Annotated Portfolio Essay

Based on a new design of technology, website or app, the annotated portfolio is comprised of the literature review, early designs, prototypes and evaluations, culminating in a 2000 words (max) report discussing the real-world challenge your proposed technology works to address. PLEASE NOTE THIS IS A HYPOTHETICAL PROJECT.

My idea:

So I want to create an app similar to Spotify but for podcasts. So you can create a playlist, follow artists, listen to it offline and online, ability to browse different podcasts depending on your mood and share your playlists with friends. But I want to include a live cam, so a listener can watch their favourite podcasts live or turn the camera off and just listen. I also want people/ businesses to be able to create their content if they wish to, similar to Youtube, where you make your channel. For example, a video agency wants to create podcasts that share tips on how to shoot a video on your phone or tips on how you can create in-house videos.

Literature Review:

Demonstrate your understanding of the contemporary technologies in this domain (both from academic research publications and review of industrial technologies and reports). For example, robust (i.e. good quality), relevant (i.e. to the problem/challenge), timely (i.e. contemporary).

• Seek to identify the emerging trends or open challenges that relate to your own work.
• Who you are designing for? For example, multiple stakeholder
• The consumption side of this podcast space
• Focus more on a particular challenge – for example ‘discovery’ of new podcasts. New episodes from existing know podcasts are somewhat handled by the subscriptions (like spotify, Castbox and YouTube) but new discovery is still facilitated by a search bar which assumes you somewhat know what you are looking for. (Review of academic literature and industrial/technology-related sources which are robust (i.e. good quality), relevant (i.e. to the technology problem/challenge) and timely (i.e. contemporary).

Design process and final design:

Design process –

• describe the evolution of your technology through the various elements of the research portfolio.
• These should be included in the appendices and referenced appropriately from the report. (Use of supporting evidence contained in appendices in the form of artefacts arising from a user-centred design lifecycle).

Final design –

• give a detailed description of the final design you produced to respond to the research challenge. (Complete final design which clearly attempts to address the technology problem/challenge.)

Evaluation, discussion and conclusions:

Evaluation –

• report on the study design and results of your evaluations.

Discussion/Conclusions –

• interpret your results and reflect on how your proposed and evaluated technology responds to the original real-world challenge.
• Be critical and honest about your technology, we are interested to hear about the process more than anything. So, if you think that the technology needs to be different, then explain why, and how it should be changed based on what you’ve learned.

User Study Material:

You need interview guides for semi-structured interviews, protocols for learn from then and how you would follow up on answers.

The study approach and setup: how and where will participants be interviewed, and in what ?

For example – ‘light touch’ interview guide for a semi-structured interview:

• What are your main priorities during the [development/ use] of this technology? (in of priority)

• Do you priorities change when a deadline approach? (why do you feel they [don’t] change? What about when a competitor seems to [developing/using] similar technology?

• What do you feel are the key challenges in [developing/ using] precision agriculture technology?

• What about security of this technology? Is it something you worry about?

• Can you think of anything in particular that made you think so? (How does security fit into your priorities?
• To what extend do you [build in / verify] the following functionality? What do you feel are your main challenges in doing so? (Abnormal measurement detection, access control, encryption)

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NOTES:

Ensure you cross-reference throughout. For examples:

• Referring to the relevant artefact located/linked in the appendices when discussing the design process, final design and evaluation etc.
• In the Discussion/Conclusions, when discussing how you proposed and evaluated technology responds to the original real-world challenge, refer back to the introduction where you established this.

List of appendices that I have created:

• Competitor & Comparator review
• SWOT Analysis
• Personas
• Scenarios & storyboards
• Recruitment Pod and Thinking Aloud
• User Requirements Document
• Low-Fidelity prototype
• Middle-Fidelity Prototype
• High-Fidelity Prototype
• Evaluation (TAP) and analysis
• Participant info sheet