Project Assignment (3000 words)

Selecting a software piece or system Your assignments are about a system or a piece of it. We herein call this 'your system’. Here are some factors to consider when choosing your system.

You must choose a system where you can talk to the actual users, that is, a system where there are real users who are doing real work or using the system as part of their everyday lives. You will evaluate the redesign of your system in Assignment 03. This requires you to find actual users who are available to test it with you. This may be difficult if your system has a narrow group of specialist users. The system should be quite small. You do not have time in this course to redesign a complete word processing package, database system, or large website. On the other hand, a part of such a system would be quite acceptable. For example, you could look at search facilities in a website, file processing facilities in an editor, data entry in a database, or graph production in a spreadsheet. Aim for two or three screens, pages, or dialogues. The system must exist, as you will start by discussing the current use of the system for the first assignment. It is acceptable to choose a prototype, provided you can observe it being used by its actual users. You must be sure that the system can be improved. You will be redesigning part of the interface, so you need to identify something about it that is causing problems for the users.

You can choose something you have designed yourself, that you are working on or will work on or something that you have encountered only as a user. Please note, however, that it is harder to ‘stand back’ and be objective about something that you are developing yourself. But as that is an important skill for usability, you may find it to be a better learning experience (and it should also improve your system).

Throughout the course, we emphasize the importance of working with actual users of the system. You only need a few; It is surprising how much you can learn from just two or three people. If this really is impossible, Table 22.2 from the textbook suggests some alternative approaches, such as using work colleagues or family members who share some of the characteristics of the actual users. However, you will learn much more from actual users, so we strongly recommend you try hard to overcome any obstacles. Your TA may be able to advise you on how best to do this.

Answering assignment questions Throughout your assignment, the TA will be looking for evidence that:

you have understood the course concepts you can apply them to a user interface of your choice you can present a coherent argument, explaining the decisions you make and the conclusions you arrive at you can explicitly use course concepts correctly to justify the arguments in your written work you can link the various parts of the assignments together in a clear and logical manner.

Each assignment should be submitted as a report, and for each assignment 10 points have been allocated for the report’s presentation and organization: 3 points for its introduction, 3 points for its conclusion, and 4 points for its overall quality. The assignments in this course have been structured in this way to give you some practice in report writing in an academic context.

The TAs may ask you to present your assignment in a particular way. Please respect these rules, as it will make it easier for them to comment on your work. TAs are allowed to reduce your points if you do not follow their instructions about layout.

As a minimum, the TAs will ask you to:

write neatly, type or word process your work use double line spacing allow a right-hand margin at least 1 inch wide start each question on a fresh page number your pages (e.g., page x of xx) put your name and student identification number at the top of each page.

In addition, any screen dumps, figures, diagrams, graphs, and/or tables should be numbered consecutively in the order they are referred to in the text of your report, for example, Figure 1, Figure 2, et cetera. Each item should have a caption that should describe the item as concisely as possible. Generally, screen dumps, figure, diagram, or graph captions are positioned below the item, while captions for tables are positioned above.

It is acceptable to include some additional background material in the appendices to your report. If the system you have chosen is one that your TA is unlikely to have experienced (perhaps something specific to the industry you work in) then it is likely that they will appreciate this additional support material. The TA may, however, only skim read this material. Screen dumps, figures, diagrams, graphs, and/or tables in the appendices should be numbered consecutively in the order they are referred to in the text, for example, A1, A2, A3…, B1, B2…, etc., for each series. Appendices will not be included in the word count.

It will help with the grading if you reflect on the structure of the questions in your solutions. The simplest way to do this would be to follow the same numbering scheme and to use appropriate headings.

We have included word limits for your guidance and you are recommended to keep close to these limits; if you are having difficulty, you should discuss this with the TA. You may be penalized for an excessively long answer. Tables and figures are not included in the word count.