Project 1

This project is intended to allow you to demonstrate your understanding of the conceptual model, how it fits into the larger realm of interaction design, and to flex your creative muscles. There is no required format for how the material should be presented beyond using a table where specified below.

Learning Objectives

Through the application of reading materials and completion of this project in light of its corresponding rubric, students will:

  1. Understand how the interaction design process is bolstered by the implementation of conceptual models by
    1. Defining mental and conceptual models, and
    2. Discussing how a disconnect between the two may be detrimental to the process.
  2. Develop a conceptual model of an existing interface by analyzing and cataloging its objects, attributes, and operations.
  3. Create the conceptual model for a new product by using metaphors, analogies, and task-object descriptions.

Tasks

  1. Reproduce a simple conceptual model for an existing design
    1. Read: Johnson, J., & Henderson, A. (2013). Conceptual Models in a Nutshell. Boxes and Arrows. Retrieved July 12, 2021.
    2. Use the article above to create a conceptual model of a very basic email interface. Follow the format described in the article (including the table) to present the software’s objects, attributes, and operations.
  2. Design your own conceptual model
    1. Read: Johnson, J., & Henderson, A. (2002). Conceptual Models: Begin by Designing What to Design. Interactions, 9(1), 25–32. doi:10.1145/503355.503366
    2. Develop the conceptual models for the interaction device described below. Your submission should contain major design metaphors and analogies, and the concepts the device exposes to users (including the task-domain objects users create and use, their relevant attributes, and related operations that can be performed on them).
    3. Note: if you’re describing how the interfaces look or how they connect to a database or a network, then you’re not creating a conceptual model.
  3. Provide a brief (~250 word/one paragraph) narrative that describes the design metaphors/analogies and basic inspiration for your design.
  4. Deliver your work in a single PDF through D2L prior to the due date and time.

Desk 2.0

Kodisoft IRT inspiration

A Ukrainian technology design firm, Kodisoft, has recently developed what they have titled the Interactive Restaurant Table. This device (see figure 1) is designed to stand in for flesh-and-blood servers and traditional menus by replacing restaurant tabletops with interactive touchscreens that allow customers to interact with the menus on both visual and tactile levels. Menu items are displayed on the screen in full motion and color, along with descriptions and recommendations from other patrons. Customers may then order menu items using the table’s interface, which is transmitted to the kitchen for them to begin preparing.

The utility of the table doesn’t end there. After ordering, customers can continue to utilize the tables to play games with one another, browser internet news, or even talk to other diners. The tables themselves are backlit LED displays, the screens stretch to the edges of the surface, and, eventually, will even be able to remember previous customers and presumably automatically order the usual.

The Brief

You are not producing the conceptual model for the table mentioned above! You are producing the conceptual models (plural) for the desk described below:

In an attempt to not be left behind, the University of Arizona’s newly formed think-tank Furthering Arizona’s Kinship with Emerging Devices (FAKED) is seeking to design and begin producing classroom desks in the spirit of the IRT but aimed at improving student performance, interaction, and retention. These desks and tabletops would be in select classrooms with the expectation of them being included in every classroom on every campus in the University of Arizona ecosystem. As a bonus, the University has agreed to splurge on an anti-microbial and anti-viral nano-coating for every screen!

You have been tasked to produce the conceptual models for the various apps in this groundbreaking device. The high-level goals of these desks are to provide students with touchscreen interfaces that access apps to:

  • access to their grades,
  • read materials assigned in class,
  • take brief lecture notes,
  • and to interact synchronously with the teachers and other students in the class (akin to how clickers work).

Each of these apps should be analyzed and presented in terms of their objects, attributes, and operations using the same table format linked in task 1.1 above. You are invited and encouraged to explore even more ways these desks would be beneficial to students beyond what is required here in the limited list of subsystems. You have minimum requirements but there is no ceiling on the functionality.

Example table

This is simply an example to demonstrate how you should be submitting your conceptual models. (This is a replication of the table provided in the Conceptual Models in a Nutshell article.) Your project submission should include five of these!

Objects Attributes Operations
Calendar owner, current focus examine, print, create, add event, delete event
Event name, description, date, time, duration, location, repeat, type (e.g., meeting) examine, print, edit (attributes)
To-Do item name, description, deadline, priority, status view, print, edit (attributes)
Person name, job-description, office, phone send email, view details

Assessment

Gateway requirements

Your assignment must contain a short, written narrative described in task 3 above (one paragraph) and five (5) tables (for an example, see Table 1 in the Conceptual Models in a Nutshell article) consisting of the conceptual models for apps described in the goals in the brief above. Why five tables? You’re producing one conceptual model for task 1.2 above, and then four tables for task 2.2. If the submitted PDF does not include these items it will not be graded until it does.

Criteria

The criteria listed below are the target for your grading declaration. You are encouraged to go above and beyond what is described here.

Mechanics: No errors in spelling or grammar. All properly formatted citations.
Timeliness: Submitted prior to due date.
Task 1: Objects: Objects are all task-related (nouns)
Task 1: Attributes: Attributes are all task-focused
Task 1: Operations: Operations listed are all task-focused
Task 2: Goals: Model accounts for all four goals in the brief
Task 2: Detail: Models are complete, accounting for major objects, attributes, and operations of each goal
Task 2: Objects: Objects are all task-related (nouns)
Task 2: Attributes: Attributes are all task-focused
Task 2: Operations: Operations listed are all task-focused