Class Project Overview

Context

You will be doing a class project for the remainder of the semester. You will form teams of 4-5 students and work with one of our partner organizations that each serve a variety of disability communities.

Project Types

There are three kinds of projects, each with their own requirements:

1. Accessibility Evaluation and Improvement
2. Design Vision
3. Application Design and Evaluation

An accessibility evaluation and improvement project will evaluate a pre-existing application or web site from the partner organization for accessibility by their target clientelle. You will engage with several members of their clientelle to do an in-person evaluation. Then you will design improvements and conduct a usability evaluation on the results. Your deliverables are an updated application design or web site as well as a project report describing the results of the initial accessibility study, the re-design process, and the evaluation of the redesign.

A design vision project will explore the design space for a solution to an acceesibility problem from the partner organization. You will engage in a co-design process with classmathes and clients of the partner organization to create a forward-looking concept video that showcases how the accessibility solution will look and feel to for its stakeholders in a near future time when it has been realized. The envisioning video must be inspirational, high quality, and human-centric --- focus on the intended user(s) experience rather than the technical specifications. Your deliverables are a report for your design exploration and co-design process, design mockups, final design, and a cinematic 3-minute envisioning video.

An application solution design and evaluation project will create a new application solution for an accessibility problem from the partner organization. You will engage in a co-design process with classmates and clients of the partner organization, develop the new application, web site, or tool, and then evaluate your application with additional clients of the partner organization. Your deliverables are the new application solution and a project report describing your co-design process, design mockups, final design, application documentation, and a writeup of the evaluation of the application.

Stages

The project will proceed in stages.

1. Team Formation and Team Contract
2. Project Investigation
3. Project Specification + Human Subjects Review
4. Project Milestone 1
5. Project Milestone 2
6. Project Milestone 3
7. Final Project Report and Presentation

Team Formation and Team Contract

Talk to people in class and choose your 4-5 person team. Then, come together to discuss your background and skills, negotiate your team norms, and write up a team contract. These include communication standards, time expectations, division of labor, a definition of equitable contribution, and procedures for managing conflicts within the team.

As a team, read through the available projects and rank them in order of preference. Your instructor will assign you to a specific project.

Project Investigation

In this stage, you will do a deep dive on the project idea to understand the disabilities being addressed, existing assistive technologies they use, existing applications or web sites used by the client organization that may need to be improved, and the requested needs of the client organization. Come up with 3 possible project instantiations that fit the skills of your team. Create a presentation for the clients to propose these ideas.

Project Specification

Before your team begins work, you must first determine what you want to do. You will schedule an initial project meeting with the partner organization to identify and negotiate requirements for your project. You will give the presentation you developed in the last stage as a starting point for negotiations. Then you will negotiate what you will create for them and agree on project deliverables and their format. Remember that you work for the client organization, not for yourselves. Be sure to validate the scope of what is to be done for the project with the instructor before finalizing your agreement.

Once you have come to agreement, your team will document the specific project requirements in the form of user stories, a UI mockup, a declaration of your technology stack, and a detailed project timeline. In addition, you will create a website for your project to host your milestone deliverables for the partner organization to follow your progress. Finally, you will fill out a simplified IRB application which we will evaluate to help you manage the ethics and human subjects considerations of your intended project.

Note

At every stage of this project and prior to any meeting with your partner organization, you must post any project updates on your project website. All posted content must be made fully accessible as you learned how to do in HW1 and HW4.

Project Milestone 1

• Accessibility Evaluation - You will begin studying the existing application or web site with at least 5 people with the target disability.
• Design Vision - You will begin the design exploration of the accessibility solution space. You will conduct a co-design with at least 2 people with the target disability to learn about the practical challenges and potential impacts of the designs you have explored.
• Application Solution - You will begin building the application and pilot test it with at least one other person in class who is not on your team.

One week in, you will meet with your instructor to demonstrate progress, receive feedback, and ask for advice.

At the end of the milestone, you will meet with a representative from your partner organization to demonstrate progress and communicate with them about questions or concerns that arise during this milestone. If you need help to find people with the target disability with whom to evaluate your project, you can ask your partner organization.

Project Milestone 2

• Accessibility Evaluation - You will begin designing and implementing your redesign. You will evaluate it with at least one other person in class who is not on your team.
• Design Vision - You will begin designing your future vision of this accessibility technology. Before finalizing the concept, you must show a wireframe to 2 people with the target disability to obtain their feedback.
• Application Solution - You will continue building the application and evaluate it with at least one person with the target disability.

One week in, you will meet with your instructor to demonstrate progress, receive feedback, and ask for advice.

At the end of the milestone, you will meet with a representative from your partner organization to demonstrate progress and communicate with them about questions or concerns that arise during this milestone.

Project Milestone 3

• Accessibility Evaluation - You will finish the design and implementation of your redesign. You will evaluate it with an additional 3 people with the target disability as well as one representative from your partner organization.
• Design Vision - You will create and render the final version of your envisioning video. You will evaluate the video with 3 people who are not in this class as well as 2 people with the target disability to obtain their feedback.
• Application Solution - You will finish the implementation of your application solution. You will evaluate it by having 3 people with the target disability as well as a representative from your partner organization pilot test your application.

One week in, you will meet with your instructor to demonstrate progress, receive feedback, and ask for advice.

Project Report and Presentation

At the end of the semester, you will give a team presentation in class about your project, its design, a demo, and its evaluation. All team members must participate in the presentation.

You will also write up a project report on the web (make sure it is accessible) summarizing everything you have done for the project, along with a demo video illustrating your work.

After classes end, but before grades are turned in, you will arrange a time with your partner organization to present your work to them and pass on the project deliverables in a form they can use. The partner organization will fill out a survey evaluating your performance throughout the semester. The survey results will be factored into the grade you receive.