learning objectives

• Consider how to meet user needs with computing technologies.
• Generate creative ideas for semester team projects.
• Understand forms of prior work–needs, precedents, ingredients–and their roles in design planning.

• Needs: conditions in society that your proposed innovation addresses. Provide evidence. Establish: why does this matter?
• Precedents: the most similar things that have already been done. Use them to establish the novelty of your project.
• Ingredients: enabling technologies (e.g., APIs, tools, devices) that already exist, which your project would use as building blocks. How will you accomplish your project?

• Learn to use Google Patent and Scholar searches to do prior work research.
• Learn to think about time frame and requirements as key factors for scope of work.
• Consolidate and invoke skills from prior assignments.

procedure

In this phase, individually brainstorm about what interactive experience you want your team to address for the rest of the semester, why you want to work on it, and how you propose to engage in development and evaluation.

Who will the users be? In what task or activity will they be engaging? Will they be working alone or socially / collaboratively? How can your new technology support them?

Work to formulate an idea for a project that is interesting to you!

This is an individual assignment in the context of a team project. You will come back afterward and work with your team to formulate the actual concept for your semester project cycle.

Brainstorm about potential interactive experience, system, device, and/or service projects. Focus on ones that are novel.  Imagine stuff you wish was available. It can be related to your experience breakdown. Games and interactive art are possible domains.

Pay attention to your process, to avoid fixation!

• Meditate. Take notes / sketch about your own ideas.
• Read background articles and prior work.
• Research potential modalities, toolkits, APIs, and devices to work with. Keep the practical in mind.

Consider your own expertise and interests (and those of your teammates). Make sure to take advantage of your own skills and those of members of your project team.

Your concept presentation should be a maximum of just 3 pages (of writing). It should include illustrations, such as sketches, diagrams, and photos. Specify at least 3 project concepts.

Do Google Patent and Scholar (to find prior research) searches about related technologies. Make sure to have a References section where you show what you searched for and/or most relevant results. The References section is not included in your page count.

Be clear: who are your target users? What task or activity are they performing? How will you work with them?

You will begin to:

• conceptualize an innovative project;
• work on your own to contribute to a team project;
• begin to formulate a coherent and achievable research plan;
• position your research vis-a-vis prior work; and
• articulate your research contribution and methodology in writing.

 Turn in your concept brainstorm (and all assignments in this course :) with this form.

grading rubric

You will be graded based on the following criteria:

• Interactive Experience [25 points]: Have you identified an interesting project? Interactive experience is novel and clearly thought out. Proposes an engaging experience. Proposes good interaction design.
• Sketches [15 points]: Present 1 or more sketches for your planned user experiences. Do not present system architectures or tech-centered flowcharts in this deliverable.
• Principles [10 points]: Articulation of principles from the readings to motivate the interactive experience.
• Target users [10 points]. Who will use the system / interface your team would build? Make sure they are people you can actually access for user testing. If it's not obvious (they are beyond your living place and family), describe how you would recruit and work with the users.
• Prior work [24 points]. What regular, Google Scholar, and Patent searches did you perform? What are the most interesting results that you found? Have you addressed needs, precedents, and ingredients? Be explicit and clear. Make sure you have a References section where you make your findings here explicit. Make sure you refer to references in your write-up.
• Written Presentation [8 points]: focused, clear, concise. Stick to the page limit. Use the written word and formatting thoughtfully.

• Visual Presentation [8 points]: Figures illustrate solutions to challenging interaction design problems. They complement and support your writing. Make sure that figures are labeled with clear captions that relate them to the writing.