CptS 443/580:
Human-Computer Interaction

Overview

A substantial, semester-long capstone design project will help you to gain hands-on experience with user-centered design methods by designing, prototyping, evaluating, and presenting an actual software system. In this first phase of the project, you will form groups of two to three students, and you will develop a preliminary proposal for your software design project. In this phase of the project, you and your instructor will negotiate an acceptable project through a back-and-forth of proposal drafts. The steps listed below will help walk you through this phase of the assignment.

Steps

1. Brainstorm human tasks and domains that might be supported by interactive software. The following are but a few of the many possibilities:
   • Scientific visualization
   • Web-based groupware and collaboration environments
   • Educational technology
   • Specialized editors
   • Domain-specific programming environments
   • Interface prototyping environments
   • Games
   • Game creation software
   • Tablet PC applications (you have access to tablet PC laptops this semester)
   • "Smart home" interfaces


Note: Media players have been overstudied in my opinion, and may not not be pursued for the course project.


2. Choose a domain, and find one or two others who are interested in jointly pursuing a project in that domain. A WebCT discussion area entitled "Project Brainstorms" is available for posting ideas and soliciting partners.

3. As soon as your group decides on a project, use WebCT to e-mail your instructor a brief description of your project idea for preliminary approval. This is a key step in the negotiation process! This step is necessary to ensure that you have a reasonable proposal topic, and to ensure that your topic has not been taken by any other group (first-come, first-served!).
   

4. Perform background research on the domain . Your background research should minimally consider the following questions.
• Why is this domain/human task in need of interactive software support?
• What are the common tasks that users need to do? (Be specific.) What troubles might they run into?
• What technology exists in the domain, and what kind of support does that technology offer? (Do a web search and literature review; if you're having trouble finding existing technology, try asking the instructor for leads to relevant literature.)
  
  
5. Consider the design space of alternatives, and describe two possible high-level designs. These designs do not have to be detailed; just a few rough, annotated sketches will do at this point. At this early stage, what do you believe are the strengths and weaknesses of each alternative design? Use Norman's design concepts to support your discussion.
   
   
6. Pick one of your two high-level designs, and formulate list of key challenges and design questions. What do you think will be the biggest challenges in this project? What are the most important design questions that need to be answered before you can proceed with doing the design?

Deliverables

Create and hand in a written proposal. If you are handing in a proposal draft on a class day, I definitely prefer a hardcopy, so that I can mark it up with feedback. However, if you would like to hand in a draft on a non-class day, you may also send me a draft as an attachment to a WebCT e-mail in either Word or pdf format. Be sure that your group name and group members' names appear clearly on the document.

Your proposal should be around 5 pages (1600-2000 words), and include the following sections:

1. Introduction. This section introduces the software domain you'll be addressing, perhaps using some example scenarios. It should motivate the need for technology to support the domain. In the last paragraph of the section, you should outline what your proposal will cover. For example (don't just copy this, though), "Below, we present a proposal for interactive software environment that. . ." We begin by presenting a review of existing technology in the domain. We next consider the key tasks to be supported. We then move to a discussion of two high-level design alternatives. We conclude by presenting some key challenges and questions,"
2. Related work. This section performs a condensed literature review of existing technology for the domain you'll be addressing. Your review should briefly describe related systems, and the particular approaches they take. I have found screen shots of related systems to be extremely helpful in past proposals. Note: If you are unable to find any systems that support the exact same functionality you intend to support, then broaden your search enough to find some systems that support at least some of the functionality your intend to support.
3. Core tasks. In this section, you provide a high-level description of each of the core tasks that you anticipate will be supported by your system.
4. Design alternatives. This section proposes, at a high level, at least two possible designs for your proposed system. This need not be more than a few rough sketches annotated with comments. Specify just enough that the reader can get a flavor of what you have in mind. Conclude this section by considering what you believe to be the strengths and weaknesses of each alternative design. Use Norman's design concepts and principles to support your discussion.
5. Key challenges and questions. Conclude with a section that identifies what you believe to be the key design challenges you'll face, and the key questions you'll need to answer in order to come up with a good design.

In addition to the proposal, each group member must submit a peer evaluation that assess each member's contribution to this deliverable. If you fail to hand in a peer evluation for a deliverable, your peer contribution score will be automatically set to 0.

Assessment

Your instructor will use this assessment form to give you feedback on your proposal, which will be graded pass/fail. Be sure to look it over carefully to ensure that you've covered everything that's asked for. Remember that a key goal of this course is to help you develop good written communication skills. Make sure that your document is easy to read, and that it is in proper English. If English is not your first language, be sure to enlist an editor before you hand in your report. I will not perform low-level edits on your document! If I encounter poor grammar and/or poor organization, I will make a note of the specific problem(s) and return your proposal to you for further editing.

It is important to underscore that the purpose of this project deliverable is to negotiate a contract between you and the instructor. By identifying a domain, set of functionality, and set opf preliminary design ideas, the contract will help ensure that your project has a reasonable scope and good chances for success. Typically, negotiating such a contract requires at least one back-and-forth between your group and the instructor. Thus, you are required to hand in the first draft of your proposal no later than January 23 (10 days in advance of the due date). Your instructor will provide you with quick turnaround (2 days at most), so that you can make any necessary revisions and hand in a new draft. You must receive a grade of "pass" by Thursday, February 2. If you wait until Thursday, February 1 to hand in a draft, you cannot guarantee a "pass". Therefore, it is strongly recommended that you receive a "pass" in advance of the Thursday, Feburary 1 deadline.