Jan 18, 2012 - Familiarize yourself with IDEO's 51 method cards that we went over in class. ... How can a mobile system
Assignment 2
Out: January 18, 2012
Due: January 25, 2012
Look, Learn, Ask, Try HCDE 518 & INDE 545 User-‐Centered Design Understanding users, their activities, the contexts in which their tasks are carried out, and their experi-‐ ences and attitudes is crucial to designing good products and technologies. However, there is no one single way to understand users. Each situation is different, each user group is different, and each project is different. In addition, resources such as time and budget may also play a role in determining which methods to use for understanding users. Typically, designers almost always use more than one method for any given project, as well as use a va-‐ riety of methods to understand users that complement each other’s strengths and weaknesses. Using multiple methods to help understand users is called triangulation. The designers at IDEO have come up with a set of 51 different methods across four different areas that they use to understand users. These areas are: • • • •
Ask them how to help Look at what they do Learn from the facts you gather Try it yourself
To help designers understand and explore all of these ideas, they created a set of Method Cards, mod-‐ eled after a deck of playing cards (with the four method areas each being a “suit”). Thus, users can scan through the deck of cards for ideas on which methods might be useful in any given situation. You can access the Method Cards here: What to do? Familiarize yourself with IDEO’s 51 method cards that we went over in class. Each card lists what to do, why to do it, and an example of when it was useful for IDEO in a real design project. Think about how the 51 methods could be applied to a design problem. Thinking hypothetically, choose 1 method from each of the four categories that would be appropriate for each the following design questions. • • •
How can a new system support communication for emergency room nurses? How can a mobile system help long-‐distance bicyclists to find restaurants and amenities? How can a video game help educate kids in Grades 1-‐5 on healthy eating?
For each of the above design scenarios, list the four methods you would choose to help understand the potential users and the design problem. For each method you list, write a short paragraph about why you think that given method would work in this situation given the potential users and the context of the problem and why. Write an additional paragraph summarizing any methods from the 51 Method Cards you think would not work for each design question and why. Provide good justification for each. The justification must pertain to the design scenario. If the justification you provide could be relevant to any design scenario, you have not done a sufficient job of explaining why it would work in the specific design scenario provided. There are no right or wrong answers, but each method you choose must be defended well.
Assignment 2
Out: January 18, 2012
Due: January 25, 2012
For example, suppose the design question was “How can retirement software help elderly people with financial planning?” A good justification would talk about methods that would work particularly well with elderly people, such as large-‐print paper-‐based prototyping methods or things that are not overly complicated, like interviews, perhaps giving a few examples of questions you might ask. Or, it may per-‐ tain specifically to the design problem, such as using long-‐range forecasts to identify where they might see themselves in the future. A not-‐so-‐good justification would perhaps just re-‐word the definition of the card or give a generic example, such as “empathy tools are good for giving designers a sense of how their users might experience different types of impairments.” Since this justification could be applied to any scenario, it does not do a sufficient job of explaining why that method would work for this particular scenario. What to turn in? Your assignment should be approximately 1 page of text for each of the 3 design scenarios above, for a total of about 3 pages. The format of the document is up to you, but please use at least 11 point font and labels and proper headings to make it clear which methods are for which scenarios. Upload your assignment as a Word Doc or PDF with the filename YourLastName-‐A2. Upload your assignment in the A2 space on the CollectIt dropbox by 2:30 P.M. on the due date. How will it be graded? • 4.0 – Outstanding – The assignment is complete (includes 15 total methods – 4 that would work and a few methods that would not work for each of the 3 scenarios) and is of superior quality and shows a high level of sophistication. The justifications for each of the methods are specific and appropriate. The report is well-‐written, professional, in-‐depth, and the student is reflective and insightful. The report goes above and beyond the assignment requirements.
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3.5 – Great – The assignment is complete (includes 15 total methods – 4 that would work and a few methods that would not work for each of the 3 scenarios) and is of great quality. The justifi-‐ cations for each of the methods are specific and appropriate. The report is well-‐written, profes-‐ sional, in-‐depth, and the student is reflective and insightful, but does not go beyond the assign-‐ ment requirements.
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3.0 – Good – The assignment is complete (includes 15 total methods – 4 that would work and a few methods that would not work for each of the 3 scenarios) and is of good quality. The report is well-‐written and professional. The justifications for each of the methods are specific and ap-‐ propriate, but the student does not go beyond the assignment requirements.
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2.5 – Satisfactory – The assignment is mostly complete and of satisfactory quality, but the points could be better articulated, be more insightful, or more thorough. Report may contain problems with formatting or grammatical errors.
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2.0 or Lower – Unsatisfactory – The assignment is incomplete or is of lower quality. The points are not well articulated or thorough enough. Report may contain major problems with format-‐ ting or grammatical errors.
