Assignment M3 (Fall 2016)

Due: Sunday, October 30th, 2016, by 11:59PM UTC-12 (Anywhere on Earth). This assignment is based on lesson 3.4 and 3.5 (Design Alternatives and Prototyping), and focuses on brainstorming and prototyping design alternatives.

Assignment Instructions

Answer the following prompt in a maximum of 1200 words, with a recommended length of 1000 words; if you supply more than 1200 words, the grader will stop reading at the 1200th word, and you will not receive credit for anything written after that. You are encouraged but not required to complement your responses with diagrams, drawings, pictures, etc.; these do not count against the word limit, though any captions, text in tables, etc. does.

Brainstorm multiple design alternatives for your chosen problem space, then select a handful and construct low-fidelity prototypes to use in evaluation. First, outline a brainstorming plan (~50 words). Explicitly note the rules you will follow, the time you will allocate to brainstorming, and the standards you will meet before moving forward. Then, execute your individual brainstorming plan and report the ideas you provided. This may be reported simply as a flat simple descriptions of of ideas (~100 words). While the length of this portion of the deliverable is shorter, it is no less important, and will be evaluated as a disproportionately high percentage of the overall assignment’s grade.

After brainstorming several alternatives, detail the selection criteria you will use to select which three ideas to move forward to prototyping. This may take the form of the rules that will be applied to selecting the alternatives to move forward, or this may take the form of an explanation of the more situated reasoning behind why certain alternatives are selected. In short, explain how the alternatives to move to prototyping either will be or were selected (~100 words).Once you have selected those three ideas, construct their prototypes. Each idea should be prototyped in a different way: a textual prototype, a verbal prototype, a paper prototype, or a basic Wizard of Oz prototype. For textual prototypes, sufficient detail should be provided that the user could give useful feedback on the idea. For verbal prototypes, the prototype should include a script for what would be described, as well as answers to anticipated questions. For paper prototypes, a minimum of one screen should be supplied. For Wizard of Oz prototypes, a script of user actions and the system’s responses should be supplied.For each prototype, supply a description of the prototype (~150 words for paper and text prototypes, equivalent depth for paper or Wizard of Oz prototypes). Then, for each prototype, note specifically how the prototype addresses or fails to address items from the data inventory and/or requirements definitions from the previous assignment (~100 words per prototype).

Submission Instructions

Assignments should be submitted to the corresponding assignment on T-Square in accordance with the Assignment Submission Instructions. Most importantly, you should submit a single PDF for each assignment. This PDF will be ported over to Peer Feedback for peer review by your classmates. If your assignment involves things (like videos, working software prototypes, etc.) that cannot be provided in PDF, you should provide them separately (either through the class Resources folder or your own upload destination) and submit a PDF that describes how to access the assignment.

This is an individual assignment. Every student should submit an assignment individually.

Late work is not accepted without advanced agreement except in cases of medical or family emergencies. In the case of an emergency, please contact the Dean of Students.

Grading Information

This question is graded out of 20 possible points. Your grade and feedback will be returned to you via T-Square. An announcement will be made via Piazza when grades are returned.

Peer Review

After submission, your assignment will be ported to Peer Feedback for review by your classmates. Grading is not the primary function of this peer review process; the primary function is simply to give you the opportunity to read and comment on your classmates’ ideas, and receive additional feedback on your own. All grades will come from the graders alone.

You will typically be assigned three classmates to review. Peer reviews are due one week after the due date of the assignment, and count towards your peer review grade. Remember, peer reviews are graded not just based on completion, but also based on feedback quality. Each peer review should be substantive, whether in the way it critiques, praises, or elaborates on the assignment.