The Design Assessment (DA) project focuses on examining a professionally relevant object of study (e.g., app, device, web site) with the purpose of assessing its quality of design and usability. The DA is challenging because it demands a balance of three kinds of vision.
Note. This is a complex project that progresses through multiple phases of development (including Description, Heuristic Analysis, & UX Analysis). This assignment description thus presents a lot of details. Consider printing it for use as a checklist, and so you can annotate it as you work your way through the project.
This project requires submissions for 4 draft stages and 1 final stage. All files are submitted to a Design Assessment folder in your shared course space on Dropbox.com.
Prior to Stage 1, you will identify your proposed object of study in a post to a Canvas Discussion forum.
Draft stages 1 through 4 accumulate the following documents:
The final submission includes all of the documents from the first 4 submission stages AND the following documents:
Note that for the final submission, the Design Assessment project folder will house 11 files. All but the feedback file (which I post as an RTF file) must be converted to PDF prior to submission. Note the details for naming files in the material below.
Document types: memo, report
Document scope: 150 words (memo), 2500 to 3000 words, plus appendices (report)
Project value: 600 points (50 for each draft stage; 400 for final)
Evaluation rubric: _Eval_DesignAssessment.pdf
The Design Assessment (DA) project connects to workplace practices that have become increasingly common across professions and industries. Professionals are frequently asked to examine a variety of designs with the intention of assessing their quality, functionality, usability, and relative success at serving their intended audiences. Your work for this project will evaluate a professionally relevant object of study (OoS), and present your assessments and conclusions in a detailed report.
To develop a complete understanding of the project and the processes involved in it, review this project description in its entirety before you begin, and take advantage of the supporting materials that are available through SVSU Canvas.
What does it mean to select a professionally relevant design as your object of study? For the purpose of this assignment, we define design to include professionally relevant tools & equipment (e.g., devices, apps, software packages, documents). Do not select something to study that you do not already know well. Select an object of study (OoS) with which you interact regularly, and with which you have a lot of experience and familiarity. (See Project Strategies below for more discussion of the selection process.)
This work calls for systematic, disciplined study of the design you select. To ensure that the project is of appropriate personal benefit to you, I ask you to select the OoS for your studies.
Note. You may not choose as your object of study for this project any of the apps or sites on which we focus during any of the workshops for this course. For example, because we examine SVSU Canvas during the Artifact Analysis workshop, you may not use it as your OoS for the Design Assessment project.
This is a complex project that evolves in stages over most of the semester. Each of the stages requires analytical / interpretive / evaluative work, and results in the creation of a specific segment of the DA report's content: Description (stage 1), Heuristic Analysis (stage 2), UX Analysis (stage 3), and finally a complete Design Assessment draft (stage 4).
Consult the Design Assessment - Project Stages document before you begin the project and during each stage of the assignment. Consult the calendar for submission dates. Consult the supporting videos and sample documents (see SVSU Canvas Files: Project Support) frequently as you progress through the developmental stages, and again as you revise for your final submission.
The details for the report contents follow in the next section. Note from the beginning that each stage of project development follows an analytical / research process, and results in the addition of new report content.
Your complete DA report must provide the following content elements. Note that some of the details listed here represent sections of the report (e.g., description, lessons learned), and others (citations, visual representations) instead indicate content that might be distributed throughout the report.
Hint. The title page for this report should not exceed 1 page, and should not be numbered.
Hint. A good abstract communicates the abbreviated-but-complete details from the document it summarizes. Write this element last.
Hint. An overview is not the same as an abstract. An overview introduces a document. The abstract distills the document. I always suggest that you write this part after you have completed the document you need to introduce. That way, you know what you have said, and what you need to introduce to readers.
Hint. Emphasize the details that are essential to understanding the design and how it functions. The description should be supported with images of the design in use. Provide enough images/figures to illustrate the key features and functions of each design. A good description never previews your evaluation of the OoS. That is, it does not use language that tells readers if the OoS is well or poorly designed. Save such commentary for the review sections that follow.
Hint. Detail is essential here. Describe and explain each heuristic criterion. Explain how each criterion applies to the OoS. Score the OoS in the context of each criterion. Provide additional images to illustrate your discussion points, or refer back to images you have already included in the Description segment of the report.
Hint. Here too, detail is essential. Your explanation of the trials, how they went, and of the users' experiences of participating are the only source of understanding your readers will have. Provide figures to illustrate and tables to organize the key elements of your study trials and their results.
Hint. Although your design assessments must be concrete, specific, and data-driven, this is the section where your own experience, expertise, and professional vision ought to frame and complement your discussion. This is your opportunity to demonstrate that you understand this OoS and whether or not it meets professional and user expectations.
Hint. Citation is a process for demonstrating how and when you draw on professionally relevant resources during your assessment process. This may include published articles and books, vendor websites, sales websites, and more. Cite the heuristic standard you implement. Cite every image that you borrow. (You need not cite original images that you created.) This process is an essential element of your professional respect and responsibility.
Hint. Appendices are useful for integrating details about your OoS and the work you do during the semester that are important to readers, but that might be too long to include in the main report without disrupting the readers' movement through the document. For example, if you used a scenario to run your usability study, the description/script for it might be a couple of pages long. Rather than present it in the main report, place it in an appendix and direct readers to it. Summarize it in the main report.
Hint. Whenever possible, use images that you capture or create. Do not rely on images from advertisements, especially those that do not show the OoS being used. All images must be identified by figure numbers and titles. Use these identifiers to direct readers to their location in the document.
Hint. Tables are useful devices for organizing details. All tables must be numbered and titled, like images. Use those identifiers to direct readers to their location in the document.
Hint. I provide design samples and explanations to help you understand how to create professional, usable documents. Draw on that supporting content as you work. Do not use the sample documents as templates, but do note the patterns that shape content in them. Note the way other documents you interact with present information. What strategies feel most professional to you? Learn from and emulate those strategies in your own work.
A memo of transmittal introduces the document it accompanies, providing context for its audience(s). You will craft such a memo for the draft and final submissions of the DA project. Both memos should be addressed from you to me.
Your draft memo should incorporate the following content and design elements.
Consult the Handbook of Technical Writing and sample documents (see SVSU Canvas Files: Project Support) for additional guidance.
Your final memo should incorporate the following content and design elements.
Consult the Handbook of Technical Writing and sample documents (see SVSU Canvas Files: Project Support) for additional guidance.
Recommended tool(s): Microsoft Word, scanning app/device, digital camera, digital video camera
This section offers guidance for how to interpret the project and how to proceed with your work on it. Consider the following strategies.
To speak credibly about any design, you must understand it thoroughly. The only way to accomplish that is to experience for yourself what it means to use the object of study. With that in mind, select your OoS based on your familiarity with it.
In addition, select a design that represents an area of expertise you are in the process of developing, or an industry within which you might seek employment, or a product category significant to your career goals. It might represent something you use to do your job or something that results from your job.
Begin by listing for yourself at least 3 or 4 potential foci for the project. Consider the following possibilities.
Your DA can focus on an object of study from any category. To complete the assignment and the research processes associated with it, you must have access to the OoS, and must be able to allow others to interact with it during your usability studies. Keep these things in mind when making your selection.
Although this project requires you to consider your personal experience and expertise with the OoS, it is also an opportunity to approach that design from an objective, professional perspective. When you determine the design qualities to apply during your heuristic analysis, begin by researching how your profession thinks about design, and what your profession thinks about that particular kind of design. What knowledge are you developing? How does it apply to problem solving in professional contexts? This is what I mean when I say that you must apply your personal and professional expertise to your work.
Professional organizations often offer standards for heuristic analysis, or principles for developing such a standard. For example, in my world, the Society for Technical Communication, the Association of Technical Writing Teachers, the Usability Experience Professional Association, and the federal government of the United States all provide tools I might apply in the study of a design. And those organizations represent a small list. There are many others. By this point in your studies, you should be aware of where to seek knowledge of such things.
Draw on your experience with your object of study when you decide what design elements are most significant to understanding it and when you present your assessment of it. Your experience will show in the details you choose to focus on in your discussion, in the explanations you provide throughout, and in the quality of your conclusions about the design. If you cannot speak with authority about the OoS, it will show in a lack of detail, and in a lack of authenticity in your discussion.
I provide a recommended schedule and guidance for staying on pace to help you organize the time you invest in the core DA project. Most students find the recommended pace very manageable. Keep in mind that every project stage builds on what has come before. Thus if you allow yourself to fall behind, it will impact your ability to catch up. Although there are gaps in the schedule that offer you opportunities to catch up, history suggests that it is best to keep the pace.
This section is designed to help you be strategic in the development of your project documents. Consider the following hints and tips:
Use data and detail from your own description, studies, and experiences to construct careful arguments about the OoS. Keep in mind that everything you present, whether description or assessment, is an argument. Audience members may only have your observations and interpretations to rely on for understanding the OoS. Readers need your explanations to understand your arguments.
The content of your report should progress from section to section, with each segment building on and referencing the previous discussion(s). That means you cannot present conclusions about features or functions that you did not previously discuss. It also means you cannot evaluate elements of the designs during your heuristic analysis or your usability study that you did not introduce during the description of the design.
You establish your designer ethos (i.e., credibility, authority) during your description of the OoS. Eliminate biased, evaluative language from this section to demonstrate your respect for and understanding of the design. Once you have established credibility with your audience, you earn permission to interpret and assess. Be careful, respectful, and professional when presenting your arguments.
Remember that communication in professional and technical contexts values highly the ability to write and speak with economy, directness, and professionalism. Another way of saying this is to make every word count. Stay focused on the details necessary to understand your OoS, the research you conduct, and the conclusions you draw from your work. Write and rewrite until your explanations make sense, and represent careful, professional communication.
Be as specific and concrete as you can throughout your discussion. The more details you incorporate into your report, the more observant you appear to be. That helps establish and maintain your credibility and authority. However, it is also important to focus on the details that truly matter for understanding and interpreting the OoS. For example, do not focus on superficial or cosmetic details (e.g., color, texture) unless these are important to understanding the design.
Whether or not the design itself is easily presented visually, all designs are more easily understood through visual representation. Show design elements, features, arrangement, use in context, or any other details that you can through images. Be inventive, if necessary. Show the set up of your study, the participants during their trials, and any other images that might help readers understand your study of the OoS.
Data is important to this work. Present data from your studies in ways that make sense based on the kind of data you integrate into your discussion, and based on what will make that content most easily processed by readers. Thus use graphs, or tables, or charts as is most appropriate to the data.
Observe what makes design in general, and reports in particular, effective and authentic. Incorporate those observations into the construction of your report. Edit carefully, seeking to express your ideas clearly and concisely. Edit out loud with the intent of writing in such a manner that your sentences sound professional and focused. Strive for high levels of professionalism and consistency in your work. Refine your document continuously throughout the stages of development.
Research reports as a genre. You have ample tools and resources for doing so, including the course text and the supplemental materials I post for class. Develop a design that supports your content effectively, and that establishes a strong professional ethos.
I have provided a lot of supporting material to guide you during this project. Take the time to review it all, and consider how you might apply that knowledge to your work.
As the semester progresses, you will continue to add to and refine your report. Because your final submission must include each of the drafts that you complete along the way, I recommend that you establish a pattern for working with your files. Specifically, I recommend that you begin with a file called Design. When you complete the Design draft, duplicate the file and rename the copy HeuristicAnalysis. Use that new file to continue your work. When you complete that draft stage, duplicate the file and rename the copy UXAnalysis, and so on.
The revisions and refinements you make during the developmental stages of this project may help you understand your design process, and therefore your professional development, in more-sophisticated ways. Archive your drafts of projects throughout your coursework, so you are able to examine your growth and maturation.
Read and attend carefully to these submission guidelines. Failure to do so may result in delays in receiving feedback on the draft of your project, or in points lost on the evaluations of your draft and final submissions.
Create a project folder inside your shared class folder on Dropbox.com. Remember, I can only view files that you place inside that shared folder. Until you place files in that space, you have not submitted them.
Name the folder Design Assessment.
Note. Do not share this folder with me. By placing it in your class folder, you have already shared it by default.
Each of the 4 draft submissions requires you to add to your project folder. Model your filenames on the examples listed here. For your first submission stage, you only need one file in the project folder:
As each stage comes due, you will add to that folder. By the time you submit the Design Assessment (see the Calendar for the submission date), the following files should all be available to me:
Note. Do not share the individual files with me. By placing them in your project folder, you have already shared them by default.
When you assemble your final submission for the DA project, there will be 11 files in the folder. Again, model your filenames on the examples listed here.
Note. Remember, do not share the individual files with me. By placing them in your project folder, you have already shared them by default.
Additional Note. You should include a Peer Review form for each reviewer who responded to your DA draft. Replace the word Reviewer with the last name of each reviewer on the form you receive back from her or him.
Additional Note. The Feedback file is the one you receive from me in response to your draft submission. Move it into your project folder when you assemble your final submission.
Take the time to organize your work as directed here, and to name each file properly. This helps me keep track of your work, and makes clear which files are meant to represent the on-going and final stages of project development.
This section describes the standards by which your draft and final submissions will be evaluated.
There are 50 possible points for each draft stage in the development of this project. You will earn points according to the following standard.
There are 400 possible points for the final project. You will earn points according to the standard described on the policies page (40% content development, 20% design execution, and 20% professionalism & attention to detail, and 20% impact of revision; see Policies). The specific areas of emphasis for this project are drawn from the description and in-class discussion of the project (including the supporting teaching materials that I provide to you), and are detailed in the evaluation rubric (_Eval_DesignAssessment.pdf).
Remember that I will only post the point values for projects on the Grades page in SVSU Canvas. I will post the details relevant to that evaluation in your class folder in a project-specific file.
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