and storyboards?

You may answer these questions one-by-one or in paragraphs. Please use complete sentences either way. The most important thing is that we can understand and interpret all of your answers – the presentation and formatting are much less important.

Rubric

You will receive a grade out of 100% based on a 20-point rubric. You will be graded on whether the basic requirements of the assignments are met, how well your report addresses the questions above, and the overall clarity and organization of your work. By default, partners will receive the same grade. In exceptional circumstances, I may make adjustments to individual grades based on an individual’s contributions (or lack thereof).

Grading breakdown (total: 20pts)

Assignment requirements (12pts):

  • Basic instructions: Does your document include both teammates’ names, two personas, two storyboards, and a cover page? (1pt)

  • Personas: Do the personas contain a visual, a name, and additional basic demographic details? Are there additional details such as motivations, habits, goals, and skills? Is the amount and nature of details appropriate for the context and topic you’ve chosen? Are the two personas sufficiently different from one another? (4pts)

  • Storyboards: Do the storyboards each have a series of visuals and captions? Do they address a need, an idea/intervention/solution, and an outcome? Do the captions explain the visuals? How well do the two storyboards complement each other? (4pts)

  • Reflection: Does the reflection address the questions (2pts)

  • Does your report describe each team member’s individual contributions? (1pt)

    • Keep this brief (e.g., “We each made one storyboard and one persona and then gave feedback to the other person”).
Presentation and clarity (4pts):

Is the report well-organized and easy to follow? (4pts)

Holistic evaluation (4pts):

Overall, and despite omissions and/or weaknesses in other rubric categories, does your report meet the objectives of the assignment? (4pts)

Note about deadline

The deadline for this assignment is before spring break. The reason for this is twofold: first, to avoid assigning HCI work over the break (even if it were due a few days later, many people would still be thinking about/working on it during the week off), and second, to allow me to give you a midterm course grade that includes this assignment shortly after the midterm exam (more data in that calculation will give you a more complete picture of how you’re doing halfway through the course). I strongly encourage you to complete this within the two-week period, submit it by the deadline, and not have any assignments to worry about on the other side of the week off.

However, I understand that schedules and approaches to spreading out workloads vary widely, and I am happy to grant some flexibility as needed. If you believe it would benefit you to have some extra time on this assignment (think carefully about whether or not it really would!) and submit it after spring break, send me an email by Thursday, February 22nd and put “HCI Assignment 2” in the subject line of your email to make sure I don’t miss it. Please be aware that if you opt for extra time, I will not be able to grade your Assignment 2 until several days after the midterm exam, and it may not be included in the mid-semester grade you see shortly after the exam.