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carried out in teams
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Class Project:
The Fall 2012 project is to create a comprehensive information system for the community of people who use Interstate 81. There are many different audiences -- people who drive I-81, people who maintain I-81, people who make a living off of I-81. There are definitely challenges about interacting with information, particularly while driving. The project will be done in teams. For the first few phases (research), you will be assigned a group; for the design and implementation phases, you will self-organize into groups. The phases of work are:
- A: Client and Audience Research
The first step is to figure out the people involved in this project -- the client and the audience. Working groups of 4 or 5, each group will research a different aspect of the client and the audience. The client is VDOT. Each of the 5 groups have a different audience to research:
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Taken together, the reports give a good picture of the client and audience. With the Content Research, they will provide guidance to the development of project proposals.
- B: Content Research
In this step, we ask the team to identify what content is available for their audience. The more, the better. Finding content is a bit of a scavenger hunt. Your investigations should take you into the nooks and crannies of your assigned audience / target. Mostly that will be on-line, but clearly there is information in the physical environment, too, that you should include.
Use content research methods descibed in the book and in class.
In addition to each audience's content report, each persona will have a blog starting on Sunday 9/23 and ending on Saturday 9/29. The blog will be a fake, of course, of your imaginings of your personaÕs week. A section of the course website will be set up for this purpose.
Lastly the material collected in both Client, Audience, and Content research will be presented in well-planned and professionally presented presentations in class on Thursday, Oct 4.
- C.1: Team Formation
By Tuesday, Oct 9, please self-organize into seven project teams with four members. Rules: No more than 2 graduating seniors per team; one member from ech column (earth air, fire, water).
A |
B |
C |
D |
E |
F |
G |
Blanchard |
Marlow |
Erickson |
Thumann |
Chew |
Farrell |
Legard |
Curaca-Mailito |
Borgerding |
Gibboney |
Bushrow |
Lopez |
Berlin |
Gateley |
Kelley |
Kniphuisen |
Lieberman |
Parbadia |
Sheppard |
Wilson |
Truong |
Tabor |
Poulsen |
Fulton |
Galecki |
Zarger |
Foster |
Minnich |
- C.2: Conceptual Design
This is where stuff comes together. By now, you know who you are trying to talk to, what information they need and use, and what you can bring them.
The design is the hard part of step C Ð it is also the fun part. Plan on lots of intense team-time to get a concept that truly represents your creative abilities and the potential for you to carry out.
Your concept should be an information system for the communities of I-81. This concept should be comprehensive and be accessible in many different venues such while driving and when shopping. That means being clever about interfaces and devices. It also means thinking about what is wanted when.
The report and presentation are due on Oct 23. Process reports are emailed and the concepts are described on the wiki. Comments and grades are here.
- D: Feedback
Design is an iterative process. The presentation on Oct 23 will result in feedback from another group. Learning to give good feedback and learning how to respond to it are important parts of learning how to design. Reports are due Oct 30. Feedback reports are here: A reviewed by D, B reviewed by E, C reviewed by F, D reviewed by G, E reviewed by A, F reviewed by B, and G reviewed by C. Comments and gradfes are here.
- Project Planning / Project Management
Using the "Delphi Method", we have developed plans for organizing each group's remaining work. Each group (A, B, C, D, E, F, & G) has a spreadsheet with the information they developed available for downloading or to put into a Google Docs spreadheet for easy group sharing and updating. The plans are compared on the large summary and comment sheet available here. Careful study is suggested to see if your project appears on-track to completion.
- E: Design Review
This step finalizes your designs. On Nov 8, each group will report the specification for the project they are working on. The report and the presentation should account for feedback received in step "E" as well as in-class practicums for methods to refine the ideas and the design. Comments and grades are here.
- F: Final Project
Implementation and documentation. We will monitor your planned progress through your regular reports of progress on tasks, but this mostly occurs in your group as you advance to step G where you present the final working prototype and turn in your final report. The project will be graded along a number of dimensions: Brand, Function, and Contents. Projects that take a risk will be rewarded, even they fall short. Projects that are not completed due to poor planning, disorganization, poor intra-group communications, or competing classwork will NOT be rewarded.
- G: Final Presentation and Report
On December 11, each group will present a demonstration of their project accompanied by a professional presentation with the participation of all members of the group. The documentation and code from the project is due on December 13 at 5:00 PM. Comments and grades are here.
Copyright © 2012 Steve Harrison
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