Important note. Starting with Assignment 2, our submission policies have changed. In addition to publishing the assignment to your static site, you must now submit this Google form to submit your assignment. See the class guide or the Discourse/Canvas announcement for more information about why we’ve made this change.

Overview. In this assignment, you’ll generate a variety of provocative design ideas for Fritter, your Twitter clone, in response to some of the flaws and needs that you identified in Twitter in the previous assignment. A design idea belongs to one of three categories: it can be an adjustment of an existing Twitter concept, an adoption of a known concept from elsewhere, or an invention of a brand new concept. You’ll present your designs as concept outlines, along with rough sketches, first working alone to come up with initial ideas, and then working with a partner to brainstorm additional ideas together. The result will be six ideas in total, with at least one in each category.

Purposes. The purposes of this assignment are: (a) to give you practice generating design ideas, by brainstorming, collecting specimens of related ideas, and exchanging ideas with fellow designers; (b) to introduce you to concepts, and give you practice formulating design ideas as concepts; and (c) to give you practice drawing sketches and writing markdown.

Tasks

  • Brainstorming. Read over your report from the previous assignment, in which you explored flaws and unmet needs in Twitter. With these in mind, identify one or more problems to address, and come up with three design ideas. Each design idea can be a concept adjustment, adoption or invention. With the addition of three further ideas that you develop collaboratively later, you should have at least one in each category.
  • Outlining. Record each design idea in an informal outline for the adjusted, adopted or invented concept. First describe in a few words the problem you’re addressing. Then outline the concept by giving (a) a short and compelling name for the concept; (b) a succinct purpose that captures the benefit that the concept brings; (c) an operational principle (OP): an archetypal scenario of how the concept is used and fulfills its purpose.
  • Sketching. Provide a rough sketch of each design idea, either depicting a scenario or showing a user interface. Your sketches should have a clear correspondence to the operational principles in your outlines. Feel free to add labels or annotations to your sketches to make them clearer.
  • Exchanging. Now get together with another student taking the class, and talk about your ideas with each other. Avoid saying anything negative or critical: focus on suggesting new ideas or extensions. No explicit record of this activity is required, but hopefully it will generate new ideas for the next activity.
  • Augmenting. Record three more ideas with concept outlines and sketches. These can be ideas that came up in discussion with your classmate, and the two of you can record the same ones (so long as you outline and sketch them separately). Remember that out of the six ideas in total you should end up with at least one in each of the three categories (adjust, adopt, invent).

Rubric

Part Excellent Satisfactory Poor
Problem addressed Insightful and compelling description of a clear problem Succinct and understandable but problem may not be real Confusing or vague problem description
Concept adjustment Adjustment fits into an existing concept and clearly addresses problem Adjustment makes sense but might involve multiple concepts, or have oblique relationship to problem Adjustment is unclear, has no relationship to existing concepts, or fails to address problem
Concept adoption Insightful appropriation of known concept that clearly addresses problem Identification and use of a known concept not currently in Twitter but impact on problem is not clear Concept already exists in Twitter, isn’t recognizable from elsewhere, or has no impact on problem
Concept invention Surprising and original concept idea that clearly addresses problem Concept idea that is not used elsewhere but may be similar to existing concepts or address problem only obliquely Concept already in Twitter, not new, not a concept at all, or fails to address problem
Concept outline Pithy and informative name; compelling purpose that responds to a real need; OP tells strong story that demonstrates value and suggests likely usability; for adjustment, OP includes change; for adoption, OP includes context-specific details Short, informative name; purpose expresses need/value; OP tells understandable and full story, includes change (in case of adjustment) and context-specific details (in case of adoption), but may be hard for users to understand or use Name is clunky or obscure; purpose is unclear or summarizes behavior rather than need; OP is unclear, complicated or incomplete; for adjustment, OP doesn’t explain change; for adoption, OP doesn’t explain context-specific details
Sketch Conveys concept idea convincingly and makes it easier to understand Corresponds to concept outline and is understandable but adds little Relationship to concept outline unclear or sketch is hard to interpret

The qualitative judgments correspond roughly to grades of A (9/10), B (7.5/10), C (6.5/10).

Advice

  • Reminders. Make sure you have read and understood the rules for collaboration, submission and slack days, and the general class advice. Get started early! This assignment will be much less fun if you leave it until the last minute.

  • Sketching. Sketch continuously as you brainstorm; don’t wait until you have a fully formed idea. Make your sketches simple and clear, but don’t spend too much time finessing them. Use pen (or pencil) and paper, or a tablet; don’t use a diagramming or wireframing tool that will make it harder to express ideas quickly and freely.

  • Quantity and diversity. The aim here is to come up with a good number of varied ideas. Don’t worry about refining them; that’ll be the task of a later assignment. Do make sure your concept outlines and sketches are clear and well formed, but don’t get too hung up on design problems that come to mind. If you do see an obvious showstopping design problem, rather than working on a fix for it, just come up with another idea.

  • Operational principle. For more explanation of operational principles and advice on how to write them, see this tutorial post. You may also want to review the lecture notes.

A sample outline concept

Problem: Users post content that is misleading or untrue, which then propagates because it is upvoted by other users who lack the information to judge the content accurately.

Concept name: Refutation.

Purpose: Counter inaccurate content with links to more reliable material.

Operational principle: When a user encounters a post containing misinformation, she can attach to it a “refuting link” that points to a webpage that refutes the content of the post. A user who disagrees can add a “supporting link” in response, pointing to a page that supports the content. Now when a user sees a post, they can assess its credibility by looking at the links and following them to the supposedly refuting and supporting pages.