A4: Brainstorm and Ideation#
Getting Started#
At this point you should have a rough idea of the direction you plan to head with your scenario. To help you refine that direction you will start by applying the user centered design and evaluation methods that you learned in INF 131 as well as those we review in class. Your goal here should be to generate as many assets as possible to help guide your direction. These assets may include sketches and notes, but should also include storyboards.
Think about the different situations in which you might envision a person using your product. Are there any that you are unsure about? Any that you could benefit from some evaluation? If so, explore these situations through storyboards. For example, for a Drone Burrito Delivery Service (DBDS) one might need to determine the best way to get the burrito from the drone to the customer. So we might create a series of storyboards that explore this situation:
Delivery stations?
Drop and go?
Table service?
Once you have a few artifacts ready to go (such as storyboards), spend some time asking those around you for their thoughts. You can discuss with your team, friends and family, and other groups during class work time. Take note of who you asked to evaluate, the evaluation method you used, and the data that you generated.
Developing Content#
Once you have received some feedback on your preliminary ideas, you will begin thinking about the type of content your product will need.
Start by assembling a list of the type of information that will be presented to users in your interface. This might be as simple as a bulleted list of one or two word descriptions. For example, with DBDS we might start with the following list:
App Name
Menu items
Delivery location
Special deals
Where’s my burrito?
Fly it myself
Identifying content is a good group exercise, so you will likely want to find time to work together on this part of the assignment. Keep in mind, that we are interested in exploring novel user interfaces in this class, so do your best to avoid more standardized UI features like:
Checkout/pay
Account/login
Profile management
These features are certainly critical to any successful application, but their ubiquity in modern software products also makes them routine and uninteresting from a UI design perspective.
As you work through your content, remember, at this stage content selection can be fluid. As you work towards functional prototypes you may decide to add or remove these items. So you don’t have to get it right the first time through.
Evaluation Notes#
As you spend time in and out of class communicating your story with other people, you should be taking notes on the feedback that you receive. As a team, you will aggregate these notes into a single document that includes the following:
A description of which artifacts you shared with the end user(s).
A list of the feedback that you received and an anonymized description of the person that provided the feedback.
A summary of how you plan to handle the feedback:
What will you change? Why?
Requirements#
Your team must have at least three artifacts per team member, though a thorough submission should not be limited by attempting to fulfill the bare minimum. If you are ideating and sketching ideas both individually and collaboratively, you should have no problem generating more enough artifacts.
Your completed story must contain the following items:
Artifacts from your ideation process (sketches, notes, pictures, etc., identified by individual team members)
At least 1 prototype (storyboard, low-fidelity wireframe, paper, etc.) per team member (everyone must create a prototype, if you create a prototype collaboratively then add the names of all members involved)
Submission#
To submit your work, appoint one member of your group to be responsible for assembling your final deliverable into a single packet in the PDF format. The packet must start with a cover page that includes:
Your team name
Scenario summary (one sentence that describes your product)
Team member names
Date
You must also identify each asset that you created in some way. One approach might be to put your name at the bottom of the page (e.g., created by Mark Baldwin). Alternatively, you may group assets by team member and start each section with an introduction page that includes your name. We are not particularly concerned with how you identify your assets, but simply that you do.
Grading#
Your team will be given an overall grade that is based on thoroughness and thoughtfulness of your work. It is fairly easy to identify rushed or poorly thought out work, so do not wait to the last minute to finalize your plan.
All materials submitted on time and formatting requirements met: 0.5 pts
Thorough and informative evaluation notes: 2 pts
Artifact and prototype requirements met: 2.5 pt
Total: 5 pts
Note that we expect everyone on your team to participate in this assignment. Period check-ins by the course staff and final survey will determine whether or not each team member earned full credit. Penalties, should they arise, will be applied to each persons overall participation score.