Project Timeline

Phase 1: Team Formation and Ideation (August 31 to September 8)

Goal: Your goal is to outline a problem that you will be solving, ideate a potential solution, and identify key responsibilities for each group member.

Discuss a few ideas among yourselves and seek feedback from me, if needed. Try making pros and cons lists for each idea before coming to me. Consider constraints such as access to participants, project scope, your backgrounds, etc. Once you have finalized the project, consider documenting the following:

• Problem: Begin by articulating the problem you have chosen to address. Document a clear and concise description of the issue that your project aims to solve. This is often referred to as problem statement.
• Target audience: Identify the intended users of the application you are developing. Clearly define the demographic or user group that will benefit from your solution.
• Solution Concept: Describe a potential solution to the identified problem. This should include details about the user interface (UI) and how it will effectively tackle the problem at hand. Keep in mind that your initial solution is not set in stone; it may evolve as you progress and gather feedback.
• Roles and Responsibilities: Document the roles that each team member will assume for this project. You will do this exercise for every section. For each team member, think about and document not only their role title but also a list of specific tasks they have accomplished or are responsible for within their respective roles. Feel free to modify or add roles as necessary to suit the project's unique needs. By following these guidelines, your team can effectively communicate project progress, roles, and objectives throughout the duration of each assignment. This structured approach will contribute to a well-organized and successful team collaboration.

Resources:

Deliverables: This will comprise the majority of your project proposal, due on September 15. Please create a slack channel for your group and a webpage.

Phase 2: User Research Plan, Data Collection, and Task Review (September 11 to September 29)

Goal: Your goal is to better understand the user and the problem. Document the following:

• Target Users: Identify the characteristics of of your target user(s). If your project involves various user categories (distinct stakeholder types), be sure to identify each of them. Develop one or more personas that represent your primary stakeholders.
• Data Collection Method and Plan: What kinds of data do you plan to collect and how? Document details about your data collection, e.g., details of people your observed or interviewed, interview questions or observational measures, duration of each session, type of data collected, e.g., hours of recordings, pages of transcripts, notes, etc.. If you made observations what kind of observations did you make? What were your thoughts as you collected the data?
• Insights Learned: Off-hand, what do you think your data tells you about the users? Were there any surprising insights that could inform your solution, its design, or both? If you conducted a formal thematic analysis, what were the emerging or conceptualized themes? Do you have a sense of user's mental model?
• Task Scenarios: Through user studies and independent analysis, determine the tasks of problem you have chosen and analyze their characteristics (minimum 6). In case, you cannot identify that many tasks related to your problem, consider delving into more specific tasks and exploring exceptional or emergency scenarios. Create "Task Scenarios" for various representative users and contexts. During this stage, concentrate on defining the abstract steps for each task and refrain from designing the interface. For each task, provide a clear goal, outline any prerequisites, list subtasks (if applicable), and enumerate potential exceptions or error scenarios. Expand each of the task scenario to a use case.

Resources:

Deliverables: User personas, data collection method, analysis, and findings, task scenarios.

Phase 3: Design Ideation, Narrowing, and Paper Prototyping (October 2 to October 20)

Goal: Your goal is to explore various design options and outline the visual aspects of your interface.

• Sketching Design Alternatives: Begin by brainstorming diverse interface designs. Sketch these designs by hand on paper, whiteboard, or a digital sketchpad. Afterward, select the design that appears most promising to further develop. While sketching, avoid delving into fine details like wording, icon aesthetics, or precise layout. Keep your sketches simple, focusing on conveying the user's mental model and aligning with your task analysis. It's crucial not to invest too much time in low-level details, as substantial changes may be required in subsequent design iterations. Document a minimum of three rough sketches showcasing different design alternatives you contemplated.
• Finalizing the Design and Storyboarding: Document the decision-making process that led to your final design choice.  For each of your use case, use storybaord to depict how your preliminary interface would be utilized to complete the task. Employ rough sketches to illustrate critical moments within each task.
• Evaluating Paper Prototypes: Decide how to implement the dynamic parts of your interface. Hand-sketching is still preferred. Prepare test tasks on separate index cards. Designate one person as the "computer" and another as the "facilitator," with any additional team members as observers (with the option to ask questions). Consider role rotation after each user test. All team members should practice "playing the computer" to ensure competence and confidence. Focus on functionality rather than speed. A few practice runs are sufficient. Verify that your prototype can execute the three selected test tasks effectively. Recruit 3-5 users who are as close as possible to your target demographic. Brief them and present them the same tasks and conduct post-interviews. 
• Building Computer Prototype: Create the initial "computer-based" implementation of your term project prototype. The prototype should have a high-fidelity appearance, allowing you to explore the graphic design for your final product. While it doesn't have to be pixel-perfect, it should represent the visual style you intend to use in the final product. In terms of functionality, the prototype should have a medium level of fidelity. For example, it will run on a desktop computer with a mouse and keyboard or a phone, but it doesn't need to support advanced interactions like drag and drop with high fidelity. You can simulate these interactions with animations or textual explanations in English. Your prototype should cover at least three scenarios from your task analysis and include all major screens or dialogs you expect in the final implementation. However, the depth of functionality should be low. Avoid implementing the backend, and use canned or random responses where system responses are needed. Keep coding efforts to a minimum. Certain aspects, like window resizing, platform independence (focus on Windows), and printing, should not be a priority for this prototype. You might use pop-up windows to show mock-ups of potential printouts.

Resources:

Deliverables: Prototype photos or videos, information about the users, briefing you gave to users, scenario tasks, observations, and results from interviews or other measures. You will be submitting your Getting the Design Right Document based on phase 2 and 3 on October 21.

Phase 4: Heuristic Evaluation, Usability Checking, and Usability Testing (October 23 to November 10)

Goal: Your goal is to get feedback on your design and iterate.

• Heuristic Evaluation: For your evaluators (likely going to be your classmates), create a dedicated web page, accessible through a link on your project web page. On this page, you should provide several key pieces of information. Firstly, include a direct link to your prototype, ensuring that it remains accessible and unchanged for a period of two weeks after the assignment's due date. Additionally, specify any platform, browser, cell phone requirements for your prototype, along with any special startup instructions. Make sure to include the briefing you delivered to users during the paper prototype phase, describing the application's purpose and providing relevant background information about the domain. Lastly, include the user analysis, task analysis, and scenarios that you developed in a previous assignment, as these elements offer crucial context for understanding your prototype and its intended usage. During this time you can continue implementing the "back-end" of your system to incorporate any functionality that you simulated initially using animations or text, but should not make any major changes to the UI.
• Prototype Revision: After receiving the heuristic evaluations, your next steps should involve assigning a severity rating (cosmetic, minor, major, catastrophic) to each identified problem and brainstorming potential solutions for them. Subsequently, modify your system to address as many of these identified issues as possible, prioritizing them based on severity. Ensure that you document the process of implementing these solutions.
• User Testing: You will conduct user testing of your system. This process involves preparing a briefing, three tasks, and, optionally, a scripted demo of your interface. You can use the same tasks as in your paper prototyping phase, but consider refining them based on previous feedback. However, be cautious when using a demo, as it may limit your ability to observe natural user behavior. Before the actual user test session, it's advisable to pilot test your briefing, demo, and tasks with another group member or a classmate. During the user test: Start with the briefing and, if applicable, the scripted demo. Then, present the tasks one by one, observe the user's interactions, and take notes. Assign one group member as the facilitator, with the others as observers. The primary aim of this process is to conduct a formative evaluation with each user, which will provide valuable insights to enhance your system's usability and functionality.
• Redesign: Gather usability problems from user tests, rate their severity, brainstorm solutions, and prioritize fixing severe issues in your implementation.

Resources:

Deliverables: Heuristic evaluation results with prototype revision, user testing with redesign. You will be submitting your Getting the Design Right Document based on phase 4 on November 11.

Phase 5: Redesign Implementation and Video Demonstration (November 13 to December 1)

Goal: Your goal is to polish your system for the final presentation and report.

• Implementing Redesign: Create a video demonstration of your solution. More details will be provided soon.
• Final Report: Merge the two documents together, publish everything on your project website. More details about the format will be provided soon.
• Video Demonstration: During our presentation, we will allocate 2 minutes to introduce the user problem we aimed to solve and to define our target user group, outlining their specific tasks. Following this, we will spend 6 minutes on a live demonstration of our system, with a focus on a sample task, during which we will explain significant design decisions. To ensure compatibility, the demonstration will be run on our computer, previously tested with the projector. Subsequently, we will dedicate 6 minutes to discuss major insights derived from our three user evaluations, encompassing paper prototyping, heuristic assessment, and user testing. During this time, we will allow for questions and answers, facilitating a smooth transition as the next team sets up. Lastly, in the remaining 1 minute, we will conclude with a brief summary, highlighting key takeaways, lessons learned, and any considerations for potential improvements.

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Deliverables: A link to your prototype, final report, presentation slides, and poster.