CS3240 - Interaction Design Review

CS3240

Taken in: AY21/22 Semester 2
Lecturer: Prof Bimlesh Wadhwa

Grading:

• 20% - Participation
• 15% - Individual Design Exercise
• 25% - Final Test
• 40% - Group Project:
• 5% - G1: User Study
• 10% - G2: Wireframe and Prototyping (Individual)
• 25% - G3: Final Prototype, Evaluation, and Presentation

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I'll review this from a CNM-IMD student's perspective. It's a CS module that doesn't require coding, because it focuses on UI design. In short: This module is NM2213 on steroids. As you might expect, the module revolves around a large group project. In groups of 4, you will design a solution to a problem of your choosing. The scope of the project should be digital, like a mobile or desktop app. We are taught, and have to use Figma for the majority of the project. Projects can range from food apps to productivity apps, or any idea you can think of.

If you're coming from NM2213, some of the concepts may seem familiar to you. It's pretty much the same stuff being taught, but still slightly different (Maybe different textbooks being used). NM2213 is not a preclusion, so you could benefit from having taken NM2213. Compared to that module, CS3240 is more hands-on (Less theory in some aspects), faster paced, and more open-ended in terms of project choices and methodology.

The module's workload was... quite a lot. The main project already takes up so much time, and then you have to do an individual design exercise which is like a mini version of the project, but there are defined prompts to choose from. THEN there's the test in week 13, which is a whopping 25%. It's not hard, because we're allowed 1 double sided cheat sheet, which is surprisingly sufficient space for test-related notes.

Oh yeah, on top of the three project submissions, you also have to create a website to showcase the project. And then there's a presentation in reading week. In short: Be warned about the workload! Don't take this with too many other project-heavy modules. I still recommend this module. If you can stand the workload, it's really fun and informative. Learning Figma was really useful, and the prof is really nice.

Besides workload, the issue I have is that classes are very dry and long-winded, which makes it quite hard to learn, especially on the Zoom platform. Good thing is, you will learn plenty better from hands-on during your project.

You might want to have someone in your team who is good at design. There are many CNM Students who will take this module so you should seek them out! There's no coding involved in this module so CS students could actually be at a disadvantage vs CNM students in terms of design.

One more thing I was really happy from taking this module were the connections made. If you're intending to go into UX Design as a career, this is the module to take. Some later lectures included guest speakers who were working in the field. We had someone from Google speak to us, and someone working in the NUS HCI lab. It's also really useful to connect with the teaching team if you would like to take part in projects in the HCI lab. I also personally got together with some classmates to take part in a design competition that the prof shared with us. Beyond this module, the connections made were super valuable to me.

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Detailed Breakdown

Group Project

There are four submissions numbered G0, G1, G2, and G3. G0 is ungraded and is an idea proposal. You probably want to finalize your changes to your project idea by G1.

G1 focuses on User Study: You write about your methods to study the user and problem space, such as surveys or interviews. Optionally, you can include your data analysis (That means you don't actually need to analyse the data for G1 submission), personas, and 3 key user tasks. These optional sections, if not included in G1, are to be included in G2.

G2 is mainly filled with individual submissions (But compiled into a team document). The requirements were lightened halfway through to reduce the workload. Each member had to write a scenario and draw a storyboard. Then, each member had to produce two low-fidelity prototypes (wireframe, balsamiq recommended), evaluate it, and one high-fidelity prototype (figma). This was reduced to two prototypes per person but my group had begun on the original requirements so we just carried on (and were graded differently based on that). Each member is supposed to work on one or two user tasks for the individual prototypes so you don't have to have a fully complete interface. The optional section is user testing of each high-fidelity prototype. The report is not graded lmao so for G2, each team member is graded on their own prototype and gets different grades.

Lastly, G3 is for the combined prototype and evaluation. Along with your G3 submission, you need to create a website showcasing your design process from start to finish. You also need to prepare a presentation that is done in reading week (Different days, must book). The presentation slides must be uploaded along with G3 in week 13, but can be updated up until your presentation date. It's done either zoom or in person.

Individual Design Exercise

This one is a smaller-scale project that is more relaxed but has fixed prompts. There were 6 to choose from. You could actually start really early on, like since Week 6, and the deadline is Week 12. Well, considering other commitments, this generous amount of time is much appreciated and I still barely made it in time.

The focus of this component is more in design; usability and aesthetics. Research and evaluation are not strictly necessary, but you must have a prototype. Among the 6 prompts, one of them is truly open-ended, which is to design an imaginative future interaction that doesn't currently exist. So, it's actually quite an open-ended project as the other prompts aren't that specific either.

Final Note

The project submission is in the form of a document, and I'm really glad I used LaTeX to typeset these documents, because in the final submission G3, you're supposed to combine all your G1 to G3 segments together into one cohesive document. LaTeX saved me the need to relabel hyperlinks and section numbers. If you're taking this module, you're probably already familiar with markup languages, so it may be useful to pick up a bit of LaTeX to save you some time down the road.

My group was super cohesive because we mostly knew each other and we consistently got good remarks from the prof. I really have to thank my groupmates, all CNM btw, for the carry.

You can check out our group's website here!! And of course, feel free to ask me for any resources. We definitely didn't do it without any references, gotta thank our seniors for letting us reference their documents.

Expected grade: A

Actual grade: A

Note: This module's curve must be STEEP as hell. Our group project scored really well, and some of us got full marks for participation and the individual project. Yet, we only got A or even A-. I think the 25% test is what will decide the curve, and I think the teaching team were generous with their marks for the other components.

Reviewed by: ZH