Final Reports
Objectives:
Overview:
The final phase of this project will tie together all of the work you have been doing on these projects up to this point. You will need to leverage the work you have done and come up with some plans for finalizing your interfaces, including re-design effort and summative evaluation plans.
You will format this final document in the CHI publication format. A style guide is listed here:
http://www.acm.org/sigchi/chipubform/cpf.doc
What to do:
1. Send your usability reports (written versions
of phase 4) to me (
This should be very simple, since you have already
completed this in phase 4.
2. Recap what you have done up to this point; include information from requirements, activity, information, and interaction design. Screenshots of your prototype are effective for illustrating your design. This information is necessary for someone not familiar with your project to understand what you have done thus far. Include all of the scenarios and claims you have created throughout this process in an appendix, not part of the text.
This part should be really easy since you
already have the information you need from the first 4 phases.
3. Using the usability report from #1 above, come up with a re-design plan. This involves listing out the problems in table form, then determining whether or not to fix the problem (you don’t have to make the changes in your prototype). List the problem, the effect on the user, the importance, and possible solutions. You need to come up with believable costs for making the changes (in terms of person hours). Use this form: (with an example from a hypothetical calendar management system)
|
Problem |
Effect on User Performance |
Importance |
Solution(s) |
Cost (person-hours) |
Resolution (fix or wait) |
|
User did not know to select appointment before it could be deleted. |
115 of 163 seconds spent in error correction |
High (or you could use a number scale like 1-10) |
Move delete button, gray it out until user selects appointment, add message to user |
5 hours |
Do it |
To fill in the last column, perform a cost/importance analysis. Assume that you have 5 person-hours with which to make changes. Assess the problems in terms of importance and their cost then say whether you will “Do it”, “Do it time permitting”, or “postpone it”. Keep in mind that you can’t fix all problems if they add up to more than your allotted 5 hours. The severity or importance rating divided by cost will give you a numerical way to compare the problems. Sort your table by the resolution decision so that the problems to be fixed are at the top.
Include some discussion to explain your table and the process you used to determine whether or not to “do it” or “postpone”.
Clearly indicate in the table where the “break line” is. This is where you run out of time and can no longer fix any of the problems. Use a bold line or color to show this break.
4. Assuming you could make the changes from #2 above, come up with a
summative evaluation plan for evaluating the “new” interface. This is similar
to the in-class activity we had on
5. Prepare a final presentation to be shown in class on
Your presentation should address an overview of your system, the interface that you developed, the experimental plan that you developed, and your redesign plan. The most important part of the presentation is to convince your classmates that you have addressed the problem with an innovative solution.
I encourage you to prepare a Powerpoint
presentation. If you choose to do so, please email me (
6. Prepare your final reports.
a) Cover Sheet: label the phase as "3724 Final Project Report", and include group number, team member names and student numbers, and due date
b) Table of Contents: list page numbers for each required element
c) Overview: a 1-2 page introduction to this phase.
d) Review material from first 4 phases (#2 above). This can be heavy re-use. Make sure your scenarios and claims are in an appendix though!
e) Your re-design plan based on the results from phase 4. (#3 above) Include your table with the cost/importance analysis.
f) Your summative evaluation plan. Include usability specifications, task instructions, instruction guides, and any other materials necessary for completing the proposed evaluation. (You don’t have to execute this plan.)
g) Bibliography: cite any sources (printed matter or the Web) you used in preparing your analysis. Make sure you mention any of the cases we have talked about up to this point if you base any of your ideas on what you have seen in them.
Send these final reports (#6) to Pardha Pyla (ppyla@vt.edu) by
Grading:
·
Usability reports
(#1 above): 5%
·
Overview (c
above): 5%
·
Review (d above):
10%
·
Re-design plan (e
above): completed table 20%, supporting discussion 5%
·
Summative
evaluation plan (f above): usability specifications 20%, task instructions 5%,
instruction guides 5%
·
General
Composition (all letters): 10%
·
Appendix (all
scenarios and claims): 5%
·
Oral reports (#5
above): 10%