Preliminaries

This is a group exercise. I've let Canvas split you into random groups. You will need to make contact with your group.

You are going to do a little brainstorming for a new a "citizen science" app. Citizen science applications let non-scientists participate in the scientific process, usually by collecting data that scientists can make use of.

Concept statement

The first step will be to write a concept statement.

Figure out your focus (counting birds? recording interesting foliage? noting areas of pollution?). Don't get too specific, just enough to have a rough idea of the purpose of the app.

Write out a concept statement. Keep this short and concise. Lists are good.

• Name of the app (don't spend much time on this)
• what will it do?
• who are the users?
• what problems does it solve?

Empathize

We don't have real users, so we are going to have to use our imaginations. I want you to write up two personas of people who might use your app. They do not/ should not be as long and involved as the example I showed. Simple lists of facts, background, interests, etc are fine.

To help you with this exercise, I want you to start with a picture. This must be a picture of someone you don't know anything about. It also must be ethically sourced, as discussed in class. As a reminder, I mean that it must be from a source that gives you explicit permission to use the image in any (reasonable) way (so no random Google Image searches). I suggest one of two places: Pexels offers a reasonable selection of "stock" images with a very permissive licence, and https://generated.photos will provide you with AI generated head shots. Stock images can be stagey and goofy, and the AI people sometimes have bizarre deformities and holes in their heads -- take your pick. Don't spend a lot of time at this step, just pick one and commit. Do give some thought to diversity (perhaps unsurprisingly, stock image collections tend to skew young/fit/white), and remember that the goal here is to empathize with your user (so avoid picking an image that amuses you and you've crossed the line from laughing with the person to laughing at them).

Define

Once you have your personas, write two scenarios for how each person would use your app. Use my model to guide you with respect to length and detail.

Extract

From the scenarios, extract out: any new things you have learned about users of your app, context of use, tasks, information objects.

Deliverable

All of your work should be placed in a single PDF and submit it on Canvas. Make sure everyone's names and email addresses are at the top.

Grading

Points	Requirement
1	Concept statement
2	Two Personas
12	Four scenarios
6	Extracted information from scenarios
1	Followed directions