Team Assignments


Team Project Overview

The heart of this course is a semester-long project, in which you will design, implement, and evaluate a user interface. User interface design is an iterative process, so you will build your UI not just once, but multiple times, as successively higher-fidelity and more complete prototypes. Over the course of the semester, you will design a system that supports the mission and aims of our community partner organization, the Boston Mayor's Office of New Urban Mechanics (MONUM). New Urban Mechanics is an innovative network of offices that examines how "new technology, designs and policies can strengthen the partnership between residents and government and significantly improve opportunity and experiences for all" [1].

Specifically, we have an exciting opportunity to work with the Housing Innovation Lab within Boston MONUM. This lab is collaborating with the Boston Home Center to examine how low, middle, and higher income families can make home ownership a reality in the challenging Boston real estate market. This work is vital for helping families to have the stability that comes with home ownership. Together, MONUM and the Boston Home Center seek to develop a Homebuying Planner app that guides families through the often complicated stages of home buying. During this course, you will design, build and evaluate prototypes of this app, which will inform MONUM and the Boston Home Center's next steps in developing a software tool for their home buying courses.

One of your final deliverables for this class will be a functional web application. It must

  • Have a substantial user interface. A health screening system that simply administers a questionnaire is not enough.
  • Be interactive. A system that simply displays a page of text or sequences through a series of pages would not be acceptable.
  • Work robustly. You will need to fully build what you propose. Ideas are not enough. Your project should be fully implementable by the end of the semester, although we will consider larger projects in which you primarily develop the interface and leave some implementation details for later.
  • Address the health-related problem that the instructor has chosen for this course (poverty).

Your project should

  • Be creative.
  • Be original.
  • Be non-obvious.
  • Have a "wow" factor.
  • Allow you, at the end of this course, to have an amazing system to add to your design/programming portfolio.

An important note: Your software must run robustly on, and be optimized for smartphones. To reduce programming complexity and enable the project to be completed within the course time constraints, teams should implement their software as a web app, not a native application.

Assignment #

Due Date

Description

T1

Sunday 9/25, by 6pm

Team Assignment #1: Team Formation & Background Research

T1 grading rubric



T1 instructions

T2

Wednesday, 10/12, by 6pm

Team Project Assignment #2 - Interviews

T2 instructions


Interview Guide


T2 grading rubric

T3

Thursday, 10/27, by 11:59pm

Team Project Assignment #3 - Affinity Diagram, Persona & Design Ideation

T3 instructions


Persona Template


Example Participant Attribute Mapping


T3 Grading Rubric

T4

Wednesday, 11/16, by 6pm

Team Project Assignment #4 - Requirements Identification & Design Ideation

T4 instructions


Note: Your PDF report is due on blackboard by 11/16 @ 6pm. Your paper prototyping kit will be due in class, 11/16.

T5

Wednesday, 12/7, by 6pm

Team Project Assignment #5 - Final Presentation

Final Presentation Instructions

In the last class (December 7), each team will make a final presentation on their project and important lessons the team learned during the development process.

The presentation must contain the information described in this template: template for team final project presentations. The draft grading rubric can be found here. (Note this rubric is for general guidance purposes; exact details may change.)

Each presentation will be followed by Q&A.

The presentation is part of the team's final project grade.

What to Post (to Blackboard)

Post the following:
  • The PowerPoint file for your final project presentation (or, if the file size is too large, a document with the link to your presentation). Your file MUST be posted by 6pm on 12/7.
    • -->

T6

Sunday, 12/11, by 11:59pm

Team Project Assignment #6 - Final Prototype & Report

T6 instructions

[1] "About." http://newurbanmechanics.org/about/. New Urban Mechanics. Accessed September 5, 2016.



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