Due 11:59pm, Sunday Nov 13 and 11:59pm Weds Nov 16

Overview. Your final project will follow (for the most part) the steps you took in your individual assignments; you can view the full timeline here. The first step is divergent design, which involves identifying the problem you intend to solve, and sketching out three ideas for possible solutions. You’ll submit this work in the form of a short video which will be played in class. As a team, you will then review the videos of other teams. Your team’s convergent design phase will begin when the videos are due, and you will receive reviews of your video from other teams a few days later, in time to incorporate their ideas in your convergent design work.

Deadlines. Project pitch videos and team contracts are due at midnight on Sunday Nov 13, and videos will be presented in class the next day. Reviews are due (individually) at midnight on Weds Nov 16.

Tasks

Team contract. Before you begin your work as a team, we ask you to agree on a “team contract.” We’ve found that such contracts take only a little time, but reduce the chance that projects are derailed by misunderstandings and disagreements. The team contract should be the result of an open and candid discussion amongst team members about what your individual aspirations and commitments are.

Your team’s contract should include the following:

  • Expected level of achievement and effort for each team member (what grades do you expect to get? how much time do you plan to put in?);
  • Personal goals for each team member (building a great app? learning a particular skill?);
  • Frequency, length and location of team meetings;
  • How quality of work will be maintained (reviewing each others’ code? team review meetings? pair programming?);
  • How tasks will be assigned, and what to do if deadlines are missed;
  • How decisions will be made and any disagreements resolved.

When thinking about assigning tasks, you can divide the work for the project amongst team members as you please, with two caveats: (a) the amount of work per team member must be roughly the same over the length of the project, and (b) each team member must participate in all software development activities (ie, design, coding, pitching, etc).

Problem definition. Develop a clear and compelling definition of the problem or opportunity that your app will address. You can propose a single problem for all your designs, or different designs can address different problems (in which case you need to articulate each one). Your problem definition should include at least: who will benefit from your application; what their current need or problem is; and what value the application will bring. A social/ethical analysis is not required (and will be conducted along with your convergent design).

Concept outlines. For each design, outline a few concepts that characterize that design. You should have at least a name, a purpose and an operational principle for each one.

Interaction sketches. Construct some sketches that show how the concepts work together in the app to address the problem that you have defined. These might take the form of user interface sketches, or of simple cartoons that show users executing the app.

Videos. You will present your designs—the problem definitions, concept outlines and interaction sketches—in video format. No additional documents are required. You are free to present the designs in any way you choose, so long as your video clearly addresses each of the required parts. You don’t need, for example, to show the concept outlines in the form that we’ve used previously; you don’t even need to use the terms “purpose” and “operational principle”. An expert conceptual designer should be able to watch your video and infer these things easily from your presentation.

Video format. The format for the video is up to you. You might use traditional slides (eg, made with Google Slides, Keynote or Powerpoint); sketch on a tablet; write on a real MIT blackboard; and so on. Your video is limited to four minutes in total (and must cover all three designs), which is a typical length for a product pitch. Although you’re encouraged to have fun with this and be creative, bear in mind that the focus should be on presenting your design ideas clearly, and we don’t expect a major production. A simple recording of a narration over a handful of slides with some informative sketches will be sufficient.

Reviews. After the videos have been presented, each team will review the videos of some other teams. Your team will review as many other teams as there are members of your team (that is, if you’re a team of 4, your team will review 4 other teams). Each review should address the following questions:

  • Is the problem definition clear and compelling?
  • Are the concepts clear? Do they have straightforward and understandable purposes? Are the operational principles likely to be easy for users to execute?
  • Do the concepts form a coherent app that is likely to solve (or at least effectively address) the stated problem?
  • Do you have additional ideas of suggestions?

We anticipate that each review will comprise half to one page of text.

Deliverables

Team contract. Post your team contract on the portfolio sites of every team member and submit a link to one of these using this form. You will be asked to include an email address for the whole team; you should create this in advance using Moira.

Video. Post your video on the portfolio sites of every team member, and submit a link to one of these in the spreadsheet.

Reviews. You will be assigned teams to review in the spreadsheet. Each review should be a separate document, posted on every team member’s portfolio. For each time you’re reviewing, you should place a link to the review by the deadline.

Rubric

Part Excellent Satisfactory Poor
Video quality A high quality recording with engaging narration and informative visual aids The narration is audible but not always engaging; visual aids are legible but are missing essential information or excessively detailed Narration is hard to follow and visual aids are unclear
Problem definitions Insightful and compelling description of a clear problem Succinct and understandable but problem may not be real Confusing or vague problem description
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 Short, informative name; purpose expresses need/value; OP tells understandable story Name is obscure or missing; purpose is unclear or summarizes behavior rather than need; OP is unclear, complicated or incomplete
Sketch Brings concepts together and shows how they fully address the problem in a coherent app Presents an understandable app that addresses the problem only partially, and role of concepts is unclear App is not understandable, or concept roles are unclear, or weak connection to problem
Reviews Actionable insights that engage substantively with proposed design and its concepts Relevant critique attentive to design and concepts, but practical implications may be unclear Critique not attentive to design or lacking relevance

Advice

Brainstorming. We recommend that you brainstorm design ideas first individually or in pairs, and then bring your ideas to the whole team to come up with new ideas and to filter your ideas down to the most promising three.

Division of labor. All team members should be involved equally in every stage of the final project, and we recommend that everyone plays some visible role in the video.

Reviews. If you like, you can assign the initial reviewing tasks to individual team members, but you should discuss the reviews as a team before submitting them, so you can enrich and clarify them.