Project

Important dates:

Kickoff and team formation (detailed description and rubric available): Tuesday, February 27
Proposal due: Friday, March 15
In-class pitches: Tuesday, March 19 and Thursday, March 21
Progress report due: Thursday, April 4
In-class project updates: Thursday, April 4
Final presentations: Tuesday, April 23 and Thursday, April 25
Final deliverables due: Friday, April 26

Overview

For your final project, you will design a prototype interface to address one or multiple needs of a specific user group. This will give you an opportunity to apply the principles of HCI and user research techniques to a specific application area. Interim deliverables, completed with your final project teammates, will be the building blocks for your final project. You will work in teams of 3-4 for this project.

The prototype should take into account the principles of HCI as well as your findings from the formative research activities you conduct for the interim deliverables. You must document how your final design incorporates knowledge from the class and from your formative research activities. The prototype does not have to be fully functional, but it needs to be interactive enough to convey the interface design to others. You may use prototyping methods and tools of your choice.

Your project topic should fit under one of the following themes.

Coordination and collaboration. You will design a system that provides value to users by facilitating or improving upon ways of working together in teams. Some example interactions that your system might support include operating in shared virtual or digital environments, writing collaboratively, or scheduling and delegating tasks over time. Examples of existing systems that fit this theme are Trello and VRGit.
Prosocial co-located interaction. You will design a system that provides value to users by enhancing social outcomes of face-to-face interactions among people. Some examples that your system might support include sharing memories, mediating turn-taking, or sparking conversation. Examples of existing systems that fit this theme are the Project IRL apps and Who’s Next.
Connecting with nature. You will design a system that provides value to users by helping them learn about, appreciate, or interact with nature. Some example interactions that your system might support include keeping an outdoor adventures diary, identifying insects, or suggesting accessible forest trails. Examples of existing systems that fit this theme are AllTrails and Merlin.

If you would like to explore a theme that is not on this list, please send me an email (cc’ing your teammates).

You are encouraged to think outside the box in terms of your topic and your prototype. Many teams will prototype smartphone apps, but remember that smartphones are not the only form. Right now, and again when you use task-oriented design to specify intended interactions, consider whether another kind of physical device (like a watch, a robot, a kitchen appliance, or something entirely different from any of these!) is better-suited to your audience, domain, and problem.

Since this is a class project, you do not have to get IRB approval. However, if you think you may be interested in continuing your research on this topic beyond the class, I strongly encourage you to write an IRB application now. The IRB application forces you to think through all of the components of doing ethical and cleanly-structured research, so if you complete it, it can serve as the basis for your written deliverables about your method and process. If you would like to work on an IRB application, please send me an email so I can provide guidance.

Steps

This project takes place over approximately 8 weeks. Aside from the midterm and readings, you will have no other assignments during this time, so you’re expected to be working on your project consistently throughout the time frame (and you’ll need to be doing so in order to meet the milestones). You will visit every step in the Design Thinking process and describe your engagement with each phase through written reports and presentations.

Overall, the arc of your project goes like this:

[Week 1] Choose a theme from the above list.
[Week 1] Choose a design problem that will be the basis for your project. Your design problem should be specific and solvable (not a big-picture issue like “forgetfulness” or “online bullying” that can’t be solved). It should pertain to a particular set of users in a particular domain. By “a particular set of users”, we mean that you should focus on designing for a specific population or activity (e.g., students, parents, truck drivers, shoppers in brick-and-mortar stores, etc.). By “a particular domain”, we mean that you should situate your work in a specific area of life (e.g., health and well-being, education, food, the workplace). You must be original and think beyond the obvious in choosing a design problem — you cannot simply propose adding a feature to an existing app. You should also keep in mind that your understanding of your design problem is a starting point; it may change as you conduct your initial research activities.
[Weeks 1-2] Conduct background research. Find out and describe what, if anything, others have done to address the problem. Consider looking through the proceedings of conferences that are relevant to HCI (e.g., ACM CHI, ACM DIS) and using Google Scholar to identify relevant research papers. Consider the commercial products that already exist in your domain of choice: Do any of them provide a solution to the design problem you intend to address? If so, what is that solution missing?
[Weeks 2-3] Conduct needfinding research. Perform generative research interviews with 2 participants from the target user group. Create an affinity diagram based on your notes. Recall that affinity diagramming should be done as a team, ideally 24-48 hours after the interviews. The interviews may or may not be contextual, and may or may not involve props, storyboards, think-alouds with an existing interface, etc. Review what you’ve learned in class about how to research early-stage design concepts and choose the method(s) that are best-suited to your project. You will need to justify your methodology. It can be difficult to determine the best method for every problem, and you may not be fully confident that yours is a perfect fit. This can happen even once you’ve thought through alternatives and concluded that your plan is the best way forward. Working through this uncertainty and articulating motivations for design decisions to which there is no objective right answer is part of the process.
[Weeks 3-4] Define tasks. Based on your needfinding exercises, determine the tasks that the interface will need to allow users to perform. Write 2 scenarios that that you can revisit as you flesh out the interactions that your interface will afford. You may find that at this point, you cannot quite pin down all of the tasks and requirements for your design. If this is the case, it can be useful to return to needfinding. Consider interviewing another potential user or two and revisiting your affinity diagram to see if you can gain more clarity through a different way of organizing the information.
[Week 4-5] Ideate and create a lo-fi prototype. Create a low-fidelity prototype that will allow you to start testing your design. The assumption is that you will make paper prototypes, but you can make other kinds of prototypes if there is a good rationale for doing so given your design plans. Your prototype must incorporate design principles and allow a user to complete all three of the tasks that you specified.
[Weeks 5-6] Evaluate and refine. First, conduct a heuristic evaluation of your prototype. This should be done within your team and should not involve external users. It is expected that you will use Nielsen’s 10 Usability Heuristics, but you may use other heuristics or define your own if you have a good rationale for doing so. Determine what you need to change based on your heuristic evaluation and make those changes. At this point, you may choose to re-implement your prototype in medium fidelity (e.g., as a very bare-bones interactive mockup) as part of your revision. Then, conduct usability tests with your revised prototype. Conduct these tests with 2 or more participants. For each test, document the participant’s background, the context of the test, the test protocol, and any critical incidents. Thoroughly document what you learn after each evaluation (first heuristic (internal), then usability (external)) and what changes you make to your design based on those learnings.
[Weeks 6-7] Finalize a hi-fi prototype. Transition your prototype into a higher fidelity mockup of the design based on the final low-fidelity prototype. It is expected that the mockup will be a digital mockup with key frames to illustrate the design, but alternative forms can be considered provided there is a good rationale. The mockup should effectively communicate all critical aspects of the design, including how it supports the two primary tasks. Additionally, the mockup should be created in an appropriate manner for the final report, website, and poster. You should use tools and software of your choice to create the mockups. Some example tools are Adobe XD, Figma, and Keynote. See the resources page for relevant links.
[Week 8] Communicate your design. Write a 12-16 page paper that summarizes your work. By this point, you will already have written a project proposal (which describes the motivation, background, and method for your work), a progress update (which describes preliminary findings), and possibly an IRB protocol. If you’ve been keeping up with the deliverables, the final paper should, in large part, “write itself” based on all of the work you’ve done up to this point. Of course, you’ll have some information to add about the last steps of your project (if you’re sticking to this schedule, that starts with the evaluation of your low-fidelity prototype).

Grading

The project will be evaluated primarily based upon (1) the degree to which the interface effectively takes into account the principles of HCI and findings from your formative research activities (interim deliverables) and (2) how well the interface conveys the design. Clear articulation of your thought process, both in writing and verbally, is a crucial aspect of designing for and engaging with end users and clients. Therefore, clarity of expression will also factor into the assessment of all written and presented project components. The breakdown of the grading for the final project is as follows:

Component	Points
Interim deliverables	20
Final report	15
Final presentation	10
Teammate assessment	5
Total	50

By default, all members of a group will receive the same grade on the interim deliverables, final report, and final presentation portions of the project (worth 45 points, or 90% of the project grade, all together). Each written deliverable should be submitted to Blackboard once per team, not once per person.

The teammate survey will be graded individually and used in determining how many of the remaining 5 points (10% of the project grade) each person will receive.

I reserve the right to further adjust individual project grades in extreme cases, i.e., if there is a consensus among teammates that a group member went truly above and beyond or that someone really did not pull their weight.

More details about what is expected for each project component are in the sections below.

Important note about deliverable requirements: The requirements for each component are phrased as questions. The list of questions should be treated as a checklist that I will use when grading and that you should use as you write, revise, and review your work. Your submissions must be written in paper format (i.e., paragraphs of prose) — do not write out the questions as headings and answer them one-by-one. Moreover, you do not necessarily need to answer the questions in order; the answers just need to be clear somewhere in your submission.

Interim deliverable 1: Project proposal

This deliverable encompasses parts 1, 2, 3, and part of 4 in the “Steps” section of this document.

Proposal

Due: Friday, March 15

Form your team, identify your topic, and choose a team name. Your team name can be related to you/your project or just something random or fun. Then, write a ~3-page proposal document that describes your topic, discusses relevant background literature and any existing systems that address the design problem, and outlines your plan for the rest of your project.

Your proposal is worth 7 points and must address the following:

What is your team name? Who are the team members? (1)
What is the problem, gap, or opportunity that your proposed interface seeks to address? Note which theme it falls under, and be specific in describing your target population and domain. (2)
What has been done about it so far? Discuss at least 1 existing tool or interface and cite at least 1 relevant research paper. (1.5)
Who are the stakeholders involved in your proposed work? You may include a stakeholder map. (1)
What is your timeline? Include milestones for initial needfinding, task definition, low fidelity prototypes, high-fidelity prototypes/mockups, evaluation, and writing your final paper. (1.5)

You will submit your proposal as a PDF to Blackboard by Friday, March 15.

Pitch presentation

In-class on Tuesday, March 19 and Thursday, March 21

Each team will give a 3-minute pitch presentation in class on Tuesday, March 19 or Thursday, March 21. When you start your pitch, please introduce yourself and your team. Then, summarize your proposal: state your design problem, explain why it needs to be solved, and discuss the needfinding activities that you will conduct to test your assumptions and better characterize the problem. You are welcome to include specific questions or prompts about aspects of your project that you’d like feedback on. What’s important here is that you communicate to your classmates the design question you want to address and how you plan to address it – don’t worry about making perfect slides.

Please sign up for a pitch date as soon as you’ve solidified your team, and no later than March 12. There are a limited number of slots for each date, and sign-ups are first-come, first-served.

Link to pitch sign-up sheet

Each team will receive feedback from the class via a google form. You should incorporate this feedback in subsequent stages of your project.

Link to pitch presentations feedback form

The pitch presentation is worth 3 points.

Interim deliverable 2: Mid-project update

This deliverable encompasses at least parts 4, 5, and 6 in the “Steps” section of this document. Depending on where you are with your project, it may also include parts 7 and 8.

Progress report

Due: Thursday, April 4

Write a 1-2 page progress report that details your work so far. Your progress report is worth 7 points. The expectation is that you will have completed your task definition and started creating your low-fidelity prototype by the time you submit ths deliverable. However, we are deliberately leaving some room for flexibility here, and different groups will have made different amounts of progress at this point. Therefore, there is no question-list rubric for this assignment. Instead, your progress report will be graded holistically based on the progress you’ve made since the pitch and your explanation of your work to date. You can look to the final paper requirements for additional guidance on what to include in this progress report.

Consider the following questions:

What have you achieved so far?
What were the major takeaways from your needfinding activities?
What problems have you encountered? How have you solved them?
How has your understanding of the design problem changed since your proposal?
What changes do you need to make to your plans (timeline, delegation of work among teammates, etc.) to achieve those goals?
What contributions has each team member made so far?
How did you incorporate the feedback you received about your project pitch?

Progress update presentation

In-class on Thursday, April 4

Each team will give a 3-minute project update presentation in class on Thursday, April 4. The goal of the update is to allow you to get a final round of feedback from your classmates and instructors before you move into the final phases of your project. Describe your progress to date. Explain how you made use of the feedback you received from the pitch presentation. Describe any challenges you’re facing, explain how (if at all) you’ve deviated from your original plan, and note what your next steps are.

Again, please sign up for a slot using the sheet linked above. All teams will present on the same day, but we’ll still create the presentation order based on the sheet.

Again, you’ll give and receive feedback.

Link to progress update presentations feedback form

The progress report presentation is worth 3 points.

Final deliverables

Report

Due: April 26

Your final report will take the form of a 12-16 page paper. This page length guideline is based on a double-spaced, 12pt font, 1-inch margins format. You may use a different format if you prefer (e.g., ACM/IEEE two-column; single spacing) but please make sure the length is commensurate with this guideline (a 16-page single-spaced paper is too long).

Your paper should describe your entire design process, starting with your design problem selection. It should then review related work, describe your needfinding and problem (re-)definition process, and present your tasks. Then, it should discuss your prototypes in detail: explain your low-fidelity prototype, report on the findings from your evaluation of it, describe how you refined your idea based on those findings, and present your final high-fidelity prototype. Use images and figures as needed. You may reuse text and images from your interim deliverable reports in your final report as appropriate.

Your report is worth 15 points and will be graded based on the below criteria. For categories worth more than 1 point, a breakdown of is provided (except for the “Presentation and clarity” category, which is judged holistically). Credit may be given/deducted as half and quarter points for rubric areas that are addressed only partially or superficially.

Does the paper meet basic formatting requirements (page limit, team names)? (1)

Motivation: Does your paper describe the problem or opportunity? Does it effectively explain how your design fits into or improves the current state of the world? Are relevant sources cited? (2)

Score	Description
2	Motivation is thoroughly explained, with details about the context of the work, justification for why the work should be done, references to existing literature and/or systems
1	Motivation is stated, but with minimal details/elaboration

Empathize and define stages: Does your paper describe needfinding interviews with at least 2 stakeholders? Is the process described complete (addressing the protocol, context of the interviews, analysis, etc.)? Does it report on what was learned from the interviews, and do the insights detailed move the project forward? (2)

Score	Description
2	Report of needfinding activities includes description of two stakeholder/participant meetings and includes details about the participants, protocol (time/place/questions asked), analysis (e.g., group discussion, affinity diagram), and takeaways
1	Paper mentions needfinding activities with 2 stakeholders, but report lacks significant details about protocol, analysis, or insights OR Only 1 person is interviewed, but report is thorough (see above)

Ideate and prototype stages: Does your paper describe the initial paper prototype and detail how it meets the user needs you discovered and the tasks you defined? (2)

Score	Description
2	Lo-fi prototype is described with details about the design decisions that were made in creating it and why those decisions were made (and, if applicable, how subsequent mid-fi prototypes built on preliminary sketches)
1	Lo-fi prototype is mentioned, but lacks significant details about how it addressed insights from early-stage research activities

Internal and external testing: Does your paper report the details of your heuristic evaluation (protocol and findings)? Does it report on your usability testing with users (protocol and findings)? Does it describe how the insights gleaned from testing were incorporated into your final prototype? (3)

Score	Description
3	Describes internal and external evaluation, for, both, provides details about methodology, problems or gaps identified, how the team incorporated the findings going forward
2	Describes internal evaluation and mentions external feedback, but user testing portion is lacking significant detail (e.g., “the participants found it easy to use”)
1	Describes internal evaluation but no external evaluation OR Describes external evaluation but no internal evaluation

Final prototype: Does paper present your final prototype and describe the interactions it affords? (2)

Score	Description
2	Paper showcases the final prototype in a format appropriate to the project (e.g., screenshots for an app) in enough detail that the intent of the design can be understood, and body text describes prototyping methodology (e.g., what tools were used) and what interactions are afforded
1	Prototype is present, but either the presentation of the prototype itself or the accompanying text lacks sufficient detail

Presentation and clarity: Is the report well-organized and easy to follow? (2)
Holistic evaluation: Overall, and despite omissions and/or weaknesses in other rubric categories, does your report meet the objectives of the assignment? (1)

Presentation

In-class on Tuesday, April 23 and Thursday, April 25

Your team will give a 10-minute talk about your project on either April 23 or April 25.

Your presentation should describe the motivation for your work, showcase the final prototype, review what you created during each stage, and describe your evaluations and refinement. You should also be sure to explain how you incorporated feedback (from your classmates, instructors, and participants) along the way, and highlight the most important takeaways from the project. You should also explain what your next steps would be if you were to continue this work.

Use the same sheet as before to sign up for a final presentation slot.

Because we will have a number of presentations to get through over two class periods, your presentation must be no longer than 10 minutes. Points will be deducted for presentations that are too long.

The final presentation is worth 10 points.

Teammate evaluation

Toward the end of the project, you will complete a teammate assessment. The assessment will ask you to reflect on your own and your teammmates’ contributions to the project.

Credits

This project description is inspired by, and modifies some language from, Yale’s CPSC-429/529: Introduction to HCI semester-long course project.