HCI 440 Week Two

Turned in my first assignment and I wonder if I spent too much time, or not enough. The assignment, to analyze the design of your alarm clock from a usability perspective, seemed pretty straight-forward. Yet, it took me about 4 hours to complete. Since this was my first grade, and it was a graduate level course, I was concerned about the level or work needed. I didn't want to spend too much time, at the expense of work or my other class. Yet, I certainly didn't want to complete it without the proper understanding of the principle.

Class itself went well and I was introduced to the classmates that would be working with to complete the group projects. Christa, Brian, Keith, Alex and I met briefly at the end of class. We decided that we would meet on Wednesdays from 5 - 5:30 to discuss this week's assignment. We also determined what the titles for each person would be. Initially, Christa volunteered to be the editor, and Keith volunteered to be the project manager. Throughout the class, we all would try different roles, obtaining a more well-rounded experience.

At the Wednesday meeting, we divided the tasks as follows:
Project Overview: All or us contributed.
Personas: Keith created one and I created one.
Competitive Analysis: Christa and Alex teamed-up on that.
Requirements Gathering Methodology Brian choose interviews, and I choose surveys.
Requirements Gathering Findings: Brain and I would update this when we finished gathering the requirements.
Appendix: Christa would complete this section.

We decided to use Google Docs as a central repository, allowing everyone to have access to the files, regardless of where they were.

From Thursday until late Saturday, we slowly chipped away at the assignment. Brian conducted the interviews and receive confirming results. I set up a survey on www.surveymonkey.com. It was fairly simple and easy to implement. By Saturday, we had our data and took the next day to organize, causing extra work for Christa as we made changes after she thought the documents were finalized. However, she uploaded the assignment with 30 minutes to spare.

Next: IT 223:Will it get harder?