i213 Fall 2012: UI Design and Development

November 20, 2012

Final Submission

by Tapan Parikh

Due: November 27th, 2012 (Presentation and Prototype)

Due: December 10th, 2012 (Report)

Objective: In this assignment, you will complete your final project. There are three deliverables: 1) a demonstration prototype of your software, 2) a report that describes your project’s motivation, design method(s), implementation (concise) and evaluation, and 3) a 10-minute presentation describing your design process, prototype, evaluation and results.

What to do:

  1. Continue revising your prototype based on feedback from other students, potential users and obtained during class. The functionality included in the prototype(s) should be based on two factors. First, supporting all of the tasks and activities that you would like during your user testing. Second, making a compelling demonstration for the final class presentation. You can use the same, or different, prototypes for both of these purposes. You should make progress from your first and second prototypes, including additional functionality, a refined look-and-feel, help features, interaction with live data sets, etc.
  2. Conduct your user testing, based on your experiment design, and feedback from the TA and Instructor. Make sure to follow appropriate policies with regard to informed consent and records release. (Example forms are provided here and here). You should include the TA as a subject in at least some part of your user testing protocol.
  3. Prepare a presentation that summarizes your process, focusing on the most interesting observations and results, and demonstrates the capabilities of your software. Again, your goal is to describe what is really new and innovative about your design approach and prototype(s), and how you have demonstrated its usability and benefit. You should aim for a ten-minute presentation, with an additional five minutes for questions. Practice beforehand, with an audience if possible! If you go over, you wont be given extra time.
  4. Make the presentation in class on November 27th or 29th (your position will be determined by random lottery). Your final project grade will be determined in equal parts by the final presentation and the final report.
  5. Draft a report, describing your project’s motivation, design method(s), implementation and evaluation. Be concise – use up to a maximum of twelve pages single-spaced 12-point text. Your goal is to describe what is really innovative about your design approach and prototype, and how you have demonstrated its usability and benefit. Some sections your report should include are: Summary, Introduction, Problem Statement, Design Process, Final Prototype (very concise, use images where appropriate, and include a description of what features have not been implemented), Experiment Design, Evaluation Results, Discussion, Current Status and Future Plans. Some of these sections may be combined, but in general all of these topics should be covered.

What to turn in:

E-mail to the professor and TA a link to each of the following before class on November 27th:

  1. Cover sheet including yourself and your partners’ names, and the title of your project. Include a paragraph about what each person contributed to the final prototype, evaluation, analysis, presentation and report. Describe the tools you used to develop your final prototype(s), how they helped and/or created additional obstacles [1 page].
  2. A link to your final prototype, including any instructions on how to install and/or run it, if needed.
  3. Your final presentation slides, movies and/or any supporting materials.

Additionally, e-mail to the professor and TA a link the following before 11:59 PM on December 10th:

  1. Your final report, accepted in PDF format only! [maximum of 12 pages]

Please contact the professor or the class TA if you have any questions with this assignment.


 

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November 7, 2012

Experiment Design Assignment

by Tapan Parikh

Due: Tuesday, November 20th, 2012 before Class

Objective: In this assignment, you will develop a plan for testing your user interface. This includes deciding the tasks to support, the users to test, where to test, the method of testing and the metrics used to evaluate success.

What to do:

  1. Decide 3-6 tasks that you would like to support during your user testing. The tasks should provide the user with a complete and realistic feel for how the eventual application will work (or, for large projects, how some aspects will work). This should include both high-level user tasks (decide where you want to eat dinner using this interface), as well as specific, low-level tasks (use the interface to search for a restaurant open at 10PM).
  2. Decide the context where you will test each of these tasks. The location should be as realistic as possible, while allowing for controlled measurement and evaluation.
  3. Decide how you will recruit participants for your final user study. Aim for testing each task with between 5-15 users. Each task should be tested by appropriate users fitting the characteristics outlined in your persona descriptions.  Make sure to conduct a pilot test with design team members or other students before subjecting real users.
  4. Determine whether it is possible to include a control condition for the testing. For example, if you have designed a new interface for web search, a control condition could be using Google search. This allows you to measure how your new interface compares with current alternatives. Ideally, you should test each task using both your own prototype and at least one control condition. Those without a suitable control condition should compensate by either including more users and/or more performance measures (see below).
  5. Decide the methods you will use to evaluate performance for each task you want to test. This could include quantitative methods for metrics such as efficiency and error rate, as well as qualitative methods for metrics such as enjoyment and satisfaction. Ideally, you will test each task using at least two quantitative and one qualitative method. Decide how you will measure user performance (for example, task execution time or number of errors), behavior and/or responses (for example, using audio, video, screen recorders, interview transcripts and/or detailed notes) .
  6. Decide how you will address any learning and/or fatigue effects – either between tasks, and/or between the control and experimental conditions.
  7. Decide the conditions of success. For experiments with a control, this may be some relative improvement over the control condition. For experiments without a control, this may be some absolute measure of efficiency, accuracy, subjective satisfaction, etc.
  8. Decide the materials you will need to conduct the usability test. This includes the script you will use to conduct the test, the prototype itself, and any questionnaires you will administer before and/or after testing. This should include a demographic questionnaire capturing important user details (age, gender, education, experience with your proposed kind of technology and/or application, etc), as well as informed consent and records release forms allowing you to conduct the test with the user and/or capture audio, images and video. (Example forms are provided here and here).

What to turn in:

The preferred method of turn-in is a PDF document, including each of the following components. To avoid a late penalty, e-mail a link to your group’s submission to the professor and TA before class on Tuesday, November 20th:

  1. Cover sheet including yourself and your partners’ names, and your chosen focus. Note the time, duration and attendance of each brainstorming session. Include a paragraph describing what each person contributed to the assignment [1/2 page].
  2. A list of tasks that you intend to test during your usability testing.
  3. Description of your control condition(s) and experimental variants, if any (it is highly recommended to include a control if possible) [1/2 page].
  4. Details about how many users that you will test for each task, and how you plan to recruit participants, including for the pilot test. If the same persona applies to multiple tasks, it is fine if the same user is tested for all of them, making sure to account for any learning / fatigue effects [1 page].
  5. Description of the methods that you will use to evaluate the usability of each task, and how you will measure document user behavior and responses. It is recommended to evaluate each task using at least two quantitative and one qualitative methods. Mention how you will address any learning and/or fatigue effects – either between tasks, or between the control and experimental conditions. Provide the location where you will test each task [2-3 pages].
  6. A list of conditions of success for each of the tasks [1/2 page]
  7. A description of the supporting materials that you will need for conducting your user test – including forms, testing scripts, questionnaires, props, and the prototype itself [1 page].

The total length of your report should be less than 8 pages. Brevity, clarity and focus on the goals of the assignment will be rewarded.

E-mail a link to your group’s project page to the professor and TA before class on Tuesday, November 20th.

Please contact the professor or the class TA if you have any questions with this assignment.


 

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