February 10, 2011
Lo-Fi Prototyping Assignment
Due: Thursday, February 24th, 2011 at Noon
Objective: In this assignment, you will build on your user research to start visualizing solutions. You will begin by refining your personas. Using these personas as “actors”, you will create three storyboards or scenarios, each depicting a task that your system will support. Finally, you will mock up at least three low-fidelity prototypes of possible solutions you could develop.
What to Do:
- Schedule a group meeting. Most of the tasks described below should be completed during one or two collaborative brainstorming sessions including the entire design team.
- Starting with the personas you made for the last assignment, decide the primary user personas that you are aiming to satisfy. Define each of their primary goals in using your system. Further refine each persona, by providing additional details and/or pictures. By the end, they should be full-featured descriptions that can be used as a reference by the design team. Aim for a total of 3-5 personas, identifying 1 (or 2) of them as the primary focus for your project.
- Starting from the primary persona’s goals, decide three key tasks that your system will support. Tasks are specific sets of actions that will allow users to achieve their goals. These tasks should address a broad set of important user priorities. Using your personas as actors, depict in a scenario how your system would be used to achieve each of these tasks, preferably using a storyboard representation. (Use graphics, even if you can’t draw or sketch! Stick figures are awesome and encouraged!)
- Using paper, index cards, post-its, cardboard, tape, glue and anything else you can imagine, build at least three paper prototype alternatives that can be used to mock “perform” the tasks depicted above. Use the reading for motivation, and again, be creative!
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 12:00 PM (Noon) on Thursday, February 24th:
- Cover sheet including yourself and your partners’ names, and your chosen focus. Note the time, duration and attendance of each brainstorming session. Include a sentence or two about what each person contributed to the assignment [1/2 page].
- A list of core user personas. Include pictures, demographic details, and any other details that you feel are necessary to make the persona come to life and serve as a useful resource for the design team. [2-3 pages].
- At least three storyboards depicting the tasks that your proposed system will support. These can either be scanned in, or composed electronically [2-3 pages].
- Pictures of your low-fidelity prototypes. Bring it in to show during class on Feb 24th [2-3 pages].
- Reflect on the experience of prototyping. What was easy for you? What was hard? Was it fun? [1/2 page]
The total length of your report should be less than 10 pages. Brevity, clarity and focus on the goals of the assignment will be rewarded. Illustrative graphics are welcome and encouraged!
Please contact the professor or the class TA if you have any questions with this assignment.
February 1, 2011
Participant Observation Assignment
Due: Tuesday, February 15th, 2011 at Noon
Objective: In this assignment, you will be conducting a contextual interview with a prospective set of users, and deriving a set of work models and notes based on that experience.
What to Do:
- Identify 2-5 different users, covering each of your user / stakeholder categories, and ask each for their permission to interview them. If they agree, set an appointment to interview them in a location where they currently perform the task that you wish to study. Before starting the interview, you may want to have them complete the informed consent form (example here). If you also intend to capture video/audio/photos, have them complete a record release form (example here).
- Conduct the contextual interview, following the master and apprentice relationship model. For each interview, one group member should be the apprentice, while the others take notes (larger groups should split up into groups of 2-3). You can also use a voice recorder (with the subject’s permission). Alternate roles for each subject. Each interview should last between 30-90 minutes.
- During a group interpretation session, generate an affinity diagram and at least 3-4 distinct five work models drawing from your users. These should be at a level of detail appropriate to the task you are studying and the data that you have collected. Do this as soon after the interview as possible (up to a maximum of 48 hours), to make sure that the observations are fresh in your mind. Choose the most useful and appropriate models for your project.
- Create 2-5 personas, representing each kind of potential user. Typically, each persona will consist of a textual description, supplemented by graphics if necessary. The persona should include details like their age, education, professional history, access to technology, idealized goals and current difficulties with regard to the task in question.
- List a set of current task scenarios and a set of hypothetical usage scenarios that you would like to support in your eventual system design.
- Prepare a presentation to introduce your project to the rest of the class. Start with your focus, personas, and any supporting observations from the contextual inquiry that motivate your problem. Then walk the audience through some or all of the tasks described in your scenarios. Aim for a 5-minute presentation (with an additional five minutes for questions), to be made in class on Tuesday, February 15th.
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 12:00 PM (Noon) on Tuesday, February 15th:
- Cover sheet including your names, and your chosen focus. Also include 1-2 sentences about what each person contributed to the assignment. [1/2 page]
- Summary of each contextual interview, including the person’s gender, approximate age (20s, 30s, etc.), job title, the location of the interview, who conducted and who took notes, how long it took to complete, etc. For privacy, don’t use people’s real names or any other uniquely identifying information. Also, include any difficulties you had or surprises you encountered in conducting the contextual interview. If you used another method discussed in class, describe the results of that as well. [2-3 pages]
- A picture of your final affinity diagram.
- A copy of each work model that you generated. Use one page for each model, aiming for the level of detail shown in the examples in the book. These can be done either using pen and paper, or a drawing program on a computer. On a separate page, include a 1-2 paragraph description of each model, including key points, surprises, potential ambiguities, and any difficulties you encountered in constructing the model.
- The list of current scenarios, and those that you would eventually like to support in your future design. One paragraph for each scenario should be enough. Aim to document between 4-8 current and future scenarios.
- The list of personas that you will use to motivate your eventual design. For now, about a half-page should be enough for each persona. Aim to document between 2-5 personas.
- Reflect on the experience of doing a Contextual Inquiry. What was easy? What was hard? What did you expect? What was surprising? Did you ask too many questions? Did you ask too few? What types of questions worked best? Which lead to poor answers? Which lead to in-depth answers? Which work models were difficult to produce? Which were easy? Which helped most in developing your understanding? Which helped least? [1 page]
- A copy of the presentation that you will make to the class. Come ready to present on February 16th.
The total length of your submitted report should be less than 10 pages. Brevity, clarity and focus on the goals of the assignment will be rewarded. Illustrative graphics are welcome and encouraged!
Please contact the professor or the class TA if you have any questions with this assignment.
January 25, 2011
Group Pitches Due next Thursday
Your group project pitches are due next Thursday in class. Each group will have 5 minutes (max) to describe:
- Project you are working on
- Users, and how you plan to access them
- Team member introductions
- Your name and background
- What skills you bring
- What skills you would like to develop
At this point the emphasis is more on the team, then on the project. Team sizes of 2-4 are preferred. I am aiming for 10-11 projects in the class. There are currently 34 students registered. That tells you what size group to aim for. If you want to join a group, or need more members for your group, or are up for considering either, you will have a chance to introduce yourselves later today.
January 20, 2011
Contact Info for Today’s Guests
As promised, here is contact info for todays guest speakers. Feel free to follow up directly. And use the comment space for posting your own contact info and forming groups.
Dan Perkel and Jason Schultz
Paul Waddell
Greg Wolff
Kevin Koy and Sarah van Wart
Kuang Chen
Aekta Shah and Sarah van Wart
Kurtis Heimerl
January 11, 2011
Welcome to i213!
Welcome to i213, the UC Berkeley School of Information’s graduate-level course in User Interface Design and Development. Please make sure to follow this RSS feed for announcements and assignments; and this one if you want to keep up with comments. There is a tentative schedule posted. There is also a wait list for the course this year, so make sure to attend all classes to ensure your spot. Your participation in the class will partially depend on being part of a project team by the end of the second week. See you next week!
First Assignment
Yes, already, but its short and hopefully interesting. If you have an idea that you would like to pursue in the course, be prepared to make a short “pitch” to recruit other students in class on either January 18th or 20th (or, as a last resort, the 25th). This should be about 2-3 minutes, laying out as best you can 1) who your user is, 2) what their need is, 3) why this is an opportunity and 4) any partners you already have lined up. Preferably you can do this without Powerpoint, but if you need it, it will be there.