Sketching
One of the goals of this course is to be able to think critically about existing objects and interactions and come up with ways of improving them, as well as coming up with and communicating ideas for new so-lutions to different problems. It is also good to practice sketching design ideas, so that you become more comfortable and more experienced. Thus, for Weeks 2-7 of the quarter, you will keep a sketchbook in which you will document your thoughts about objects or interactions in your daily life and sketch ideas for how they could be improved. Each week, we will have an open-ended topic, a theme, or a specific design problem to tackle. You will do three sketches on design solutions related to that topic. For the open-ended questions, you just have to come up with any new product idea or improvement to an existing product. For projects that are specific, you will design three alternate ideas that solve a more specified problem based on user research. For weeks that are themed, you can come up with any idea, as long as it meets the theme. For example, if the theme was “Cooking & Eating,” you might redesign your toaster knobs, come up with a new recipe organization tool, or a smart refrigerator. The idea can focus on an entire system (e.g., smart refrigerator) or one specific interaction (e.g., new toaster knobs). The focus is on the quantity of sketches and ideas and not the quality. The best way to have a good idea is to have lots of ideas. Futuristic, off-the-wall, and original ideas are welcome and encouraged!
The topics for each week will be as follows:
S1: Open-ended: Sketch three new improvements or design ideas to any problem you want
S2: Theme: Health: Sketch three ideas relating to health, wellness, rehabilitation, therapy, exercise, nutrition, etc.
S3: Theme: Recreation, Fitness & Sports: Sketch three ideas relating to playing sports, moving your body, exercising, spectator sports, outdoor activities, etc.
S4: Specific: Mobile Phone Re-use: Use Huang & Truong reading as your user re-search, sketch three ideas for how you might re-use recycled cell phones
S5: Specific: Your Project: sketch three ideas for solutions to your team project’s design ques-tion based on your own user research
S6: Theme: Education: Sketch three ideas related to class lectures, assignment turn-ins, elementary school education, classroom designs, special education, etc.
Every Thursday for weeks 2-7 of the class (6 total weeks), you must bring your sketchbook to class with at least three new sketches related to the topic for that week. Each sketch must be on a single page, numbered and dated. The back of each sketch page should also be left blank to leave room for notes and critique signatures. You will break into small groups to discuss and critique each others’ sketches and get feedback on your ideas, and each critiquer will sign your sketches indicated that you’ve discussed them. Take good notes during these sessions, as you’ll need them for your reflection assignment. At the end of the quarter, you will turn in all your sketch ideas and the critiques from class discussion.
Project
P0
For this deliverable, you will declare your team’s design question for your group project and complete a form that organizes the team.
For your project, come up with a single design question your group will explore. As you consider questions, ask yourselves: does your question identify a specific population of people? What specific activity is it trying to improve? Remember, design questions start with “how can…” A good design question does not imply any particular solution in any particular media. Think carefully about each word you include in your research question. What does it mean? Is it necessary to understand or is it too vague?
In addition to your design question, you should come up with 3-5 research questions relating to your design question. These questions are things you’ll need to answer regarding your user research for P1, such as who you need to talk to, when this will be used, where it will be used, etc. Research questions start with who, what, when, where, why.
What to hand in?
Complete the Team Form with information on each member of your group. Much of the information will be helpful to you as a group, but the photos especially will help the instructor learn your names so that we can award your participation marks.
You should also submit the following:
- Your carefully crafted design question based on the criteria above
- 3-5 research questions you need to answer to make progress on your
- A short 2-3 sentence statement about who you think interested stakeholders in your project are
P1
For this deliverable, you will use different methods for understanding the potential stakeholders involved in your project which will attempt to answer the research questions you developed for P0. The methods you can choose from include contextual inquiry, design ethnography, surveys, interviews, focus groups, observations, diary studies, etc. The most important part of this assignment will be in choosing the appropriate methods that complement each other and accommodate for the weaknesses of each other (e.g., you might complement direct observation with participant observation, in-depth exploration with several people vs. broad exploration with many people, etc.). Once you have collected your data, you will analyze it to produce design requirements and refine your design question based on your user research.
What to do?
Define Stakeholders – Your first step in this process will be to determine the primary stakeholders for your design problem. You should consider who will actually be using the system, but you should also consider anyone who might be affected by the system as well, even if they are not direct users. For example, if you were designing a health record system for a hospital, your primary users might be doctors, nurses, and billing specialists. However, other stakeholders would certainly be patients and their families, and possible insurance companies who have to process the claims. Create a list of stakeholders and define each of them.
Conduct Three User Research Methods – Choose three different complementary methods that are appropriate for understanding the users for whom you are designing. Make sure you can justify your reasons for choosing those particular methods, and understand how the strengths of one can complement the strengths of another. Conduct these methods with actual stakeholders. The number of people with whom you choose to work is up to you, but make sure it is appropriate for the method. Because this is a class project, it is okay if you do not do as many as might be suggested in the literature. Focus on determining the goals of your stakeholders and the context of use. Your write up for this section should include a description of the three methods chosen, a description of the people with whom you worked, justification for the chosen method, and a summary of the findings.
Define Design Requirements – Once you have collected data from your three methods, take a look through your data and compile a list of design requirements. What are the major requests? What are the breakdowns you observed? The contexts of use for which it should be able to work? The “ah ha!” insights? This should be presented as a bullet list of things your solution should do (e.g., “The solution should work on a mobile device, because nurses are often moving from room to room”).
Refined Design Question – Thinking about what you have learned from your user research, use this to refine your design question developed in P0 if needed. This might be changing the scope, re-focusing it, or making it target a specific user population. Provide your edited design question and a 2-3 sentence explanation on why you changed it (or did not change it).
Written Report
- A document containing your written summary of the assignment. This should include the stake- holders list with descriptions, a 1-2 paragraph summary of each of the methods used and your justification for choosing them, a 1 page summary of the findings from your user research, a list of user design requirements, and your refined design question and explanation.
- An appendix of any materials used in your user research, such as your list of interview questions, scanned raw notes from observations, photos from an ethnography, the survey questions you asked, etc. This does not have to be formatted neatly, but will serve as proof of your execution of the design methods. Please note that your report should stand alone without seeing the appendix (e.g., make sure you still summarize and synthesize the results in your report).Your submission can be formatted however you like, but please use at least an 11 pt font in the report with clear headings for each required section. Bring the printed report to class with all team member names on it. Only one report per team please.How will it be graded?
- Outstanding – The assignment is complete (includes stakeholder definition, research method descriptions, summary of findings, design requirements list, personas, refined design question, and appendix of method materials) and is of superior quality. The report is well- written, professional, in-depth, and the writing is insightful.
- Great – The assignment is complete and of high quality. The report is well-written, professional, in-depth, and the writing is reflective and insightful.
- Good – The assignment is complete and of good quality, but the points could be better articulated, be more insightful, or more thorough. Report may contain minor problems with formatting or grammatical errors.
- Satisfactory – The assignment is mostly complete and of satisfactory quality, but the points could be better articulated, be more insightful, or more thorough. Report may contain problems with formatting or grammatical errors.
- Unsatisfactory – The assignment is incomplete or is of lower quality. The points are not well articulated or thorough enough. Report may contain major problems with formatting or grammatical errors.
P2: Ideation & Sketching
By this point of the project, you should have a good understanding of the stakeholders for whom you are designing and their needs. You should now be thinking about ways that you can design or redesign technology to meet the needs of those users. As we have been learning in class, sketching is an important component of the design process. For this assignment, you will begin thinking about ways design might be able to address the needs you found during your user research stage.
What to do?
Conduct at least one brainstorming ideation session (there will be class time dedicated to this) during which your team meets in the same location to brainstorm and sketch as many ideas as possible that could meet your users needs. Have your design requirements handy when you do the brainstorming session as a source of inspiration. You should plan on generating at least 6 sketches per member of the team (e.g., 24 sketches for a team of 4). Each sketch should represent 1 distinct idea on a single sheet of paper, either as a whole system, or as a part of a system. The neatness and quality of the sketch is not important, as long as the idea is clearly conveyed to others on the team. Ideas can range from mundane and practical to far out and crazy. Feel free to build off of each others’ ideas as well during the brainstorming process.
Once you have exhausted all of your ideas, you must then critique and filter the sketches. Either immediately after or during a separate meeting, you should, as a team, go through the sketches one-by- one and discuss the strengths, weaknesses, feasibility, and originality of each of the ideas (similar to how we did this in class). Then, sort the sketches into piles using affinity diagramming to group ideas that go together. Then rank the piles based from the most promising to least promising according to the criteria listed above. By the end of the critique session, you should have chosen the 3 most promising ideas. For each of these three ideas, re-sketch the idea more neatly (and perhaps with more details and annotations) and write a short statement (1-2 paragraphs) explaining the idea, its strengths and weaknesses, and why it is more promising than the others with regard to feasibility and originality. Your justification should state why the ideas meet the needs you identified in P1.
What to turn in?
- Photocopies, scans, or originals of all the sketches generated during the brainstorming session.
- A document containing the resketches of your 3 most promising ideas and the 1-paragraph written justification for each sketch. This document should be about 3 pages (1 per sketch – the sketch plus the paragraph).All of the materials must be collected neatly and attached to one another. If you have small pieces of paper, please attach them to regular sized sheets of paper. Make sure each of the team member’s names are on all of the materials.
How will it be graded?
- Outstanding – The assignment is complete (includes at least 6 sketches per team member and the document declaring your 3 best ideas and justifications) and is of superior quality. The report is well-written, professional, in-depth, and the students are reflective and insightful.
- Great – The assignment is complete and of high quality. The report is well-written, professional, in-depth, and the students are reflective and insightful.
- Good – The assignment is complete and of good quality, but the points could be better articulated, be more insightful, or more thorough. Report may contain minor problems with formatting or grammatical errors.
- Satisfactory – The assignment is mostly complete and of satisfactory quality, but the points could be better articulated, be more insightful, or more thorough. Report may contain problems with formatting or grammatical errors.
- Unsatisfactory – The assignment is incomplete or is of low quality. The points are not well articulated or thorough enough. Report may contain major problems with formatting or grammatical errors.
Once you have critiqued and narrowed down your ideas to three ideas, the next step in the process is to prototype. Prototypes are distinct from sketches in that their intent is to test the idea with real people, rather than just share or communicate ideas within the design team. Thus, they are typically more well- developed and are closer in representation to the final product than they are abstract. In interaction design, prototypes must do more than just convey text on the screen — they should also convey the interaction the user will have while using the system. Thus, the prototypes you develop should somehow simulate the conditions in which the system will be used.
What to do?
Create a prototype: Your team must create a high-fidelity, interactive prototype of at least one of your design ideas generated in P2. The most important aspect of this project is to develop a prototype that conveys the interaction with the system as well as the overall experience. Thus, tools such as Wizard of Oz prototyping, HTML prototypes, or other high-fidelity methods should be used. Feel free to be creative with this. For example, you could have a person in a remote room act as your communication partner or use remote desktop assistance for emulating shared screens. If your design is hard to convey in your specific setting, a video prototype may be used in conjunction with an interactive prototype. The prototype must be usable by a person (i.e., your potential users) to simulate the experience of using it.
Whether you do a horizontal prototype, vertical prototype, or both is up to you. However, I should clearly be able to assess the essence of the product and the experience during your demo. It must also be convincing and professional. If you are not sure whether you are doing enough for this assignment, please consult with me for advice prior to completing this assignment.
What to hand in?
Prototype: For the prototype, you and your teammates will demo the prototype in class. Plan on being able to demo your prototype in under 10 minutes to leave room for questions and answers. If your prototype requires a specific setting (e.g., being outside, in a computer lab, etc.), I am open to doing demos anywhere on or near campus within reason, but please work with me ahead of time to plan this out. During your demo Q&A, you should be able to defend the prototyping technique you chose, explain how the prototype answers your design question, and how you plan to use your prototype for user testing. In addition, you should be able to turn in your prototype in some format, such as a powerpoint file, html link, or video demonstration for grading.
Have ONE person from your team upload your prototype artifacts to EEE along with any notes on how you might change things based on your discussion in class.
How will it be graded?
- Outstanding – The prototype is very convincing and conveys the interaction experience of what it would be like to use your system. The method used was appropriate and the prototype is overall of superior quality. The prototype idea answers the team’s original design question well and fits the design requirements stated in P1. The students defended their prototyping methods and understanding of their target users very well, and it’s clear what feedback they got from the in-class discussion was or will be incorporated in their design.
- Great – The prototype is very convincing and conveys the interaction experience of what it would be like to use your system. The method used was appropriate and the prototype is overall of high quality. The prototype idea answers the team’s original design question well and fits the design requirements stated in P1. The students defended their prototyping methods and understanding of their target users very well.
- Good – The prototype is complete and of good quality, but the justification could be better articulated or the prototype could have been more in-depth and conveyed the user experience more.
- Satisfactory – The prototype is complete and of satisfactory quality, but the justification could be better articulated or the prototype could have been more in-depth and conveyed the user experience more. There is some concern that the prototype does not consider the users’ needs or answer the design question.
- Unsatisfactory – The prototype is incomplete or of lower quality. The prototype does not consider users needs or does not answer the design question well.
- Your pilot evaluation plan AND results from it
- Your final design spec (focused on features not details of implementation) based on all the work so far this quarter
- Your final eval plan (just tell me the updates from the pilot eval plan)
- Discussion of how you iterated on things to get to where you are
How will it be graded?
- Outstanding – The report is well written and professional; it covers all aspects of the project briefly with emphasis on the evaluation and final iteration of the design. The writing is reflective and thoughtful. It is clear that the feedback from the pilot study has informed both the final evaluation plan and the final design specification. There are NO grammatical or typing errors.
- Great – The report is well written and professional with minimal errors. All aspects of the project have been described at least briefly, and the final evaluation plan is well described and defended in light of the pilot study. The report could be more thoughtful and reflective but at least some amount of feedback from the pilot study has been incoporated into the final evaluation plan and prototype design.
- Good – The final design and evaluation plan are decently done, but the justification for the evaluation plan and the design could be better articulated. The report is mostly completely but there may be some errors.
- Satisfactory – The report is complete and of satisfactory quality, but the justification for the evaluation plan and the design could be better articulated. The report is mostly completely but there are errors or missing information.
- Unsatisfactory – The report is incomplete or of lower quality. The prototype and evaluation plan do not consider the results of the pilot study.
For your first assignment, you will begin to look at the world with “designer’s eyes,” reflecting on the things with which you interact, and the quality of that interaction. Pay attention to anything and everything with which you interact: from door knobs to software user interfaces, household appliances to automobile dashboards, alarm clocks to library kiosks. Reflect on how the interaction unfolds. Do you experience breakdowns? Why or why not? Do you notice the artifact because of a breakdown (present- at-hand), or are you able to remain focused on your goal without thinking of the artifact per se (ready- to-hand)? When the interaction is successful, what properties of the design make it so? When the interaction is unsuccessful, do you find you employ workarounds to achieve your goal some other way?
Generate a list of design principles that apply to interaction in general. An example of a design principle is consistency, meaning that a design choice or convention is maintained throughout an entire product (internal consistency), and/or the choice or convention is found in other similar things (external consistency). Another design principle is appropriate feedback, meaning that the artifact presents its state to the user appropriately, especially after actions are taken. (Thinking broadly, feedback applies to many artifacts, not just software. Think about tactile and auditory feedback, not just visual feedback.)
For your assignment, do the following:
- Breadth. Generate a list of 10 distinct things with which you interacted over the next week (carry a small notebook around with you). Write a paragraph (4-7 sentences) describing your specific interaction with each thing. Was it successful or not? In what ways? Where did breakdowns occur? Where did confusions occur? Most importantly, why did they occur? Did you use a workaround? What was it?
- Induction. Derive a list of 10 design principles that apply to interaction based on the experiences you had in the last part. Name each principle and describe the principle in 1-3 sentences.
- Depth. Choose two artifacts. One artifact should be a thing whose design you adore, whose virtues you can extol to no end (a “beloved thing”). Chose another artifact whose design you hate, whose faults you can disparage forever (a “hated thing”). Write a 1/2-page description of why you love or hate these things, using the design principles in derived in the second part. Which principles are violated? Which are upheld? Include an image of each artifact in your write-up.What to Turn In
- Your list of 10 things with which you interact, each with its paragraph description
- Your named 10 design principles with short description
- Your write-up about a design you love and a design you hate, described using the designprinciples from the second part and including a photo/picture of the object.Your write-up should be approximately 1-2 pages if written in Times New Roman 12 pt, single spacing, with 1” margins on all sides (though the exact format is up to you). Please do not use a cover sheet and print on both sides of the page if you can (to save trees). Turn in your assignment at the start of class.
Understanding people and their experiences is crucial to designing good products and technologies. However, there is no one single way to understand the various stakeholders in any design problem. Each situation is different, each community is different, and each project is different. In addition, resources such as time and budget may also play a role in determining which methods to use for understanding users.
Typically, designers use a variety of methods to understand stakeholders in a design problem, and almost always use more than one method for any given project. Using multiple methods is called triangulation. The designers at IDEO have come up with a set of 51 different methods across four different areas that they use to understand stakeholders. These areas are:
- Ask them how to help
- Look at what they do
- Learn from the facts you gather
- Try it yourself
To help designers remember all of these ideas, they created a set of Method Cards, modeled after a deck of playing cards (with the four method areas each being a “suit”).
What to do?
Familiarize yourself with IDEO’s 51 method cards that we went over in class. You can borrow these cards from me, buy your own, or use the free iPhone/iPod app (charge of 5$ for the content). Each card lists what to do, why to do it, and an example of when it was useful for IDEO in a real design project. Think about how the 51 methods could be applied to a design problem. Thinking hypothetically, choose 1 method from each of the four categories that would be appropriate for each the following design questions.
- How can a new system support communication for primary care physicians?
- How can a mobile system help hikers find resources they need, sights that are interesting, and monitor environmental conditions?
- How can a video game help students with autism learn social skills?
For each of the above design scenarios, list the four methods you would choose to help understand the potential users and the design problem. For each method you list, write a short paragraph about why you think that given method would work in this situation given the potential users and the context of the problem. Write an additional paragraph summarizing any methods from the 51 Method Cards you think would not work for each design question. Provide good justification for each.Your assignment should be approximately 1 page of text for each of the 3 design scenarios above, for a total of about 3 pages. The format of the document is up to you, but please use at least 11 point font and proper headings to make it clear which methods are for which scenarios. The assignment should be printed (both sides if you can) and handed in at the beginning of class on the date it is due.
How will it be graded?
- Outstanding – The assignment is complete (includes 15 total methods – 4 that would work and 1 that wouldn’t work for each of the 3 scenarios) and is of superior quality. The report is well-written, professional, in-depth, and the student is reflective and insightful. The justification for each of the methods is sound and shows a clear understanding of the particular method.
- Great – The assignment is complete and of high quality. The report is well-written, professional, in-depth, and the student is reflective and insightful.
- Good – The assignment is complete and of good quality, but the points could be better justified, be more insightful, or more thorough. Report may contain minor problems with formatting or grammatical errors.
- Satisfactory – The assignment is mostly complete and of satisfactory quality, but the points could be better articulated, be more insightful, or more thorough. Report may contain problems with formatting or grammatical errors.
- Unsatisfactory – The assignment is incomplete or is of lower quality. The points are not well articulated or thorough enough.Report may contain major problems with formatting or grammatical errors.
In your third assignment, you will be creating a paper prototype for an imaginary application described below. The paper prototype should have approximately 6 screens. You can do more or fewer, but make sure that you account for all of the specifications described in the specifications section with your design. Use the guidelines provided in the readings to develop your prototype so that it is suitable for an evaluation. You can use plain paper and markers, or get more creative with colored paper, post-it notes, or transparencies. It may be a good idea to first draw a site map or flow diagram to help organize your thoughts.
Application Description
For this assignment, we are going to pretend that a company approached you with an idea for a product they would like you to produce. We will call the product FoodieFInder. FoodFinder lets the user monitor how much time they spend at different places throughout the day, what they eat at those locations, and how they feel about their food and the context of their eating. The idea is that FoodieFinder will help people better understand how their life is affected by where they spend their time and what they eat, and in turn they will understand how what they eat is affected by where they spend their time. Do not worry about how they plan to monetize this idea, just assume that this is the idea they bring to you, and they want you to make an application based on it.
The company does not specify how they want the application to determine the user’s location. It could be based on manual location entry, or it could be a mobile application that detects the user’s location throughout the day with the GPS on their phone. This means you could design the application as a website, desktop application, or a mobile phone application. However, the users will need to be able to enter in additional information about their locations. This should include the name of the location and what type of establishment they are at, such as: work, school, a restaurant, cafe, gym, etc.
FoodieFinder must include some documentation of what they eat. This could be done in any media (text, drawings, pictures, etc.), just make sure you understand why you are making the choice you are making. FoodieFinder will also allow the user to rate themselves on their mood and overall feelings of wellness. The number of times that they enter data throughout the day is up to you; it could occur once a day, as they change locations, or as many times as the user wants. Finally, how the information about the user’s mood is entered (e.g., is it a Likert rating scale? emoticons? a sliding scale?) is up to you.
Specifications
The prototype will need to be able to support the following activities:
Log in and/or register
Enter and edit the information about locations
Enter information about eating and mood
Track these data over time
View the relationship between the locations, types of locations, food, and mood
What to Turn In
Paper Prototype: Your original paper prototypes of the ~6 screens that makes up the system and a single page that briefly (one or two lines) describes each different screen for me to make comments. Please make sure they are all attached securely. If you used smaller cut pieces or post- it notes, put them in an envelope with your name on it so they stay together.
For this assignment, do not focus on the aesthetics of the design, simply on the interaction with the system.
How will it be Graded?
- Excellent – The assignment is complete, and the prototype is well done and creative. It covers all aspects of the application description and uses good prototyping techniques to convey your ideas.
- Good – The assignment is complete, but is not as high of quality as it could be. The prototype interface lacks components necessary for the user to complete the test.
- Okay – The assignment is incomplete or the prototype is not done correctly.
- Poor—Significant incomplete portions of the assignment. The design doesn’t address the goals of the application.