Assignment
This is the first portion of your Sprint Briefs, covering the user needs specification phase of the HCD process. I have provided a basic list of components, each of which must be present.
The point to this first project deliverable is to demonstrate to your client (the role Professor Wirth plays in this project) that you have transitioned from mandate/context to a clearly identified problem through a combination of design thinking exercises and field research.
The deliverable can be done either as a Word document or as a Powerpoint slide deck, both saved as PDF and submitted. Regardless of the format chosen, the report should be detailed and make it abundantly clear to me (acting as your client representative) that you've done enough work on this first milestone to get paid for your work (in the form of a grade).
Your Needs Assessment report should revolve around demonstrating the evidence for your research-based (made-up, in this case) user persona, as well as the HCD logic evident in the following sections and elements:
1. Introduction & Project Context - What is the project? What are you doing in this project phase? What is the mandate for this project? What are the drivers for the project? Why does this project matter?
2. Research Approach and Methods: What research did you plan for this phase of the Sprint? Why did you do that kind of research? What methods did you specify to determine the needs? Specifically, give a breakdown of:
• User Stories
• Goals & Anti-Goals
• Facts & Assumptions
• Competitive Landscape Analysis
• Question-Storming
• Chosen approach to user field research (i.e. interviews, ethnography, survey, etc.)
3. Results Report (also called "Findings"): What did you actually do? What issues were encountered? How were they overcome? What did you find (high level report - do not discuss or analyze them in detail - just report on outcome in this section)? What is the impact of the findings? What surprised you? What was different or noteworthy? What are the needs now identified for the project?
4. Persona (Primary Stakeholder Group): Present your finished Persona as a one-page visual tool, accompanied by surrounding explanations and critical breakdown of how you created it, based on what understandings, and what general group of users does this incorporate?
5. Preliminary Recommendations for Problem Solution: Based on the personas you have made from your field research, what might be your early recommendations for the problem solution (From an HCD perspective, not from the perspective of product features). What are the user pain points? From the perspective of both your users and your client's mandate, what might improve the experience for your users? Remember, no features. Recommendations should generally follow an approach such as:
"Given the issues arising between resolving X characteristic and Y desired feature while considering Z pain point, any potential solution approaches should avoid significant data entry or management of granular detail on behalf of the user, with significant allocation of functions dedicated to the system."
"Considering the plethora of data suggesting that this user group has pain points focused around technological literacy (i.e. X, Y, Z data points), it would be ill-advised for any solution ideation to neglect accessibility and training/new-user adoption and retention."
6. Conclusion: How does the needs assessment change your plans for the project going forward? What have you discovered? How will it be integrated into your project?
Report can be a document or a slide deck. It should read or be viewable as a professional report, not as a series of Q&A responses to the elements required in it. This means do not put the questions shown above and then your responses below. Pay attention to report flow, credibility and legibility. Imagine you are being paid $10,000 for this first deliverable of this project.
There is no set page or word requirement for this assignment. You should fully address each component of the report as listed above. None of these should be a single paragraph, and each should prominently feature explicit design thinking, critical analysis, and organization of thoughts/process/data.
Format your assignment according to the following formatting requirements:
1. The answer should be typed, double spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides.
2. The response also include a cover page containing the title of the assignment, the student's name, the course title, and the date. The cover page is not included in the required page length.
3. Also Include a reference page. The Citations and references should follow APA format. The reference page is not included in the required page length.