I need three diferent topics 2 pages each
Assignment Instructions:
Unlike every other assignment this semester, this one requires you critique an existing system rather than work towards creating your own system. Your assignment is to take an existing digital system (such as a website, a mobile application, a video game, etc.) and, in an essay of about 2-4 pages, critique it in terms of ease-of-use, discoverability, learnability/memorability, accessibility, and emotional impact. Keep in mind that criticism does not imply a purely negative perspective on the system – criticism is often very positive, seeking to explain and further appreciate good aspects of a system as well as its flaws.
Choosing a System:
You can choose any digital system for this assignment as long as it’s one that the instructor can reasonably access. Any time you discuss specific features of the system (which should happen a lot!), make sure you include appropriate secondary material such as screenshots or links to video of the system to ensure there is no ambiguity in which components of the system you are discussing.
Usability Critique:
You should spend about a page of your report critiquing your system in terms of ease-of-use, discoverability, learnability, and memorability, applying theories we’ve discussed such as Don Norman’s design principles and theories of cognition. To bring some focus to your critique, choose at least three major actions a user may perform with the system and describe a prospective user’s performance of these actions. Here are some questions you may seek to answer in this section of the report:
What affordances exist to guide a user towards their goals? What affordances distract-from or otherwise guide the user away from their goals?
What signifiers support or confuse a user’s engagement with the system’s affordances?
When interacting with a given interactive element of the application, what mappings or conceptual models may a user create for themselves? How will their conceptual model support or hinder their interactions?
Are there certain actions within the application that create usability problems due to the cognitive limits of an average user?
Accessibility Critique:
Though accessibility is technically a subset of usability concerns, it requires some unique considerations. In about half a page, discuss the accessibility limits and strengths of the application. Here are some questions you may seek to answer in this section of the report:
Is the application ADA compliant? (You’ll have to do some research to understand what this question means!)
Imagine two users with distinct sensory or cognitive impairments. Can these users complete the tasks you discussed in the previous section? Does the application itself change to facilitate their interaction or does the system require an exterior adapter for them to properly use the application?
Does the application categorically exclude users of a certain kind of impairment? Who?
Emotional Impact:
In the last page of the report, you should describe the possible emotional impact of the application. Here are some questions you may seek to answer in this section of the report:
Does the application persuade the user to perform some action they likely would not perform on their own? How does it do that? Does this persuasion present an ethical problem?
How does the application interact with a user’s core psychological needs (as defined in Self-Determination Theory: autonomy, competence, and relatedness)? Does the application promote or hinder the fulfillment of these needs, and how might that impact a user’s motivation to use the platform or ability to accomplish their goals?
Submission Requirements:
Submit a report as a PDF that includes the sections detailed above. Font size should be at-most 12-point font and text should be at-most double-spaced. Supplementary figures, such as images, are highly encouraged, though the expectation is there will be at least two pages of text. If you’d like to include video of certain interactions, please host the video on a cloud service such as Google Drive or OneDrive and simply include a link to the video in your report. The page count of 2-4 pages is a suggestion, though a report much longer than that will take your instructor longer to read and give feedback on, and a report much shorter may suggest a lack of effort.
