ILO Apply scholarly and evidence-based approaches to software requirements elicitation and specification.
Analyse software context of use (i.e., users, tasks and system environment) using a variety of models to identify user requirements.
Generic skills
¦ analysis skills
¦ communication skills
Purpose: In this assessment piece will give you the opportunity to develop the ability to find and make use of evidence from scholarly sources (i.e., academic literature). You will also need to understand and analyse an unfamiliar domain. This is an independent research project.
Individual Assessment This assessment is worth 10% of the unit.
It is graded out 20 marks.
Submit via Canvas.
No resubmissions are allowed for this task. Late penalties will be applied for late submissions.
Resources: Swinburne Library Human-Computer Interaction Reference Guide (in particular Databases/ACM
Digital Library)
Monash Universities Learning Support website for more assistance with academic writing.
Swinburne Library guide on how to reference
Deliverables Report on topic as specified below
Marking Criteria Report must demonstrate:
¦ an in-depth knowledge of the current semester’s Assignment Topic ¦ the appropriate use of references to support an argument ¦ evidence of reading one or more of the following:
• text book (e.g., Hartson & Pyla) and/or other related books,
• published journal articles, government publications, etc
¦ in-text referencing and reference section according to Harvard style
See the end of this document for a comprehensive marking guide for this assessment.
Additional Criteria Professional visual presentation and English expression
Academic Integrity
Word Limit 1,500 (min) to 2,500 (max) words
Late Penalty 10% per day (i.e., 2 marks per day)
Faculty of Science, Engineering and Technology
COS70004 User-Centred Design
UCD Assignment S2 2020
Assignment Topic:
This Semesters UCD Project “Freedom Dementia Support’ has raised many issues in terms of how we might keep track of people with dementia (PwD). While it can be relatively easy to location track people who are carrying a mobile phone, we cannot guarantee that our PwD user group will be carrying a phone when they wander away from their caregiver.
Your task for this assignment is to briefly review the academic literature (i.e., papers published in academic journals) to find three ways to track the location of people without using a mobile phone. For each of those three tracking methods evaluate:
• the comfort and acceptability of the tracking solution to the Caregiver and Person with Dementia
• any particular ethical issues posed by the technology.
Most importantly you will need to identify possible requirements and/or design guidelines for the or based on current literature (i.e., what recommendations would you make to the team about what technology would be best to use – from the users point of view).
Hint 1: Make sure that you focus your report on UCD issues rather than purely technical/ hardware issues!
Hint 2: This assignment must not be based purely on your opinion, you need to find research evidence that supports any claims you make. For example, ‘I think elderly users would feel comfortable using technology X’ is not acceptable. However, ‘Smith (2017) found that elderly users were comfortable with technology X.’ would be good (assuming that Smith (2017) referred to an actual academic publication that found those results).
To prepare for this report:
¦ Review how to cite and reference research articles (see Swin Library guide to Harvard style referencing)
¦ Make sure you have a clear idea of what UCD process and principles are
¦ Search for relevant research using key word search terms on Google Scholar (note: if PDF not available, then check Swin library catalogue)
• Find between 4-8 primary academic references
Suggested Assignment Structure
Title page:
Include:
¦ Unit code and name
¦ Assignment title
¦ Your name
¦ Tutor’s name
¦ Word count
Executive Summary
Overview of report and key recommendations (less than 200 words)
Table of Contents
Make sure you use heading styles and use your word processor to autogenerate your table of contents.
1 Introduction
In this section include:
¦ Background information including purpose of report, definition of any key terms or concepts.
2 Body (Note: Choose informative section headings depending on your topic – Do NOT use ‘Body’ as a heading) In this section include:
¦ Evidence from your literature research
¦ Logically organised sub-sections
3 Conclusion
In this section:
¦ summarise main ideas and key findings
¦ do not include any new information
References
A list of material cited in the text of the assessment. Do not include references that you have not personally read.
Hint 1: Use ‘cited in’ if you read about an reference in a paper but did not actually read it yourself.
For example: If you had read about Gorganzola’s study in a paper by Stilton (but didn’t have time to read the original Gorganzola paper), then you would reference it as: “Gorganzola (2009 cited in Stilton, 2013) found that…”
Hint 2: Do not base your investigation on marketing material published my manufactures of tracking devices. Make sure you find independent evaluations of the solutions published in academic papers!
See assessment criteria below…?
UCD Assignment Assessment Criteria (20 pts)
Criteria Needs Improvement Good Very Good
Presentation (3 pts) Visual presentation is an important part of making your document appear authoritative and have people take what you have to say seriously. Make your document usable by using good visual design principles (or a template available with most modern word processors)! Poor visual presentation. For example, inconsistent font styles, font changes within format styles.
Poorly formatted heading styles that lack contrast.
No title page or title page missing information.
No table of contents or table of contents missing page numbers.
No page numbers. Good visual presentation.
Consistent font styles. Appropriate use of style to indicate heading levels.
Title page with required information including word count.
Page numbers.
Readable font and at least 1.3 line spacing. Very professional visual presentation. Appropriate use of visual design principles to indicate heading levels.
Title page with required information including word count.
Page numbers. Table/Figures numbered and captioned.
Readable font and at least 1.3 line spacing.
Depth of research and analysis of domain (5 pts)
As a master’s student you must aim to be competent at independent scholarly research. Demonstrate you can do this by finding and picking out the most relevant high quality academic references on the assignment task, examining them in detail and putting together the information you have gathered into a coherent narrative/ argument. You will also need to show a good understanding of the assignment domain and the UCD approach
to software development. One or more of the following:
Assignment does not show evidence of reading beyond assignment, lecture and/or task notes.
References from nonrefereed/non-academic sources (e.g., blog posts, company websites, general information websites, lecture notes, wikipedia etc) are used.
Demonstrates poor understanding of the assignment task or does not address the assignment task. Appropriate reference sources are used (e.g., authoritative books, academic references, research published in HCI, UCD, psychology, computer science, IT related journals, etc).
Appropriate references are used to define some core terms and claims of fact. For example, “Gorganzola (2009) defines blue cheese as having the following characteristics….” and “Very few people (i..e, 10%) like the
smell of blue cheese (Gorganzola, 2009).”)
Uses references to support narrative/argument.
Good understanding of UCD approach to software development. Evidence from previous research is used critically and convincingly to support arguments (i.e., where appropriate, explains context of research and how it applies to the current situation). For example, -Gorganzola (2009) surveyed 10 people from
Scotland and found that only 1 liked the smell of blue cheese. However, given the limited sampling of Gorganzola’s study…”
Application of
Research Evidence (5 pts)
As an IT professional you will not always have the luxury of being able to work on software designed to do tasks you are
familiar with. In this part of the assessment we will be looking at how well you are able apply your research to the issues described in the assignment topic. No, or minimal attempt, to relate or apply UCD concepts and ideas to assignment task. For example, all, or more than 1/3, of the paper covers basic or generic content without relating them in any substantial way to the topic of the assignment. Good attempt to relate to relate UCD process and concepts to assignment task
and software development practice.
Addresses the assignment task and makes
recommendations as
required. Relates/applies UCD process and concepts to assignment task and software development practice.
Creative professional level
response to the assignment task.
Written Expression (5 pts)
No matter how good your ideas, if you can not communicate them effectively they are wasted on your audience. In this part of the assessment we are looking at how well you can communicate your ideas and create a piece of writing that convinces your reader that your conclusions and/or recommendations are well founded. One or more of the following:
Difficult to read or follow. Ideas do not link up well within and/or between paragraphs (e.g., swaps topics within or between paragraphs without transitional sentences to guide the reader from one idea to the next).
Poor English expression (e.g., lacks proper sentence and/or paragraph construction). Difficult for reader to determine meaning.
This level of writing would not be acceptable at a professional level. Assignment is mostly well organised generally demonstrates a clear flow from one idea to the next. Transitional sentences are used to connect major ideas and guide reader through the paper.?
Follows basic report structure (e.g., executive summary introduction, body, conclusion etc)
Language is mainly fluent. May contain some grammatical and/or spelling errors.
This level of writing would be acceptable at a professional level but could do with some improvement. Assignment is well organised, ideas and arguments flow naturally and logically.
Easy to read and follow.
Language is fluent. Grammar and spelling accurate.
This level of writing would be
acceptable at a professional level.
Academic Integrity (2 pts)
Everyone likes to be ‘paid’ for work they do. In academic and professional environments, payment
is not just about money, but also
acknowledgment of ideas. If you use ideas or words from other writers or researchers you must ‘pay’ them by citing their original work. Failing to cite work from other authors will earn you a FAIL in this assignment. You will also FAIL this assignment if you use the words of other students in your assignment, or you give your words to other students to use. One or more of the following:
An effort is made to cite scholarly ideas, but citation style is poor and does not follow appropriate style guidelines (e.g., Harvard).
Work that Turnitin detects as the same as other published work or student work will not be graded. Typically this means an overall FAIL grade will be given when Turnitin Report indicates more than 20-30% similarity with:
– other published work and/ or
– work submitted by other students
You may also be found to have committed Academic Poor Practice or Misconduct. You can be excluded from the university for Academic Misconduct. Scholarly ideas are mostly cited correctly using appropriate style guide (e.g. Harvard) or, consistent style is used, but not requested style (i.e., Harvard).
Work from other sources is appropriately acknowledged.
Less than 20-30% similarity with other sources. Scholarly ideas are cited correctly using appropriate style guide (e.g. Harvard).
Work from other sources is appropriately acknowledged.
Less than 20-30% similarity with other sources.
Note 1: Similarities with other students will not be detected and reported by Turnitin until AFTER due date. Do not share references, resources or text with other students. Protect your work with adequate computer security. If you provide work to another student you will be penalised the same as a student who uses your work. You are not being a good friend if you share your work with others. Both of you will FAIL and get an official penalty notice and face possible exclusion from the University.
Note 2: Paying someone to do your assignment for you is considered one of the highest forms of Academic Misconduct. If you are found guilty of this you possible penalties include: exclusion for the the university, revocation of your degree. You will also have a black mark against your name for your entire professional career. Because of the severe consequences of this action is not unknown for paid assignment writers to black mail students in perpetuity.