PROG3165 – Portfolio Entries

The following are the suggested entries you can make in your portfolio. The goal of most of these
exercises is to have you:

Discover – You’ll be asked to surf the web, explore applications you may already use and otherwise
familiarize yourself with real-world implementations of UI.

Diagnose – Per our discussions and readings in this course, not all UI is effective in its design. You’ll be
asked to critically review the designs you discover.

Design – You’ll have an opportunity to make recommendations based on your research and/or readings
in this course. You might markup an existing screenshot of a UI, design or build your mock up to
illustrate your recommendations.

Note – It is acknowledged that not everyone is a fine arts major here. Artistic ability is not the point of
the course, so please do not feel as though it will be held against you, when even a few simple
wireframes (which can be easy to make) can help you communicate your good ideas and analysis.

3D Reviews (5 points each, max 20)

Goal: Select a website, mobile app, game or other software as your subject for a 300 to 500 word
analysis, where you cover the 3Ds (Discover, Diagnose, Design) as noted above. You might, for example,
select a popular social media website, and critique it for their use of common design patterns we’ll
discuss in class. Do they use patterns you can discern? Did they implement them well, or have they
missed something? Suggest alterations that could be made to the UI to become more effective.

Requirements and Restrictions:

 You must cite all sources (websites, applications, books, etc.) as appropriate in your write up.
 You should review no more than 4 subjects from a particular field (e.g. no more than 4 websites;
no more than 4 games; no more than 4 HMI/SCADA systems, etc.)

Assessment
EACH 3D Review should be submitted in the SET Report Template and deposited into your Portfolio
assignment submission folder as a SINGLE professionally formatted PDF file. DO NOT ZIP these files, or
any submission to the Portfolio unless instructed explicitly by the instructor. Ensure your documents
meet high levels of readability and quality.

UI Design Prototype for Projects (25 points, max 2)

Goal: Design, build and present a working UI prototype that supports your work in another SET course.
For example, you might select to support your GameDev Term Project (e.g. not an assignment in that
course, but your final project) or you may advance design work done on your Capstone Project. Ideally,
we should see some requirements and user analysis, wireframes/storyboarding, research or design
validation and ultimately some kind of sample implementation to ‘test-drive’.

Requirements and Restrictions:

 Get the instructor’s approval before proceeding with this.
  If you are working with a group in the other SET class (BI counts too!) you may work with the
same group (if applicable) in this effort. Note – this is really the only time that the Portfolio is
not required to be individual work.
 See 3D Review above for document submission requirements. In addition to a working UI
prototype, a design document is required.

Assessment
See 3D Reviews above for document submission guidelines. Any software prototypes produced would
be zipped up and submitted as per most other assignment guidelines in SET. Prototypes must be
demonstrated or they will not be graded. You must schedule your prototype demonstration with me in
advance.

UI Tools How-To (10pts, max 2)

Goal: Create a ‘How-to’ instructional document or video/screen capture sequence that will instruct the
audience on how to accomplish a UI design task, use a compelling feature of related software etc. For
example, perhaps you’ve developed expertise with an easy to use diagramming software, and want to
show us how you make your awesome wireframes/storyboards.

Do speak to the instructor to get approval for this. Marking for this could be somewhat subjective based
on the topic or tool you wish to demonstrate.

Requirements and Restrictions

 Get the instructor’s approval before proceeding with this.
 Documents submitted for evaluation follow the same requirements as above (e.g. see 3D
Reviews), and any videos submitted should YouTube compatible (or hosted by you on YouTube).

Assessment
Submit the required document and/or videos as requested. For video submissions, unlisted YouTube
links are probably best.

Other Entries – To be announced and considered! Suggest yours via email to the
instructor!
Evaluation Schedule
The Portfolio may take the form of many documents, files, perhaps even small software prototypes that
you are using to demonstrate UI design elements. Regardless of the format, students will be assessed
three times for their portfolio – once at the end of September, October and November.

The evaluation schedule is as follows:

Deadline 1
Any amount of work is due for your portfolio. Having nothing submitted will earn a late penalty of 20%
against the Portfolio’s final mark.

Deadline 2
Any amount of new work is due (e.g. above what you submitted in Sept). Having nothing or no
additional material submitted will earn an additional %20 late penalty to the Portfolio’s final mark.

Deadline 3
This is the last call for the Portfolio. Any work submitted for the Portfolio at the due date will be marked,
while anything submitted following this deadline will not be graded (e.g. 100% late penalty).

Please be advised that TurnItIn is used to assess all documents assessed in this course to encourage high
levels of academic integrity and originality in student assessments.