CPE/CSC 484 W05 Assignment 1: Tools for UCD

Team Assignment

This assignment is to be performed in a team of about 3-4 people.

Goals and Objectives

The goal of this project is two-fold: On one hand, the developing team is expected to design a tutorial for a software tool specifically with usability aspects and a target user group in mind. On the other hand, the clients (users of the tutorial) become exposed to a tool suitable for certain aspects of user-centered design and development.

Description

Each team will prepare a 25-minute tutorial presentation that serves as an introduction and overview of a tool suitable for user-centered design and development. The presentation will be followed by a short question/answer and feedbacksession The presentations will be given during the lab periods of Week 3. Presentations are expected to be prepared and presented in a professional manner, and may include demonstrations of the tool itself. The presentation material should be designed in such a way that it can also be used as a tutorial for self-study. If you are using presentation software like PowerPoint, you can either add notes on the slides, or prepare a separate document. The target users for the presentation are people familiar with computers, but new to the specific tool. They may not have experience using similar tools, but a general background in programming, Web page design, and the use of word processing, spreadsheet or presentation tools can be assumed.

Your presentation should address the following aspects (not necessarily in that order):

• What is the tool, and why would one want to use it for UCD?
• What are the main tasks that can be performed with it?
• How does it work?
• Does it guide or encourage users to consider user-centered aspects, or is it up to the user to do that?
• What platforms does it run on? Is it available on campus? Can it be obtained easily?
• What additional material is available for interested users?

In addition to giving the presentation, all team members are expected to be capable of and available for providing assistance in case other students in the class decide to use that tool.

Submission and Deadline

The presentations will be given during the lab periods of Week 3. The accompanying material for the presentation must be vavailable on the respective Blackboard discussion group at the time the presentation is given. The teams will have an opportunity to revise their presentation materials in response to feedback given by class mates. Some of this feedback will occur immediately after the presentation, and additional feedback can be given via the Blackboard discussion forum. The revised presentation material must be posted on Blackboard at the end of the day after the presentation (so Wednesday, 23:59 for a Tuesday presentation).

Grading Criteria

The presentation itself and the accompanying material are each worth 5% for a total of 10% of the overall class grade. You can view the evaluation form that I will use for grading the presentations and documentations. This form will also be used for immediate feedback from the other teams; more detailed feedback will go through Blackboard.