Assignments

Idea Profile 10% – individual.
Research Your Idea 15% – group project.
Prototype 10% individual project
Project Website 15% individual project
Final Portfolio Will be turned in 2 times 15% (preliminary portfolio 10% and completion with course material at end of semester 5%) individual
Critique of Student Portfolio 5%
Discussion posts  10% individual
Quizzes 10% individual
Participation and attendance 10% individual – excellent participation requires that you are present and prepared for class, ask questions and participate in discussion. Students should be prepared to ask questions of guest speakers. Students should be on time for class and speaker series and should have done all the required work to prepare for the class at the beginning of each period.

Project 1: Idea Profile  – Write a brief about your idea. This may or may not be the idea that your group will pursue in the Research Project. You will have a chance to pitch your idea to your team to select the one that you want to expand upon.

The brief will address the following questions:

• What is the problem you are trying to solve? Craft it in the form of a How Might We statement.
• Why is it important, who does it affect?
• Who else is doing something about it?
• What are some preliminary concepts/skills you might have to learn or acquire to solve this problem?
• What other sites or apps are trying to solve this problem?
• What other sites or apps are providing inspiration?
• Describe your design thinking process for how you came up with this idea? Who did you talk to? What specific comments or feedback did they provide to inform your thinking?
• What are some potential solutions?

Think about the target audience and try to define some personas. Reference your empathy interviews and any other preliminary research you have done about the problem and your potential solution in this brief. About 700 words, but you should include images and links. Do this on a Word doc, convert to pdf and share on the #ideaprofile channel. From these ideas, we will put you into groups and select the best ideas for the groups to work on.

Project 2: Research Your Idea – group project

• Lean Canvas – Start with your Lean Canvas. Document this at the beginning of your Research Project. The Lean Canvas is a brief document that provides a roadmap that is flexible over time. Work on this as a group.
• Basecamp – You will be assigned to a Project Team on Basecamp. Basecamp is a popular project management program. Sign up for Basecamp at basecamp.com, using your Texas State email. Choose the 30-day trial, but you can upgrade to the free student account by following these instructions. I will send you a link to join our DMI Capstone group, and I will assign you to Project teams. Use the ToDo list function to begin assigning activities. There are also apps for Basecamp that you can download as well.
• Research Project: Group Project –  The research project expands upon the lean canvas and provides the backup information to go forward with your prototype and website. Your research project should be a 7-10 page (double-spaced, 12 pt font) document and 10-11 slide pitch deck that covers the following areas in detail. Research is required. Document citations with a consistent style (APA or MLA is fine). You will work on this as a group, so assign sections to members of your team and assemble. Identify each section of the report with appropriate heading. Group project participation will be evaluated by your team.
  • Find your group assignment under Resources on TRACS.
  • Problem Statement – an overview of the problem; provide a clear articulation of the problem you are hoping to solve
  • Market Analysis – who is the target market and why? What do we know about them?
  • Financial Projections that flow from your target analysis. Be specific about how you will generate revenue and cover costs.
  • Global implications – Specifically address the needs of global populations related to this problem? How is this problem being handled in a global marketplace?
  • Diversity implications – Specifically address the needs of diverse populations related to this problem? How is this problem being handled in a diverse marketplace?
  • Competition – analysis of competition and state of the market; who else is trying to solve this problem and how are they doing it? Look to other industries that might be tangentially related. Provide a critique of the strengths and weaknesses of the competition you have identified.
  • Potential Solutions – discuss several potential solutions to this problem; for each, describe the resources necessary and ways to connect the solution to the target audience
  • Marketing Strategies – Discuss the ways that the target market will be best reached. Provide details about marketing and social media strategies (not just “use Facebook,” but be more specific. i.e. “Create an ad campaign on Facebook that encourages participation around the application using …” Think creatively. Brainstorm ideas with your team. Connect these ideas to your potential solutions.
  • Any limitations or challenges. What are the human and/or technical issues that would prevent your solutions from being successful.
  • Include a 10-11 slide pitch deck to make the case for your idea. You can use Powerpoint to create a pdf of handouts with either 2 or 4 per page. Look under Print, change Layout, then choose PDF, Save as PDF.

Project 3: Prototype: Individual Project  – Now you get to make something. Start prototyping your solution on paper. Then graduate to Proto.io or Adobe XD or Figma (or if you don’t have access to one of these programs, feel free to use any graphic program — Photoshop, Canva, any phone app — to create the screens or elements of your prototype). Get people engaging with your prototypes to get feedback. Take screenshots of your prototype and combine in a single document (pdf) to upload. Your prototype should include several screens of content and interaction, including any admin features, if applicable. Describe the functionality of your prototype in the document. Submit to the #prototype channel on Slack.

Project 4: Project Website: Individual Project  –  use material from your marketing research, proposal and prototype to create a website to market your idea using Bootstrap. Website will be hosted on a subdomain of your websites. Site must include appropriate images and links. A logo for the site must be created. The website should include, but not be limited to, the following sections:

• Brief solution description
• More detailed description of features
• Marketing video describing prototype
• Other marketing or promotional methods (ads, social media campaign introduction, calls-to-action, promotions)
• Other sections as relevant to support your project idea and solution
• Personal statement – identify yourself and that this is a class project.

Digital Media Innovation Portfolio: Individual Project – Create your senior portfolio website. You are required to build a website to hold all the items for your senior portfolio. You will be uploading the link to your portfolio, as well as any other required items. This portfolio can be a WordPress or Bootstrap site, but must be provided on your hosting platform (Reclaim Hosting or other self-hosted option). WordPress.com sites are not acceptable. These are the skills you learned in the Web Design course. We will discuss throughout the semester. Submit the url to the #seniorportfolio Slack channel. At the end of the course, you will also submit this url complete with all projects.

Portfolio Critique: You will also be assigned a student’s portfolio to provide critique on Slack and will need to upload this critique to the portfolio site at the end of the semester.

Grading

For all projects, the following rubric will be utilized. Degrees within each grade may be handled by + and – . Since this is the final course of the Digital Media Innovation curriculum, we have high expectations for the execution of work in this course.

A – All requirements are met and are executed exceptionally well. Creativity evident in execution and some aspects of the project go beyond requirements.

B – All requirements are met and are executed in an acceptable manner. There is some creativity evident in execution, but the project does not go beyond requirements.

C – Most requirements are met and are executed in an acceptable manner. There is minimal creativity evident in execution and the project does not go beyond requirements.

D – Some requirements are not met or are not executed in an acceptable manner. No creativity evident in execution.

F – Failure to deliver on several of the requirements of the project in an acceptable manner.