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After the first third of the course, students start a design project
to provide hands-on experience in an area of the students' interest.
Project Topic
Projects
can be on any human-technology system (not limited to conventional
computer applications). Although students commonly choose web sites,
I encourage you to think of more innovative applications.
Example projects as well as your own projects will be made accessible
via the disCourse
workspace. If you would like a link to your project available
here to the general public, let me know.
Process
The major phases of the projects are project
proposal/approval, requirements analysis, conceptual design,
physical design, and prototype. Each of these phases is evaluated
empirically, although we won't cover formal evaluation methods
until we get to the prototype. Students are asked to choose an
appropriate combination of design techniques from contextual design,
scenario-based design, and usage-centered design. The projects
must be taken far enough to produce an interactive prototype that
can be tested
by
users,
but need not result in a deliverable product. For example, web-based
or
multimedia
mockups
are OK. (See discussion about Programming on the Overview page.)
Groups
Projects can be individual or small-group (2-3 people).
Small group projects are encouraged, as you will learn valuable
collaborative skills and spread the work around. You will be
asked to evaluate your project partners in a confidential form at
the end of the semester.
Pau
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