Midterm Assignment

Your midterm assignment will be to create a project proposal that has two scope variations: one full, and one reduced version.

Your proposal should follow this structure:

  1. An introductory descriptive paragraph, which should include a problem statement, and say *what* your tool/thing will do.
  2. A set of personas and/or user stories.
  3. A use case scenario (where would someone find your tool/thing and how would they use it). Keep it short.
  4. How you will make the full fledged version. This is your “ideal world” version that fulfills all of your visions and fantasies (what tools you will use, how you will get them, how confident you are that all the moving parts will work together, etc).
  5. Your assessment of how much time the full-fledged version will take, and how much of the skills you currently know and what you would have to learn.
  6. How you will make the stripped-down version. The stripped down version is the minimally viable product. It is the most *bare bones* version to prove that what you are trying to get at is viable. (what tools you will use, how you will get them, how confident you are that all the moving parts will work together, etc)
  7. Your assessment of how much time the stripped-down version will take, and how much of the skills you currently know and what you would have to learn.

You are welcome (but not required) to repeat the last two steps with scope variations in-between the full fledged and bare bones version.

In previous years, this assignment asked you to propose two projects. If you are, indeed, trying to choose between two projects and fleshing them both out would be useful for you, you can fulfill the midterm assignment by offering what’s above for each idea, minus the stripped-down version.

Class that week (on Monday April 1st) will be dedicated to workshopping the proposals. We will follow the following format: you will have 5 minutes to present your proposal orally (or one of your two proposals, if that applies), and we will have 5 minutes for feedback. Think of this as a pitch. You will want to lay out the project abstract, present very short versions of your personas, give one use case scenario, and then talk about how you would build it, and how long you think it would take.

You will submit your proposal to the Forum by Thursday April 4th, which will give you the chance to reflect the feedback you got in class on Monday.

 

2 thoughts on “Midterm Assignment”

  1. Hi Michael –

    Thank you so much for this information. Can you describe what you mean by user stories (#2)? Do you want us to create the type of people who are engaging with this and how they would react? (The way we talked about the “type of people you meet in academia” during one of the first classes)? How many stories would you like?

    Thanks so much!

    Ash

    1. Hi Ash, user stories are another way to think about who is going to by using what you are making, and how they will do that. They are complimentary to personas. In a full UX review, you would do both, but for this assignment that would be overkill. Some people find it easier to conceive of one vs the other.

      Personas: https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/article/personas-why-and-how-you-should-use-them
      User Stories: https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/article/user-stories-as-a-ux-designer-i-want-to-embrace-agile-so-that-i-can-make-my-projects-user-centered

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