"In order to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe."
- Carl Sagan
The world is full of interesting and elegant design and it is important to be aware of them so you are not re-inventing the wheel. In this assignment, you will search for and analyze designs related to your concept. This research will come in handy in next week's Discovery assignment where you'll identify authentic user needs.
To begin, use the "how might" we questions generated in the first week to begin creating a point of view on one of the three design briefs. This won't yet be a full idea, more an area of interest, with the seeds of a design insight. Feel free to build on your peers' questions as well as your own. Pick something you're excited about and believe has real merit; this will form the basis for next week's user need-finding assignment and your class project topics will be informed by your direction. If you would like help sorting through your ideas and options, visit your TA during office hours, it will be fun!
Next, you're ready for the main part of the assignment: finding inspirational designs: existing applications, artifacts, products, or services that relate to your concept. Here, web search is your friend (potentially useful sites include Web search, Google Scholar, the ACM Digital Library, TechCrunch, Engagdet, and Digg). This activity is similar to what business folks call "competitive analysis," academics call "related work," and artists call "inspiration." Cast the net wide and find as much as you can.
Some things you find will be quite related (i.e. "Hey, they stole my idea!") but it is important to interpret "related" broadly. It may be that a carrot-peeler or a measuring cup is your inspiration for an elegant and ergonomic design of a software interface. You may be inspired to improve upon an existing service or go in a totally different direction. If at all possible, try the related products/services out. Read amateur and professional reviews.
Keep track of your findings as you collect data because you'll be submitting the general contents of your net as well as your 3 prized finds (see below).
Select three (3) products or services to analyze in more detail from your search.
For each of the three you picked, do a brief analysis where you pull out the important design elements and discuss what they imply for your own design. For example, if your idea was for a location-aware mobile ice cream shop search interface, you might choose Google mobile search as an inspirational product. For the analysis, you might discuss how the service integrates the search results with maps, and point out how this would be useful for your own product but that the map would also have to visualize the places where your favorite flavor, super-duper chip, was available.
Each analysis should include images (photos, diagrams, screenshots, videos, etc.) of the product you are analyzing. The text may discuss which design elements were good and bad and how you plan to use those design ideas as inspiration for your own product concept. You should also discuss specifically what elements you might "borrow" and which you won't, and why. You may also share any other insights that you had while performing the comparison.
To complete the assignment, you must submit online:
Your summary will be submitted online as a body of plain text and multimedia attachments. Do not spend time "beautifying" your summary.
The submission web site can be accessed through the course website with your SUNet login at https://hci.stanford.edu/cs147/studio/
To submit the assignment, log in to this website and click the Submit Assignment link in the Current Assignment box. On the submission page you can enter the writeup as well as upload any number of images. Clicking the "Save" button will save the current version of your writeup. Your latest save will automatically be submitted for grading when the assignment is due. You can save as many times as you need until the deadline.
Submit early! Late assignments will not be accepted!
Be prepared to informally present your product concept and the three related products or services you analyzed (3 minutes maximum). You should not prepare slides or other visuals for this presentation - we will have a projector set up that will allow you to easily present the digital media you submitted with your assignment. You will be giving feedback to your classmates and also looking out for ideas that are in line with yours or are totally different but interest you. This will help you form project teams, which will be made later within your section.
This assignment will be evaluated on the four dimensions listed below.
After your studio, log into the studio web site, and assess the quality of your assignment. Do so by selecting the cell that best describes your assignment for each of the four dimensions.
The TAs will provide a nuanced grading of your submission performed blind of your own rating, To give you a better idea of what cell your assignment belongs to there are two student examples for you to look at with the TA grading shown.
Grading Dimension |
Guiding questions |
Bare minimum |
Satisfactory
effort
& performance |
Above & Beyond |
|
| Design Findings | Relevance: Volume & Variety (max 15 points) |
Did you think of and pick related work relevant to your product concept? Remember, "relevant" does not mean "the same as." Related work can be 'related' in creative ways. How varied and exhaustive is your search for inspirational design? There should also be explanation about why each one is relevant. | 1-10 points; Obvious/literal connections, or irrelevant ones |
11-13 points; Explored non-obvious, related topics |
14-15 points; Found inspirational and creative designs |
| Analysis | Breadth (max 10) |
Did those examples give you a variety of insights, across different design dimensions? | 1-5; Few dimensions of inspirations explored | 6-8; Some different dimensions | 9-10; Wide array of inspirational dimensions |
| Critique & Synthesis (max 20) |
The quality of the pros and cons (or likes/dislikes) discussed for each of the three inspirational designs analyzed and how well this was tied into design implications for their own idea | 1-12; Simple pros and cons based largely on aesthetics or similar obvious characteristics | 13-17; Straightforward pros/cons with simple implications for design; | 18-20; Insightful pros and cons influencing user interaction | |
| Clarity (max 5) |
Did you communicate your product concept & insights clearly in both written and verbal (in-class) forms? | 1-2; Laundry-list style | 3-4; Some thought given to organization | 5; Innovative, digestable, and memorable presentation of information |