Hand out before Day 1 — students find one real person, interview them, and arrive on Day 1 with a start→end motion. Partner-interview fallback in class for anyone without one.
This is your Day 0 prework — do it before the unit starts. Your job is to find one real person and listen like a designer: what makes their task frustrating, tiring, or error-prone? What do they wish could be different?
Write 4–5 open-ended questions before you start. Use how / what / why — never yes/no. Start broad, then zoom into the specific task.
Stuck? Starters: “Walk me through how you do ___ — what happens first?” · “What part of that is the most tiring or frustrating?” · “What do you wish were different about it?” · “Where does your hand start, and where does it end up?” · “How would you know a helper had done it right?”
Write specific notes for each question — stories, quotes, and feelings, not just facts. Ask a follow-up when you need more detail.
The arm's base is at (0, 0). x = how far across, y = how high — both in cm. So (10, 8) means 10 cm across and 8 cm up. Keep each point within the arm's reach: 8–40 cm from the base. (Closer than about 8 cm and the elbow can't fold tight enough to get there.)
| If your user… | start | end |
|---|---|---|
| Lifts something from the table up toward their mouth or chest | (12, 6) | (10, 26) |
| Brings an item down from a shelf to the desk | (16, 30) | (14, 8) |
| Passes or slides an object across to the side | (8, 14) | (26, 14) |
| Nudges a cup a short way to set it within reach | (14, 18) | (20, 16) |
| Reaches out to a far point and back | (10, 10) | (34, 12) |
| A small, repeated short-reach motion | (12, 12) | (18, 14) |
Write your best estimate for each point, then one sentence on what in the interview told you that. They don't have to be perfect — you'll enter them in Choose your user and refine them later.
Generated from the live curriculum · npm run gen:printables