aesthetics and user experience

IKEA virtual assistant
my rating for the aesthetic design for anna will be 4. It looks very nice and intuitive.
my rating for the 'coolness' of anna will be 3. I believe anna to be more of a gimmick.

studio 5 - applying usability engineering to usability analysis

Device : Iphone 4

Task : Access the ipod (music library) and find the artist OFWGKTA and play the first song of the album.


Step by step

The screens step by step

1. unlock the phone
2. access the music libaray/ipod
3.find the required artist and select him
4.play the first song of the album.


Question 5.

attribute - unlocking the phone + accessing the ipod
measuring concept - to see how easy it is
measuring method -  measuring the time taken
worst case - 2 minutes
planned level - 1 minute
best case- 30 seconds/ instantly.


6.
The metrics i will use to measure this will be time in seconds.

studio 7 - task definition

Technology - independent task definition - example

Task- find the music video 'The smiths- This charming man' on youtube
Steps:
1. Open the internet browser
2. Enter in search bar the address www.youtube.com
3. when the page is open enter in youtubes search bar The smiths - this charming man'
4. Find the music video and click on it
5. watch


Technology-dependent task definition -example


in order from left to right

1.unlock iphone
2.tap the youtube app to open it
3.tap search at the bottom
4. type in the smiths-this charming man and press search
5. tap on any video
6. it will play automatically.

studio 6 | identifying research methods

1.

Ethnographic research is a method of study which involves the field observation and qualitative analysis of human behavior. While ethnographic research can be applied to virtually any kind of sociological or anthropological subject of inquiry, there are distinct advantages and disadvantages to using the method.

1. Background

   • There are various types of ethnographic research which may be employed to study human populations, beliefs and customs. Some of these include macro-ethnographic research, which entails studying a larger group of people; and micro-ethnographic research, which involves observing a smaller sample of humans and practices.

   Advantages

   • One of the more widely cited benefits of conducting ethnographic research is that due to the first-hand observation that is involved, usually conducted over an extended period of time, the research can provide extensive and in-depth findings about human behavior. In addition, because ethnographic research relies on observation rather than examinations or predetermined tests, the research can evolve and explore new lines of inquiry.

   Disadvantages

   • Due to the fact that ethnographic research relies on observation, it often takes a longer period of time to produce thorough and reliable results. Also, because the research is reliant upon the observations of just one or a few people, the conclusions about what the human subjects were doing, saying or feeling could be altered by the observers' cultural bias or ignorance.

     from http://www.ehow.com/facts_7603988_advantages-disadvantages-ethnographic-research.html

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     to put it simply, ethnography is monitoring and observing human behavior without them knowing. This allows for natural behavior. This ties in with persuasive computing as this is technology that naturally fits into our lives.

2.Three different systems described in the paper are the 3 games/ activities noted down. One was called 'can you see me now' (CYSMN), the other was 'ynle roy all around you' (URAY) and lastly was savannah.  Essentially all 3 used gps tracking , wifi and text messages but used a different ways. In CYSMN it was used as a way of communicating in the game, but used the real world as a playground. URAY followed on from this to which they connected the real world city to a parallel on line 3D city. Lastly savannah  used the gps and wifi networking to search around a field , exploring the terrain and finding information on how lions survived.

3. The disadvantages of using ethnographic user studies are that , because it used natural behaviours , every one will act in different ways and so this will cause problems in replicating the test each time. Also because it rely s on observation, the tests and results will take longer to obtain.

The advantages are that because it rely's on observation the results can be very detailed. Also it can open new doors in that people may find flaws , or even improve on a system.

week 4 - design principles / usability goals

Decide how far and in what ways usability goals or design principles appear to be represented in the design of your mobile phone 

Scenario

John is in the meeting and so cannot be interrupted.. This also means he has to turn his phone onto silent to avoid any phone calls and message alerts being heard by his colleagues quickly.

Function: Switch phone to silent.

To turn the phone onto silent, you have to flick the button on the side of the phone down. From previous phones, switching to silent was rather tedious. It may have involved going into the settings on your phone and finding it from there from various sub folders. It isn't very efficient as putting your phone on silent is possibly one of the most important and helpful features of a phone. And so it makes sense to create a simple button the side of the phone, to instantly put it into silent. Essentially this isn't a cultural convention as of yet. This is particular to apple phones.  

But with this slight alteration john can easily change his phone to silent without unlocking his phone and in a fraction of the time of another phone. 

Possibly if other manufactures adapt this feature, then it would be a cultural convention, amongst phones and so changing to silent will not be so tedious. 




Scenario 2
John is on the train and has to quickly look at emails on the move, and to talk to his business clients.


Function : check emails and call a person.


For john to check his emails he essentially has to connect his email account to the iphone. This is done by going into settings --> mail --> add account. He then has to sign into the account. Once completed it will a be connected to his phone. To quickly check his email, at the home screen he can press the mail button which will instantly show all his mail, and also download any new mail. Again this isn't a cultural convention. It is a learning convention. This is attended by the manufacture for you to learn, but once completed, makes using the phone much simpler, as he will always have his account connected to his phone, when he presses the mail button. It is much more efficient this way , rather than going onto the phones web browser and accessing mail.


As for calling his client, the steps he has to take involves pressing the phone button on the home screen. This opens his contact to which he can press onto, and then press call.  This in turn is a cultural convention amongst other phones, as all phones will need to go through the contacts to call a particular person you know. He will also have to hang up when finished and so within our culture , green means 'go', and red means 'stop' and so pressing the red button will 'stop' the call. And so it makes sense for this layout off the big red 'end call' button to stop the call.






Essentially the iphone's user centered design is hard to comment on has apple as looked at all areas of usability.

IDEO blog + reading week 3

PICTURE OF TOWEL RAIL

• it shows a picture of a newspaper on a towel rail
• he is using the towel bar to rest his newspaper on.
• essentially the rail isn't intended to be used in this way

PICTURE OF MAN WALKING ON LINE

• man is walking on a blue line. A blue line technically shows what direction to go to reach a certain destination i.e a train station.
• the line is also to split which way people go to and from this destination. On the left side people walk towards and on the right side people walk away. It splits up the crowd and makes it easier for people to navigate.
• instead one man decides to follow the line and walk on top of the line rather than on the left side of the line.

MY DESIGN CHANGE ON THE LINE

• my interpretation of the line is to split which direction people are going to and from a given destination.
• to make this clearer i would possibly add arrows on the floor, on a given distance to show which way you should be walking.
• this would show where to walk in regards to the line and also which side to stay between the line.
• a similar design has already been implemented with bicycle and walking lanes and so adding arrows o the floor would be effective i believe.

READING WEEK 3

'explain she and her team at IDEO uses images to inform design , and discuss one example she gives.'

The team uses images as a invitation to look, in a newly focused way, at ourselves and our everyday environments. She uses the images in a way to give a different perspecitive of what is happening , which can then inspire thpughts and design opportunites.

She also says that each image encourages the observers own interpretation and speculation about the situation.

one example she gives is of a picture in which open umbrellas resting on parking scooters in the street are shown. She believes this might suggest myriad functional opportunites and scenarios; for street furniture with shades, for vehicle seats finished with less heat absorpsive material, or for garments with insulated seats. 


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'ethnography is a natural fit with persuasive computing, why?'


because persuasive computing is about technology being a part of our lives naturally and without us knowing its there any more. We are costumed to it. Such as always having the internet wherever you are. 


This fits into ethnography as ethnography is about observing the natural use of technology in real situations. And so this can lead onto good product design. 
Good product design is in the back bone of persuasive computing as persuasive involves technology being one with our life. And so this is only really achieved through good product design.

Reading, week 2 (Usability)

1)
Definition of 'Usability in-life.'
Usability in-life is essentially evaluating an product, item or event in the real world to see how effective it is use. For instance, self service checkout machines. To evaluate them, you would get a strong number of users, e.g 10 and give them tasks to be completed in a supermarket and a specific time e.g buy 1 banana and 1 apple and 1 bottle coke. You would note down the time taken, compared to using a cashier, the users mood e.g fustrated or satisfied and the time taken compared to using a cashier.

2)
Difference between 'usability in itself' & 'usbaility in-life'.
Usability itself is primarily focused on pre-scripted tasks which are conducted away from the 'world' such as in a lab in an controlled environment. Although you are still getting results from these tests, the users may have no real motivation or reason to do these tasks. The tasks may not be relevant to real life activities, for instance if you are testing an ticket machine, one task may be 'please buy a single ticket from Liverpool to London on a ticket machine..' Here the time may be taken from several users and then compared on a base time.

As for usability in-life, the tasks may be occur in a natural environment , but will be the same as the 'usability itself' task ; 'please buy a single ticket from Liverpool to London on a ticket machine..' But as it would be done in the 'real' world users will face other natural tasks and obstacles such as pedestrians and rush hour. The information noted, when the users are completing these tasks would be how successfully it was done, the expressions and frustrations, how many people gave up and comparisons with the 'human' service.