Lecture 15: Class Project

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Lecture 15 Class Project
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Goals

• Get you started on the project
• Preparation for the first deliverable, the
  proposal

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Deadline for Project Proposal

• You should hand in your project proposal to your
  TA in the tutorial on Friday October 22.
• It is expected that the proposal will include a
  few (e.g., 3-5) key references (papers or books)
  that will form a useful background for your work
  and a basis for the literature review.

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Topic - In-car E-mail System

• Design an emailing system for use within an
  automobile.
• Define appropriate scope
• Work steadily through the semester.
• Digital camera may be available on short term
  loan for getting useful images
• Put up a Website about your project

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Questions to Consider

• Who will use the email system? (e.g., driver,
  passengers, or both)
• What functions will the email system have?
• What steps will be taken to address possible
  safety issues?
• Will email be handled in batch or interactively?
• How intrusive will alerts about new email
  messages be?

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Citing other work

• Millers seminal paper (Miller, 1956) reviewed
  earlier work on channel capacity using
  information theory approaches (see also Garner,
  1962).
• Miller claimed that the contents of working
  memory typically contained seven items "plus or
  minus two". Millers estimate of working memory
  capacity is still generally accepted (e.g.,
  Baddeley, 1976).

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Introduction

• 30 of your grade in MIE240F
• "hands on" element to the course.
• Help available from teaching assistants

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Lateness

• We do not want to receive work late.
• Assignments received on time will be graded out
  of the full marks assigned.
• Late assignments will be penalized.
• Extensions will only be given in exceptional
  circumstances, and with documented proof.
• instructors decision will be final.

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Grading components
Proposal
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Written final report (includes
literature review)
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Oral presentation

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Purpose of Proposal

• Makes you engage in the initial phases of
  engineering design, which are frequently
  overlooked
• provides you with an opportunity to get early
  feedback on your design concept

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Proposal contains

• a feasibility analysis describing the problem you
  have chosen to address
• the design concept that you have come up with for
  addressing the problem
• the reasons why you think the concept will be an
  effective one

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Suggested Outline

• 1.Title Page
• 2.Abstract/Overview (up to 100 words)
• 3.Problem statement (approx. 300 words)
• 4.Brief review of existing solutions (approx. 300
  words)
• 5.Proposed Design strategy and methodology
  (approx. 500 words)
• 6.Expected results (approx. 150 words)
• 7.Conclusions (approx. 150 words)
• 8.References/Bibliography

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Literature Review

• provides a useful guide and background for you as
  you work on the project.
• involves finding, reading and summarizing journal
  papers which are closely related to your project
  topic.

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Useful Sources

• Human Factors
• IEEE journals
• Ergonomics
• Applied Ergonomics
• Other journals may also be appropriate
  depending on the topic that is chosen.

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Writing

• Members of the Writing Centre will be assisting
  you in learning how to prepare literature
  reviews.
• We are planning to have a tutorial on how to
  conduct a literature review.
• Note The Literature Review will be marked as
  part of the Final Report.

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Task Analysis

• You should apply the process of task analysis in
  order to
• identify the demands being placed by the problem
  you have selected,
• show how there is currently a mismatch between
  those demands and the resources currently
  available to people.

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Prototyping and Usability Testing

• perform user testing using prototype(s)
  constructed by your group. The results of such
  test should then be used to iteratively improve
  your design.
• These user tests should examine performance, not
  just user's opinions.

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Types of Prototype

• In some cases the prototype might be a computer
  simulation, or a storyboard with paper and pencil
  sketches.
• If you are unsure about whether or not you should
  be constructing a prototype for your project,
  check with your teaching assistant.

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Issues for Final Report

• the logic underlying the design, with update of
  proposal strategy
• Design justified by specific ergonomic design
  principles and methods
• (including task analysis and user testing)
• overall creativity and ingenuity exhibited by
  your design.
• The overall quality of the report is expected to
  be high.

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Deadline for written report

• The final report will be due in the final lecture
  of the course.
• Rigorous policy on lateness will be enforced

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Project on the Web

• Project description is on the Web
• Check out the requirements
• First deliverable is the project proposal

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Oral Presentation

• in the final two weeks of class.
• prototype(s) used during the design phase of the
  project should be presented.
• All group members need not participate in the
  presentation.
• maximum of approx 5 minutes per presentation