EM500 Final Project Guidelines
The Final Project assignment allows you to select one of two different proposal options (Research or Design), ideally permitting you the flexibility to think about a topic of your choosing in a style fitting your personal preferences:
- • Research Proposal – A proposal for an empirical academic research study related to the concepts from this course. Your proposal will include all the sections of a formal research report (Introduction, Methods, Results [Expected], Discussion). This is your chance to dive more deeply into a specific variable or set of variables and the existing literature on a given topic. Note – You are not expected to actually carry out the study.
- • Design Proposal – A design prototype for a potential media application drawing upon course concepts. You are to apply our readings and class discussion towards designing either 1) a brand-new media device, application, tool, or service, or 2) a new and improved version of a current media technology (e.g., a better Netflix, and healthier Instagram). You will produce a design document that describes the application’s purpose, intended use, and relative fit within the ecology of similar existing communication technologies. Note – you not expected to actually build a functional prototype.
The Final Project consists of three parts:
- I. Project Description to be submitted on Blackboard by November 5th at 5pm)
- II. Project Write-up to be submitted on Blackboard by December 10th at 5pm)
- III. Project Presentation held in class (December 1st & 8th)
Please read the following pages for details on each of these project components.
I. Project Description
(5% of course grade)
The Project Description assignment is a means by which to a) have you begin to think about an appropriate final project topic and b) have me sign off on your topic and provide additional feedback if needed. For each type of Final Project option — Research Proposal or Design Proposal — I’ve outlined here is what should be included in your brief description (~2 pages).
Technical details:
- • Descriptions should be approximately 2 double-spaced pages.
- • Formatting: Times New Roman, Font Size 12; 1” margins
- • Please submit your final Description as a PDF file to Blackboard.
- • References: You should provide a reference list in which you note any cited sources; these may include readings from class as well as relevant external sources as appropriate.
- • Otherwise, this assignment can be relatively informal in tone and structured however you see fit. Just be sure to touch on the elements bulleted below.
Option 1: Research Proposal
- • What research question do you plan to investigate? What sort of technologies and variables will be your focus?
- • Will your study be descriptive in nature, or will it seek to investigate causal relationships between variables?
- • What theories (from class or beyond) may be relevant for your study?
- • Do you have a sense of what research methods would be appropriate for your study (e.g., survey, focus group, experiment, network analysis, etc.)?
- • Which specific class concepts and readings to do you think are immediately relevant to your proposal?
Options 2: Design Proposal
- • What problem or need would your design address?
- • Alternatively, which existing technology would you redesign and why?
- • What other, existing technologies address this or similar issues?
- • Which variables might be useful in comparing your design to other existing technologies (or your redesign of an existing technology to its current design)?
- • Who is the target audience for your design?
- • Which individual differences across users (motivations, needs, personality, ability, experience, demographics, etc.) might influence the way they use your technology?
- • Which specific class concepts and readings to do you think are immediately relevant to your proposal?
II. Project Write-Up
(25% of course grade)
Below, I’ve provided a few notes regarding structure of your final project write-up. In each case — Research or Design — I’ve outlined a general structure for how to organize your paper and what sort of content to include. In either case, remember, that the main objective is to demonstrate an understanding of class concepts, as relevant to your study or design. In other words, while one could write a similar Research Proposal or Design Proposal for another class, your papers should make clear how our readings and class discussion have influenced your thinking.
Regarding technical details:
- • Write-ups are expected to be 12-15 double-spaced pages. If working in a group of two, longer papers of 16-20 pages are expected.
- • Note: Shorter write-ups are acceptable for Design Proposals if you plan to actually build/construct a prototype of your design. Please discuss this option with Jim ahead of time.
- • Formatting: Times New Roman, Font Size 12, 1” margins, with page numbers
- • References: You should provide a reference list in which you note any cited sources; these may include readings from class as well as relevant external sources as appropriate.
- • Research Proposals should conform to APA Style Guidelines
- • Please submit your final Description as a Word (.docx) file to Blackboard.
Option 1: Research Proposal
For the Research Proposal, you will want to organize your paper in a manner modeled after an empirical academic research report. To that end, your paper will likely follow something similar to the following structure:
- • Introduction o What is the general topic/phenomenon/area you’ll be studying? The topic should be tied to new and emerging media technologies (apps, devices, modes or patterns of usage, etc.) and focus on relevant key variables or dimensions related to that technology.
- o Why is this important / worth studying? That is, provide some explanation for why this topic is socially significant (for instance, the sheer number of users/people affected by the topic).
- • Literature Review o Summarize existing relevant literature on your topic, with special attention to class concepts. Which variables are being examined? Which theories are relevant in thinking about these variables?
- o Towards the end, outline the current study, explaining how your proposed study builds off of this literature. Here you would describe the specific goal and scope of the proposed study and specify any particular research questions or hypotheses. Your general research focus should not merely replicate previous work. In other words, you should be trying to tackle a specific novel research question not yet directly examined in the literature / a gap in the existing literature.
- Relatedly, your specific hypotheses should be based on the existing relevant literature. That is, your hypothesized results should be based on previous research findings and existing theoretical explanations.
- • Methods o Describe general study design/methodology that would be used to conduct your study
- o What are your variables, how will you measure them?
- o Describe the procedure for data collection
- • Results o What results would you expect to find after analyzing the data?
- o You do NOT need to describe any imagined statistical analyses.
- • Discussion o Iterate the rationale for your study and why it is important
- o Then, discuss each of the following: General conclusions (what did we learn from your results?)
- Implications of your results for follow-up research / theory development
- Implications of your results for society / application to technology design or policy
- Limitations of your study
- Directions for future research, building off of yours
Note that for our purposes the Methods and Results are not nearly as important as the other sections of the paper. I want you to focus most of your efforts and space on the Introduction, Lit Review, and Discussion, where you can really dig into class concepts and flesh out the significance/importance of the proposed study.
Option 2: Design Proposal
In the Design Proposal, you are to vividly and critically describe your technology, as if it really were to be implemented and released in the near future. The structure for a Design Proposal is inherently less rigid than that seen in a typical academic research article. That said, I’ve outlined below a suggested structure for the key elements that I’ll be looking for in your write-up. Throughout the paper you should be making clear how class concepts inform your decisions regarding the imagined design and understanding its potential usage and effects.
- • Introduction o What is the basic idea behind your design? What does your design do?
- o Why is this important? That is, provide some explanation for why this idea is socially significant (for instance, the sheer number of users in this space / the number of people affected by the problem your design will address).
- • Fit in Media Environment o How does your proposed media application compare with similar applications, services, formats or devices that already exist? If you’re redesigning an existing application, what is lacking about its current version?
- o Recall that we’ve focused on dimensions (a variable-centered approach) for comparing and thinking about technology. Using such an approach, you should describe the following: How is your design better / an improvement (drawing upon class concepts)?
- How might yours be worse / what limitations does it include (drawing upon class concepts)?
- • Target Audience o Who is the user base for this application?
- o Are there different types of users (in terms of demographics, skills, application functionality, etc.)?
- o What are the users’ motivations for using this service? Do different types of users have potentially different motivations? How does your design factor for this?
- • User Experience: Tell a Story o Walk us through a use case: how exactly does the user engage with and use your design? What would be a typical user experience? Be detailed here.
- o Do different types of users have different experiences? If so, walk us through each.
- o Feel free (though not required) to include any degree of prototyping that will help demonstrate the typical user experience. This includes sketches
- of the interface or even full storyboards (describing a day in the life of the user and how this technology fits in). If feeling adventurous, there are various online services that can help you sketch storyboards (for instance, http://www.storyboardthat.com/). Again, this is not required, but it may help you more vividly explain your design (and even help you to better understand your potential users).
- o This whole narrative process should explicitly incorporate class concepts where appropriate.
- • Closing & Future directions o Concretely restate the goal of your design, while the goal is important, and iterate how this design accomplishes that goal
- o Briefly discuss any additional considerations future designs may need to attend to in light of potential future trends in how people are using new and emerging media
Important Tips for Final Paper
These tips below are important as you work on your proposal. Please read the following points carefully because they serve as guides for the expectations for this assignment.
1. Your proposal should be free of colloquial language. Please do not use first-person voice in your final paper. For example, instead of, “We will examine…,” use third-person voice by stating, “This study examines…” or “The present research examines…” Similarly, avoid colloquial language such as “nowadays.”
2. It is imperative that you proofread before turning in your work. The quality of your ideas, as well as quality of writing, are equally important. You must use full sentences and correct grammar and spelling. Reading out loud helps tremendously. You can catch grammatical errors and unclear explanations when verbally reading your paper.
3. Avoid “floating” pronouns. Whenever you write pronouns (e.g., it, they, and them) and “things,” substitute those words with a descriptive noun. In other words, tell me to “what” you are referring.
4. Only use apostrophes (’) for possessive nouns. For example, “The study’s …” is acceptable. If you write, “The research doesn’t provide…,” please revise to “The research does not provide…”
5. Be as specific as possible when discussing your concepts. For example, if you write, “attitude” or “effect,” you should clearly define the types of “attitude” or “effect” you are describing. Do you mean “attitude toward a website” or “effect of personalization on users’ perceptions of information credibility”?
6. Refrain from citing “quotes” in your paper. Quotes are helpful when stating definitions of constructs. However, paraphrasing quotes in your own words will make your paper much stronger.
7. Make sure that while you are writing your proposal you are “speaking” to an audience who is not necessarily familiar with your topic. Be as descriptive in your writing as possible. Do not assume that the reader knows about the theory or theories you are discussing and background information about your topic.
III. Project Presentation
(10% of course grade)
On the last day (possibly last two days) of class, you and your peers will be presenting your Final Projects to the rest of the class. The exact duration of presentations will depend on the exact number groups/presentations but will likely be around 7-8 minutes (Jim will confirm the exact duration later in the semester).
Your presentation should address all components of your written proposal. For a Research Proposal, this means describing the theoretical arguments supporting your proposed research questions and/or hypotheses of interest (background/literature review), method, and discussion of the value of your potential findings, limitations, and directions for future research. For a Design Proposal, this means describing the problem/need/issue at hand, a general summary of your solution, walking us through a typical user case, and the like. For either type of proposal, your presentation should very clearly highlight the connections to course readings and concepts.
Given the sheer number of presentations, the time limit will be strictly enforced. As such, it is your job to distill your proposal into a format that is engaging, clear, and organized. It is recommended that you make use of visuals in your presentation. Please see below for the criteria on which you presentation will be graded.
Option 1: Research Proposal
Background/Literature Review
issue/problem/concepts you explored
Method
recruitment
Discussion
of potential findings
Delivery
TOTAL _________ / 100
Option 2: Design Proposal
Background/Introduction
issue/problem/concepts you explored
Fit In Media Environment
Target Audience
User Experience
Closing & Future Directions
Delivery
TOTAL _________ / 100
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