Prepare by/Submit by: (see below)
Hours: 10
Assignment 1 revolves around how we are communicating about the past to others. It will consist of a portfolio, to be handed in via Brightspace, that includes three separate sub-assignments.
Assignment 1.1: Pitch the Past
Have prepared by: 21 February, before Class
Hours: 3
For Pitch the Past you will be asked to explain, elevator pitch style, why we should explore a specific period or event in history more in depth.
A good pitch takes roughly the time of a long elevator ride (30-60 seconds), but should have the effect that whoever you are pitching to would want to hear more. The elevator pitch is often used in business settings, but it is useful format to catch someone’s interest in general. This is why your pitch the past has the following elements:
- Who: a single sentence about what keeps you busy in life and how that has led you to think about…
- Hook: …a problem or opportunity that is of wider relevance. This can be audience specific or of general societal relevance, in this case the audience will be your peers: (humanity) students. This problem or opportunity can be explored in…
- When: … a historical period, event, or figure. Describe and give context of this period, event, or figure(s) in at most a few sentences (when was it, where, what was it). Next connect the hook via the when to…
- How: …specific aspect(s) of this period, event, or figure(s) and how specifically they speak to the problem you have introduced in the beginning of your pitch, which is…
- Why:… you want to explore this during this course.
If you find it difficult to think about a past to pitch using this structure, try to work backwards: ask yourself what period, event, or character in history you are really interested in (remember: for the purposes of this course, history starts ‘yesterday’). Then ask yourself what you find so fascinating about this period, event, or character in particular. Next try to relate this to your own experiences, what makes this period, event, or character seem relevant to you? Finally, extrapolate your own experiences and interest to something that could be of relevance to at least one other person.
Some of you will be asked to deliver this elevator pitch in person during the first hour of the second class. You will also provide your written out pitch as part of your portfolio in a PDF file.
Assignment 1.2: A User-Focused Timeline
Submit by: 27 February (23:59)
Hours: 7
Before you start making your timeline, define a specific (group of) users you are targeting with your Timeline (e.g. kids, the elderly, people of a certain cultural background, people with a specific interest, etc.).
Create a Timeline for the past you pitched in assignment 1.1.
Before you start, write down a User Design Brief:
This Timeline is targeted to [specific user], who can go through this timeline to [do what] so that [why?].
To create your timeline, you are free to choose whatever visualization tool and format you feel comfortable with, but one suggestion is to use the digital storytelling tools available on Northwestern University’s Knight Lab website. An alternative is Tiki-Toki’s timeline tool (signup required).
You should include a short report (300-400 words) giving a description of your timeline and the motivation behind it, explaining your timeline design choices, making references to the principles of UX design and the themes of temporal visualisation we discussed during class.
Some of you will be asked to present their timelines in Class on the 28th of February.
In your PDF file that contains your assignment 1.1. and 1.2, provide the User Design Brief and a working link to the visualization as it is meant to be viewed by users. If your Timeline is not online, include the visualization at high resolution in your PDF file.
Submit:
You will hand both sub-assignments in one PDF file via Brightspace on the 27th of February