CPE/CSC 484-W11 User-Centered Interface Design and Development Project


Project Overview


The term project is an important part of this class, and provides an opportunity to practice some of the methods discussed in class, and described in the literature. This quarter, the projects should be aligned along the theme of interacting with computers without emphasis on mouse and keyboard as input devices.
The emphasis of the project is on the user interaction and user interface aspects, not so much on the underlying functionality. You can also do a usability evaluation of an existing product or system, and design an alternative interaction paradigm or user interface for that system.

Project Topic


There will be several pre-defined project topics available, some of them with Cal Poly or external collaborators or customer representatives. Teams may select their own topic, but this needs to be coordinated with me. Projects are expected to have external customers that are involved in the design and development activities, and provide feedback to the developers. If this is not practical, your team needs to identify a strategy to achieve similar effects through other means.
Preferably the project should be aligned with the topics selected in the assignments.

Project Organization


The project is a team effort, with a team size of about 5 people. Ideally, your team should be the same as for the assignments. Each team will use a TRAC Wiki as the repository for project materials. The Wiki contains templates for the different parts of your project, and notes on what you’re expected to include.

Project Grading Scheme


The overall score for the project is 40 points; 30 come out of my evaluation of the team project, and usually every team member gets the same score. If there is a clear discrepancy between the contributions and performance of the different team members, I may give individual scores for team members. My score will take into account feedback from external customers, but their scores will not go directly into my grade calculations. Up to 10 points come from an evaluation of your team mates, calculated as the average of all your team mates' scores for your contributions. Students who do not submit this mutual team member evaluation may receive a score of 0 for this part. However, I may adjust this part, especially if all team members give each other the highest score, but the overall quality of the project is not correspondingly high.
  • mid-quarter project display: 10%
  • final project display: 10%
  • project documentation: 10%
  • mutual team member evaluation: 10%