Project

Important dates:

Kickoff and team formation (detailed description and rubric available): Thursday, February 6
Pitch presentation in class and written proposal due (should include preliminary research): Tuesday, February 25
Needfinding report (including affinity diagram and storyboards) due: Thursday, March 20
Update presentation in class (include results from needfinding, storyboards, prototyping progress update): Tuesday, April 8
Lo-fi prototype & report due: Tuesday, April 8
Final presentations: Thursday, April 24 and Tuesday, April 29
Final deliverables and teamwork & course questionnaire due: Friday, May 2

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 2-4 for this project. You will need to be careful to ensure that the amount of work you set out for yourselves, and the division of tasks, is appropriate for the size of your team (i.e., if you have 4 people, you should have a good reason for having a larger team).

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:

Next-generation remote communication. You will design a system that provides value to users by facilitating or improving upon ways of interacting remotely. Some example interactions that your system might support include operating in shared virtual or digital environments, writing collaboratively when working together asynchronously on a paper, or improving social presence when connecting with faraway family and friends. Think outside the box: How might we improve upon the ways we connect when we’re apart?
Travel. You will design a system that provides value to users in the domain of travel. You should go beyond improving the designs of systems that facilitate obvious tasks like booking flights and navigating – instead, think about things that current travel-related apps and services do not offer at all.
Food. You will design a system that provides value to users in the domain of food. You can interpret this broadly; think about tasks like shopping for food, preparing food, organizing food, and eating with others. Again, go beyond the obvious – rather than making a better recipe app or website than any you’ve used before, consider what the designers of existing recipe apps and websites have not thought to design for.

These are intentionally broad, to give you room to explore. If you would like to explore a theme that is not on this list, please speak with me before preparing your written proposal and pitch presentation.

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. As you learn about the needs of your intended users and think creatively about the problem, you should 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.

Note about IRB: 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. If you choose to complete it, it can serve as the basis for the components of your written deliverables that address your problem statement and research methods (i.e., you will do more work upfront to clarify your focus and plan your study, but you will likely be able to copy-paste some of that work later). If you’re looking towards potentially continuing your project on your own after the class ends and/or would like to work on IRB documentation for your study, please send me an email so I can provide extra guidance.

Steps

This project takes place over approximately 11 weeks (12 if you include spring break). After the first few weeks, you will have no other assignments during this time except for studying for the two exams. You are 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 design problem that aligns with a theme from the above list to serve as 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 a specific context that pertains to one of the themes above (e.g., “video calling relatives far away”, “airports”, “recipe management”). 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 3-5] Conduct needfinding research. Perform generative research interviews with 3 or more people 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 looking at existing interfaces together with your participants. Review what you’ve learned in class about how to conduct formative research and choose the method(s) that are best-suited to your project. You will likely end up with a mix of methods, and you will need to justify your choices. After your needfinding research helps you crystallize your idea, create storyboards as the first step in getting your idea on paper. Your storyboards will help you envision the scenarios and tasks that your design will support, and give you a “script” of sorts for your lo-fi prototype. Note: 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 5-6] Define tasks and scenarios. 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 6-7] Ideate and create a lo-fi prototype. Create a low-fidelity paper prototype that will allow you to start testing your design. The assumption is that you will make paper prototypes like the ones we will learn about in class, 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 7-8] Evaluate and refine. Evaluate your lo-fi prototype within your team. At this stage, you are concerned with overall functionality and high-level design, not fine details or visual aesthetics. Does the layout make sense? Are there gaps in the user flow? Are the tasks you want to support all accounted for? Determine what you need to change based on your internal evaluation and make those changes. Then, conduct a usability test with your revised prototype 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 8-10] Finalize a hi-fi prototype. Transition your prototype into a higher fidelity mockup of the design based on the final low-fidelity prototype. The mockup should effectively communicate all critical aspects of the design, including how it supports the 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.
[Weeks 9-11] Communicate your design. Write a 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 and the feedback you have gotten from me and your classmates. Of course, you’ll have some information to add about the last steps of your project; the first step in this list that is not accounted for in the two interim deliverable reports is the the evaluation of your low-fidelity prototype, so from that point on, your paper should be new.

Note that some of the phases above overlap.

This timeline is a guideline, and you do not have to stick to it exactly. You should complete every step in detail, but don’t spend more time on something than you need to or rush through something just for the sake of following this schedule. The project deliverables are the only true deadlines.

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	Percentage of project grade
Deliverable 1: Written proposal	10
Pitch presentation	5
Deliverable 2: Needfinding report & storyboards	15
Mid-project update presentation	10
Deliverable 3: Lo-fi prototype & progress update	15
Final presentation	20
Final writeup	20
Teammate & course evaluation	5
Total	100

By default, all members of a group will receive the same grade on the presentations, interim deliverables, final report, and final presentation portions of the project (worth 95% 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% 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. As with all written work for this class, do not use ChatGPT or other similar tools except to make grammatical edits or generate images that help you explain ideas. (In other words: you can use AI-generated images to help you brainstorm. Your designs themselves should not use generative AI.)

Deliverable 1: Project proposal

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

Proposal

Due: Tuesday, February 25

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 ~2-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 must address the following:

What is your team name? Who are the team members?
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.
What has been done about it so far? Discuss at least 1 existing tool or interface and cite at least 2 relevant research papers.
Who are the stakeholders involved in your proposed work? You may include a stakeholder map.
What is your timeline? Include milestones for initial needfinding, task definition, low fidelity prototypes, evaluation, high-fidelity prototypes/mockups, and writing your final paper.

You will submit your proposal as a PDF to Blackboard by Tuesday, February 25.

Pitch presentation

In-class on Tuesday, February 25

Each team will give a 3-minute pitch presentation in class on Tuesday, February 25. 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 1. list your team name and teammates and 2. sign up for a final presentation date as soon as you’ve solidified your team. There are a limited number of slots for each of the two final presentation days, and sign-ups are first-come, first-served. You will find the team signup sheet on Blackboard.

Each team will receive feedback from the class and from me. You should incorporate this feedback in subsequent stages of your project.

Deliverable 2: Needfinding report & storyboards

Due: Thursday, March 20

This deliverable encompasses at least part 3 in the “Steps” section of this document. Depending on where you are with your project, it may also include part 4. Submit your storyboards, affinity diagram, and a 1-2 page report that details your findings from your needfinding activities (i.e., your interpretation of your affinity diagram).

Affinity diagram

Submit an image of the affinity diagram that you created based on your needfinding activities. Digital diagrams (e.g., using Miro) or photos of physical ones (e.g., using a whiteboard) are both fine. Regardless of which one you choose, please ensure that individual notes are legible. If you are uploading a PDF of a digital whiteboard, you need to check that the resolution is high enough that the text can all be read, even if reading it requires zooming in. If you are uploading photos of a whiteboard, please make sure your handwriting is readable and the text appears large enough in the images (this may mean you need multiple photos to capture your entire diagramO).

Needfinding report

Your report should address the following questions:

What have you achieved so far?
What were the major takeaways from your needfinding activities?
How has your understanding of the design problem changed since your proposal?
How did you incorporate the feedback you received about your project pitch?

Storyboards

Submit two storyboards depicting how your design could meet the needs you identified during your formative research. Your storyboards should follow the scenario -> idea -> outcome that we discuss in class. You should sketch your storyboard, or use simple 2D images - do not use photos or AI-generated images. Check the resources page for advice for creating storyboards as you work on this deliverable.

Progress update presentation

In-class on Tuesday, April 8

Each team will give a 3-minute project update presentation in class on Tuesday, April 8. 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, you’ll give and receive feedback.

Deliverable 3: Lo-fi prototype

In-class on Tuesday, April 8

By the time you get to the submission of this deliverable, you should have completed steps 4 and 5 in the list above. Depending on how your team is progressing through the design process, you may already be into step 6 and even 7.

Lo-Fi Prototype

Bring your lo-fi prototype to class. Make sure it’s packaged in such a way that it won’t fall apart and you won’t lose pieces – e.g., pieces of paper in a fastened plastic folder, physical props in a box. We will have a prototyoing workshop in which Prof. Reig and your classmates will test your prototype and give you feedback. If you prepare effectively for this workshop session, you can use it to conduct one or both of your usability evaluations. If you are not prepared with an usability study protocol by the time this workshop comes around, then you can use it to get preliminary feedback, and you will need to conduct the complete evaluation with 2 participants on your own time.

After class, submit a video walkthrough of your prototype to Blackboard. The video should:

Explain what the prototype is
Explain how you made it (e.g., paper, props, etc.)
Show a user (probably one of your team members) walking through all of the interactions and tasks that you intend for your prototype to support
Demonstrate everything clearly (check for segments that are too fast, too blurry, etc.)
Be no longer than 3 minutes

Final deliverables

Report

Due: Friday, May 2

Your final report will take the form of a 10-12 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 far 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 will be graded based on the below criteria. For categories worth more than 1 point, a breakdown 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)?
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?
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?
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?
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?
Final prototype: Does paper present your final prototype and describe the interactions it affords?
Presentation and clarity: Is the report well-organized and easy to follow?
Holistic evaluation: Overall, and despite omissions and/or weaknesses in other rubric categories, does your report meet the objectives of the assignment?

Presentation

In-class on Thursday, April 24 and Tuesday, April 29

Your team will give a 15-minute talk about your project on either April 24 or April 29. I will assign presentation slots randomly soon after teams are formed.

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.

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

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.