MIS3506 – Project 2 Overview
Dan Rubins is the Executive Director and & Co-Founder of Hear Your Song, a nonprofit that empowers kids with complex health needs to make their voices heard through collaborative songwriting. While the team at hearyoursong.org is “really happy with the design, branding, etc., but we’d love to revamp some of it and make it more interactive.”
Per an initial conversation with Dan, his project priorities are:
- Build profiles for 20+ youth songwriters expanding on the Story Of A Song page (including photos, embedded videos of songs, interviews, podcast clips, etc., narrative about each song, lyrics?)
- Expand and improve The Hear Your Song Podcast page
- Create a more interactive Connect page for families to navigate to learning more
- Eventually add an AI song recommender for users
Your job this semester is to recreate the User Experience in a way that will satisfy Dan and all of the stakeholders. Throughout the semester, we will interview the stakeholders and then work in teams to develop a prototype that will enhance the current interface. Each team will work on their own solution and the best teams will present it to Mr. Rubins at the end of the semester.
Project 2 – Designing the User Experience
In this project you will learn how to create a compelling user experience using Figma.
The project includes an overall deliverable and version specific deliverables – alpha, beta, & final.
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.
This is a team project of three students. You are welcome to self-select into teams. If you cannot find a team, I am happy to help you.
Overall deliverables
The overall deliverables (version specific deliverables listed further below) for this project are:
- An experience that demonstrates UX design expertise and meets the needs of the client.
- Knowledge of Figma and overall UX concept understanding
- Final Presentation as detailed below
Alpha Deliverables
A 4-7 Slide Powerpoint deck that includes:
- A three screen prototype
- A proposed menu structure
Beta submission
The beta submission should include a status update on all of the above activities and the following specific items.
- A complete site that is ready to be demonstrated with the site URL.
- Include the results of two observational usability tests, i.e., tests involving two different users relevant to your site goals. You should get testers that fit the intended demographic of your new site. All the team members should participate in the observational usability test(s) and include their notes separately in the below appendix.
- Summarize the results of a heuristic evaluation performed by one of your classmates (not a team member). Include the notes as an appendix.
- Discuss how you will improve the design based on the tests.
- List what you changed from the alpha version and why.
Beta Deliverables
- Submit the above as one integrated team PowerPoint document of 5-7 slides (excluding title slide) on the submission page before class on the due date.
- Include the details of the usability tests and heuristic evaluation as an Appendix in a Word document. The appendix does not count toward the slide limit.
- The team should submit one integrated zip file containing all the required documents. Google docs links or PDFs are not allowed. Include all documents in the zip file. You must use the file naming convention described on the submissions page. 5 points will be automatically deducted if you are unable to follow these requirements.
- Students will be selected at random to present the project.
- 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.
Final submission
- Create a Word file that includes the following items. The team is expected to work together on all the items and be able to answer questions on any item.
- The overall deliverables listed at the top of this page.
- The URL of the new site.
- 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, we used XXX color to signify YYY action required by the site goals, or our 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 going from alpha, beta, to final.
- A 5-minute live presentation and PowerPoint slide deck that summarizes the project. The presentation should involve all the 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 overall deliverables.
- Team member evaluation: All students will complete an evaluation of their peers, more details will be provided at the end of the project.
Final Deliverables
Upload the Word and PowerPoint documents in items A and B above together and submit as one integrated team file on the submission page before class on the due date. Only one submission per team is needed. Google docs links or PDFs are not allowed. You must use the file naming convention described on the submissions page. 5 points will be automatically deducted if you are unable to follow these requirements.
The final submission is graded on a numerical basis focusing on the user experience and on applying the course concepts.