syllabus

Final Project

Find collaborators to make a final project. You can work alone if you wish, but groups of 2-3 seem to be the best for making something significant. General guidelines are the same as for your midterm. You can combine this project with your coding class, or continue working on your midterm for your final if you wish.

Document your work thoroughly in your blogs as you go. Include details of all phases of the project. Your project is due December 15 in class, and final documentation is due December 20th.

Week 13 (Dec 1) – In-class workshop

Introduce your project by writing a project summary, explaining what the system is, what it does, and what purpose it’s intended to serve. Identify parts needed and order AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. Bring a mockup to class that will allow us to feel the scale and body posture of interaction with it.

This week, focus on the interaction flow of your project. We will evaluate the clarity and intuitiveness of:

• what it is
• what its specific purpose is
• how you interact with it
• what the input and output is

After this feedback session, we will use remaining time to work on tech and fabrication.

Week 14 (Dec 8) – In-class playtest

Your project should be mostly finished by now, with this last week for polishing details! We will conduct an In-class playtest for each group. We will spend 20 mins interacting with and discussing one project. This means you should come in class with:

• A working, or at least partially working prototype, with mockups standing in for the missing parts. It doesn’t have to be polished or even finished, but needs to show the core interactive mechanics.
• A concrete idea of what you’re trying to learn and improve on. Set an intention beforehand, and prepare questions that you want your playtest to answer.
• If possible, different versions, or variations of the project. If you want to see if a little design change will make a big difference, or compare which of the two color palettes work better, now is a good time to test.

For this week, you might also need to prepare whatever you want to show on screen during your presentation. On-screen presentation is optional, but it is recommended to show sketches/renderings that illustrate what a fully finished version would look like if you were to continue work on the project, or any other supporting material that will help illustrate and clarify the idea.