Term Project
This is a
preliminary draft of the Term Project.
The final
version of the Term Project will be posted on March 13.
The expectations of the Term Project will be discussed in class on
March 20.
The purpose of this
project it to
have students apply the context of use, requirements analysis and
design Usability Engineering processes as taught in this course to a
real world application.
It is intended that students work on
this project in the teams that were established for Assignment 3. If
students have been removed from their team (for lack of sufficient
contribution to the team) or if students wish to work on their own (due
to lack of confidence in their team) then they may be allowed to work
on the project on their own. However, the same expectations will be
placed on teams and individuals and all projects will be marked using
the same criteria.
Project Topic for this term:
Topic: There is a need for a Web-based system that combines information on
accessibility-related user needs and sources of accessibility-related international guidance.
A preliminary design was developed (without the benefit of applying
usability engineering techniques).
It is published as document N0435
"Preliminary report on: Design of an on-line accessibility standards
inventory".
This provides the starting point for your project.
A further report documenting some needed changes to this
preliminary design is published as document N0471.
The Web-based system to be developed is intended to provide access to the information and procedures in
the existing three part technical report ISO/IEC 29138. Drafts of the
parts of this TR are published as:
N0339: ISO/IEC 29138-1 Information technology — Accessibility
considerations for people with disabilities — Part 1: User needs summary
N0340: ISO/IEC 29138-2 Information technology — Accessibility
considerations for people with disabilities — Part 2: Standards
inventory
N0341: ISO/IEC 29138-3 Information technology — Accessibility
considerations for people with disabilities — Part 1: User needs
summary Part 3: Guidance on user needs mapping
NOTE: The final published versions of these ISO Technical Reports are freely available via links found at:
http://www.jtc1access.org/base.htm,
but are substantially the same as these documents, which are easier to
access and sufficient for your consideration.
The information in these technical reports has, however, evolved and is
currently being restructured.
-
The contents of 29138-2 are being reformatted and replaced as the
"Inventory of Accessibility and Accessibility-related Standards and
Specifications" the latest version of which is document N0485.
-
A discussion of possible reformatting of the user needs in part 1 is
contained in document N0470. Of particular note is section 4.1 in this
report. The reformatted version of the user needs is not yet published.
-
These various documents show a need for a flexible system to support
the evolution of this information.
- They also demonstrate that further
analysis and design is needed to ensure that any system developed makes use of good usability engineering inputs.
Your project is to apply the usability engineering methods from the
class to doing a better job of analyzing and designing a usable system
for providing and maintaining accessibility-related information on user needs and accessibility-related standards.
It is expected that your project will identify and recommend significant improvements beyond the current design.
NOTE: You are not expected to have to specify how the data will be
implemented by a database (like document N0435 does). However, you do have to consider the potential content needs of the system.
NOTE: Be sure to get an early start on this project. The instructor
will answer questions asked in class as they arise and will especially
be prepared to discuss this project topic in class on Tuesday March 20.
Questions e-mailed to the instructor will be answered in class so that
all students have access to the same answers.
The following
marking approach will be used for each of the 16 parts (2 a-e, 3 a-f, and 4 a-e) of the
project:
- 10/10 - Excellent
- 9/10 - Outstanding
- 8/10 - Very Good
- 7/10 - Good
- 6/10 - Weak
- 5/10 - Poor
- <5/10 - Very Major Problems
It is expected that most marks will range between 6 and 9 out of 10
for each part and that a
few teams may receive marks outside these bounds. However, it is
possible to receive either a higher or lower mark where such a mark is
appropriate.
NOTE: To get a mark of "7 - good" or better you will have to do more than
just use the usability engineering methods to document what is already
available in the existing documents. You should be identifying further
possibilities, needs, requirements and recommendations and developing a better
interaction and interface design.
Steps in completing this assignment:
- Meet with your team and plan your
work
This project involves a
significant
amount of work each week in order to be successful.
Planning and
coordination are needed to ensure that you complete your project
successfully by the due date.
REMEMBER: There will be no extensions - thus it
will be better to submit a partially completed project than to fail to
submit a project on time.
NOTES:
- Teamwork is Essential.
While team work often is split up based on the skills and interests of
the team members, learning can better be facilitated by rotating duties
so that all team members learn each type of work.
- If everyone tries to do everything together, you will likely spend an excessive amount of time.
- If
everyone does a part all on their own, the parts will likely not fit
and the systems will likely be a disaster, unless the team then takes
the time to integrate the parts, making changes where needed, so that
they all work together.
- Thus you might be better to do something in between these two extremes:
- plan together
- delegate specific work and completion dates to individuals or to pairs
- complete delegated work
- evaluate your results, or better yet, have another team member evaluate your results
- work together to combine the individual results into the team's project
- have the whole team evaluate the combined results and identify and make necessary improvements
- repeat the above steps as required to complete all parts of the project
- iterate to "tune-up" the result
- BE SURE to plan sufficient time at the end of the project to make any necessary changes or additions to the project materials
- Warning: If you get behind and/or miss any of these steps, your project will suffer
-
ALL TEAM MEMBERS ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR THE COMPLETE
PROJECT, including work that might have been delegated to other team members.
- Each
of you is responsible for the successful completion of your project. In
most cases team members will work well together and help each other to
succeed. However, in some cases, problems may occur in a team. The most
frequent is someone not pulling their weight and not doing their share
of the work (whether by ignoring the team, doing a real quick and dirty
job, or through an endless series of excuses). If problems occur for
any reason, they should be reported to the instructor as soon as they
arise to avoid unnecessary complications and penalties. Failure to
report problems will be taken as your agreement that no problems
exist.
- Most teams work excellently. Some teams may even
lead to life long friendships. However, the instructor is prepared to
deal with the various problems that might arise. Teams may fire members
only after discussing the grounds for firing with the instructor. These
grounds can include, but are not limited to: abusive or other
inappropriate behavior by a member and/or failure of a member to do a
fair share of the team's work. In most cases the instructor will
attempt to consult the individual involved, before giving approval
(however where the individual is not available in two or more
successive classes, approval may be given in absentia). Individuals who
are fired from a team must complete and submit the project on their own.
- It
is the intention that a single mark will be given for the project and
that all team members will receive this mark. The fairness of this
marking scheme is contingent on all members participating at a
reasonable level in completing the project. All team members are
responsible for the successful operation of their team as well as for
the successful completion of the project In the case of team breakdown
or problems that may lead to breakdown, the instructor should be
advised as soon as this occurs so that steps can be taken to ensure
successful completion of the project. The instructor reserves the right
to adjust individual marks in teams where all members do not
participate together appropriately.
- Perform
a Possibilities Analysis to create a Context of Use Description (as per
Ch 10.2), including records for each
- major scenarios
served by the current system (as per Chapter 5) [for
a possible 10 marks]
- task (as
per Chapter 6) [for a possible 10 marks]
- user
group (as per Chapter 7) [for a possible 10
marks]
- content
chunk (as per Chapter 8) [for a possible 10
marks]
- environment (as
per Chapter 9) [for a possible 10 marks]
NOTE 1:
You will have to determine within your team which of these are
important to the application
NOTE 2: Remember you need
to go beyond what is already there in the existing documentation
- Perform
a Requirements Analysis and create a revised set of
possibility
records with significant details added (as per Ch 10.4), including:
- a discussion of
your system boundaries (as per Ch 10.3) [for
a possible 10 marks]
- tasks (as per
Chapters 11 & 12) [for a possible 10 marks]
- user groups (as
per Chapters 13, 14, & 15) [for a possible
10 marks]
- content chunks
(as per Chapter 16) [for a possible 10 marks]
- environment (you
will have to decide what is relevant for this) [for
a possible 10 marks]
- requirements and
recommendations (as per Ch 10.5) [for a possible 10 marks]
NOTE 1:
You will have to determine within your team which pieces of detailed
information are
important to the application
NOTE 2: Remember you need
to go beyond what is
already there in the existing documentation
- Develop a Design (as per Chapter 17 & 18) including:
- the selected design scenarios plus the requirements and recommendations linked to them (as per Ch 17.1) [for
a possible 10 marks]
- a revised set of design scenarios including sequences of steps for each scenario (as per Ch 17.2) [for
a possible 10 marks]
- a high level interface design with a set of presentation segments and mappings with scenarios (as per Ch 18.1) [for
a possible 10 marks]
- an interface style guide to be used to design individual presentation segments (as per Ch 18.2) [for
a possible 10 marks]
- designs for the individual presentation segments (as per Ch 18.3) [for a possible 10 marks]
NOTE: Each of the 16 different parts above (2 a-e, 3 a-f, and 4 a-e) requires its own distinct answer.
- Where
material from a previous part of the project belongs in the given
answer for a later part it should be fully copied into that answer
rather than just referencing the previous answer.
- The new
answer should make clear what changes, additions, and/or deletions it
is making to the information from the previous part
- e.g.
part 3 b requires complete requirements analysis task records that are
elaborations on information originally submitted as the possibilities
analysis task records in part 2 b.
- New material can be
differentiated from existing material via the technique of your choice,
as long as this technique is easy to use for the reader. Some possible
techniques include:
- having material from a previous part
appear as normal text and having new material appear using the "track
changes" feature of Word
- having material from a previous part appear as normal text and having new material appear in bold
- having material from a previous part appear in gray and having new material appear in black
NOTE:
You may add any explanatory material wherever you feel it is necessary
for the instructor to understand when marking the point. Please make it
clear that this is additional explanatory material, beyond the basic
information intended to satisfy the part.
- Explanatory material can be differentiated from existing material via the technique of your choice, as long as this technique is easy to use for the reader. Some possible techniques include:
- putting explanatory material in italics
- putting explanatory material in gray (as long as you have not used gray to differentiate some other type of information)
- Be sure that whatever technique you use is clearly distinct from other forms of coding of the information in your report
- Submit your project
electronically via WebCourses by 11:59 pm on Friday April 20.
- A team folder will be set-up by the instructor so that each team only needs to make a single submission
- Late projects will not be accepted.
- Projects not submitted before 11:59 pm on Friday April 20, 2012 will automatically receive a mark of 0
- Projects must be submitted as a single Word or pdf file
- Teams will be allowed to revise their submissions up to the deadline of 11:59
pm on Friday April 20. This will allow you to make partial submissions
as soon as you have achieved team consensus on a section of your project
NOTE: Do not leave this too
long and do not expect any extensions. If necessary it is better to submit an
incomplete project than not to submit anything.