CPSC544: Project Medium/High Fidelity Prototyping and User Evaluation

The course project is intended to be a hands-on exercise in task and user centered design, prototyping, evaluation, redesign, and implementation.

In Phase I you began by proposing an idea that forms the basis of a course project.

In Phase II you performed a task analysis of your ideas, with some early sketches of your ideas. You created and evaluated low-fidelity prototypes based on the task analysis.

In this final phase (Phase III), you will incorporate the results of the previous low-fi prototyping/testing exercise into the design of the medium/high fidelity final prototypes. You will also do an informal user evaluation.

The immediate purpose of this assignment is to give you experience at:

• hands on application of design concepts to the building of a moderately robust semi-functional interface
• learn to evaluate a higher-fidelity prototype.

Deliverables:

Your group will deliver Section 4 of your portfolio, which will contain the first two items below:

1. A horizontal/vertical prototype, plus re-design Rationale

• Redesign your interface. To do this, you should review your Phase II prototypes and walkthrough results. You should also apply the design knowledge you have gained in class to your design. You may want to develop a few more paper prototypes here and do further walkthroughs to check your ideas out. This part is up to you. 
  or 
  Come up with a novel system design that stretches your team's creative talents. 
• Implement your design as a medium fidelity horizontal/vertical prototype. Use the appropriate tools of your choice, implement your primary screen(s) or other visual parts of your interface.
  • Horizontal: all the main components of your interface are included. This gives the illusion of a fully functional prototype.
  • Vertical: select one or two primary tasks and make sure that a  substantial part of the vertical functionality required for those tasks is supported. 'Substantial part' includes screens, error messages, handling of unexpected input, defaults, robustness, .... You may program in 'stubs' for sub-tasks you are not implementing at this time (e.g., certain actions may return some kind of 'Under development' message).
• Deliverables, in portfolio: 
  • approximately two page redesign rationale that describes your main reasons behind the changes made
  • illustrations of your final implementation, using new screen snapshots or whatever is the equivalent for your project

2. User evaluation

• Representative users: identify a small number of such users for your system. The exact number you have will depend on how extensive your evaluation is. You should involve at least 5 users. If you cannot find/use representative users, you need to explain why and justify the selection of the users that you do involve in the evaluation.
• Plan the evaluation: Decide in advance a "protocol" for your evaluation. Pre-determine the tasks you will want your users to perform and the data you expect to collect. You should use both qualitative and quantitative methods for data collection. Where appropriate, you should use statistical analysis and report your findings.
• Conduct the evaluation: Use the techniques described in class and in the readings for running your evaluation. One requirement is that you use video as one of your data collection methods. (See note below on departmental resources.)
• Deliverables, in portfolio: 
  • Describe the informal protocol for your evaluation and your representative users (not necessarily their names, but convince the reader that these users might actually use your system if it existed)
  • The results of the evaluation:
    • List the problems detected 
    • Document the limitations of the evaluation
    • Summarize the main findings of the evaluation
  • Final design rationale and discussion (two - three pages) of the state of your design. Discuss the quality of your system design. What parts of the design work well and what still needs improvement? Do you really believe that the system would work well for your identified users and tasks?
  • Appendices should include all study materials and raw data (e.g., questionnaires, interview transcriptions, and consent forms)

3. Video

• Create a video description of your project. The video should highlight the design and evaluation of your prototype, and be approximately 3 to 5 minutes long.
• Submit a CD or DVD of the video. Your professor will keep this as part of the course archives.

4. Demonstration 

• Your group will demonstrate the working parts of your system to your professor. Appointments will be made in designated non-class times towards the end of the term (i.e., before the final report is due).

5. Presentation

• Your group will give an in-class presentation that documents the iterative design, development, and evaluation of your system. 
• You must include the video description of your project as part of your presentation.
• You will have 20 minutes for your presentation and there will be 10 minutes for questions.
• It is not necessary to have your whole group do the presentation jointly; in fact, having more than two people present at the same time is often problematic. Decide in advance what will make the most effective presentation. Often, the best approach is to have the two strongest speakers deliver the presentation. Of course, all the team members should be at the presentation and available to answer questions.

A note on the Portfolio. The portfolio is intended to document the progression of your design, beginning with this Phase I, and continuing through the Phases II and III.  Your portfolio must be neat, well-organized, and visually appealing. Portfolios should be constructed out of a 1" or smaller 3-ring binder (I will not appreciate having to carry around larger binders :). Your portfolio should also use titled section separators (the index kind) to separate the major sections. The cover of the portfolio should include the names of the group members, the group number, and the title of the project. The first page should be a table of contents, which will grow over time. You will add to this portfolio as you complete each phase of the project. You may include pointers to online information if pertinent.

You should include your graded previous work (proposal, Sections 1, 2 & 3) in your portfolio as well, so the reader understand the progression of your entire project.

Note that suggestions given in the grading of your previous work, where relevant, should be incorporated into your current work.

A note on the grading. Grading will be based upon the sophistication and maturity of the work, the elegance of the designs, the logic of the written and oral presentations, and the completeness of the work.