This project includes three deliverables – alpha, beta, & final solution
This is a team project. Please review the Project 2 – Team List (Instructor will post the list once the teams are created).
In this project, you will learn how to create a compelling user experience utilizing two platforms, the Genesis framework to develop a website and the Agora platform to create a Metaverse immersive experience. The deliverables for this project include a Genesis site and a complementary Agora Metaverse space, both of which will demonstrate your knowledge of the basics of both platforms and user experience design.
The alpha and beta versions are graded on a modified pass/fail basis. The main reason is that unless you achieve significant success with the alpha and beta, it will be very difficult for you to do well in the final version. The only possible grades for alpha and beta are A, B, or F. If you receive an F, it is unlikely that you will get a passing grade in the final version. The final version will receive a numerical grade.
Project Scenario:
The COVID-19 pandemic impacted all aspects of our society and led to a variety of alternative means of human engagement and interaction. The education system and specifically, Colleges and Universities were forced to pivot their methodologies of student/faculty engagement as a result of the pandemic. First, pivoting from in-person synchronous learning environments to all virtual, synchronous and asynchronous classrooms, and finally, hybrid in-person & virtual models, with some universities returning to full in-person while still others instituted temporary closures during the school year. This change in learning environment and approach created new opportunities and challenges for students, faculty and administration.
Cloud technology and digital tools enabled ease of access, collaboration opportunities and a newfound flexibility. However, zoom fatigue, technology issues (wi-fi access, hardware, etc.), and remoteness led to a decrease in interaction and engagement.
Your experience as students during the pandemic and UX Design skills developed this semester position you and your team as subject matter expert consultants to design and develop a new approach to higher education.
Your team’s challenge is to create your own online school or college at Temple University or a fictional university of your choosing. The project must include a new website for the school or college plus a Metaverse immersive campus, building and classroom experience.
Note: The site goals should include a call to action such as, but not limited to revenue generation, student applications, promotions, hiring faculty/staff, and getting donations.
Proposal
Upload your team’s Higher Education proposal to canvas. Be sure to include the following:
- Name of proposed Higher Education organization (and URL if available)
- Approximate number of students, faculty and administration.
- The type of school/college and primary focus of the organization.
- Initial needs and goals.
- Your relationship and/or experience with this organization. Each team member must have a role within the organization; or you may be a consulting team hired by the organization. Think…What is it about your role that will ensure they will remain committed to the project?
The Genesis framework and WordPress Gutenberg
Genesis is a website design framework published by StudioPress. The MIS Community site is built on top of the Genesis framework. Gutenberg is an integrated WordPress block editor.
- We will use a special project server https://project.mis.temple.edu/ for this class. Students can access the server using Temple AccessNet credentials. The server includes Gutenberg, the Genesis framework, and most of the themes produced by StudioPress. Use the server to experiment with and learn Genesis and Gutenberg. (note: The MIS community site uses the older TinyMCE editor, only the project server has the new Gutenberg editor).
- Temple has a site license to lynda.com (now part of LinkedIn) which includes excellent step-by-step tutorials on how to use Genesis and Gutenberg.
- To access the tutorials, log into tuportal, select LinkedIn Learning (Lynda.com) in the list of tuapplications.
- Go through WordPress 5 Essential Training. Ignore the installation content in section 1.
- Go through Learning Genesis for WordPress. Ignore the installation content.
- You will need to provide the certificate of completion for each, so make sure you go through and complete the tutorials. To get the certificate, click My Learning at the top, select Learning History, click More or … next to the relevant course, and select Download certificate.
- The following is a useful supplement to the Genesis tutorial: A beginner’s guide to the Genesis Framework.
Getting started
- Start watching the relevant Lynda tutorial and experiment using your own site.
- To create a site, login to https://project.mis.temple.edu/hover on Hello,…, Sites, and click Create a Site.
- Click on the URL of the new site in the new message/alert to visit it.
- Navigate to the Dashboard, select Appearance, and click on Themes.
Enabling collaboration among team members
One team member creates the site. It does not matter who creates the site. Enable collaboration between your team as follows:
- Login and navigate to the Dashboard of the new site.
- Select Users on the left about halfway down, and then click All Users. (Note: Click All Users as instructed, do not click on the Add User option in the menu)
- Click Add New near the top of the page to display the Add New User page.
- Fill in the details for Add Existing User (only).
- For the Email or Username field type in the AccessNet ID of the second team member. The AccessNet ID is the first part of the Temple email address. For example, Professor Sclarow’s email address is tue28808@temple.edu, so the AccessNet ID is tue28808.
If the provided ID does not work, then it may be an alias, ask your team member for their official temple email, which will typically start with ‘tu’. - For the Role field, select Administrator from the dropdown.
- Check Add the user without sending an email that requires their confirmation box.
- For the Email or Username field type in the AccessNet ID of the second team member. The AccessNet ID is the first part of the Temple email address. For example, Professor Sclarow’s email address is tue28808@temple.edu, so the AccessNet ID is tue28808.
- Click Add Existing User (blue button).
- Please add Professor Sclarow: tue28808@temple, Anna: tuk14907@temple.edu and Safaniya: tuj64891@temple.edu too.
Note: Only use your team members AccessNet ID rather than some other random email. This way they can use their existing validated Temple credentials to immediately access the site. The system administrator will remove any non-Temple ids from the system.
Creating the site
Create a site using one of the Genesis themes. The following requirements apply:
- Must use one of these themes: Altitude Pro, Authority Pro, Breakthrough Pro, Essence Pro, Infinity Pro, Magazine Pro, Monochrome Pro, Navigation Pro, or Revolution Pro.
- Must use the Gutenberg Block editor.
- Do not use page building software such as Elementor.
- The site should at the minimum contain the following:
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- Appropriate name and URL that reflects the intended affordance of the site.
- A total of 6 pages or posts, with at least one of each. Each should have at least 100 words of content and one image. The titles and images should be appropriate and relevant. You can use filler text for the paragraphs.
- Home page that includes the Genesis Featured Page widget or the Genesis Featured Post widget to feature relevant content.
- At least one menu including five menu items, and at least two sub-menus. It does not matter where you put the two sub-menus. However, all the menus should support the site goals.
- Layout that uses at least one sidebar (if supported by the selected theme). Sidebar should include at the minimum the search widget and one other widget relevant to the site goals.
- Relevant logo that reflects the intended affordance of the site. The location of the logo may vary depending on which theme you pick.
The above items are required for the alpha submission below and are intended to help you get started. As you progress to the beta and final solution submission, the requirements do not apply and you should adapt the design to meet the site goals.
The Agora framework
Create a Metaverse site using one of the Agora themes.
Agora World is a platform that produces unique Metaverse experiences for their users. The Agora app works on Mac and Windows computers. For this project, please use one of the following world templates listed below.
- Expo
- Winter Expo
- Delaware Expo
- Agora Gallery
- Philadelphia
- Mars
- ***check this site frequently for updates as more worlds may become available.
Each team will receive one seat license with editing privileges for up to 5 hosted customized worlds. The credentials for this will be provided by the professor.
Only one person can edit an event at one time, or else you run the risk of overwriting someone’s work. You may want to create a PowerPoint presentation of images + links + text associated with each slot in the Agora app as a way to back-up your data.
Getting started
- Download and install the Agora World application from this link: https://agoravr.world/download
- Launch and sign up for the app with your personal or temple email.
- Click “Join” from the post-login menu and enter code “careerfair” then Join
- Explore the example space to get a feel for the app. “Tab” key will bring up the main menu
- Watch this setup video to help you select and begin editing your World.
- You may visit the “World Catalog” and/or Agora’s YouTube to see examples of how these Worlds have been used & designed.
When you are ready to explore creating your own “Event”:
- Logout of your personal account and log in using the team credentials provided by the professor
- Click “Create” from the post-login menu and play around with making a custom world (only one person per team can edit the same hosted world at the same time)
- To edit an existing hosted world, or delete it completely, click “My Events” from the post-login menu and the Edit or Delete button for the desired event (deleted hosted worlds cannot be recovered, which is why we recommend saving all the custom data in a PowerPoint)
Warnings:
- When you click “Create and Publish” there is currently no visual indicator (feedback), of upload progress.
- When uploading many images, let the app sit for a minute before joining the event or closing the app.
- Events can be edited by only one person at a time.
- You must join an event to update your local version of it (which will overwrite unpublished changes).
***If you have any issues using the platform or feedback, check out the FAQ or submit a support ticket at: https://agoravr.zendesk.com/hc/en-us
Alpha submission
The alpha submission should include a status update on all of the above activities and the following specific items.
- Select the theme you are going to use for your design.
- Provide a short justification on why this is the best theme for addressing the UX goals and intended affordance(s).
- Create a draft home page.
- Add the menu structure and organization into the site.
Alpha Deliverables
- Submit the above as a PowerPoint document with a title slide plus presentation limited to 4 slides.
- Include the URL of the site as the last slide and include at least one screenshot of your site inside the PowerPoint.
- Submit your slide deck to canvas.
- In the appendix, include a Certificate of Completion for WordPress 5 Essential Training and Learning Genesis for WordPress for each team member.
- Presentation: Students may volunteer or will be selected at random to present the project. Every team will present.
- The Alpha submission is graded on a pass/fail basis for completing the specific requirements and on the justification of the theme. The quality of the user experience is not graded.
Note: The presentations will consist of 4-minute blocks with 3-minutes for teams to present their sites, followed by 1-minute for feedback.
Beta submission
The beta submission should include a status update on all of the above activities and the following specific items.
- A draft version of your Agora Metaverse “Event” Experience
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- A screenshot of your layout indicating placement, (and intended placement) of key visuals and virtual tools
- Initial branding and event development narrative, (100-word minimum describing your “Event” design intent to be included in your appendix).
- Four or more screenshots of your “Event” components included in your appendix.
- A complete site that is ready to be demonstrated with the site URL.
- Each team member is required to independently conduct an observational usability test with an external user utilizing both the website and Agora Metaverse “Event” Experience.
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- One external user per team member, (excluding MIS (major and minor students), to participate in the usability test using the team’s adapted usability test script.
- Document your team’s process including each individual team member’s notes, plus the modified test script in your PowerPoint’s appendix.
- Summarize the results of your teams Usability evaluation on a slide.
- Each team must conduct an heuristic evaluation of their site with another team in our class section using Nielsen and Molich’s 10 User Interface Design Heuristics.
- Watch this video for additional insights on how to create your team’s heuristic evaluation(s)
- Teams be partnered together to conduct a heuristic evaluation of each other’s site (see the Team Paring list below).
- We will provide class time during Week 12 to conduct your evaluation.
- Each team should collaborate to conduct one (or more) heuristic evaluation(s) and include the results in the appendix.
- For each heuristic criteria, write no more than a two or three sentence rating and explanation. Use bullet formatting.
- Summarize the results of the heuristic evaluation(s) on a slide.
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Studio Group # Team Parings 1 Alpha & Mu 2 Beta & Lambda & Nu 3 Gamma & Kappa 4 Delta & Iota 5 Epsilon & Theta 6 Zeta & Eta
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- Discuss how you will improve the design based on the Usability and Heuristic tests/evaluation(s).
- List what you changed from the alpha version and why.
Optional (the following is not required and is intended for those teams that would like to explore additional tools to inform their design):
- The site may include plug-ins beyond the standard WordPress widgets. For example, a display plugin to display a table, a data plugin to pull in external data, or any other relevant plug-in.
Beta Deliverables
- Submit the above as a PowerPoint document with a title slide plus presentation limited to 7 slides.
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- Include the details of the usability tests and heuristic evaluation as an Appendix inside the PowerPoint document (do not provide hyperlinks or documents in folders).
- The appendix does not count toward the slide limit.
- The appendix must document examples of your team addressing all of the requirements listed under the “Creating the site” (header listed above).
- Do include screen shots of pages, posts and any content that documents your work.
- Points will be deducted for not meeting these minimum requirements.
- Note that the intent is for your team to attempt utilizing all of these features.
- You may ultimately determine through your Usability Tests and Heuristic Evaluations that some of these features do not meet your users’ needs and should be “archived”.
- Submit your slide deck to canvas.
- Students will be selected at random to present the project; however, volunteers are welcome and encouraged. A minimum of eight teams will present their PowerPoint slide deck.
- The Beta submission is graded on a pass/fail basis for completing the specific requirements and showing how you applied the usability tests and heuristic evaluation to improve the design. The quality of the user experience is a secondary concern.
Note: The presentations will consist of 5-minute blocks with 4-minutes for teams to present their sites, followed by 1-minute for feedback.
Final Submission
A. Create a Word file that includes the following:
- A one-page reflection that includes a list and justification of how your site applies the following concepts and how you improved the design. A significant part of the grade is how well you use specific examples that are unique to your problem and site for the justification. Avoid using generic examples, such as pointing out the affordance of a menu or button, instead use items specific your design, which reflect choices you made. For example, I used XXX color to signify YYY action required by the site goals, or my site has a fun affordance because it uses XX YY ZZZ.
- Affordances
- Signifiers
- Constraints
- Conventions
- Knowledge in the head vs. the world
- Mapping
- An appendix that lists the major improvements and changes you made to the design (site and Metaverse), going from alpha, beta, to final.
- The URL of the new site indicated in the header of the document along with your team number and team member names.
B. A 6-minute presentation that summarizes the project. This is a “live” walk-through of your website and Metaverse Experience, there are no slides for the final presentation! The presentation should involve two or more team members and include:
- The problem and goals of the site including its overall affordance.
- The intended user demographic and how your site will support that demographic.
- A live demonstration that highlights using Norman’s terms specific items you improved as part of the usability tests and how you achieved the call for action elements listed in the requirements
C. Team member evaluation: Please follow the instructions provided within the evaluation link.
Final Deliverables
- Submit the above one-page reflection as a Microsoft Word document.
- Include the Appendix within the Word document (do not provide hyperlinks or documents in folders).
- The appendix does not count toward the page limit.
- Submit your Word document to Canvas.
- The final presentation order will be posted by the instructor the day of presentations; however, volunteers are welcome, and requests must be received by the end of class on 4/19. Every team will present their web site and Metaverse experience.
- Complete and submit the Team Member Evaluation by 11:59 PM on April 25, 2022.
- Include your Agora Event Code in the Appendix.
Note: The presentations will consist of 10-minute blocks with 7-minutes for teams to present their sites, followed by 3-minutes for feedback.
The final submission is graded on a numerical basis focusing on the user experience and on applying the course concepts.