Minimal Viable Prototype (MVP)

Think of the MVP milestone as a video walkthrough of the “prototype” of your final project: it does not need to be polished, but it should realize some of the intended narrative and visualization functionality of your final project.

Table of contents

For the MVP milestone, you will upload a 5-minute video to Canvas descriping the prototype.

The video should explain the problem you are addressing, which track you chose, how your interactive system addresses the problem, and list your specific questions for the course staff. Your work will be reviewed by the course staff to provide feedback on your design and progress. It is fine if your project is not yet in a fully “complete” state; however, by this point, you should have made substantive progress, including working (if still rough) prototypes of your main visualizations, and interactions.

Ideally, all the major components of your final project should have a working prototype implementation. This prototype can have many rough edges (and even bugs!), but there should be some styling and working functionality. This also means that some narrative elements should be present (i.e., not all dummy text).

Your MVP should be in a sufficiently developed state that we are able to judge how your final project will ultimately function (including what the takeaway message(s) or insight(s) will be for your intended audience).

5-minute video

We suggest recording your video using Zoom with camera on, and screensharing slides and the walkthrough of your prototype. We are not expecting highly polished videos. This is just a convenient way to concisely share your progress with the instructors so we can provide you feedback.

A good prototype video should roughly cover the following content:

  1. On your title slide, include the names of all members of the team, who your intended audience is, and what the purpose or goal of your final project is.

  2. (~1 min) A brief reminder of the key goal(s) for your intended audience.

  3. (~3 mins) A demonstration of your working MVP implementation from the perspective of your intended audience (i.e., walk us through your MVP as though you are the intended reader).

  4. (~1 min) A short list of questions you would like the instructors to comment on.

Grading

This milestone is worth 10 points.

  • Clearly stated goal (5 points)

  • Clear walkthrough of the prototype (5 points)