You are to propose a problem and an approach that could form the basis of a project for this course. Successful projects will observe the need for good human-centered design in an interactive computing system, analyze the needs and opportunities in the problem, explore potential designs, and propose a compelling solution.
This assignment is worth 3% of your overall course grade:
This is an individual assignment, consisting of three milestones.
Assignment 1a: Proposal Brainstorm
Due: Uploaded the night before section Tuesday, August 30, 2016
Assignment 1b: Project Proposal
Due: Uploaded the night before class Thursday, September 1, 2016
Assignment 1c: Revised Project Proposal
Due: Uploaded the night before class Thursday, September 8, 2016
Assignment 1d: Group Information
Due: Uploaded the night before class Tuesday, September 13, 2016
We are not strictly imposing a theme for this project, to facilitate working on a project that fits the constraints of another course (such as the Senior Capstone). However, because it can be difficult to start without any constraints, we will also suggest a theme of personal informatics.
Personal informatics systems are systems that help people collect personally relevant information for the purpose of self-reflection and gaining self-knowledge.
Personal informatics relates heavily to the Quantified Self movement, which emphasizes:
Self-knowledge through numbers.
Current widely used examples of personal informatics systems exist in a variety of domains, with more active or passive approaches:
Individuals have gone much deeper into their own data:
Researchers have also studied current processes, challenges, and opportunities:
Your proposal must go beyond a technology-centric proposal of a webpage, phone application, or interaction. Think about the problems that people face in their lives with regards to their community, how we can approach those problems, and the role for interactive computing. This first assignment is your opportunity to think broadly about identifying a problem. Subsequent assignments will provide opportunities to focus on designing a specific technological solution to a specific set of tasks.
You should identify and consider goals and activities that are important to people. Potential include:
Activities within personal informatics can include:
Do not start with a focus on concrete one-time tasks (e.g., logging into your bank account). Instead identify problems in long-lived activities that span many different social or technological contexts. If you want to help people connect with neighbors, do not immediately propose a website that addresses one specific task. Consider the range of other opportunities (e.g., personal mobile devices, shared family computers, public/ambient displays).
Focus on creating or improving a specific application or service that addresses the issues of an actual community. You must be able to create and evaluate a design within the timeframe of this course, so consider whether you can reasonably gain access to the necessary people. We encourage you to think big, expanding upon your application to include new ideas for interaction techniques or technology platforms.
Do not feel constrained by current devices, but instead aim to explore an exciting design that could potentially motivate the development of new enabling technology. For example, see how Artefact presents the Dialog concept:
This design has not been implemented, and might not even be immediately possible. But it has been developed in substantial detail, understanding implications for design and implementation.
Due: Uploaded the night before lecture Tuesday, August 30, 2016
Tuesday’s lecture will focus on brainstorming potential project directions. You will get started on thinking, and help seed this brainstorming, with some individual ideas.
Propose three starting points for brainstorming domains, problems, and goals that might be supported via self-tracking.
By domain, we mean an aspect of life. Domains that are already common in self-tracking include:
Be sure to focus on problems and goals, not potential design solutions. One way to help yourself identify a hierarchy of problems and goals is to ask “why?”. For example:
Each idea should be a single sentence, identifying the domain and the problem or goal. At most one of your ideas may come from any of the domains above. You other two ideas should be from domains not in this list, in order to broaden the brainstorm. Ensure the ideas are significantly different, not small variations on the same idea.
No more than one page of text in PDF format. Submit via Canvas here:
https://utah.instructure.com/courses/399362/assignments/3303326
If you are still attempting to add, or otherwise unable to access the submission system, submit via the instructor email address.
In section, be prepared to contribute your initial ideas as part of a larger brainstorm.
This milestone will be graded on a scale of 5 points: One point for each unique proposed idea (i.e., do not submit small variations on the same idea) and 2 points for creativity.
Due: Uploaded the night before class Thursday, September 1, 2016
Propose and analyze a problem that forms the basis of a design project for this class.
In one paragraph, describe the design problem and motivation. This description should convince the reader that this is a difficult and interesting problem, worth spending a quarter considering. State what the problem is and why it is a problem, or describe a new idea and why it will enhance an existing application or practice.
In another paragraph, analyze the problem or idea to give more background and context. Do not just focus on the negative aspects of the current situation, but also identify some positive aspects that may be beneficial to retain. A few salient examples from existing systems or practices could be used to support those claims. If appropriate, you may conduct this analysis by describing a scenario that illustrates how someone might encounter and resolve the problem.
Ensure your report is appropriately clear and easy to read. This includes:
Be sure your presentation looks good:
Examples from prior offerings include:
No more than one page of text in PDF format.
Images do not count against your page limit, and are therefore effectively free. You should embed images throughout your PDF, keeping them near the text that references them. The limit applies to the approximate amount of text you would have if all images were removed.
Submit via Canvas here:
https://utah.instructure.com/courses/399362/assignments/3303326
This proposal will be graded on a scale of 5 points:
Due: Submitted the night before lecture Thursday, September 8, 2016
Review the feedback you received on your submission to assignment 1b in Canvas and revise your project proposal accordingly. If you have formed a project group of exactly 4 people, you only have to turn in one revised proposal. If you are doing this, make sure all four your names are on it.
No more than one page of text in PDF format.
Images do not count against your page limit, and are therefore effectively free. You should embed images throughout your PDF, keeping them near the text that references them. The limit applies to the approximate amount of text you would have if all images were removed.
Submit via Canvas here:
https://utah.instructure.com/courses/399362/assignments/3304181
This proposal will be graded on a scale of 20 points:
Due: Submitted the night before lecture Tuesday, September 13, 2016
Upload a PDF with the following information:
No more than one page of text in PDF format.
Submit via Canvas here:
https://utah.instructure.com/courses/399362/assignments/3304197
This submission will be graded on a scale of 0 points.