CMSC 434 - Spring 2009
Prof Bederson

Introduction to Human-Computer Interaction

Homework #2: Interviews and Brainstorming (100 points)
Due Feb 19

Consider the following scenario:

  • Grocery store in-cart scanner. An enhanced grocery cart that lets the shopper scan each item as they put it into a bag into their cart - with the result that no post-shopping checkout is needed.

For each of the mentioned scenarios:

  1. (0 points) Interview 3 people for the above scenario to understand their view of the system (points in questions #2 and #4). These interviewees must be from outside the class. Interviews must be done in person (face-to-face).

  2. (10 points) List 5 user goals you determined from the interviews while using the system. Briefly explain each of the goals, and order them in terms of your perception of their importance. 

  3. (10 points) List 5 goals of the manager of the system determined from a combination of interviews and your own analysis. Briefly explain each of the goals, and order them in terms of your perception of their importance.

  4. (40 points) Choose 2 of the user goals. For each goal, write down the goal, and 5 things you learned from your interviews that relate to this goal.

  5. (30 points) Perform a brainstorm for the 2 goals you selected in question #4 in a group of 3 or 4 classmates to come up with 15 potential solutions per group member in support of the goals (i.e., if you have 3 group members, you should have 45 ideas total). List the results of the brainstorm along with the group members for this step.  Each group member should report the same results for this question as the other group members (but to be clear, each individual should submit their own homework assignment - which except for this step, should be done independently.)

  6. (10 points) Pick the most interesting and practical solution from the brainstorm. For the one you pick, each piece of underlying technology must exist, the cost must be reasonable, and the solution should not be too far away from current social conventions. Explain your choice.

Presentation: All submissions should be typed and formatted for readability (i.e. bullets, bold/italics as appropriate, etc.).

Grading: In addition to completeness, scores will be based on the logic and clarity of your answers.

Note: Examples of how to pick-out good goals, can be found in the reading for Feb 6th: "About Faces 2.0", (page 63-67)

Turn-in: Send your homework to Tak in PDF, DOC, ODF, or RTF format by email before 2:00 PM on February 19.  Please prefix the subject of your email with "CMSC434 HW2"