Tuesday, October 31, 2006

UCD Assignment

BA/BSc Design for Interactive Media (Top-up) 2006/07
ADM302 - User-Centred Design

ASSIGNMENT

Tutors: Stuart Neil and Debbie Lamont
_________________________________________________________

Assignment Introduction.

There are three aspects to the assessment:

Assignment and presentation of personal work (75%)
Contribution to discourse through seminars and tutorials (10%)
Personal Progress Journal (15%)

The assignment will consist of a written report, prototype and presentation.

Work done for the module should be reflected in your online personal progress journal.

The assessment of this module is based on the aims and learning outcomes which you will find in the module handbook.

Marking criteria

A Pass will be awarded where students successfully undertake the following:
Evaluate forms of interactivity relating to various technologies and contexts
Critically appraise developments within a number of disciplines relating to the design of interaction
Identify and evaluate concepts for both conventional and novel forms of interactive software products or systems
Consider technical requirements and possibilities for the design and development of interactive products or systems
Critically assess issues pertinent to the designing for communities and for collaboration

A Merit will be awarded where students as well as addressing the above, show the ability to:
Combine existing elements to create something new
Communicate your ideas clearly
Plan your work well
Form hypotheses from your research
Draw conclusions from your research

A Distinction will be awarded where, as well as the above, students demonstrate the ability to:
Make a judgement using a recognised standard
Make generalisations from your conclusions
Develop evaluation criteria
Make decisions
Identify subjective values in your research






Assessment Schedule

Assignment
Number
Weighting
Type
Handout Date
Submission Date
1
25
Written Report
24/10/06
10/11/06
2
40
Prototype
24/10/06
10/11/06
3
10
Presentation
24/10/06
14+15/11/06
CDS
10



PP Journal
15





Module Schedule

Date
Time
Who

What
24/10/06
10am
Debbie Lamont & Stuart Neil
Introduction to module
25/10/06
10am
Stuart Neil
Practical Development
31/10/06
10am
1pm
Debbie Lamont & John-Paul Jones
Design Prototyping and construction
01/11/06
10am
Stuart Neil
Practical Development
07/11/06
10am
1pm
Debbie Lamont & John-Paul Jones
Testing and evaluation
08/11/06
10am
Stuart Neil
Practical Development
14/11/06
10am – 4pm

Debbie Lamont & John-Paul Jones
Presentations
15/11/06
10am – 4pm
Stuart Neil
Presentations
































Overall Aim

Using a user-centred approach, you are going to redesign the product chosen in the previous module (‘Design for Interaction’), create a prototype of your redesign and then test it for usefulness and usability.

You will be required to submit a written assignment in formal report format (1000-1500 words) (to be published within your Blog) incorporating stages one and two of the assignment (detailed below).

Stage One - Redesign

Based on your evaluation of the original product from the last module (‘Design for Interaction’), you are going to redesign the product and produce a prototype using appropriate development methods and prototyping techniques.

Your written work will be marked on the following criteria:

Ø Demonstration of an understanding of the user-centred design methods and prototyping techniques chosen by discussing, evaluating and justifying the approach taken and practical application of them;

Ø Relating the redesigned product to the concepts & principles of key thinkers in the field of HCI & Usability (e.g. Jakob Nielsen, Donald Norman, Jenny Preece, Christine Faulkner and Ben Shneiderman);

Ø Implementation of theories learned from the ‘Design for Interaction’ module (e.g. consideration of the core cognitive processes, creating an accurate mental model for the user, appropriate use of interface metaphors and styles of interaction adopted).

Your prototypes will be marked on the following criteria:

Ø Choice of appropriate prototyping and development methods;
Ø Effective application of specialist technical and practical skills.

Stage Two - Testing

Evaluate your redesigned prototype using Nielsen’s Discounted Usability Engineering method (‘DUE’).

Your written work will be marked on the following criteria:

Ø Demonstration of an understanding of the DUE technique by discussing, evaluating and justifying the approach taken and practical application of it;

The write-up of the test results and recommendations made for a further redesign.









Stage Three - Presentation

You are required to make a 15-minute presentation to the rest of the class. The presentation will pull together all the work you have done for this module, i.e. redesign and testing. It will also allow you to explain how successful (or not!) your approach was and any problems encountered during the development lifecycle.

It would be useful to begin with a brief introduction on the original design of your product (from the ‘Design for Interaction’ module).

If you did not have time to incorporate the recommendations from your testing into a further redesign, please ensure you discuss/show visuals of a possible redesign at the end of your presentation.

Similarly to the preceding module (‘Design for Interaction’), your presentation will be marked on the following criteria:

Ø Presentation delivery;
Ø Structure of presentation;
Ø Content of presentation;
Ø Relevance of material;
Ø Use of visual aids.

Wednesday, October 25, 2006

C.C.S - Participation

On Mondays session we talked about participation and what it meant to interactive media. The clue is in the title interactive media as you couldn't have interaction without participation. Simon has been in the media quite a bit since his exhibition at Chapter opened. The exhibition entitled 'Gallery Space Recall', is indeed an empty gallery, with nothing but the words 'You are invited to recall from memory a walk through a gallery space' written on the wall. This is a link to the gallery



and one to the article that made front page of the South Wales Echo

Tuesday, October 24, 2006

user centred design

we were introduced to a new module by Debbie this morning. The module is User Centred Design.

Design to create user experiences through interactive products.

Stages
1. Ask user what they want / what they involve
list of requirements - useability / usefullness
2. Develop alternative designs - different alternatives

a)conceptual - what we want it to do
b)Physical - colour, fonts etc
Think aloud processes 2/3 different prototypes

3. Building - Prototyping development methods

4. Testing and evaluating design

5. Final development

It is an iterative process (stages 1-4, 1-4 , 1-4,1-4,5 )we keep going through till users are happy before trial development

Use neilson, normans, principles
think aloud processes

we looked at how we create alternative design
user input , self input, alternative designs of similar products, colleauges input
time constraints

We looked at how choose alternative design?
testing and evaluating, feedback, feasability - financial, technical, time, staff
Most clearly meets the criteria of specification

we looked at how the ddesign stages are related
Lifecycle models eg waterfall methods

Question why we choose a particular method
Why we didn't chhose a different method

our assignment for this module will be to redesign product chosen for previous hci module

Friday, October 20, 2006

Contemporary Contextual Studies - Session 1

Session 1

Our lecturer for this subject is Simon Pope who is a well established artist. I really enjoy his manner and find him extremely interesting to listen to.

What is Contemporary Contextual Studies?

All things that happen that are Contemporary
New Ideas
Peer-2-Peer (filesharing)
Copyrights 9Creative Commons)
Location Specific Services (GPS, Smart Phones0
Content built for specific places
Substainable development

There will be a flexible format to our lectures but they will roughly follow this structure

Each week = introduction of new topi
1st Half = Interactive discussion between Simon and ourselves about what we’ve found out about previous weeks topic
2nd Half = Introduction to next topic with Simon filling us in on the basics and cdiscussions

Must write in BLOG - Keep backup

200-300 words about topic of the week


10 minute Presentation end of module
Topic of choice from those covered and researched during module
Should be meaningful to me
To the field/s I’m interested in persuing for my Personal Project

Lectures Mondays 10 - 12.00/30


Next weeks topic Peer 2 Peer

Google it
What does it mean to me?
How does it relate to the work that I want to do?
Consider (wider frame)impact on society
Proffessionals in field
Leading software / hardware
What is my field/s?
Other interests I have?

S.pope@uwic.ac.uk

resources locative media

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Locative Media Bibliography
Collaboratively produced by Drew Hemment, Steve Bull, Elizabeth Goodman, Pete Gomes, Derek Hales, Hana Iverson, Paula Levine, Ann Morrison, Teri Rueb, Alison Sant, Leslie Sharpe, Jen Southern, Nick West and Nisar Keshvani

Download Locative Media Bibliography (pdf 57kb)


Locative Media Bibliography
:: Books
:: Articles and Papers
:: Primary Documents and Related Works
:: Websites
:: Blogs and Online Journals
Books
de Certeau, Michel. The Practice of Everyday Life (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984).

Kastner, Jeffrey (ed.) and Wallis, Brian. Land & Environmental Art: Themes and Movements (London, UK: Phaidon Press, 1998).

Kwon, Miwon. One Place After Another: Site-Specific Art and Locational Identity (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2004).

Lefebvre, Henri. The Production of Space (Oxford: Blackwell, 1999 edition).

McCullough, Malcolm. Digital Ground - Architecture, Pervasive Computing, and Environmental Knowing (Cambridge: MIT Press, 2004).

Mitchell, William J. Me++: The Cyborg Self and the Networked City (Cambridge: MIT Press, 2003).

Rheingold, Howard. Smart Mobs: The Next Social Revolution (Cambridge, MA: Basic Books, 2002). Or Rheingold's website - http://www.smartmobs.com/

Rogoff, Irit. Terra Infirma: Geography’s Visual Culture (London and New York: Routledge, 2000).

Tuan, Yi-Fu. Space and Place: The Perspective of Experience (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota, 1977).

Tuters, Marc (ed.). + Rasa Smite, Acoustic Space: Trans Cultural Mapping (Riga: The Center for New Media Culture RICX, 2004). Also available online - http://locative.net/tcmreader

Wilson, Stephen. Information Arts: Intersection of art, science and technology (Cambridge: MIT Press, 2002) In particular 1.1: Art and Science as Cultural Acts; 1.2: Elaboration on the Approach of Art as Research; 3.4: Space; 3.5: Global Positioning System; 6.1-6.3: Telecommunications.


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Articles and Papers
Benford, Steve and others. “Coping with uncertainty in a location-based game,” IEEE Pervasive Computing Journal (July - September 2003).

Debord, Guy. “Theory of The Dérive, Internationale Situationniste #2,” Ken Knabb (trans.) Situationist International Anthology (1958).

Dunne, Anthony and Raby, Fiona. “Tunable Cities,” Architectural Design 68, no. 11/12 (November-December 1998).

Foucault, Michel. "Panopticism" (Chapter 3 online excerpt from From Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison): http://foucault.info/documents/disciplineAndPunish/foucault.disciplineAndPunish.panOpticism.html?, Alan Sheridan (trans.) From Discipline & Punish: The Birth of the Prison (NY: Vintage Books, 1995).

Foucault, Michel. "Heterotopias," originally entitled "Des Espace Autres," based on a lecture by Michel Foucault in March 1967 and later published; Jay Miskowiec (trans). Architecture /Mouvement/ Continuité (October 1984). http://foucault.info/documents/heteroTopia/foucault.heteroTopia.en.html

Deleuze, Gilles. "Postscript on the Societies of Control," originally published from _OCTOBER_ 59, (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, Winter 1992). http://www.n5m.org/n5m2/media/texts/deleuze.htm

Hemment, Drew. "The Locative Dystopia" (2004). (Originally published in nettime: Fri, 9 Jan 2004 18:23:20 +0100 (CET)) and “Locative Dystopia 2" in Marc Tuters (ed.) + Rasa Smite, Acoustic Space: Trans Cultural Mapping (Riga: The Center for New Media Culture RICX, 2004).

Manovitch, Lev. “The Poetics of Augmented Spaces – Learning from Prada” (2002) http://www.noemalab.org/sections/ideas/ideas_articles/pdf/manovich_augmented_space.pdf

Pope, S. “The Shape of Locative Media,” Mute Magazine Issue 29 (9 February 2005). Available online at: http://www.metamute.com/look/article.tpl?IdLanguage=1&IdPublication=1&NrIssue=29&NrSection=10&NrArticle=1477

Russell, Ben. Headmap Manifesto (1999). Available online at http://www.headmap.org/headmap.pdf (accessed October 2005).


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Primary Documents and Related Works
Hight, Jeremy. “Narrative Archeology” (essay) http://www.xcp.bfn.org/hight.html

Rueb, Teri. Conversation with Sabine Breitsameter online at http://www.swr.de/swr2/audiohyperspace/engl_version/interview/rueb.html

Smithson, Robert. "A Tour of the Monuments of Passaic New Jersey" in Jack Flam (ed.) Robert Smithson: The Collected Writings (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996).

Suarez Miranda, J.A. (pseudonym of Jorge Luis Borges and Adolfo Bioy Casares), "Travels of Praiseworthy Men" (1658), in Jorge Luis Borges and Adolfo Bioy Casares, "Of Exactitude in Science," in J.L. Borges, A Universal History of Infamy (London: Penguin Books, 1975).


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Websites
angermann2
http://www.angermann2.com/

Anne Galloway - purse lip square jaw
http://www.purselipsquarejaw.org/

Dr. Reinhold Grether - Netzwissenschaft
http://www.netzwissenschaft.de/index.html

Locative Media Lab
http://locative.net

Mirjam Struppek - Documentation of PLAN workshop at ICA
http://culturebase.org/home/struppek/PLAN/

networked_performance
http://www.turbulence.org/blog/

Receiver
http://www.receiver.vodafone.com/

socialfiction
http://socialfiction.org/

urban cartography
http://www.urbancartography.com/

Website for seminal Locative Media workshop in Karosta, Latvia, 16-26 July 2003
http://locative.x-i.net/

we make money not art
http://www.we-make-money-not-art.com

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Blogs and Online Journals
angermann2
http://www.angermann2.com/

Anne Galloway - purse lip square jaw
http://www.purselipsquarejaw.org

del.icio.us/tag/locative
http://del.icio.us/tag/locative

Dr. Reinhold Grether - Netzwissenschaft
http://www.netzwissenschaft.de/index.html

Howard Rheingold - smartmobs
http://www.smartmobs.com/

Locative Media Lab
http://locative.net

Mo-life
http://s7digital.com/molife/

networked_performance
http://www.turbulence.org/blog/

Receiver
http://www.receiver.vodafone.com/

socialfiction
http://socialfiction.org

Steve Dietz - yproductions
http://www.yproductions.com/info/archives/000375.html

The Feature
http://www.thefeature.com/main

University of Openess - Faculty of Cartography
http://twenteenthcentury.com/uo/index.php/FacultyCartography

WirelessLondon
http://wirelesslondon.info


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COLLABORATIVELY PRODUCED BY
DREW HEMMENT is director of Future Everything, a non-profit creative company responsible for Futuresonic International Festival; AHRC Research Fellow in Creative Technologies at University of Salford; Project Investigator in PLAN - The Pervasive and Locative Arts Network. Involvement in music events as DJ and/or organizer since the 1980s. Projects include *Loca* (2003-ongoing), *Futuresonic* (1995-ongoing), *Low Grade* (2005), *Mobile Connections* (2004), *FutureDJ* (2004), *Turntable Re:mix* (2004), *Migrations* (2002/3), *Blacktronica* (2002), *Sensurround* (2001/2), *BrokenChannel* (2001) and *SenseSonic* (2000). Completed an M.A. (Distinction) at the University of Warwick, and a Ph.D at University of Lancaster.

Formerly with Interval Research, STEVE BULL founded Cutlass [ctlss.com], a company that specializes in mobile locative media with applications running on O2, Verizon Wireless, TELUS Mobility, and Orange. Fall 2005 he spoke on pervasive gaming at the Institute For The Future and Digital Storytelling Festival in California, and at CUNY. Recent recipient of a N. Y. State Council for the Arts grant for Cellphonia: In The News, a karaoke cell phone opera, Bull is also collaborating on Phone Me, an interactive locative cell phone history/mystery set on the Lower East Side. The New York Historical Society’s Slavery in New York exhibit will feature his cell phone tour of its downtown locations. He’s taught in the Interactive Telecommunications Program at N.Y.U, Parsons, and currently at Temple University [http://www.templenmic.com/courses.html].

ELIZABETH GOODMAN's design, writing, and research focuses on critical thinking and creative exploration at the intersections of new digital technologies, social life and urban spaces. She has a Bachelor of Arts in Fine Art from Yale University and a Masters in Interactive Telecommunications from New York University. Most recently, her *Familiar Stranger* project was part of Spectropolis: Mobile Media, Art and the City. Her work has been shown at Paris' la Cite des sciences et de l'industrie, as well as at a number of international academic conferences such as CHI, DIS and Ubicomp. She is now a design researcher at Intel’s User Centered Design group.

PETE GOMES is a Writer-Director and Artist. His work has been screened and shown internationally, in galleries and festivals including, Tate Modern, Whitechapel Art Gallery, Gimpel Fils, Barcelona Museum for Contemporary Culture, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Vienna Museum of Contemporary Art, Leeds International Film Festival, South Bank Centre London, Sonar and also in USA, India, Russia, Iceland and Europe. He is known for his innovative visual work and collaborations with contemporary architects, choreographers, musicians and composers including: Throbbing Gristle, Shobana Jeyasingh, Luciano Berio, Donnacha Dennehey, Jocelyn Pook, and Michael Nyman. He explores intersections between cinema and technology which manifests itself in a wide range of projects encompassing installation to film drama. Current projects include a 'geo-cinematic' film shot in southern Madagascar, and his first feature film as Writer-Director. He has taught at the Architectural Association since 1999 and is working on 'Urban Mirage'; an international workshop examining drawing, location, and cinema.

DEREK HALES is Subject Leader for Multimedia and Research Leader for Creative Technologies in the School of Art and Design, University of Huddersfield, UK. As Research Director of the Digital Research Unit, Derek works in partnership with Creative Director Tom Holley at the Media Centre, Huddersfield to support practice-based research through an Artist in residence programme, a series of Creative Labs and a newly established Mphil/PhD group. Derek is a chartered architect and chairs the Emerging Technology Group for the Royal Institute of British Architects in Yorkshire.

HANA IVERSONis a new media artist, whose work crosses between digital, video and sound media. She currently is Director of the New Media Interdisciplinary Concentration at Temple University. Her work was recently exhibited at the International Center of Photography, Dorfman Projects, Mary Anthony Gallery, Pulse Art, Art in General, and 494 Gallery in New York; the Museo Universitario del Chopo, Mexico City; and in Canada. Her long-term installation and multimedia project, View from the Balcony, was on view at New York’s Eldridge Street Synagogue from 2000-03. She has received support for her work from the Covenant Foundation, TU Vice Provosts Research Initiative, the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture, the New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) and Tisch School of the Arts. Ms. Iverson holds a Masters Degree from the Interactive Telecommunications Program, Tisch School of the Arts, New York University. http://www.temple.edu/nmic

PAULA LEVINE is a media artist and Associate Professor of Art in Conceptual/Information Arts, at San Francisco State University. Her current research and art practice is in GPS, remote and locative media. As a participant in the 2004 IntraNation Residency, The Banff Centre, Levine produced SpeakingHere and Shadows from another place: San Francisco ß->Baghdad. She presented a paper on these locative projects at MIT:4 – The Work of Stories, as a Mobile Narrative panelist. Levine is currently working on a series of projects and essays based on her ideas of transpositional mapping: using coordinates of distant events as templates that are overlaid locally. Collapsing the safety of distance, these hypothetical maps ground foreign events in local terms. Security Wall, a transpositional mapping of the Israeli barrier, is a work in progress. In April, 2006, she will exhibit Signature, a GPS triggered sound installation, as part of Sonoma County Museum’s centennial commemoration 1906 California earthquake.

ANN MORRISON lectures studio process, physical computing interactive environments and information visualisation within The Information Environments Program, School of ITEE, at The University of Queensland. Morrison is an installation and new media artist, currently working with alt reality and locative projects, writing and constructing a context containment interactive environment. http://www.itee.uq.edu.au/ [~morrison/]

TERI RUEB’s large-scale responsive spaces and location-aware environments explore intersections of architecture and urbanism, landscape and human movement, and sonic and acoustic space. She was an early pioneer in using GPS to create location-aware responsive installations and environments in urban and remote landscapes. She has received grants and commissions from The Banff Centre New Media Co-Productions, Turbulence.org (with funding from LEF and the Jerome Foundation), Artslink, the Maryland State Arts Council, and The Puffin Foundation. Her work has been presented internationally and reviewed in diverse publications including "Information Arts: Intersections of Art, Science and Technology", edited by Stephen Wilson, MIT Press, 2001. Rueb received her master’s degree from the Interactive Telecommunications Program at New York University and a B.F.A. in Sculpture, Painting and Literary and Cultural Studies from Carnegie Mellon University. She is a professor in the graduate Department of Digital + Media at the Rhode Island School of Design. http://digitalmedia.risd.edu

ALISON SANT is a media artist, with a background in digital media and architecture. Her work explores the city as both a site for investigation and intervention and has often focused on the hidden dynamics of the urban landscape. She has exhibited nationally and internationally including the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, VIPER Basel, and ISEA. Sant teaches classes at the San Francisco Art Institute, Mills College, and the California College of the Arts. She has been awarded artist residencies at the Djerassi Resident Artists Program, Headlands Center for the Arts, and the Tryon Center for Visual Art. Sant is also a recipient of a Creative Work Fund Grant. She received her BFA from New York University in 1993 in the Departments of Photography and Interactive Telecommunications and received her Masters in Design at the College of Environmental Design, University of California Berkeley in 2004. Sant is currently an Artist in Residence at the San Francisco Exploratorium.

LESLIE SHARPE is Assistant Professor and Area Head of Digital Art in the Hope School of Fine Arts at Indiana University, Bloomington, and previously taught at UCSD as a Faculty Fellow and at Pratt Institute in New York. She works in Digital Media and Installation, with a focus on Mobile and Wireless Technologies. Sharpe's recent work employs the genre of ghost narrative in projects using cellphone and PDAs to explore questions about subjectivity, embodiment, social networks, wireless histories and place.

JEN SOUTHERN is an artist and lecturer based in Huddersfield, UK. Her work involves investigating everyday journeys between virtual and physical spaces, which are navigated through socially embedded technologies such as video games, mobile phones and locative media. With a particular interest in personal and specific relationships with technology in everyday life and ordinary places her work investigates real experiences of game spaces through learning and navigation. Her use of technology is specific to each project and has included robotics, wearables, shipping containers, CD ROMs and currently GPS (Global Positioning System).
Jen's practice is installation based and has been both process led and collaborative, exploring the many grey areas between shared authorship, audience participation and interaction. She has also written and curated, and run technical and creative workshops as part of her own work and in other contexts. These modes of operation are integral to a practice that is rooted in social processes and the relationship between people and local environment.

NICK WEST is an information architect and researcher with Proboscis, a London-based creative studio. He has 15 years’ experience in designing experimental prototypes for new media research, including work with Apple Computer, Paramount Pictures, the National Fine Arts Museum in Rio de Janeiro, and New York University. He holds a BA in Political and Economic Systems from Yale University, a Masters in Interactive Telecommunications from New York University and is currently working on a PhD in Cultural Studies at Goldsmiths College.

Singaporean NISAR KESHVANI is a consultant, Internet journalist, web developer, educator and new media specialist. In the last decade, he has worked across five continents (Asia, Africa, Europe, North America and Australia/Oceania). He is editor-in-chief of the Leonardo Electronic Almanac (http://LEA.mit.edu) and International Co-Editor of fineArt forum (http://www.fineartforum.org) - one of the Internet's longest runing arts publication. He has worked for various international magazines and newspapers since 1993. Keshvani sits on the board of the Art, Science, Technology Network (ASTN), Leonardo/International Society for the Arts, Sciences & Technology; fineArt forum and on SIGGRAPH's Singapore Chapter Management Committee. He is Program Advisor (Asia Pacific) of the Brisbane Multimedia Art Asia Pacific (MAAP) Festival. Keshvani has extensive experience developing and maintaining websites and was an online journalism educator at Queensland University of Technology, Australia, examining internationalization issues and changing work practices in the online newsroom. He was also Digital Media Lecturer and module leader for Web Design Applications with Ngee Ann Polytechnic's School of Film & Media Studies in Singapore. In 2003 - 2004, Keshvani was on consultancy with the Aga Khan Development Network (a group of international development agencies working in health, education, culture and rural and economic development, primarily in Asia and Africa).



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Monday, October 16, 2006

Design for Interaction Brief 3 - UCI

On Wednesday 11th October we visited the Amusement arcade the UCI complex in Cardiff Bay. Our mission - to spend time observing, recording, analysing and participating in Human interaction with computer games interfaces.

The environment at UCI was very noisy and there were lots of flashing lights and sounds trying to entice you to part with your cash. Due to the time of our visit there were no children at the arcade but there were a few adults which told me that the games are designed with both adults and children alike.

The exhibit I chose to explore was called "The Hillbillies"



The Hillbillies is a target shooting game which can be played by up to six different players at any one time. The object of the game is to get as many points as you can by successfully hitting the targets with a life sized plastic replica of a rifle. There are sixteen targets in total which are situated around the scene of a Hillbillies shack with a life sized hillbilly with a gun in his hand. As you will see from the photo below the targets are square in shape and have a circle with inners inside.


There are also archery arrows illustrated to look like they’re coming out of the targets. The metaphor of the arrows in the target confirms to the user that it is indeed the target. The user would use previous knowledge in this cognitive process to recognise the targets.

When you insert money in the slot the simple interface displays your score, the number of shots remaining and the amount of credits you have left. There is also a start button on the interface.

This is a photo of the interface.



The player gets twenty shots for one game and each target successfully hit scores ten points. To start the game you need to press the start button. There is no flashing light on the start button and there is no signal to indicate the game had started or any indication that you are firing shots apart from a minute click that is emitted from the gun. When I played I found that hearing the gun firing was impossible to hear especially with all the noise and commotions going on in and around the arcade. I only realised I’d taken any shots when I looked on the interface and saw I had only 15 shots remaining. I think the noise should be louder so you know the game has started and is working. The simple interface has limited information and does not converse with the user or instruct the user in any way.

The game uses infra-red beams and sensors, infra-red beams are fired from the rifle to the targets. When the beam successfully hit’s a sensor on one of the sixteen targets it triggers a reaction from the object in the scene that the target is on. All targets reactions are different e.g. the cuckoo pops out of the clock., the shack door opens and a monkey squirts water at you, the bell rings and the Hillbilly stands up and shoots water at you out of is gun. All the reactions make a noise too egg the Hillbilly shouts and the monkey laughs. There is no time limit on the game and it finishes when all 20 shots have been taken




The design of the game uses some of Gestalt design recommendations. It has easily distinguishable objects, good affordances e.g. the rifle affords to be fired.. HCI principles that are applied are that it’s enjoyable and entertaining for the user to play. The bright flashing lights and the moving objects and loud sounds ejected from the game entice the user to part with the cash. Many people enjoy this kind of simulation game because they get to fire a rifle which is not something that they can do in the real world. The chance to shoot without consequence appeals to the user.

By allowing six players to play at one time adds a competitive edge to the game and encourages players to part with more cash for the chance to get a higher score than the others. The exhibits reflect this in their design. They are designed so they are addictive to play therefore getting you to keep putting more and more money in as you try to complete the game

This is me playing the Hillbillies



The main differences between the exhibits here at UCI and those at Techniquest are

You are required to put money in the games at UCI to be able to play them. The exhibits reflect this in their design. They are designed so they are addictive to play therefore getting you to keep putting more and more money in as you try to complete the game

The exhibits at Techniquest are educational and teach children about science but the exhibits at UCI do not have an educational aspect to them.

Many of the games at UCI represent real life in some way but most of them are based on weapons, violence and fighting. Promoting violence is not a good message to be going out to children.

The environment at UCI was very dark and noisy and there were lots of flashing lights and sounds trying to entice you to part with your cash. The atmosphere at Techniquest wasn’t as noisy and it had large floor to ceiling windows with views of the bay.

Even though I enjoyed both the trip to Techniquest and the trip to the UCI amusement arcade my favourite had to be Techniquest. Techniquest was great fun and being a parent myself I was impressed in the various innovative and exciting ways that science was illustrated by the exhibits.

Saturday, October 14, 2006

BRIEF 2 DESIGN FOR INTERACTION

The product I have chosen to investigate is the Kodak EasyShare V610 Digital Camera. My reasons for chosing this are that it's a portable device that has a multimedia interface.As I’d only purchased the camera the day before I was given this breif I had no prior knowledge of its functionality, interface or the location of the buttons essential for operating the camera.







1. THE PR
ODUCT AND ITS FUNCTIONALITY

The Kodak Easyshare V610 is a well built digital camera with a high quality slim metal body and controls. The camera uses Kodak Retina Dual Lens technology the two lenses give it a total focal range of 38 - 380 mm (10x optical zoom) and it boasts a 2.8inch high resolution (230,000 pixels) LCD screen and 28MB internal memory. There’s also wireless Bluetooth onboard so photos can be shared instantly with P.D.A’s , mobile phones, P.C’s and Picture Kiosks. The camera has Easyshare which means it can be connected direct to a Kodak printer dock without the need for a p.c.

The Kodak V610 takes photos either in a chosen pre programmed mode eg auto, sport, night-time etc or can be programmed to suit your needs with desired flash and aperture settings. The camera also shoots videos It is designed to be used in many different environments, there are modes for indoor / outdoor , sunny and snow. As it’s purely a point and shoot camera it’s interface is not overloaded with external controls.


2.THE INTERFACE



Figure 1. The top veiw of the camera

The top plate of the camera (fig 1) is home to the shoot (shutter release), flash mode and main power switch. To the left of these are three mode buttons giving one-touch access to stills (auto), movie and favourites modes. You can see at a glance what mode you are shooting in as the three mode buttons have a blue light inside them.

The rear right of the camera (fig 2) hosts a navigation pad and centre button combination which controls the display, scene and landscape modes and to change exposure. It is also used for zooming and selecting pictures in review mode. Above this is the zoom contol which is used for zooming in/out whilst shooting.
FIGURE 2

The rear left houses the 5 main buttons (Fig 2)


Scene
This button displays a tidy screen of Scene options. Three rows of Scene icons are neatly arranged in the bottom half of the screen, leaving the top half available for a text explanation of the currently selected one. Options in this mode are Portrait, Panoramic L-R, Panoramic R-L, Sport, Landscape, Close-up, Night Portrait, Night Landscape, Snow, Beach, Text, Fireworks, Flower, Manner/Museum, Self-portrait, Party, Children, Backlight, Panning Shot, Candle light, Sunset, and Custom preset shooting modes.

Delete
This button calls up the Delete menu in Review mode. You can delete individual images or all images on the card. There's also an option to cancel.

Menu
This button displays the settings menu in Playback or Record modes.

Review
This button activates Playback mode when pressed in any Record mode. Once in Playback mode, pressing the button again, or the
Shutter button, returns to the Record display..

Share
This button lets you tag images for printing, emailing, or as a favourite image. (The metaphor of a heart appears on "favourite" images).
Pressing this button in Record mode automatically enables Playback mode, and displays the Share menu with the following options:
E-Mail: E-mails a low-resolution copy of the image to a recipient, based on a saved address book.
Favourite: Marks the current image as a "favourite."
Bluetooth: Accesses the Bluetooth controls, allowing you to send images and set up Bluetooth options.
Print All: Sets the camera to print all images, and allows you to set how many copies.
Cancel Prints: Clears all checkmarks from images currently marked for printing.
Select All: Allows you to quickly select all images for printing, emailing, sending to Favourites, or sending via Bluetooth.

The camera follows the 9 step guidelines set out by Jakob Neilson
  1. The camera uses simple and natural dialogue - All the displayed messages are easy for even a technophobic person to follow
  2. The camera speaks the user's language - Icons of common metaphors are used in the menus. In particular the scene menu uses metaphors for icons (fig 3) for the following Shooting modes

    Auto
    • Portrait
    • Panorama left-right
    • Panorama right-left
    • Sport
    • Landscape
    • Snow
    • Beach
    • Text
    • Fireworks
    • Flower
    • Manner/Museum
    • Self portrait
    • Party
    • Children
    • Back light
    • Panning shot
    • Candlelight
    • Sunset
    • Custom
    • AE compensation +/- 2.0EV in 0.3EV steps

    Figure 3

    A metaphor of a runner is is used to symbolise sport mode and moving targets. A tulip is used to symbolise taking close up pictures. This a common metaphor used on digital camera. Amoving car is used for panning mode.
  3. Minimise user memory load
  4. There is good screen management and different users abilities have been taken into account in its design.
  5. The cameras interface provides feedback at every stgep. Conversing with user so that they know they are following the correct procedure for what function is desired.
  6. The exits are clearly marked and it is easy to navigate your way through the menus
  7. The error messages are clear and informative
  8. When a selectable mode is active it is displayed at the top of the interface.
  9. Prevent errors

3a. STEPS AND ACTIONS REQUIRED FOR CHOSEN TASK

I used Norman's Action - cycle model for this task

Goal: To send a photo via Bluetooth from my camera to my mobile phone

Task:
  • Locate photo on camera I wish to send
  • Activate blue tooth on my mobile phone
  • Find device (mobile phone) with my cameras bluetooth
  • Choose image size
  • Send photo to mobile phone
  • Receive photo on my mobile phone
Action:
  • Press review button on camera
  • Use < > keys on the navigation pad to scroll through and locate image
  • Select image by pressing OK button
  • Press the share button
  • Use navigation pad to scroll down to the Bluetooth menu
  • With the Bluetooth menu highlighted press OK
  • message displayed "camera is searching for devices
  • All devices that are displayed are then shown
  • Use navigation keys to highlight my mobile phone device
  • Press OK
  • Select size - QVGA - fast transfer by highlighting it in the transfer menu
  • Press OK
  • message displayed "sending to device mobile phone" displayed
  • Accept transfer on my phone
  • message displayed "sent to mobile phone
3b. HOW I KNEW HOW TO CARRY OUT TASK

I found the task relatively easy to carry out as it was not the first digital camera I have operated. I used my prior knowledge, common sense and the recognition of metaphor to assist me. I knew from previous knowlege that pressing the review button would show me all the pictures that were stored in my cameras memory. Common sense told me i'd have to press the share button to carry out the task. The Bluetooth option had the familiar metaphor of a network icon which is commonly used for this hardware. I used my prior knowledge take from the similar task of sending photos from mobile phone to mobile phone with Bluetooth to assist me with the transfer.

Sunday, October 08, 2006

Brief 1 - Techniquest Visit





Visited Techniquest, Cardiff Bay Wednesday on a field trip with DIFM course. Techniquest is an interactive science discovery centre. The purpose of our visit was to observe how visitors (mainly children between the ages of 8-16) interacted with the exhibits and to record our findings.
Techniquest boasts over 150 interactive exhibits, a science theatre where children can enjoy exciting live shows and a planetarium that simulates the night sky.

After an hour of observation and interaction with the exhibit’s we went into the science theatre. There the Head of Research and Evaluation - Dr Sue Cavell gave us a talk about Techniquest and then we had the opportunity to ask her any questions we had about Techniquest and the exhibits.
As we had only had an hour to observe the exhibits Dr Cavell kindly offered us the opportunity of a complimentary return visit. I took her up on her offer also taking my 10 year old son and his friend along with me.

For the purpose of the exercise I decided to concentrate my studies on one particular exhibit.

The exhibit I chose was named “Mixing Beats”



The “Mixing Beats“ exhibit’s scientific aim is to educate children about musical beats. The exhibit is designed to look like a modern DJ booth. By using a design that the children are already familiar with they are promted to use prior knowledge to aid their interaction. The design makes learning fun, which promotes greater retention of information and higher learning. The design also uses affordances the record affords to be turned the play button affords to be pressed.
”Children in the concrete operational stage (ages 7 to 11) are maturing on the brink of adult cognitive abilities. Though they cannot formulate hypothesis, and though abstract concepts such as ranges of numbers are often still difficult, they are able to group like items and categorize”
(Schneider, 1996).
These are old enough to use relatively sophisticated software, but young enough to still appreciate a playful approach.

The exhibit consist of two mixing decks each have a play/pause button, and a pitch and there is a cross fader between the two.



Above the decks is a large screen which displays a media player library containing two songs. To the left of the decks is an instruction panel which is universally used on all of the music exhibits. Using the same panel throughout makes it easier for the child to interact with the computre interface as they use their cognitive skills to perform the tasks and navigate through the menu.

The interface has four buttons with a display in the centre. The top left button gives instructions for the mixing decks. The top right hand putton changes the text to Welsh, the bottom left hand button is “Why Science” - which explains the science of musical beats and beat matching, they learn that all music has a beat but the speeds of the beat will differ. That the beats are measured in BPM (beats per minute). The bottom right hand button is the “Why Music” which explains to the user about how DJs use beat matching for smooth crossover between mixing records and about hip-hop and scratching. By using modern music examples it makes the exhibit more interesting for the user and is geared toward the 8 - 16 age groups.



The main instruction menu's HCI interaction drives the user. They are instructed to press the play button on one of the decks and to move the pitch up and down so that they learn that the pitch changes the records speed. They are then instructed to press the play buttons on both mixing decks at the same time and move the cross-fader side to side. All instructions are illustrated for ease of use by target audience.





They are then driven to try to match the BPM of the two tracks. The wave track on the main screen above the tracks helps them to match the beats visually. The beats can be matched by either moving either record and my changing the pitch (speed which it is played).



I noticed that 95% of the children didn’t read the instructions before experimenting by pressing the buttons on the decks. They used a trial and error approach and because they get an instant result of music being played it keeps them interested. At the exhibits that didn’t produce any result from a child pressing the buttons the child got bored after 10-15 seconds and rather than read the instructions they run on to the next exhibit. It seems the ability to capture a childs attention at the very start of the interactivity is extremely important.

Tuesday, October 03, 2006

Design For Interaction - S.Neil and D. Lamont

Today (weds 27 sept)
We had an introduction to our assessment for Design for Interaction with Debbie Lamont
There are 3 aspects to the assessment
  1. Assignment and presentation#
  2. Contribution to this course through seminars and tutorials
  3. personal progress journal

Design breifs attract the following marks

Brief 1 -15 % - Blog report

Brief 2 - 20% - Blog report

Brief 3 - 15% - Blog report

brief 4 - 10% - Presentation

Monday, October 02, 2006

CCS - STARS OF C.C.T.V

Session2 : Stars of C.C.T.V.

CCTV
CAMERA PHONES
SURVEILLANCE
VIDEO SCANNERS/RECEIVER
YOUTUBE
GOOGLEVIDEO
FLICKR
PRODUCTION
BROADCAST
DISTRBUTION
EDITINH
CIRCULATION

MICHELLE TERRAN
SURVEILLANCE CAMERA PLAYERS
GUERILLA TV

‘DIGITAL STORY-TELLING
BBC
TRAINING


Data Protection Act – limits the sharing of information

Everywhere you go you are recorded
You can ask for the footage of yourselves - legal right
In spain (Working as a journalist if your in the streets anyone can tape you)

Shoot a movie – sites where cctv – ask for footage – valid way of making tv

If want to produce tv

Michelle terrain
www.ubermatic.org/life

takes tv monitors

http://www.maplin.co.uk/

Wireless video / audio receivers (£26.99)

Surveillance camera players

Could shoot movie from one

Audio scanners

How do we get images out of the network and utilising them

Hi-fi stereo Signals (simon bringing it in next week)

FM transmitters - Broadcast onto network that is transmitting
*********************************************************************

New media Gorilla marketing advertising



Advertising on Bluetooth
BLUEJACKING

Using Bluetooth to hijack peoples phones

Make promo videos and broadcast over Bluetooth

Server from Bluetooth
Build a schedule on it
Eg a soapopera episode transfer it broadcast
Broadcasting scheduling and produceing

Ways of distributing images easily




TASKS
THINK ABOUT THE ABOVE REFERENCES
THINK ABOUT THE PRODUCTION SIDE OF IT
IT’S IMPACT ON SOCIETY
IN THE FIELD OF INTERACTIVE MEDIA
WHAT EQUIPMENT YOU NEED
IMPACT ON AUDIENCES


INNOVATE AND DO INTERSTING CREATIVE THINGS IN IT

Graphic1


Graphic1
Originally uploaded by kustard99.
hub

notes for ccs

Chatted about what info we’d found out about peer-to –peer

Napster or a link – unstructured – p2p
Tapestry – structured p2p

Discreet (closed to outside world) networks for specialised areas
Another social network

History of internet – internet is simply inter networks –

How computer networks mirrored social net

6% of separation we’re all only 6 connections away from each other

Trace through address books 6 times to get to who you want

Hub
http://www.flickr.com/blog.gne?photo=258439096

Small world theory

The hub would be the most likely to know others in different groups

GOOGLE – searches Documents are most trustworthy if there are lots of links to them

Dark net (underground)

Nutella napster – issues behind them p2p – legal issues

List of companies of people are not happy with p2p
E.g. Sony, MGM

Copydex – underground movement – giving music away free
Embrace – play to enjoy music not to make money – hold secret gigs
Don’t believe in the copyright for music – just on name

Pre internet copyright movement

Music Industry

Producers (view) - people listening , merchandising, press & promotions,
How to get known
PureVolume – can lead to record deals
My space –

Distributors – charge – approx 50% of profits

Strategy of promotion
Merchandising
Maintaining brand of the band
Most of the revenue is through merchandising and live events
Self Distribution
Internet promotion
Pod casts
I Tunes 99p download
New bands have pop up of samples
Frattellis
Mass protest against record companies (people power)
Donate money to the band
Using the networks to promote
E.g. DJ’s / bands if you listen \ download a set and you like them you’ll be likely to pay to go and see there next gig/ dj set


Technical p2p
Social p2p
Cultural impact
Marketing – Significant word of mouth


In a peer 2peer networks if you can find the hub you can contact them for their contacts

If you want something rare important it is hard to get into the closed social networks
Spys undercover




Hub