1. Lectures
Watch the week 4 lecture videos.
2. Reading
Choose 1-2 of the videos or articles from the reading list this week. Enter your reading reflection (250 word max) into the week 4 entry of the design notebook. Put your full name in bracket after the reading reflection paragraph. More details are available under Deliverable 1.c.
3. Interview 1-2 users
Find a user---someone who is not a student in our CS449/649 class---to interview.
Make sure you obtain their verbal consent responses, and store these responses in a spreadsheet in a password-protected computer, data server or cloud service; the TAs and instructors might ask to see this spreadsheet at a later time. Keep your raw interview data private and viewable to your team only; DO NOT put the raw data (notes and images) in the design notebook. In the design notebook, you just have to summarize your findings from the interviews. Make sure that the data is anonymized and stored in a password-protected computer, data server or cloud service. In the raw data or any report summarizing the data, interviewees should be referred to by their code names (e.g., P1, P16) instead of their real names. For each interview, add a section to the design notebook to capture (1) a summary of your findings, (2) a description of any changes to your interview questions or procedures that you plan to introduce in future interviews based on what you learned.
An important note: your interviewees must be adult (age 19+). Our ethics protocol does NOT allow you to interview children. Note that the definition of minor varies by province. To be safe, interview someone who is 19+. You should also stay away from interviewing students/employees in K-12 schools and hospital staff (e.g., doctor, nurses), because doing so would involve the school board's and the hospital's ethics board. If you were to interview an employee of a company/organization about work-related things, you will also need permission from their manager before conducting the interviews with the employees.
Informational Interviews happen mostly during the week of 3, 4 and 5. You could interview 2-3 users per week; but you can spread out the interviews any way you like! For example, you could do 1 this week, then 3 the following week, and the remaining 2-4 during week 5. It's up to you. Just make sure that in total, you interview 6-8 unique people who are meant to be your target user (people who are likely going to be the primary audience for your app).
4. Affinity Diagram for Observations
Make an affinity diagram based on observations of 3 users unpacking a hoverboard. Each student should individually watch all 3 videos, and take notes about what the user says, does and feels in each video (feel free to use this observation notes template to take notes). Then, as team, create a single affinity diagram in Miro using the process described in the lecture video. Include a screenshot of the affinity diagram in the design notebook, as well as a 1-2 paragraph writeup about the key themes and insights extracted from the observations.
5. Affinity Diagram for Interviews
Make an affinity diagram based on the mock interview and the interviews you conducted with people outside of the class. Since you did 1-2 user interviews both last week and this week, you should have data from 2-4 users. Each student should individually read the raw interview notes and write down things that he/she finds important. Then, as team, create a single affinity diagram in Miro using the process described in the lecture video. Include a screenshot of the affinity diagram in the design notebook, as well as a 1-2 paragraph writeup about the key themes and insights extracted from the interviews.
6. Prepare for Challenge Report #1 Presentation
The first challenge report presentation is next Wednesday (June 2). If you are presenting, prepare a 5-10 minute presentation, and include a link to your slidedeck (10 slides at most) on the #presentations channel by midnight the day before the presentation. Two people from each team should present. In the challenge report presentations, be specific. For example, in describing how you went about testing assumptions, don't just say that you did interviews. Be more specific and talk about the types of questions that help to break/verify your assumptions. Give concrete examples whenever you can. Make the presentation interesting, informative, and something that other students can benefit learning from.
If you are not presenting, you need to sign up (via Calendly) to attend one of the presentations. You are expected to participate in the discussions, e.g., ask questions and provide suggestions (see Deliverable 2.b). We do monitor attendance. During discussion, keep yourself mute but turn on the webcam if you are comfortable with it. It is much more fun/natural for presenters to be talking to an audience, instead of a bunch of black screens. Also, in Zoom, there is a "raise hand" and "lower hand" functionality under "Reactions", which you can use during discussion to indicate that you have questions to ask or suggestions to give.
7. Team Monitoring
Each team member must complete the team health assessment form and the buddy team health assessment form. This surveys provide a way for each team to self-assess how the team / buddy team is functioning and whether any team processes can be improved. The surveys are anonymous (i.e., the ratings will be reported back to the team in aggregate without revealing who had rated what) and graded based on completeness only (i.e., full marks if the surveys have been completed). Each student should complete both surveys independently and honestly, without consulting with each other. After all the survey responses are collected, the instructors will release back to the team a report of the aggregated survey results (e.g., min, max, average, std of each survey item), so that the team can have a discussion next week about team processes that may need more attention. It is very important to be honest and thoughtful in your response, otherwise the survey is not useful.
Due Friday (June 4)
● Design Notebook Entry (1.c, 3.b) - the entry should capture your attendance to team meeting, your individual reflection, the documentation of your design activities (including affinity diagram for observations and for interviews).
● User Interviews (3.a) - complete the writeup by adding a section to your design notebook week 4 entry.
● Team Monitoring (1.b) - each team member should complete the team health assessment survey.