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Design Notebook Entry for E1
Lo-fidelity prototype evaluation provides extremely valuable information about the weaknesses in your current design, and how you should re-design your app. Review your observations from the low-fidelity prototype evaluation. When are you making users think too hard? How can you improve the design of your app to not make users think so much?
Write up the findings from each of the three evaluations that you completed in the studio class. For each evaluation, include:
1. any points of confusion or hesitation from the user (with the user's consent, include closeup photos/screenshots of the user performing the action on the prototype at these points of confusion/hesitation (e.g., their finger on the prototype); the photos and screenshots should
not have any identifying information, e.g., faces)
2. your questions to the user and their responses
3. how you think your feature can be re-designed based on these findings
P9: Iterate Design and Start High-Fidelity Prototype
Before creating the high-fidelity prototype, address the problems that were discovered during the design critique session #1 (if you have not already) and then make additional improvements to your design based on your observations during the paper prototype evaluation session. You must make at least 5 improvements to your design based on the paper prototype evaluations. List the improvements you have made, and include screenshots of the improved screens or user flows.
After improving your design,
watch the "High Fidelity Prototyping" lecture video , which contains information you will need to complete the first draft of your high-fidelity prototype, as well as to understand (at a high-level) the evaluation criteria for judging how good your high-fidelity prototype is.
Next, hold a team meeting to decide on the high-level design choices. What message is your app trying to convey? How can colour and logo convey that message? What is the high-level purpose of your app? How can the home screen clearly communicate this purpose? Other things to decide on include: (1) whether you want to design for iPhone or Android (pick one), (2) Name of the App, (3) Logo, (4) Color Schemes, (5) Key features + changes to the interface / user flow, (6) Feedback and error messages (what happens if users did the wrong thing), (7) Who is prototyping which screens.
Split up the screens amongst your teammates. Transfer your sketches / low-fidelity prototypes into high-fidelity Figma mockups and interactions. For consistency, all students should use Figma to create the high-Fidelity prototype and not any other high-fidelity prototyping tools.
Include in design notebook a writeup about your team meeting discussion and screenshots of your high-fidelity prototype in progress. You must also name 5 ideas from the lecture video (e.g., important rules you learned about color/shape, element composition, and spatial organization) and describe how your team has applied those to your high-fidelity prototype design. You are not expected to finish your high-fidelity prototype this week; you will have the next 2-3 weeks to iterate on the design and complete the prototype.
T5: Team Building Exercise #4
Complete this
activity from the d.school book "Creative Acts for Curious People". As a team, make a "I used to think / Now I think" table (with at least 5 rows) to describe how your understanding of the problem context of your project and the process of user-centered has evolved since the beginning of the course. Include the table in your design notebook.
CH1: Challenge Report
Complete the challenge report in your design notebook.
In the challenge report, list
THREE assumptions that your team managed to break that were particularly surprising, and the methods/strategies you used to break these assumptions. Describe each assumption, including the rationale behind the assumption (i.e., the concrete evidence that caused you to have this assumption in the first place), how you challenged the assumption (i.e., the specific methods and strategies that you used to test the assumption), the insights you gained from testing the assumption (i.e., your findings), and new assumptions that followed from those insights. In discussing methods/strategies for testing assumptions, be specific and concrete. Don't just say "we did interviews" or "we did evaluations". Of course, we know that you have done interviews and evaluations! Tell us a story about how you managed to find the right strategies to test your assumptions, and the challenges or doubts you encountered along the way. The goal is to make the report interesting and something that other students can benefit learning from. Your challenge report will be graded based on this
rubric (see pg 1).
The challenge report presentation is held during the next studio class (week 9). You will assign 1-2 members of your team to present a
5 minute presentation. Your presentation must be 5 minute sharp (you will be cut off after the 5 minute mark). Make your presentation engaging! For example, you can add visuals or tell a story about how your discoveries happened.
Post a link to your slidedeck (5 slides at most) on the your studio lab channel (e.g., s101) by midnight the day before the presentation. Your challenge report presentation will be graded based on this
rubric (see pg 4).