Instructions - General Project Instructions
The goal of this individual project based activity is to provide you with hands-on experience of completing all the phases of a HCI Project (where a HCI project is defined as an interactive solution through which a computer or a machine and a user interact). These include: idea generation, conceptualization, design, implementation and evaluation.
The HCI Project (components) is divided into 3 assessments:
- 2A Project Brief worth 15%,
- 2B Low Fidelity Prototype Report worth 30%
- 2C High Fidelity Prototype and Evaluation Methodology Presentation worth
The goal of the project as a whole is as follows:
To designan interactive solution for a chosen problem area (where currently inefficacies or inadequacies exist), suchthat the interactive solution must be either a mobile app.
The final goal of the project is to present a proof of concept hi-fidelity interactive prototype; which may be non-functional in the true sense and ideally comprising of a series of software wireframes. Ensure that your choice of topic is not too minimalistic in nature as for the assessments you will require at least three features/scenarios; where a scenario will be defined as the point of when a user initiates an action to the point when the user is (un)successful in completing the action.
Topic:
E-book or a digital book
On this topic you will further research on the idea and proceed with developing both low and hi fidelity prototypes for your intended system.
The three assessments that together form the HCI project are now described in detail hereunder.
Assessment 2A: Project Brief.
Instructions:
The goal of this project brief report is to present your topic, the rationale and motivation of choosing your topic and to relate its importance with relevant HCI literature. You will also need to benchmark your proposed idea/concept by comparing it against 3 existing commercial applications that are similar. The main purpose of this assessment is to provide feedback to you on your chosen topic so that you may address any concerns for the remaining two assessments. You are strongly recommended to use this feedback to keep the project on track and improve your subsequent submission of other assessments in the unit.
The project brief report must be written and formatted using the SIGCHI conference template (which will be provided on vUWS). You must follow the SIGCHI template completely and meticulously. Therefore, all formatting must be according to the template. The best way to manage that would be to replace the text in the template with your own text. After you have written all your content, remove text that is leftover from the template. The content (not formatting!) of the headings, subheadings are somewhat your choice and the suggested headings below are a good starting point.
The required length of the report is approximately 1200 words; excluding the bibliography section. There is no threshold associated with this first assessment.
The following subsections/subheadings must be included in the project brief report:
1. Introduction and Motivation: introducing your topic and problem; providing a context for your topic/problem; justifying the choice of the topic/problem and highlighting the importance of the topic/problem.
2. Literature Review or also known as Related Work Section: Linking your chosen topic and its importance by showcasing what other HCI researchers have done in similar areas and if any gaps exist. A minimum of three relevant academic articles must be cited. A sample literature review document will be provided which will clarify tips and techniques on how to approach a literature review (such as starting from the general themes and drilling down to the specifics). In this assessment the literature review can be about three short paragraphs (approximately 300-500 words).
3. Benchmark Design: Benchmark your proposed idea/concept by comparing it against 3 existing applications that are similar. Clearly state at least one issue with each of the existing interface. Give more details than hard for user to navigate, etc.". Discuss pros and cons and how your idea advances the app, web or system market in comparison to the existing 3 applications.
4. Design Statement: One-line design statement describing what you will attempt to do.
5. Personas: Present two personas (i.e. major stakeholders) of your interactive solution. You can present the two personas as text or visually or in a tabular format.
6. Conclusion and Future Work: A short paragraph on the way forward.
7. Bibliography: listing all references using the Harvard referencing style. Further instructions on how to use this style can be found at: https://library.westernsydney.edu.au/main/sites/default/files/pdf/cite Harvard.pdf.
Resources Provided
1. Relevant Literature will be provided; including state of the art and pioneering articles from the HCI/CHI domain area
2. Sample Document on how to conduct a literature review
3. Exemplars of concise literature review
4. End Note style details: we will discuss End Note in the lectures/tutorials
Instructions
In this report you will present your initial design ideas of how the interface that addresses your chosen topic should look like and behave using paper wireframes only. Please use the templates for paper wireframes as provided on vUWS and as discussed in the lecture and tutorials. All paper wireframes must be hand sketched and annotated extensively; use of software is not allowed to enhance the sketches.
The low-fidelity prototype report must be written and formatted using the SIGCHI conference template (which will be provided on vUWS). You must follow the SIGCHI template completely and meticulously. Therefore, all formatting must be according to the template. The best way to manage that would be to replace the text in the template with your own text. After you have written all your content, remove text that is leftover from the template. The content (not formatting!) of the headings, subheadings are somewhat your choice and the suggested headings below are a good starting point.
The required length of the report is approximately 1250 words; excluding the bibliography section. The wireframes can be included in the appendix. Please scan the paper wireframes and then insert into the report; do not take a picture 11 with your smart phone camera as that will reduce the quality of the image when inserted in the document! A threshold pass mark of 50% is associated with this assessment.
The following subsections must be included in the low-fidelity prototype report:
1. Introduction: Brief recap of your chosen topic and its motivation.
2. Scenario Description: Clearly highlight and then briefly describe 3 interaction scenarios within your chosen topic. As stated prior, a scenario will typically be one feature of your system. Showcase the scenario description by employing one of the following techniques: use cases, storyboards or task analysis. Feel free to use any one of the 3 but not more than one mentioned visual techniques to represent each of the scenarios. So for example Scenario 1 can be represented by Task Analysis, Scenario 2 by storyboards, Scenario 3 by Use cases OR Scenario 1 can be represented by Task Analysis, Scenario 2 by Task Analysis, Scenario 3 also by Task Analysis and so on any combination thereof. Also each scenario must be explained through text and through one visual technique as mentioned above.
3. Design Conceptualisation: For each of the 3 scenarios present your paper wireframes (each scenario can be a subheading for the sake of readability and clarity). Also clearly indicate any user actions that result in traversing the wireframes and describe the layout and design of the interface. Some of the wireframes will be identical (such as the home page or home screen); feel free to include them once in the report and refer to them from thereon in. In this section, feel free to include any wireframes/design choices that were rejected. Indicate why! Moreover, briefly state what process or method (i.e. brainstorming, research, iterative etc..) you followed to come up with the design ideas before you begin to talk about the ideas in detail. IMPORTANT: It is mandatory at the end to include at least 10 unique wireframes in total across the 3 scenarios (not each) to attain a higher mark. Each screenshot counts as 1 wireframe. Sosome templates which have three iPhones across them will count as 3 wireframes. Please stick to one platform (web or mobile or tablet); depictions of multi platform screenshots of the same scenarios will not satisfy the 10 wireframe benchmark.
4. Design Rationale: Briefly analyse your design choices and highlight the rationale of them by linking them to prior HCI literature or design guidelines/conventions as discussed in the lectures. Clearly add references to any such linkage. Random choices of design decisions without rationale will be penalized. Feel free to refer/cite to the content discussed in the lectures/video snippets. In the first instance, can you please attempt to find the original source of the guideline (Normans books, HCI book by Alan Dix, etc). If you are unable to pinpoint the exact reference, you can refer to thelecture slides using the following category from Endnotes: "Personal Communication". See Lecture (unpublished)/Personal Communication category on Page 12 in the UWS Harvard Style Sheet (for those who are not using Endnotes). In the Design Rationale section, you are encouraged to cite and go beyond articles that will beuploaded on vUWS and information in the lectures. Remember to look for domain-specific articles.
5.Conclusion and Future Work: A short paragraph on how you see the prospect of designing software based wireframes for your topic.
Assessment 2C: High-Fidelity Prototype and Evaluation Methodology Presentation
Instructions
This assessment comprises of two integral parts submitted as an oral presentation. Firstly; you must deliver a demo of the front end; i.e. therefore without necessarily a back-end of your hi-fidelity prototype and secondly; you must deliver 13 an evaluation plan of how you would conduct an evaluation of your prototype given you had the right resources, i.e. time and ethics clearances. You have freedom in choosing the software/tool for your prototype but all choices must be clearly articulated, introduced explained and justified in the presentation. Similarly, you must also justify your evaluation plan, its structure, data collection instruments employed, methods chosen, choice of participants, etc. The range of software tools that can be employed for building the hi-fidelity prototype include any wireframing software as discussed in the lectures or tutorials (Visio, Balsamiq, Just in Mind Pro, etc) or HTML 5/Phone Gap. Please discuss your options of particular tools with your tutor in advance to get a formal approval. However Just in mind will be the most discussed and encouraged software of choice. Please note that the professional version of Just in mind comes with a 30 day free license period. SCEM computers will have the Just in mind professional version pre-installed.
The presentation files are due for submission online on vUWS on or before midnight of Sunday May 14. You will be informed regarding the exact submission instructions with regards to your project files (exporting to a friendly format will be preferred).
Your tutor will inform you at the start of the semester of your allocated date and time for the presentation in Week 13 or 14.
The presentation must be delivered strictly within the time limit of 10 minutes.
A threshold pass mark of 50% is associated with this assessment.
The following slides structure is encouraged to be adopted for your presentation:
1. Slide 1: Title, your Name
2. Slide 2: Design statement and any changes to your scope/project idea
3. Slide 3-6: Implementation Details followed by Live Demo. Initially, you must devote some time in the presentation to motivate the choice of tools utilised (describe the tools and its features as well!) and the process to create your prototype. Your prototype will be evaluated as a front end application, i.e. on the aesthetics, the possibilities of user interaction, ease of use, usability, consistency, and all other similar HCI and interface design principles as discussed in the lectures. Feel free to remind the audience of the rationale of any design decision. After discussing all the details of the prototype you will be required to demo it by running the application/website/interface. Your prototype demo can be run as:1) externally from powerpoint, so minimisePowerpoint and open the wireframing software (just in mind, etc) and run the demoor as a video using any screen capture software.Therefore, the demo is "separate" from the Slides.The demo must traverse through and showcase the 3 scenarios as discussed in the Assessment 2B. Ensure that all technical issues are taken care of prior to the beginning of the presentation by executing a dummy run on the presentation machine.
4. Slide 7-9: Evaluation In this section of the presentation you will be expected to clearly outline your evaluation plan. Please spend some time thinking on how you wish to prepare for the evaluation and what the protocol would be. For example you need to think about the choice of the evaluation method, the choice of the evaluation instrument (questionnaires, interviews, focus groups), the tasks that the users are required to do (how many tasks, how do you measure task success-when a particular screen is seen or message is generated?), the exact protocol of the evaluation (welcome, introduction, exploration phase-i.e. playing around with the system, evaluation phase, filling in the questionnaire, etc), etc. In most cases your evaluation instrument (questionnaire, etc) will be quite elaborate therefore only summarise the main and key elements from it, do not paste the whole questionnaire on your slides. In addition, try to formulate what the goal of the evaluation is in your opinion, is it only to get feedback or to measure other aspects such as efficiency and usability. You might also want to think about comparing your system/product/interface against other similar off the shelf products/interfaces/systems and determine how well it is rated in comparison.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/0hqs2khatyfemdq/HCI%20project%20Folder.zip?dl=0