Graduate Thesis Project

DMDL students complete two semesters of a capstone thesis course where they integrate and apply all previous academic coursework in a culminating thesis project under the supervision of department faculty. This section of my graduate student portfolio represents my progress with that project and its accompanying milestones.

As part of this project we have nine major milestones:

• Milestone 1: Early Ideas — Explore topics that connect your interests, expertise & aspirations.
• Milestone 2: Project Plan — Come up with a plan for completing your project.
• Milestone 3: Research — Conduct primary and secondary research to articulate and justify the problem you will tackle.
• Milestone 4: Ideation — Brainstorm various ideas for your design based on what you know about the problem.
• Milestone 5: Prototype & Rationale — Create a low-fi prototype of your idea, and a theory-based design rationale.
• Milestone 6: Video Pitch & S1 Paper — Pitch your idea in the form of a video and a write-up of M3 and M5.
• Milestone 7: Concept Testing — Give your design ideas a test run with real users. Document your instruments, process, and findings.
• Milestone 8: Refinement & Usability — Use feedback and findings from your concept testing to iteratively refine your design. Write up your process and findings, and describe your design iterations.
• Milestone 9: Expo & Final Paper — Compile your finished milestones (M3, M5, M7 and M8) into a paper and submit it. Present your success to the ECT community, and pat yourself on the back. Onwards and upwards!

Note: All content and designs related to my thesis project are copyright pending. Do not publish or use without explicit permission.