Midterm project

The midterm is a formal project plan for the final project. In it you will describe:

  1. Your client, their goals, and their current situation
  2. The goals of this project and what it is intended to accomplish
  3. The activities that you will use to accomplish these goals. You are required to use at least three activities in this project. Of those methods, at least two must involve generating and analyzing empirical data about user behavior. That is, expert evaluation techniques (such as heuristics) or competitive analysis can make up only one of your activities.
  4. A sampling proposal and recruitment plan. That is, what is the target audience of your project? What kinds of people are you going to recruit for each method? How many people are you going to recruit for each method? How do you propose to find them? You do not have to stick to this plan if the situation changes, but I expect to see some concrete numbers and examples of strategies you plan to use.
  5. A project schedule, including recruitment phase(s) as well as activities, data analysis, and report-writing. You do not have to stick to this schedule. However, writing a project plan is an important professional skill. As well, it is a good way for you (and me) to reality-check your plans for the rest of the semester.
  6. Who is doing the work. You can do your major project for this class as a group or an individual. If you are working in a group, include a list of group members. If relevant, include specific area of responsibility for each team member. (This can also change, but it’s useful for me in advising groups.)

You will hand the project plan in as a longform written document. I encourage you to use diagrams and maps to simplify your written explanation. Given the diversity of projects, plans, and report formats, there are no specific page length requirements. I encourage you to be concise. More is not necessarily better. You are welcome to ask me for advice, but it is your job to decide how much explanation (and in what form) you need to give.