Author Archives: mdt

Week 14

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Announcements

  • Winter Show materials due on Shared Drive by Dec 3 in prep for Winter Show Dec 5
  • Final Written Thesis Proposals are due by next Friday, Dec. 12
  • Final Presentations are on Monday, Dec 15 from 8:00-10:50

Winter Show Logistics

  • Please submit your materials to the Shared Drive before Wed, best to do so in class today.
  • We’ll meet in AIMM 202 at 5:00 pm on Friday to set up & label your balloon
  • The Senior show will begin at 5:30 and go to 6:30

Update Slides

Let’s take a few minutes to update our slides from last week to meet the new template requirements. Here’s the template on the Google Community.

Written Proposal Template

Here’s the general outline of your Capstone Thesis Proposal for your review. Your Final Proposal should be 1,200 or more words, and include references, diagrams, concept art or other visuals to support your thesis. Also, follow these guidelines when polishing up your document.

Final Presentation

On Dec 15, you’ll present your Final Project Proposal using materials you developed in class over the course of the semester, including your one-time assignments, prototypes and feedback you received during the Winter Show. Please follow these guidelines for an effective presentation.

Course Evaluation

Course evaluations are now electronic. Please complete the course evaluation in PAWS before Dec. 5th.

Week 13

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Announcements

  • Please respond to Rachel Lichtenberg’s email request to notify her of your participation in next week’s Winter Show.

3rd Prototypes

Let’s go around the room and discuss your 3rd prototypes. What did you want to accomplish with your prototype? How did it go? What did you learn? Which elements of your three prototypes will you show at the Winter Show?

Winter Show Materials

Your Winter Show presentation materials must include:

A Single powerpoint slide promoting your Final Project

  • Include a descriptive title for your project with a one sentence “elevator pitch description”
  • Include a bullet pointed list of features that demonstrate the scope and uniqueness of your project
  • Include a graphical element that helps explain your project visually

A single board poster you can use to present your Final Project Concept to interested parties at the Winter Show

  • Include a project canvas you can use to present the context & concept of your project
  • Include artifacts from your three prototypes as proof-of-concept demonstrations of your project
  • Be prepared to speak about your project concept to Winter Show attendees, and listen to (and document) their feedback. Think of this as a focus group market research opportunity you can use to strengthen your project concept for next semester.

Project Canvas

Below is an example project canvas for a fictitious Appointment Reminder App.

canvas

Here’s an empty canvas you can print out and work with:

empty_canvas

Or, you can try creating a canvas online at LeanStack.

One-Time Assignments for 12/1

Winter Show Slide & Canvas 

Continue refining your Winter Show Slide and Project Canvas. Post these to the class Google Community under the “Winter Show” category. We’ll continue refining these next week, 12/1, and begin folding your prototypes and project canvases into your final written project proposal.

Week 12

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Announcements

  • This week & next, Nov 24, we’ll work on our prototypes & materials for the Winter Show. For the Winter Show on Friday, Dec. 5th, everyone must prepare a single slide promoting your Final Project, along with a poster that includes appropriate visual aids from your prototypes

2nd Prototypes

Let’s go around the room and discuss your 2nd prototypes. What did you want to accomplish with your prototype? How did it go? What did you learn? What will you do for your 3rd and final prototype?

Winter Show Materials

Your Winter Show presentation materials must include:

A Single powerpoint slide promoting your Final Project

  • Include a descriptive title for your project with a one sentence “elevator pitch description”
  • Include a bullet pointed list of features that demonstrate the scope and uniqueness of your project
  • Include a graphical element that helps explain your project visually

A single board poster you can use to present your Final Project Concept to interested parties at the Winter Show

  • Include a project canvas you can use to present the context & concept of your project
  • Include artifacts from your three prototypes as proof-of-concept demonstrations of your project
  • Be prepared to speak about your project concept to Winter Show attendees, and listen to (and document) their feedback. Think of this as a focus group market research opportunity you can use to strengthen your project concept for next semester.

Project Canvas

Below is an example project canvas for a fictitious Appointment Reminder App. Let’s go through it and try to substitute data points relevant to your specific Final Project Proposal.

canvas

Here’s an empty canvas you can print out and work with:

empty_canvas

Or, you can try creating a canvas online at LeanStack.

One-Time Assignments for 11/24

3rd Project Prototypes 

Complete your 3rd project prototype for next week Monday, posting your results to the class Google Community. We’ll discuss everyone’s prototype results in class. This should be a logical “next step” prototype addressing your next biggest risk (unfamiliar software, biggest unknown, etc) or providing another demonstration element for the Winter Show.

Winter Show Slide & Canvas 

Sketch out a draft of your Winter Show Slide and begin filling out your Project Canvas. Post these to the class Google Community under the “Winter Show” category. We’ll refine these in class next week, 11/24 in preparation for the Winter Show on 12/5.

Week 11

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Announcements

  • Final Exam Date for Final Presentations – Monday, Dec 15, 8:00 – 10:50
  • Winter Show Date & Posters – Friday, Dec 5

Initial Thesis Proposal Components

Project Overview

  • What’s your idea?

Project Background

  • What inspired your idea? Draw from your Manifesto, History of the Field, State of the Field, Leaders of the Field & Future of the Field assignments.

Target Audience

Team Inky Initial Proposals Presentations 

Initial Project Proposal – 10 points for presentation; 10 for write-up

Describe your initial ideas for your capstone project. Your Initial Proposal should include three sections: a Project Overview section , a Project Background Section, and a Target Audience section.

The Project Overview is a high level description of the project you’d like to develop for your Senior Thesis.

The Project Background section should be a summary drawing from your Personal Manifesto, History of the Field, State of the Field, Leaders of the Field & Future of the Field assignments. It should describe the environment into which your project will fit, and how it will affect the future of your field of interest.

The Target Audience section should be a description of the user groups you are creating for, and specifically which of needs your project will be fulfilling. Your description should be a summary of your User Personas and User Stories. Create at least three User Personas representing the different groups your project will target. Create a spreadsheet listing at least three user stories for each of the user groups you identified.

Class Discussion of 1st Project Demos & Winter Show Posters

One-Time Assignments for 11/17

Refine Initial Project Proposal 

Refine your Initial Project Proposal based upon feedback from class and the learning from your 1st prototype.

2nd Project Prototypes – 3 points

Complete your 2nd project prototype for next week Monday, posting your results to the class Google Community. We’ll discuss everyone’s prototype results in class. This should be a logical “next step” prototype addressing your next biggest risk (unfamiliar software, biggest unknown, etc) or providing another demonstration element for the Winter Show.

Dust or Magic Details

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TCNJ IMM Dust or Magic Visitor Instructions

The entire agenda is http://dustormagic.com/institute/agenda/

If you’d like to crash any of the talks, please feel free. Just slip in the back but let Megan know if possible. You can email her at megan@childrenstech.com.

You might especially enjoy Jesse Schell’s talk tonight. He’s a rather special individual.

AGENDA

TUESDAY
8:30 AM to 11:30 AM

8:30 Dust or Magic Talk Series  (20 minutes each; a great mind attacks a timely topic of choice and we make a video for the world to see).  Note that the speaker order and topics may change, and we may do demos between talks. Speakers always get final approval before talks are posted.

PLEASE FILE INTO THE BACK OF THE ROOM AND TAKE ANY AVAILABLE SEAT (but don't sit in any seat with a name plate).  You're welcome to ask questions and participate, but please introduce yourself as an TCNJ IMM Senior Thesis student.

THE SPEAKERS

Barbara Chamberlin; Barbara Chamberlin runs the Learning Games Lab at NMSU, where they develop educational games for kids and adults, on a wide range of topics. (Math? Yep! Cooking in Chinese food restaurnts? Yep! Riding an ATV? Yep!) Her research and expertise also includes user testing. At home, she has another type of media testing lab in her two young children. For more info on how the Lab works with kids, conducts user testing, or to see some of their products, visit learninggameslab.org and mathsnacks.org. Be sure to share examples of great products with Barb if you share her passion for math, science or financial literacy education.

Mark Schlichting, CEO Noodleworks. Animation Tricks and Character Design Short Cuts: Creative tips on efficient animation design for children’s products: This is very quick look at what works, both in terms of what kids like and minimizing character animation expense. Along with animated examples it would include tips for getting around using Walk Cycles, tricks for simplifying Lip-Synch, and the power of movement (to show it’s Alive) and eyeballs (to give anything personality).

Chris Byrne WTF ??? It’s Not What You Think it Means

Kate Highfield, Prof from AU

Drew Davidson: Director of the Entertainment Technology Center at Carnegie Mellon University and the Founding Editor of ETC Press and its Well Played series. His background spans academic, industry and professional worlds and he is interested in stories across texts, comics, games and other media. Drew helped create the Sandbox Symposium, an ACM SIGGRAPH conference on video games and served on the IGDA Education SIG. He serves on many advisory, editorial and review boards as well as judge and jury panels.

DEPART AFTER DREW

Week 10

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Announcements

  • Dust or Magic Details for tomorrow if you’d like to attend
  • Final Exam Date for Final Presentations – Thursday, Dec 11, 8:00 – 10:50
  • Winter Show Date & Posters – Friday, Dec 5

Initial Thesis Proposal Components

Project Overview

  • What’s your idea?

Project Background

  • What inspired your idea? Draw from your Manifesto, History of the Field, State of the Field, Leaders of the Field & Future of the Field assignments.

Target Audience

Team Blinky Initial Proposals Presentations 

Initial Project Proposal – 10 points for presentation; 10 for write-up

Describe your initial ideas for your capstone project. Your Initial Proposal should include three sections: a Project Overview section , a Project Background Section, and a Target Audience section.

The Project Overview is a high level description of the project you’d like to develop for your Senior Thesis.

The Project Background section should be a summary drawing from your Personal Manifesto, History of the Field, State of the Field, Leaders of the Field & Future of the Field assignments. It should describe the environment into which your project will fit, and how it will affect the future of your field of interest.

The Target Audience section should be a description of the user groups you are creating for, and specifically which of needs your project will be fulfilling. Your description should be a summary of your User Personas and User Stories. Create at least three User Personas representing the different groups your project will target. Create a spreadsheet listing at least three user stories for each of the user groups you identified.

Class Discussion of Project Demos & Winter Show Posters

One-Time Assignments for 11/10

Initial Project Proposal – 10 points for presentation; 10 for write-up

All students will submit their written Initial Proposals before 11/10. Team Inky will present their Initial Proposals on 11/10.

1st Project Prototypes – 3 points

Complete your 1st project prototype for next week Monday, posting your results to the class Google Community. We’ll discuss everyone’s prototype results in class.

Week 9

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Guest Lecturer

This week Warren Buckleitner will be guest lecturing and will ask you to score some of the apps from his recent visit to Amsterdam.

Thesis Proposal Template

Here’s the general outline of your Capstone Thesis Proposal for your review.

Initial Thesis Proposal Components

Project Overview

  • What’s your idea?

Project Background

  • What inspired your idea? Draw from your Manifesto, History of the Field, State of the Field, Leaders of the Field & Future of the Field assignments.

Target Audience

Team Inky Future of the Field Presentations

Present the information you’ve gathered about the Future of the Field you’ve chosen for your Thesis project.

Assignments for Week 9

One-Time Assignments

Project Prototypes

This week we’ll begin working on our prototypes. Please make a list of the three biggest hurdles/unknowns about your Thesis Project concept, and consider how you might make a prototype to address each. Be prepared to discuss on Monday, 11/3.

Initial Project Proposal – 10 points for presentation; 10 for write-up

Describe your initial ideas for your capstone project. Your Initial Proposal should include three sections: a Project Overview section , a Project Background Section, and a Target Audience section.

The Project Overview is a high level description of the project you’d like to develop for your Senior Thesis.

The Project Background section should be a summary drawing from your Personal Manifesto, History of the Field, State of the Field, Leaders of the Field & Future of the Field assignments. It should describe the environment into which your project will fit, and how it will affect the future of your field of interest.

The Target Audience section should be a description of the user groups you are creating for, and specifically which of needs your project will be fulfilling. Your description should be a summary of your User Personas and User Stories. Create at least three User Personas representing the different groups your project will target. Create a spreadsheet listing at least three user stories for each of the user groups you identified.

Team Blinky will present their Initial Proposals on Monday, 11/3, and Team Inky will present on 11/10. All students will submit their written Initial Proposals before 11/10.

Week 8

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Thesis Proposal Template

Let’s review the general outline of your Capstone Thesis Proposal.

Initial Thesis Proposal Components

Project Overview

  • What’s your idea?

Project Background

  • What inspired your idea? Draw from your Manifesto, History of the Field, State of the Field, Leaders of the Field & Future of the Field assignments.

Target Audience

The Lean Canvas Single Page Business Model

Team Inky Future of the Field Presentations

Present the information you’ve gathered about the Future of the Field you’ve chosen for your Thesis project.

Assignments for Week 8
Reading

One-Time Assignments

Future of the Field – 3 points for presentation; 3 for write-up
Everyone should post your written Future of the Field assignments to the Google Community before Monday 10/27.

Initial Project Proposal – 10 points for presentation; 10 for write-up

Describe your initial ideas for your capstone project. Your Initial Proposal should include three sections: a Project Overview section , a Project Background Section, and a Target Audience section.

The Project Overview is a high level description of the project you’d like to develop for your Senior Thesis.

The Project Background section should be a summary drawing from your Personal Manifesto, History of the Field, State of the Field, Leaders of the Field & Future of the Field assignments. It should describe the environment into which your project will fit, and how it will affect the future of your field of interest.

The Target Audience section should be a description of the user groups you are creating for, and specifically which of needs your project will be fulfilling. Your description should be a summary of your User Personas and User Stories. Create at least three User Personas representing the different groups your project will target. Create a spreadsheet listing at least three user stories for each of the user groups you identified.

Team Blinky will present their Initial Proposals on Monday, 11/3, and Team Inky will present on 11/10. All students will submit their written Initial Proposals before 11/10.

Week 6

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Weekly Assignments

  • Daily Drift
  • Weekly Wandering
  • Reflection
  • To Review
  • Notes
  • Classmate Feedback

Team Blinky Leaders of Your Field Presentations

Present the information you’ve gathered about the Leaders of the Field you’ve chosen for your Thesis project.

Review this Week’s Reading

  • “Customers as Innovators” from The Innovator’s Cookbook
  • “The Slow Hunch” from Where Good Ideas Come From

Assignments for Week 6
Reading

  • “Serendipity” from Where Good Ideas Come From

Weekly Assignments (due before the break 10/13)

  • Daily Drift – Google Drive doc, 300 words daily, stream of consciousness to kick start your creativity (share link with me only)
  • Weekly Wandering – take a walk, go running, whatever, capture your thoughts in words, pictures, sketches, music, video – whatever helps you express your thoughts, Google Drive doc (share link on Google Community).
  • Reflection – at the end of the week, reflect on everything you’ve gathered & pondered. Write 300 or more words in a Google doc trying to organize it into a cohesive whole (share link on Google Community).
  • To Review – a list of links in a Google Drive spreadsheet; videos, books, films, etc, you’d like to review later (share link on Google Community)
  • Notes – notes in a Google Drive doc on your ‘To Review’ materials for the week (share link on Google Community)
  • Classmate Feedback – comment on 2 or more classmates’ posts to our class Google Community

One-Time Assignments

Leaders of Your Field – 3 points for presentation; 3 for write-up
Everyone should post your written Leaders of The Field assignments to the Google Community before the break on 10/13.

Future the Field – 3 points for presentation; 3 for write-up
Looking forward in your chosen field, what changes do you expect to see in the next three years? Think in terms of the “adjacent possible” as described by Steven Johnson — what doors can be opened now, and what rooms might those doors lead to? Present a hypothetical but realistic innovation in your field that will impact the sort of work your future you is doing. For example, if you considered yourself an interface designer three years ago, you could have realistically predicted that multi-touch tablets would have a considerable impact on your work today, even though you didn’t know the details of the hardware or software.

Your prediction should be grounded in observation of recent trends as well as the expectations of current experts in the field.

Members of Team Inky will present their ideas on October 20. Use web sites, videos, images or any other media to help support your vision of the future. Refer to these additional guidelines for an effective presentation.

Everyone in the class — regardless of team — must write things up their ideas about the future as a Google Doc on the Google Community, incorporating or responding to the feedback of classmates, if appropriate. Post your ideas before class on October 27, and assign it to the “Future of the Field” category. This text will inform your upcoming formal project proposal. You’ll be graded not only on the thoroughness of your research, but on how effectively you present your ideas in writing. Use headings or other formatting to lend clarity and organization to your Google Doc, and keep these guidelines in mind. Your post should be at least 700 words.

Week 5

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Weekly Assignments

  • Daily Drift
  • Weekly Wandering
  • Reflection
  • To Review
  • Notes
  • Classmate Feedback

Team Inky State of Your Field Presentations

Present the information you’ve gathered about the State of the Field you’ve chosen for your Thesis project.

Review this Week’s Reading

Assignments for Week 5
Reading

  • “Customers as Innovators” from The Innovator’s Cookbook
  • “The Slow Hunch” from Where Good Ideas Come From

Weekly Assignments

  • Daily Drift – Google Drive doc, 300 words daily, stream of consciousness to kick start your creativity (share link with me only)
  • Weekly Wandering – take a walk, go running, whatever, capture your thoughts in words, pictures, sketches, music, video – whatever helps you express your thoughts, Google Drive doc (share link on Google Community).
  • Reflection – at the end of the week, reflect on everything you’ve gathered & pondered. Write 300 or more words in a Google doc trying to organize it into a cohesive whole (share link on Google Community).
  • To Review – a list of links in a Google Drive spreadsheet; videos, books, films, etc, you’d like to review later (share link on Google Community)
  • Notes – notes in a Google Drive doc on your ‘To Review’ materials for the week (share link on Google Community)
  • Classmate Feedback – comment on 2 or more classmates’ posts to our class Google Community

One-Time Assignments

State of the Field – 3 points for presentation; 3 for write-up
Everyone should post your written State of The Field assignments to the Google Community before our next meeting on 10/6.

Leaders in the Field – 3 points for presentation; 3 for write-up
Identify three of the leading practitioners in your chosen field. Research their background… what personal, academic and professional path led to their success? Research their approach to work… where do they get inspiration? What is their daily routine? Finally, research how they present their work… in what venues or through what channels? Are they members of particular professional organizations? What sort of awards or recognition have they received?

If your chosen practitioners are on Twitter and/or Google+, follow them. If they have a blog, subscribe to it. If they have some other kind of web site, bookmark it. Tell the class how you keep up with these people and their work.

Members of Team Blinky will present their research on October 6. Use web sites, videos, images or any other media to help describe the people and their work. Refer to these additional guidelines for an effective presentation.

Everyone must write up his or her research as a Google Doc, posted to the “Leaders in the Field” category on the Google Community, before class on October 20. This text will inform your upcoming formal project proposal. You’ll be graded not only on the thoroughness of your research, but on how effectively you present your ideas in writing. Use headings or other formatting to lend clarity and organization to your document, and keep these guidelines in mind. Your Google Doc should be at least 700 words.