Component P2: Ideation and Lo-fi Prototypes

Overview

Now that you understand your users and their problem, your job is to brainstorm designs for them. As I said in class, the best way to come up with a good idea is to have lots of them, and narrow down. In this component, you will brainstorm many designs, and then use some basic criteria to filter and select the best ideas. You will then polish these ideas, and create a storyboard for at least one to show the entire scope of the interaction. From here, you will construct a low-fi video prototype of how you expect your system to be used. Then, you will conduct a task-centered system walkthrough of the major tasks that you identified from P1.

The goal of this component is to show you that if you have an open mind, your first idea is (unlikely) to be your best idea. Instead, the process of brainstorming, discussing and affinity diagramming (particularly with a deep dive group) can help you find good ideas that you had not considered before.

Further, the video prototyping and task-centered system walkthrough will also generate new insight as to whether your (current) favourite design is even the best approach!

Major Activities

  • Brainstorm session. With your deep dive group, schedule a mutual time that you can get together and work for at least an hour together. Brainstorm and sketch ideas -- one each on a single sheet of paper. The goal here is to sketch as many distinct ideas as you can -- you should aim for at least -- at least -- four sketches a person (at least 12 sketches). Anything goes: crazy or boring, whole system or even just a small piece of the system. You are aiming here for variance: the ideas should be different from one another. You are allowed to build off of one another's ideas, but make sure that they're different. If you end up with a bunch of sketches that are essentially variations on the exact same idea, try again, because you didn't do it right.

Time permitting, I will make time available for you to do this session during tutorial time.

  • Affinity diagramming session. This can be part of your brainstorming session, or a different one altogether. As a group, go through each of the sketches one by one, discussing the main idea of the sketch. Construct an affinity diagram with these sketches, or with ideas extracted from the sketches. At the end of this, you will have several different groups (say 3-5 groups). Discuss each of these groups in relation to the design requirements you identified in P1, their weaknesses, strengths, feasibility and originality.
  • Select and polish ideas. From your affinity diagramming session, select the three most promising ideas, and re-sketch the idea on a sheet of paper neatly. Add annotations and/or provide descriptions where appropriate.
  • Refine ideas and create storyboard. Select one of the three promising ideas, and construct a storyboard that illustrates its context of use (in relation to a task), how it would be used. This should depict some of the interface, and how a user would interact with it.
  • Video prototype. Based on the storyboard, construct a video prototype (no more than 2-3 minutes) that illustrates how your system would be used. Be sure to illustrate at least one complete task scenario.
  • Task-centered system walkthrough. Based on the template, and the tasks you identified from P1, conduct a task-centered system walkthrough. If you decide now that some of these tasks need to be revised based on your research, then do so.

Deliverable

  • Turn in a written document in your portfolio binder.
  • Provide a summary of the brainstorming process and affinity diagramming process, articulating: (a) the range of ideas that were explored, (b) what major conceptual groupings you came up with in your affinity diagramming process (likely 3-5). Describe these conceptual groupings, and how they relate to the design requirements you specified in P1 and what you learned from your user research: are users likely to find these ideas palatable?
  • Provide polished versions of the three sketches that you selected as having the most potential. Provide a paragraph describing the idea, then provide another paragraph justification as to why this sketch is appropriate given user needs, constraints, and/or the design requirements you specified in P1. Each of these sketches should comprise one page.
  • Provide a polished storyboard for at least one of these designs (and task scenario). The storyboard should illustrate a usage scenario, and depict how the interface functions in the context of that scenario. You want to provide some detail here. You should aim to have between 6 to 12 slates (no more than 24).
  • Post your video prototype on Piazza along with your team member's names (aim for 2-3 minutes).
  • As a general guideline, you should expect to have roughly 20 pages of content (no more than 30) -- most of this is templates from the task-centered walkthrough.
  • You should provide evidence of your brainstorming session as an appendix (e.g. a photo of the assorted sketches, or the raw sketches themselves). Note that the appendix does not count toward your page count.

Grading Sheet

  • Ensure that your grading sheet is placed in front of the section of this component.