Team Project

The project is an opportunity to engage in the full spectrum of human-centered design and development.

Objective

Design, implement, and evaluate an interactive user interface that seeks to address an identified user need amongst a well-defined population.

Important: See class slides on needfinding for more details on the project and expectation.

Teams

Students will work in 3 - 4 person teams (groups will be assigned and include a mix of undergraduate and graduate members). Diversity in backgrounds, skillset, and interests is important to design and develop a successful and useful product.

Milestones

There are 6 main components of the project that will be due at various points during the term:

  • P1 - The Pitch: Identify opportunities for a niche population or within a domain of interest

  • P2 - User Research: Consider real users in the context of real activities to understand and identify key needs

  • P3 - Ideation, Lo-Fi Prototype & Test: Brainstorm and iteratively develop/build ideas quickly and cheaply

  • P4 - Hi(er)-Fi Prototype: Implement important features of the interactive user interface or system

  • P5 - Heuristic Evaluation: Conduct usability inspection to identify potential problems

  • P6 - Final Portfolio: This includes a final presentation and complete website to showcase the project, and a comprehensive but succinct final report on the entire scope of the project

Deliverables

Each team is expected to document and report on all project components.

The final portfolio (P6) will include:

  1. A final presentation to showcase to the user-centered design project and final product

  2. A website to showcase the process & highlight various parts of the project/process

  3. A final report to provide an overview about the process associated with each project component

As an example, imagine a project website with 1 homepage (i.e., overview) and separate tabs for each project component/milestone. Each page on the website should communicate the highlights for that section and then have a link to the detailed report. Inclusion of visual aid (via images and videos) is highly recommended for the project website.

Final Presentation/Demo: To round up the project phase, student teams will give a final presentation to the class about their project and human-centered design process. This presentation must include a demo of the final product.

Starter Ideas

What could/should your project be on? What niche population should you work with?

Below are some starter ideas but most importantly remember that a large part of this course is focused on user-centered design so consider an idea for which you/your team has access to the population you are serving.

Example ideas for the course project (using the "how might we" statement approach):

  1. How might we support people with non-technical background build mobile applications for their needs?

    • Inspiration: There are many customer populations that would benefit from a simple tool that they can use to build their own mobile application without having to hire a developer.

  2. How might we help international students who have a language or cultural barrier get acclimatized at Dartmouth?

  3. How might we support first-generation college students (or any other minor group) feel more supported in college?

  4. How might we help new parents find local resources (e.g., babysitting, pediatrician, recommended items to purchase) for themselves and/or their young child(ren)?

  5. How might we help local businesses in the upper valley increase their visibility?

  6. How might we support graduate (or undergraduate) students seeking internship opportunities find resources to assist their process (e.g., peer review of resumes, tailored programs in industry, experiential knowledge from prior interns)?

  7. Any other "How Might We" opportunities that is of interest to you and your team?