Assignment M2 (Spring 2017)

Due: Sunday, March 12th, 2017, by 11:59PM UTC-12 (Anywhere on Earth). This assignment is based on lesson 3.3 (Needfinding), and focuses on executing your needfinding process.

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.

Execute and report the results of the needfinding exercises you outlined in Assignment M1. First, for each of the three methods you selected, report the results of the exercise (~150 words each). Report the basic observations as well as your early synthesis and analysis of the data gathered within each exercise. Report also your experience controlling for the biases you anticipated previously.

Based on those observations as a whole, complete your data inventory. Answer the seven questions outlined with regard to needfinding (~350 words). For each question, specifically tie the answer to some of the observations you made throughout your needfinding exercises, and remember to keep your answers related to the problem space you defined previously. Then, define the requirements drawn out of this data inventory (~100 words). What are the requirements of your interface in terms of questions like functionalities it must provide, learnability goals it must meet, or accessibility standards it must support (as well as others)? Finally, briefly outline the next iteration of needfinding in which you might engage based solely on this initial experience (~100 words). What remaining questions are there that would benefit from additional needfinding investigation?

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. You receive 1.5 participation points for completing a peer review by the end of the day Thursday; 1.0 for completing a peer review by the end of the day Sunday; and 0.5 for completing it after Sunday but before the end of the semester. For more details, see the participation policy.