comp3900-2026-A1-prototyping
repo (link)Assignment 1 involves creating a prototype that solves a problem. Your prototype must engage with an interaction design challenge and consider multiple perspectives.
The interaction design challenge is as follows:
Animal-Computer Interaction:1 On 1st June 2026, a burst of precisely tuned neutrinos struck the earth dramatically increasing the intelligence of all non-human animal life. Mammals, birds, fish, reptiles, amphibians and even insects now have near- or above- human intelligence2. After weeks of diplomatic negotiation (and worldwide adoption of vegan diets) animals now seek to participate in pan-species society on earth. The only problem is that they can’t use any of our computer systems! Your challenge is choose an interactive computer system (software and hardware) to accomplish one everyday task, and produce a prototype design that is accessible to one kind of non-human animal as well as a human.
To accomplish this task, you will need to have a strong understanding of usability, user experience, design, and prototyping as discussed in the first four weeks of this course. Your submission must demonstrate sophisticated engagement with these concepts.
Your submission will include documentation of your prototype, sketches, and a written design rationale. Your design rationale presents the argument behind your design (MacLean et al., 1989): why it is appropriate, why it is likely to succeed compared with the other options you considered, and what trade-offs you have accepted. It explains the user’s needs, their context of use, and their individual capacity and perspective, and it shows how your sketching and ideation led you to this prototype rather than another.
Your written rationale should have the following sections:
Your submission must:
prototype-documentation.md, using the headings provided in
the templatematerials/ folder of
your fork.comp3900-2026-A1-prototyping
repository on Gitlab by the due date.materials/ folder of your fork.prototype-documentation.md, using the headings provided and
embedding your images where they support the argument.Here’s how to get started with the work in this assignment:
Choose one animal and one everyday task. Pick a single kind of non-human animal, and a single everyday task that a person currently uses a computer system for; e.g., ordering food, booking an appointment, checking a timetable. Specific is good.
Find out what your users can actually do. Use your research skills to learn about your animal’s senses, physical capabilities, and social behaviour. You can imagine that your animal is at least as intelligent as people and, if they have the physical ability to read, write, understand speech, or speak, they can.
Ideate and sketch at least three different options. Use ideation techniques from week 2. The different sketches map out a design space for your rationale. Sketches should be hand-drawn either on paper or a tablet screen.
Choose one option, and articulate why. What criteria did you judge the options against? What did you give up by choosing this one? See design rationale from week 2.
Build a paper prototype and photograph it. Low fidelity is expected. Your prototype needs to show how the interaction works, not how a finished product would look.
Write it up in
prototype-documentation.md using the provided headings.
Refer to each image from your text (e.g., “my first sketch is shown in
Figure 1”) so your reader knows what they are looking at and
why.
Push early and push often. Check that the CI jobs pass before the deadline — they check your word count and markdown formatting.
Here’s some general advice:
| CRITERIA | HD | D | CR | P | N |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sophistication and clarity of the design rationale in terms of HCI theories, perspectives, and concepts. (50%) | Excellent to outstanding design rationale demonstrating consideration of HCI theories and perspectives that goes beyond learning materials. Level of communication and referencing is excellent. | Very good design rationale demonstrating consideration of HCI theories and perspectives that follows specification, but not beyond learning materials. Level of communication and referencing is excellent. | A design rationale that follows specification with HCI theories and perspectives at the level of learning materials. Level of communication and referencing is good. | Some effort to follow the specification for a design rationale. May touch on some HCI concepts. Level of communication and referencing may have some errors. | A design rationale with little connection to HCI concepts or one that is below acceptable standards. May not follow the specification or contain serious errors in communication and referencing. |
| Sophistication as a prototype addressing identified user needs. (50%) | Excellent to outstanding prototype demonstrating a thorough design and prototyping process with clear consideration of user needs. Excellent adherence to the assessment format. | Very good prototype demonstrating a thorough design and prototyping process with consideration of user needs. Excellent adherence to the assessment format. | A good prototype that demonstrates a design and prototyping process. May not fully address user needs. Good adherence to the assessment format. | A satisfactory prototype with limited engagement with the design process or user needs. Adherence to the submission format may be poor. | Below acceptable standards as a prototype. May have very poor adherence to submission format. |
Animal-Computer Interaction is actually a real field! See proceedings from the 2024 conference (ACI ’24, 2024).↩︎
This bit is not real. I made this bit up.↩︎