Preface: This was a school assignment for the UXD Master’s program at Kent State University: Interaction in Practice Spring 2023
Design Assignment
Create a version of a project brief. This brief will serve as a pitch and initial document explaining your app idea. It is a groundwork document that will help outline the (fictional) projects goals.
Reflection Journal Entry 1
March 10, 2023
What did you learn that you did not know before by completing this week’s assignment and readings?
As I was thinking over this week’s assignments, lectures, and reading, there were many things I wasn’t aware of from a documentation standpoint. One is the difference between a project brief, a creative brief, and a use case.
A project brief identifies project needs with a focus on technical/interactive aspects. A creative brief generally documents the creative strategy and focuses on aesthetics for rebranding purposes. A “use case” is a technique-based documentation of the system’s functionality and behavior.
Another area within the reading that I lacked any knowledge about was the three types of scenarios.
- Contextual: a high-level exploration of how the product can best serve its user base
- Key paths: Focused on user interactions and how personas use the product to achieve goals.
- Validation: Testing the design throughout the design process with proposed solutions.
What topic, concept, or ideas do you need more clarification on that came up during this week’s assignment and readings?
Most of the material was pretty digestible, so there were no significant concerns about the lectures or reading. One area of the assignment where I was confused was whether our brief required a problem statement and timeline. In my submission, I included a problem statement in the project description. On the second iteration, I submitted timeline documentation.
I updated my documentation to contain a timeline, as the lecture pointed out that project briefs (vs. design briefs) tend to focus on scope, budget, and timeline.