ANU COMP3900/COMP6390 Projects 2021 Taylor & Kyburz
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ANU COMP3900/COMP6390 Project 1 Specification
Updated 18 July 2021
Project 1 – Background Review
- Project Overview
The purpose of this project is to explore the project theme (environmental sustainability), and to choose a topic of interest by conducting a literature review and analysing existing design products. - Project Specification (1500 words maximum)
2.1 Report cover sheet (not included in word count)
Include a cover sheet as the front page of the report, using the cover sheet template on the COMP3900/COMP6390 Wattle Site. Restate your report title on the first page of your report.
2.2 Choose a project topic (100 words maximum)
You must choose a topic that relates to the project theme of environmental sustainability. Relevant topics might include “reducing food waste”, “reducing energy use”, “community education about climate change”, “learning about local plant and animal species”, or “being prepared for floods (or bushfires, or other natural disasters)” (based on United Nations Environment Program 2020).
The topic should be specifically scoped to focus on a particular activity relating to your topic, a context/setting in which this activity takes place, and a group of people involved in that activity who are prospective users of the technology you design (and could be participants in your project).
For example, a well-scoped topic for the area of reducing food waste might be “food composting [activity] at home [setting] by university students living off-campus in Canberra [group of people]”.
In a few sentences, describe your topic and its connection to the theme of environmental sustainability (100 words maximum).
Some ideas for topics relating to behaviour change from the ANU Below Zero strategy include the following (from the ANU Below Zero Website):
• “reducing energy consumption and switching away from fossil fuel energy, wherever possible;
• choosing low-emission transport, such as cycling, walking, car sharing and public transport use;
• limiting air travel to essential trips only;
• being mindful about what we buy, reusing items and choosing locally sourced, low-emission food;
ANU COMP3900/COMP6390 Projects 2021 Taylor & Kyburz
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• reducing waste, recycling and composting food waste” (ANU Below Zero 2021).
2.3 Conduct a literature review (600 words maximum)
Conduct a literature review that addresses exactly four HCI conference papers or journal articles relevant to your topic, that involve the technology design and/or evaluation.
You must search for HCI literature in the Association of Computing Machinery Digital Library. See the instructions at the end of this document for accessing the ACM Digital Library through the ANU Library website.
For each of your chosen articles, write one short paragraph (150 words maximum) that summarises the project aim and key finding(s), discusses the relevance of this paper to your project topic, and provides an in-text citation to your paper (author – year).
2.4 Interaction and experience analysis of two existing designs (500 words maximum)
For your chosen topic, find two existing designs that can offer you some interesting insights for your own project. These existing designs may relate to your specific project topic, or if you cannot find existing designs about your specific topic, others with relevant interaction and experience design considerations to your project.
You can either refer to HCI literature on these projects (find papers that are different to the projects already discussed in your literature review above), or reflect on your interactions and experiences with a technology that you can access in real life.
In 250 words total for each of the two existing designs, write 1-2 paragraphs that explain:
• The interactions with this design that are available to users
• Key user experience insights from these designs (either from the HCI paper or your own interactions with the device)
• Usability issues that you can identify with the design
• How the design is relevant to your topic.
Reflect on the HCI principles that were introduced during Module 1.
2.5 Literature and product reflection (300 words maximum)
Based on your literature review and design analysis, write 300 words that cover all of the following points:
• Patterns that you can see in the literature and design products that reviewed (frequent topics and questions, common methods and findings, contradictions between findings)
• What interesting research questions or ideas this literature and product review has offered to your project
• Gaps in the literature and existing products that could be addressed by your own technology design. - Report Structure
Your report should include the following sections:
ANU COMP3900/COMP6390 Projects 2021 Taylor & Kyburz
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• Cover sheet (Task 2.1)
• Report Title
• Project Topic (Task 2.2)
• Literature Review (Task 2.3)
• Interaction and Experience Analysis (Task 2.4)
• Literature and Product Reflection (Task 2.5)
• Bibliography - References
ANU Below Zero 2021, ‘ANU Below Zero | Get involved’, ANU Website, accessed July 1, 2021, from https://www.anu.edu.au/research/research-initiatives/anu-below-zero/get-involved.
United Nations Environment Program 2020, UNEP Environmental and Social Sustainability Framework (ESSF), Nairobi, Kenya, accessed from https://wedocs.unep.org/bitstream/handle/20.500.11822/32022/ESSFEN.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y.