#11 (Final)

Due Friday, May 4th at the beginning of class. Be prepared to present your project at a lectern. 

For the last several weeks of class, you have pursued a self-directed final project: most likely, an interactive augmented reality (AR) developed in Unity3D […although a handful of you have made independent arrangements to create something else]. Your final deliverable is a blog post which documents this project.

The list of deliverables below shouldn’t surprise you, but please note that I’ll be stricter than usual in making sure that you “tick the boxes”. There are some fine points that I want to make sure you get right!

  • Make a blog post. Create a blog post on this, our course WordPress site. Title the blog post, nickname-FinalProject, and give it the WordPress category, 11-Final.
  • Make a brief (“tweetable”) description. At the top of your blog post, write a single sentence that describes the overall concept of your project. 20-25 words is probably ideal: enough to convey what your project is and why it’s interesting. Don’t worry abut including technical information.
  • Make a video documenting your project. For an AR project, I recommend using both screen-grabbed video captured from within your application itself, as well as “over the shoulder” video showing a person using your system. Embed your video in the blog post.
  • “Finish” your video. Your video may be brief, but it should be “finished”: it should have a title card with your name (or your course nickname, if you prefer to remain anonymous); the title of your project; and in a small font, some variant of the text: “Created Spring 2018 for CMU 60-212”. You could even include the brief descriptive sentence on the title card. For many projects, it may be ideal to record a brief narration explaining what’s going on.
  • Include a still image. Embed a particularly nice still image of your project, at the highest resolution you can create. (It’s fine to upload a high-resolution image; WordPress can create a low-resolution thumbnail image which links to it.) Select an image which has strong “explanatory potential”, if possible.
  • Include other process images: scans of paper sketches, screengrabs of debug screens — perhaps even an explanatory system diagram if your project has many components talking to each other. In your blog post, caption your images.
  • Include an animated GIF. Capture a brief animated GIF (or two) from your documentation video, which best illustrates what is going on.
  • Write about your project! Write 150-200 words describing your project: What is the concept? How does it operate (how does one use it)? What challenges did you overcome to create it? Discuss its flaws and strengths, in your opinion. The text you write about your project should be written for a general audience who is not already familiar with your project. Imagine that the URL for your project is the link which is passed around on social media when someone tweets, “hey, check out this interesting project!”.
  • Regarding collaborations. If your final project was created with a partner, it is sufficient to create a single blog post from one student’s account, rather than two identical blog posts. However, the second student should create a “stub” blog post that links to the other student’s web page.
  • Give generous credit. In your text, create an “acknowledgements section” in which you thank the people who helped you realize the project. If your project was collaborative, be especially attentive to explaining how each of the collaborators contributed to the project.

In addition, please remember to do the following:

  • Faculty course evaluations. If you haven’t already done so, please fill out the Faculty Course Evaluation for our class! These reviews make a huge difference, both to the professor, to the school, and to future students. You can complete the FCE through 11pm May 14 by logging in at https://cmu.smartevals.com. Thank you!
  • Key return and equipment return. On May 4th, please return any equipment you may have borrowed from the STUDIO, such as Android Pixel phones, charge cables, Mac laptop power supplies, or other specialized equipment. Additionally, if you have been entrusted with a key, please return it, unless you have made specific arrangements with the professor.

 

 

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