Extra Credit Assignments

You have three opportunities for extra credit. Feel free to do as many as you wish. They are all group extra credit opportunities.

Revisit Inspiration

Before the implementation of your prototype, you compiled a list of inspirations. Since then, your prototype has probably made so many twists and turns and transformations that it is no longer recognizable as the idea that you started off with. To prepare for your final presentation, update your knowledge of related projects. Related projects can be existing applications, artifacts, products, or services that relate to your concept. Here, web search is your friend (potentially useful sites include Google, Google Scholar, the ACM Digital Library, TechCrunch, Engadget...). Pick the five related projects that a juror is mostly like to ask you "How are you different than _____?" In some cases, this might be a similar service like another to-do list, photo-sharing app, or party-finder. In other cases, it might be repurposing general services like Google Docs or Twitter.

Pick out your five favorite related projects. For each project, write a ~2 sentences that would answer juror questions like, "How are you different from _____? Why would people use your application instead of _____? In what situations would people use _____ instead of your application?"

Submit
Category Nope Adequacy Proficiency Mastery
Revisit Inspiration
3 points
0: No extra credit submitted or any number of related projects submitted without meaningful explanation. 1: One or two key relevant projects found and differences explained. (If more than two submitted, the rest are not relevant or not well explained.) 2: Three or four key relevant projects found and differences explained. (If more than three submitted, the rest are not relevant or not well explained.) 3: Five relevant projects found and differences explained. A juror will exclaim "Wow, you've really done your homework!"

Publicize Your App

You have done an amazing job prototyping and evaluating your application, and now it's time to see what the world thinks. Launch your app to the public. This means advertising on Google or Facebook, creating a Fan Page on Facebook, posting in the Mozilla Marketplace, or announcing on your app on social networks like Facebook and Twitter. (Posting to a UCSD mailing list is a good start, but think broader.) These are all just suggestions for what you might do. The goal of this extra credit opportunity is to expose your app to the public by any method you wish to use.

Submit any materials that show that you have widely advertised your application. This can include email receipts, screenshots of the app on a app store, or URLs to app listings. Also submit any materials necessary to show that people outside of this class and the university have started using your application as a direct result of your launch. Since this will differ between groups, we will leave up to you to decide what exactly is necessary to be submitted. The only requirement is to provide sufficient proof to show that you have launched your app to the public and that people have started using it.

Submit
Category Nope Adequacy Proficiency Mastery
Publicize Your App
4 points
0: Nothing submitted beyond the analytics that were a part of the main assignments. 1: Evidence that you advertised on social media. BUT not evidence that people are using it (beyond what A9 required). 3: Evidence that your social media advertising was widely noticed. AND evidence that a few people, or only people you know, have started using it (beyond what A9 required). 4: Evidence that your social media advertising was widely noticed. AND evidence of its accessibility and more than a couple strangers (who are not people you know or in this class) have found your app and started using it. Submission includes longitudinal data (100+ users over 1+week over and above A9) on Woopra/Google Analytics.

Create a Video Demonstrating Your App

Record a 1-minute video that includes the motivation behind your app (needfinding/brainstorming) and the main feature or “secret sauce” in your app.

Think of this video as a mixture of advertising and showing off all the hard work you have put into your application. Here is a great example of a video, and here are the top 10 videos from past years. Exercise your creativity as much as possible! Try to plan out your video before actually taking any footage. Storyboards are great tool to use here. This video will not be used as part of your final presentation slides, but should instead complement your poster session as well as serve as a way for you to remember your hard work in years to come. Upload these videos to YouTube.

Submit
Category Nope Adequacy Proficiency Mastery
Create a Video
5 pts
0: No user-centered motivation. Don't get to see a clear scenario showing several screens of the app and how it connects to the user's motivation. 2: Video effectively conveys the user-centered motivation of the app's value. OR walks through a scenario with the app's main features. but not both. 4: Video covers both the motivation behind the app. AND walks through a scenario showing several screens of the app and how it connects to the user's motivation. AND is visually attractive. 5: Video covers both the motivation behind the app. AND walks through a scenario showing several screens of the app and how it connects to the user's motivation. AND is visually attractive. AND has mass appeal & creativity.

Outside the Box
1 pt
The best video in the class will receive 6 points for this assignment.