Project Step 3:  Design and Formative Evaluation

By now you should be well on your way to understanding what your users want, need and are capable of. Now we get down to laying out the design space, selecting a design and sketching out what it will be like. We are asking for a report on your design and how you got there.

The report should contain:

• Design space:  Brainstorm many concepts that address the problem space. After you brainstorm aspects of the problem and design space, please represent the design space. This should result in a number of alternative design concepts.
  • Show critical dimensions of the design space. (Use a morphological box, if appropriate.)
  • Show at least 3 alternative designs.
  • Claims analysis on the alternative designs, how they do and do not meet the requirements.
• Formative evaluation:  explain how you picked and refined the final design.
  • Carry out at least a Wizard of Oz evaluation and refinement of your selected design.  How the design was refined as a result.
  • Why you chose the final design from the alternatives.
• Final design:  present the final design solution.
  • Transform your problem scenarios into design solution scenarios.
  • Communicating the design: Use whatever representations such as sketches or marked up photos you think will communicate what you are planning to do. The format might be a comic book or even a video. This part is very important since you will need it for your presentation the following week and it must communicate well enough for your fellow students to give you feedback on it!
  • Notes:  this is where you can identify any limitations that you have on your ability to implement the solution and how you will deal with that.

Grading: we are looking for evidence that your team�s project design really tries to respond to the needs, wants and abilities of your user population; that your team explored the problem and design space; and that the formative analysis shows you understand the ideas in the book. We need to see some evidence that your team really brainstormed and performed the Wizard of Oz evaluation.

Next step:  In the week after this is due, each team will give a 5 minute in-class presentation. It should reflect the scenario and design in this report.