What do we do?

In a team, you’ll identify a problem that you’d like to tackle with your project, and brainstorm approaches to solving the problem.

Studio presentation

In studio, your team will present your main findings for 5 minutes, with 5 minutes for Q&A and feedback. You need to prepare a Google Slides presentation, by adding your slides to the link your TA will send you. The slides should be ready by 3:59pm on the day of the studio. Every team member needs to participate in the presentation.

Your report

Your final report will be due by 23:59 the day after the studio. In your report, please answer the following questions:

  1. Problem statement: What is the problem you’re trying to solve? (one sentence)
  2. Problem background: How do you know this problem exists? Why is this problem important? Include both (1) external references (e.g., academic papers, news articles, or published surveys), as well as (2) internal investigation (e.g., results from making observations, personal experiences, or interviews with target requesters or workers). (maximum one paragraph)
  3. Motivation: Why should we use social computing to solve this problem? Why not use some sort of automation or individual experts? (maximum one paragraph)
  4. How Might We (HMW) Questions: For the identified problem, discuss with your teammates what specific challenges exist. State these challenges as “How might we…” (HMW) questions. HMW questions serve as a bridge between the identified problem and solution ideas. They are short questions that should be broad enough to allow for open ideas yet narrow enough to set meaningful boundaries. Report at least 10 HMW questions for your team’s problem, and pick top 3 HMW questions. The Design Thinking Bootcamp Bootleg by Stanford d.school (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0) may be helpful. For HMW question, look at pages 37-38.
  5. Solution Ideas: Solution ideas are your attempts at solving the HMW questions using social computing. Report at least 5 solution ideas for each of the top 3 HMW questions, and pick your top 3 solution ideas overall. Note that these 3 ideas should be distinct from one another, covering a wide solution space. The best ideas don’t necessarily have to represent each HMW; multiple ideas can belong to a single HMW. For the purposes of this report, a solution idea can be 1-2 sentences of text.
  6. Storyboards: Create 3 storyboard sketches, one for each of the top 3 solution ideas. A storyboard is a set of comic-strip-like drawings that visually walks through a concrete scenario and a task that your persona experiences. Show the challenge the persona encounters, what environment the persona is surrounded by, what motivates the persona to use the solution idea you’re suggesting, and how your solution idea actually addresses the challenge. The storyboard shouldn’t be about specific system features or UI elements. You don’t even need to show the detailed screen layout of your UI at this point. Focus on the concept and context, rather than pretty UIs or sophisticated system features. You may hand-draw your storyboards OR use software such as Figma, but please ensure that they are readable! Using pencil or thin ball-point pen is not allowed for hand-drawn storyboards. Instead, use a thicker marker. Here are some good examples of what storyboards might look like: (Verbivore and Let’s Read). Amal Dar Aziz’s guide to storyboarding may also be a useful reference. If you choose to use generative AI to create your storyboards, you must also include the prompts you used to generate the storyboards as part of your report and answer the following reflection question in your report: “Please describe the process you used to generate the storyboards, including the different approaches you used to write the prompts, what worked and didn’t work, and how long it took you overall. Then, please briefly discuss the advantages and disadvantages of using generative AI to create storyboards. (2 paragraphs total)”. This question does not need to be answered if you created the storyboards by hand or through software such as Figma.

Your report overview:

  • Final Team Name
  • Problem statement
  • Problem background
  • Motivation
  • HMW questions (at least 10)
  • Top 3 HMW questions
  • Solution ideas for your HMW questions (at least 5 x 3 HMWs)
  • Top 3 solution ideas
  • Storyboards (3)

Grading

  • Problem (10%)
    • Clearly presented in a sentence?
    • Unique?
    • Non-trivial?
  • Problem Background (15%)
    • Clearly presented in a paragraph?
    • Convincing evidence or references presented?
    • Importance of the problem highlighted?
  • Motivation (10%)
    • Clearly presented in a paragraph?
    • Suitable for social computing?
    • Convincing reasons for using social computing presented?
  • HMW (15%)
    • 10+ HMWs submitted?
    • Scope not too broad or narrow?
    • Distinct, broad, and creative?
    • Selection process clearly described?
  • Solution Ideas (15%)
    • 5+ solution ideas submitted for each top HMW?
    • Distinct, broad, and creative?
  • Storyboards (25%)
    • 3 storyboards submitted?
    • Flow easy to follow and understand?
    • Easy to read (e.g., thick pen used)?
    • Not solution-driven but user- and scenario-driven?
    • (If applicable) Generative AI response question is thoroughly and thoughtfully answered.
  • Studio Presentation (10%)
    • Preparation and organization?
    • Articulation and clear delivery?
    • Effective use of visual aids?
    • Time management?

Deliverables

Studio Presentation: See above. The format of the presentation is flexible, but we have provided a suggested format in the Google Slides link we have shared with you.

Team Report: One report per team, which will be due the day after the studio by 11:59PM. Only one report should be submitted per team, so please choose one member to submit the report. Your report should be submitted as a zip file. The main report should be written in Markdown (please use the .md extension). Storyboards should be in png or jpg format, and need to be in a directory called images. We’re going to publish your reports on the course website. Submit a .zip file containing your markdown file and image folder to this form. Please double check to make sure that everything is included in your submission!