Your proposal should include:

 Title
 Introduction – of the application that you are going to develop.
 Objective – of the application
 Problem Statement
 Solution
 Conclusion

Your team will work through the following usability engineering activities:

User Requirement
 User Profiling/Stakeholder analysis
 Task analysis

Usability Goals and Competitive Analysis

 Identifying usability principles used in the system
 Competitive Analysis

Prototype and Walkthrough

 Parallel designs
 Storyboarding and description of each screen purpose and strategy behind its design

Testing of Design
 Formative evaluation
 Impact to the design

General
 Implementation
 Final presentation/documentation
 References

Complete documentation must be produced to contain all the activities that the development
team went through in producing the system. Complete and detailed research is required for each
activity.
Directions
Think about an activity or hobby you enjoy, or perhaps a task that is commonly done in your field of
study. (From here on in, we’ll refer to this as the “area of choice.”) Is there some kind of technology that
is used in the area of choice that would benefit from a redesign? Or is there a way that technology could
make things better?
Your job is to design a new interactive device or piece of software that can make things easier or more
enjoyable in your area of choice.
In a Word document, begin by giving an overview of the problem you are trying to solve or the reason
you are proposing your design. Include general background information on your area of choice and
discuss specifically (in detail) the task(s) that your design will be related to. Include pictures if it helps.
This section should be at least 500 words.

In as many words as it takes, describe your design in detail, again using sketches, diagrams or other
images if it helps. Include the following in your description:
How your design relates to the tasks described earlier. How is the problem being solved, or how does
the design make life better for its users?
Address each of the six principles of design, and discuss how you have incorporated the
advice/guidelines into your own design. Some careful web searching will likely find you more
information about the topics if you need more ideas. (For example, search for “good design consistency”
and you will find lots of useful results.)

Choose two of the six areas of cognition discussed in class and research these further using academic
sources. What can you learn from these concepts and how will you incorporate this into your design?

Discuss how one or more of the levels of emotional design apply to your own design.
Describe in detail an evaluation study you could perform should your design ever be implemented. You
can choose any one of the methods presented by our guest lecturer (slides on WebCT).

Bibliography with at least three academic sources (i.e. conference/workshop/journal papers) using
Word’s built-in “Citations & Bibliography” functionality. Use whatever citation style you prefer. These
sources will most likely support your research on the aspects of cognition that you chose, but you can
also use them to support the validity of other aspects of your design as well.
Organize the document in a logical way, using headings and title styles.

Ideas for inspiration

Is there something in your area of choice that is done mostly manually, be it on paper or with lots of
manual work with data on a computer? Can you see ways to improve this?
Think about the Epic Win video we saw at the beginning of the course. Is there a game you could design
to inform or change peoples’ attitudes in your area of choice?
You don’t have to focus on software – anything with a computer chip inside will work. Be creative! If you
like working with kids, for example, what sort of interactive toys could you design for certain activities?
Marking scheme for the team
The following are the marks that are to be awarded to each team member for the work done by
the entire group.

The following are the marks that are to be awarded to each team member for the work done for
their respective section.

User Profiling
Research and References:
Use of research to support decision making (appropriate use of citations and references)
Critical Discussion and Application of User Requirements:
To include
 the selection of data gathering methods
 the actual user profiling process performed
 the impact of user profiling results
 task analysis
Prototype and Walkthrough
Research and References:
Use of research to support decision making (appropriate use of citations and references)
Critical Discussion and Application:
To include
 storyboarding
 each screen purpose and strategy behind its design
 peer to peer evaluation (parallel design), participatory design and their impact on the design
Testing of Design
Research and References:
Use of research to support decision making (appropriate use of citations and references)
Critical Discussion and Application:
To include
 discussion on formative testing performed
 discussion on the impact of the results to the final prototype
 Brainstorming
The goals of HCI are to produce usable and safe systems, as well as functional systems. In
order to produce computer systems with good usability, developers must attempt to:

 understand the factors that determine how people use technology

 develop tools and techniques to enable building suitable systems
 achieve efficient, effective, and safe interaction
 put people first

There are a large number of factors which should be considered in the analysis and design of a
system using HCI principles. Many of these factors interact with each other, making the analysis
even more complex. The main factors are listed in the table below:

Organization Factors
Training, job design, politics, role, work organization
Environmental Factors
Noise, heating, lighting, ventilation
Health and Safety Factors
The User
Cognitive processes and capabilities
Motivation, enjoyment, satisfaction, personality, experience
Comfort Factors
Seating, equipment, layout.
User Interface
Input devices, output devices, dialogue structures, use of color, icons, commands, navigation,
graphics, natural language, user support, multimedia,
Task Factors
Easy, complex, novel, task allocation, monitoring, skills
Constraints
Cost, timescales, budgets, staff, equipment, buildings
System Functionality
Hardware, software, application
Productivity Factors
Increase output, increase quality, decrease costs, decrease errors, increase innovation

Typically the following areas are analyzed to get a better idea of what your target users want:

1. Persona: To visualize it better, a persona is created at the beginning of the process to have
an example of a target, whom you are trying to reach. You can even come up with the name.
It is a representation of a particular group of people with the same patterns; behavior, needs,
goals, skills, attitudes, etc. Persona helps to make right decisions about product features,
navigation, interactions, visual design and much more. It helps you prioritize the design
work, understanding what the user needs and what functions are simply nice to add and
have.

2. Scenario: It is a “daily life of” your target, of your persona. It is about problems persona
has. Here, small details both emotional and physical ones, matter.

 Use case: It is a series of steps for the persona to achieve the goal
 Design process

 Specify the context of use: Identify the people who will use the product, what they will
use it for, and under what conditions they will use it.

 Specify requirements: Identify any business requirements or user goals that must be met
for the product to be successful.

 Create design solutions: This part of the process may be done in stages, building from a
rough concept to a complete design.

 Evaluate designs: Evaluation — ideally through usability testing with actual users — is as

integral as quality testing is too good software development.

Ask the questions

 Who are the users of the document?

 What are the users' tasks and goals?
 What are the users' experience levels with the document, and documents like it?
 What functions do the users need from the document?
 What information might the users need, and in what form do they need it?
 How do users think the document should work?
 What are the extreme environments?
 Is the user multitasking?
 Does the interface utilize different inputs modes such as touching, spoken, gestures, or
orientation?