ASKING FOR IT TOTUR

COMP325B  2014  Project,  Phase  III  

Designing  a  system  to  help  people  brand  their  personal  identity   Your task, this semester, is to design a system that will help people to brand their personal identity. Phase I of this project involved understanding how people currently deal with their personal expression. Phase II of this project involved building on your understanding of users and tasks from Phase I to create and test prototypes of a system design to support these users in their tasks. In Phase III, you will implement a proof-of-concept prototype of the Phase II design. This assignment consists of 4 steps. There are deliverables associated with each of these steps.

Step  1:  Construct  a  Computer-­‐based  Horizontal  Prototype  (50%)   In the environment of your choice1 (e.g. Visual Studio, Glade, Flash/Director, Dreamweaver, etc.), construct a computer-based prototype of your system design. Please note that your prototyping environment does not have to be the same as the environment that would be chosen for fully developing the software: eg, you can prototype for a handheld device using software that displays on a desktop machine, you can prototype standalone software in Dreamweaver, and so forth. Your design should cover the whole of your system at the level of a horizontal prototype. This means you can use fake data. However it should be possible to move around the prototype to show the various elements of the design and (using hard- coded elements, canned text etc.) it should provide sufficient interactivity to give the impression of a functional system. Deliverables: a) Write a brief summary of the target user group for the system you are designing

and the sort of identity expressions that your system will help those users to create, manage or share. (1 – 2 paragraphs)

b) Explain how your interface appearance and functionality are designed so as to be

appropriate for these target users. (1 page)

                                                                                                                1  The  environment  that  you  select  must  have  the  following  characteristics:    you   must  be  able  to  use  colors  and  images  so  that  your  prototype  looks  like  ‘real’   software;  and  you  must  be  able  to  include  clickable  links  and  other  screen   elements  that  give  the  appearance  of  functionality  (eg,  the  user  must  be  able  to   type  into  a  text  box,  select  one  radio  button,  etc).  

c) Present a set of screenshots of a scenario you used to show your paper prototype (in Phase II Step 2). Include the scenario description. List and explain any changes made in the design between Phase II and Phase III.

d) Present a set of screenshots showing the rest of your system design. List and

explain any changes made in the design between Phase II and Phase III. e) Your prototype code:

All students must submit your code electronically on Moodle. You should provide an executable version of your code that we can run. If you have developed on another platform (e.g. Linux) provide clear instructions on how to run your prototype.

f) Conduct a 5 - 10 minute demonstration of your prototype during study week 20th-24th October 2014. We will post a sign-up sheet for the Hamilton demonstrations in Week 12 of the semester; Judy Bowen will arrange the demonstrations for TGA which will take place on Friday October 24th. In this demonstration, you will show us the functionality of your system by conducting a walkthrough of one of your scenarios; and you will explain any interesting/useful/fun/intriguing elements of your interface design and prototype.

Step  2:  Test  your  Software  Prototype  (20%)   For this step you are to undertake two different evaluations: 1) Ask two or more people to “use” your computer-based prototype. You may include both general impressions of your system and more specific testing based around the scenario you used for the design and evaluation in Phase II. Observe them as they proceed and make paper-based notes of their interaction (as you did for Phase II). See the Ethical Notes at the end of this document. You should use what you learned from the first tutorial (observational studies) to plan your testing and decide beforehand what sorts of things you will measure (ability to complete tasks, time taken, difficulty for participants etc.) and how you will ensure you successfully capture and record this data during the study. 2) Using the two evaluation heuristics:

a) Speak the user's language b) Prevent errors

evaluate all of your computer-based prototype. Explain why your prototype passes or fails these guidelines. Deliverable: a 2-page report describing the main results of testing your computer- based prototype: both with users and against heuristic guidelines. Discuss how you carried out the evaluations and present the key issues identified for your design – both positive and negative. For the user test, you can include actual comments made by the testers to illustrate your report. Also submit any original notes you made during the testing sessions (these should be as you wrote them – don't format or type them in). Remember that we can only give marks based on what appears in the report—please allow us to give you credit for the work that you do, by writing full and detailed

summaries of your testing results.

Step  3:  Critical  Assessment  of  your  Chosen  Software  Prototyping  Environment/Tool   (10%)   Discuss your experiences in developing the software prototype: 1) how well / poorly the environment supported you in creating that prototype 2) whether there were aspects of the design in the paper prototype that could / could

not be effectively conveyed in the software prototype 3) any technical difficulties that you encountered in creating the prototype, and any

aspects of the prototyping that were particularly easily done with that tool or environment

4) how easy or difficult it would be to modify your prototype 5) how easy or difficult it was to test the software prototype with users, in

comparison to the paper prototype 6) speed of prototyping, particularly in comparison with paper prototyping 7) … any other interesting, relevant aspects of using your chosen environment or

tool to create the software prototype Deliverable: a 2 page report describing your experiences of prototyping in Phase III.

Step  4:  Refinement  of  your  Prototype  (10%)   Provide a list of the recommended changes to your computer-based prototype. Link your explanations and changes to the results of your testing in Step 2. Deliverable: a 2-page report describing and justifying your recommended changes. This report should be structured as a list, in which each recommended change is immediately followed by a justification for that change (in other words, an argument as to why that modification to the interface design is necessary). The justification should include evidence from Step 2 or 3 (or possibly from additional reading that you have done on interface design or the application domain).  

Presentation,  Spelling,  Grammar,  Clarity,  Coherence:  10%      

Material  to  Submit   You should hand in a report containing all the deliverables specified in Steps 1 – 4 (apart from the electronic code submission). This report must be word-processed, using Times font, size 12 point, and single line-spacing. Use margins no larger than 2.5 cm on all sides. Make sure you include your name and student ID number on the coversheet. Electronic Submission of Code

All students must submit your code electronically on Moodle by Friday 31 October 2014. You should provide an executable version of your code that we can run. If you have developed on another platform (e.g. Linux) provide clear instructions on how to run your prototype. If you have used an online prototyping tool that does not allow you to download your code, please upload a document to Moodle giving details as to how the prototype and its code can be accessed.

Demonstration of prototype

You are required to conduct a 5 - 10 minute demonstration of your prototype 20th-24th October 2014 (study week). Sign-up sheets for demonstration times will be available in Week 12 of the semester.

Submission of Report

Hamilton students: Submit your completed report electronically on Moodle by 17:00 on Friday 31 October 2014. In addition you must submit the notes taken during user testing in the COMP325 assignment box (outside the Computer Science office, first floor, G Building) by 17:00 on Friday 31 October 2014.

Tauranga students: Submit your completed report electronically on Moodle by 17:00 on Friday 31 October 2014. In addition you must submit the notes taken during user testing to Judy after your prototype demonstration on Friday 31 October 2014.

Ethical  notes   An important aspect of conducting HCI research is to behave ethically. For each person who tests your paper prototype you should do the following:

• Give a copy of the Research Consent Form and Participants Bill of Rights to your participants (see SCMS website for copies of these forms; you will need to adapt the Research Consent Form for your needs).

• At the beginning of each session, verbally explain these documents, with particular reference to the participant’s right to withdraw at any point without explanation.

• Get the participants to read through the documents carefully. Two copies of the Research Consent Form need to be signed by the participant and yourself. One copy will be retained by the participant, and you will keep the other copy.

• After the end of this semester, when your grade for COMP325 has been finalized, destroy any data that you hold that was gathered from your participant(s).

Final Phase/phase3-marks-scheme-2014.pdf