CS 3724 -- Project Overview
Part 0 Due Oct 4 at 6pm via email
Part 1 Due Oct 18
Part 2 Due Nov 15
Part 3 Due Dec 11
Presentations will be on Dec 4 and Dec 6
In this class we have examined various principles and guidelines
for the development of user interfaces.
All too often these rules are overlooked or ignored,
resulting in an interface that is difficult to understand and use.
The goal of the class project for CS 3724
is to identify potential usability problems with an existing interface,
design or develop one or more solutions that address these problems,
and test the solution.
This is a group project, with groups consisting of 3-5 people.
Each project group will be graded as a team;
that is, each person receives the same grade.
However, I will poll team members to make sure that all members
are contributing.
Lack of participation may precipitate
an individual reduction of grade.
Within the team, you must negotiate on
how much and what each person will contribute.
Think carefully about your team members:
Where do people live and what hours do they work?
Where will you meet?
What skills do the different individuals
bring to the group
(computing, programming, design, evaluation, statistics, etc.)?
I would strongly encourage you to form
a heterogeneous team full of individuals with varying skills.
Part 0 of the project is straightforward:
come up with an interface that you feel is difficult to use.
Feel free to borrow or reuse ideas from previous or ongoing projects
from other classes or from jobs.
You will establish an online project report book
that you will update throughout the semester.
By the Part 0 due date, the report book should contain
a one-paragraph description of the problem that you plan to address
and a list of team members and their anticipated roles.
Email the URL for your team to the TA, Pete, Schoenhoff (pschoen@cs.vt.edu).
Current Class Projects
Redesign of www.nasa.gov :
Ryan Feber,
Cyril Montabert,
Aaron Connolly,
Dave Ferguson
Clip-It Redesign :
Daryl Flagg,
Dennis Flagg,
Aditi Jain
Usability issues with a student information tracking database system :
Letisha Gray,
Sean Chung,
Tom Keller,
Ondrea Holliday,
Max Moldenhauer
System to monitor sites, collect & combine data into one page :
Mike Richmond,
Jeff Osterberg,
Chris Keller,
Chris Williams
Project U-Haul :
Alex Schultz,
Brenton Strickler,
Mario Ariza-Stehling,
Jason Convry
Uncontrolled (Game Console Controller Design) : :
Pierce Hanley,
Travis Hudson
Interface redesign for the control of entertainment appliances :
Clif Gaus,
Curtis Gearhart,
Chad Guebert,
Kenji Horvath,
Rob Mellor,
B.J. Poole
Stock Tickers: Isn't There a Better Way? :
William Luebke,
Dan James,
Dave Leach,
Andre Militaru,
Vidhi Bakshi
System for placing orders at a fast food restaurant drive thru :
Mike Hixson,
Gunjan Vatas,
Liam Honecker,
Simon Cilek,
Shahtab Wahid
phpShop seller interface :
Jonathan Berkowitz,
Eric Harding,
Heath David Hart,
Ross Ivins,
Gin Prudom
Improving Cash Registers :
Brandon Berry,
John Park,
Rob Spieldenner,
Rob St.Clair,
Doug Turnbull
VT army rotc website :
Aaron Pride,
Ben Devane
Redesign of Web Hosting Site :
Mike He,
Adam Fisher,
Andy Frank,
Chris Mauck
Part 1 of this project asks you to evaluate existing scenarios
in terms of the tasks and users you see as necessary.
In so doing, you will develop
several representative scenarios that illustrate
the problems with existing systems
and solutions in your improved system.
Develop at least two or three scenarios that capture
the important issues that you plan to address.
Be sure your scenarios address tasks, situations, and users.
This should provide for you an understanding of the problems with
existing systems and potential solutions.
The deliverable for part 1 is a 500-word writeup in HTML
linked to your project web page by the due date.
Along with the scenarios you developed,
your writeup should include:
- An in-depth analysis of the problem
with the existing interfaces or systems.
The results of your scenario development
should help to illustrate these problems.
Be sure to discuss the interface in terms of
the usability guidelines that we have been studying --
explain why you think certain guidelines are important
for your interface and in what way they are being violated.
If appropriate, include screen shots or hypertext links
that illustrate problems or issues that you plan to address.
- A description of your proposed solution.
Explain how your interface will look and act,
and how your interface will avoid the problems
of previous interfaces without adding new problems.
Basically, this should outline the steps you plan to take
in part 2 of the project.
- A description of your evaluation methods.
What combination of questionnaires, interviews,
ethnographic observation, usability tests,
software logging, etc will you use?
Explain why you think your choices are appropriate
for your interfaces.
This should help define the final phase of the project.
It is not necessary to email or send your writeup to the TA,
but please make sure it is linked to your Web page by the due date!
Part 2 of this project asks you to design and implement an interface
to address the issues you encountered in part 1.
The deliverable for phase two is a 1500-word writeup in HTML.
Place the writeup in your group Web site and link it in to
your main project page. The writeup should include:
- A summary of the problems that you found in the initial interface
and the solutions you proposed.
- A detailed description of your new interface,
including how it looks and acts, and how you expect it
will avoid the problems of previous interfaces.
Discuss the design guidelines that you found most important
in designing the new system.
Include screen shots of the important states
in your system.
Remember, the system does not have to be completely operational,
but the interface should be (at least to the point
where you can evaluate it).
- A detailed description of the evaluation you plan to conduct.
If you plan to use questionnaires, list the questions,
if you plan to do usability tests, list the tasks, and so on.
Explain why you think each evaluation method as well as
each question/task/etc is appropriate for your interface.
Your writeup should be a self-contained document:
a person with no knowledge of your project
should be able to read the document
and understand the nature of your project.
As a result, be sure you address the first bullet
and include a summary of part 1.
Part 3 of this project asks you to evaluate your new interface.
You will need to conduct an experiment,
analyze the results, and draw conclusions.
The deliverable for phase three (due December 11 by 6pm) is a 4000-word
writeup in HTML.
Place the writeup in your group directory and link it
in to your main project page. The writeup should include:
- A summary of the problems that you found in the initial interface
and the solutions you implemented (part 1 and 2).
- A detailed description of the evaluation you conducted.
Explain why you think each evaluation method
as well as each question/task/etc is appropriate for your interface.
If you used questionnaires,
list the questions and discuss why you chose them
(discuss the type and contents of the question).
If you performed usability tests, discuss the subject pool,
the dependent and independent variables,
the hypothesis, your experimental design,
and your evaluation methods.
- A summary of the results of your experiment,
including both numerical data from usability tests
and user opinions from interviews and questionnaires.
Use methods that are appropriate for the type of data:
charts, graphs, tables, written summaries, and so forth.
- Conclusions that can be drawn from the experiment
and future work that should be done.
Design is a continual process, and your experiment
should yield good and bad about the interfaces.
Be sure and discuss both, and look to the future
to consider how your project impacts other work.
Your writeup should be a self-contained document:
a person with no knowledge of your project
should be able to read the document
and understand the nature of your project.
As a result, you will want to summarize your
previous findings in this writeup.
As discussed in class, when running an experiment
you will have to prepare a consent form for your participants.
Here
is a sample form (in MS Word format).
Your project presentations will consist of an 8 minute
presentation of your work plus a 2 minute question period.
Because of the large number of class groups,
the time period will be rigidly enforced.
Your presentation should address the interface that you developed,
the experiment that you conducted, and your results and conclusions.
The most important part of the presentation is to convince
your classmates (many of whom will have not yet seen your work)
that you have addressed an interesting problem
with an innovative solution. One common error is to jump
too quickly to your results without sufficiently motivating
the problem!
I encourage you to prepare a Powerpoint presentation.
If you choose to do so, please email me (mccricks@cs.vt.edu)
the Powerpoint by midnight on the day of your presentation.
I will put the presentations on my laptop.
Also, bring a copy of your presentation on floppy (just in case).
Let me know of other special needs that you have.
Contact Information:
Scott McCrickard
mccricks@cs.vt.edu
623 McBryde Hall
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
Blacksburg, VA 24061-0106