COMP 5076 Problem Solving in the Digital Age

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COMP 5076 Problem Solving in the Digital Age

Assignment 1 - Wizard-of-Oz Paper Prototype

Length: 3500 words or equivalent, Weighting: 30%,

Due Date: See course website

Problem

Find a client (either a family member or friend) and identify a problem in their everyday life which can be potentially solved or eased by a mobile app. This client will be your end user. Throughout the course of this assignment, you will apply the Design Thinking and Computational Thinking processes to address this problem. You will document these processes, the decisions and compromises you needed to make, as well as producing a paper prototype of the final design and testing that prototype with the end user.

Design Thinking

Design Thinking is covered in Week 1.

In the first stage of this assignment, you should practice the five stages of design thinking: Empathise, Define, Ideate, Prototype, and Test. These stages should be individual documented within your report. Describe the concept of the particular stage, what you did, and the solution or outcomes for that particular stage.

Empathise

“In this stage you want to gain insights into what your end users need, what they want, how they behave, feel, and think, and why they demonstrate such behaviours, feelings, and thoughts when interacting with products in a real-world setting.” - interaction-design.org

In this stage, you should describe your end user. Who are they? What is their average day? What problems do they face? To achieve this, conduct a semi-structured interview with your end user to elicit answers to these questions. Document the interview and highlight interesting points from the interview that will be referenced in the define stage.

Define

“In the Define stage, you will organize the information you have gathered during the Empathize stage. You’ll analyze your observations to define the core problems you and your team have identified up to this point.” - interaction-design.org

In this stage, you should articulate the problem you are addressing. Have a clear statement describing the problem from the end user’s perspective. Provide further detail on the problem and reference the interviews to support your definition.

Ideate

“[You] are ready to generate ideas. [You] understand your users and their needs in the Empathize stage, and you’ve analyzed your observations in the Define stage to create a user centric problem statement. With this solid background, you and your team members can start to look at the problem from different perspectives and ideate innovative solutions to your problem statement.” - interaction-design.org

Sketch 2–3 different mobile application designs that address the problem. At this stage you should be seeking a broad range of ideas. This maybe just a couple of screens that you sketch per design to communicate the novel solutions that you are exploring. At this stage, we are looking for a range of solutions. In the next phase, Prototyping, you will focus on one design and describe it in detail.

Prototype

“[You] will now produce a scaled down versions of the product (or specific features found within the product) to investigate the key solutions generated in the ideation phase.” -interaction-design.org

Create a paper prototype of your most viable idea from the ideation phase. A paper prototype is a mock-up of a software on a paper that mimics what would be shown on a computer screen or a mobile device. Screen mock-ups can be either hand-drawn or printed from graphics drawn using software tools. Paper prototypes usually have several screen mock-ups to show the changes on the screen under different circumstances. It may also include smaller pieces of paper that show parts of the screen (e.g., a pop-up message or a menu) overlaid on top of a full-screen mock-up.

Your prototype must include a set of mock-up screens of your app There should be at least 4 full-screen mock-ups, but no more than 10. Aim for 7 screens. The mock-up screens can be either hand-drawn on a paper or printed from a graphics/drawing software tool of your choice. If hand-drawn, make sure they are clearly visible and legible when scanned or photographed for submission. If needed, you may have partial screen mock-ups (e.g., a pop-up message or menu) that can be overlaid on top of a full screen mock-up. All paper pieces must be labelled clearly so the person demonstrating your prototype can easily identify them as they follow the instructions on a flowchart.

Computational Thinking

As part of the prototype stage, you will need to demonstrate the following aspects of computational thinking: Decomposition, Pattern Recognition, Abstraction, and Algorithms. As you are developing your paper prototype, consider how you are addressing these aspects and make notes:

- How have you decomposed the problem and how is that reflected in your design?

- What patterns, either process or data, exist in the problem and how do these patterns map to your solution?

- Where can the data or process be abstracted to simplify the solution?

- What are the algorithms within your solution?

In your final report, describe with concrete examples how you addressed each of these aspects and any decisions you made. You may reference your flow chart described in the next section.

Flow Chart

Flow Charts are covered in Week 3.

Design a flow chart describing the flow through the system for the for the “Wizard-of-Oz” demonstration described in the next section, a person who will follow these instructions to demonstrate your prototype to another person. The flowchart must make use of all the flowchart symbols introduced during week 3 seminar. Make sure the flowchart clearly articulates enough details so the person playing a “Wizard-of-Oz” will be able to follow the instructions on the flowchart and demonstrate your prototype independently without needing help from yourself.

Testing

Paper prototypes are usually demonstrated using a “Wizard-of-Oz” method where a person knowledgeable about how the software would interact with the user will act out as if herself being the computer, changing the screen mock-ups in response to the user’s input. For example, if a user presses a certain button on a screen mock-up, then the “Wizard-of-Oz” presents another screen mock-up as a response.

Here are some examples of paper prototypes:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0VTXWSVkbwzYMa8ympc4M0KLbBKCmz_y

The “Wizard-of-Oz” demonstration should adhere to the flowchart you defined previously.

Create a video clip (no longer than 3 minutes) which shows a demonstration of your paper prototype to your client. The video clip should show your end user interacting with your prototype, and yourself acting as the Wizard-of-Oz, demonstrating how your mobile app works. The screen mock-ups should be clearly visible in the video. The video does not need to show people’s faces, unless it is necessary for the demonstration.

Submission

You must submit your assignment through the learnonline course webpage by the due date as indicated on the submission link. Submission of your assignment must include:

1) a report (approximately 3500 words in a pdf file);

2) a flow chart (included in your report;

3) a Wizard-of-Oz paper prototype (in a pdf file)

4) a video clip of a demonstration (maximum 3 minutes in an mp4 file)

WARNING: Late submissions will be penalised: up until 3 days late will be scaled by 50%, unless a document proving acceptable reasons for late submission is provided to the course coordinator (e.g. medical certificate, or a letter from your work supervisor). Beyond 3 days, marks will be 0.

Marking Criteria