Taming Complexity

This week the layout will be slightly different from other weeks.

At this stage, the original milestone document gave another week to work on concept development and secondary research but these have come to a close, somewhat. So the project has moved ahead a week to prototyping and user centered design.

Many aspects of the project have been looked at in regards to spending time actually coding an iPhone application or simply have strong visuals and convey the idea across using imagery. The project will take the latter as this brings more freedom and creativity. With recent solutions to project issues, strong technical research to provide realistic visions of the project being brought to light, the project is well on time.

So with the help of PSD’s and AI files round around the web, interface designs and prototype experiments have started.

2009 05 06 – Talked with Helen and Stuart and progress is good. Need to flip the concept on its head, have some fun with the project and experiment. Signed up to iphone development but need a mac.

2009 05 09 – Done secondary research on iPhone applications, Competition, psd’s and examples of iPhone designs. Listed 3 protental user experience try outs.

2009 05 12 – Compiled solution for automatic products appearing on the phone.

2009 05 13- Began designing interface concepts which will be tested by user experiences and played with via the iPhones picture viewer.

Links,
http://www.technologyreview.com/communications/22571/
http://developer.apple.com/iphone/index.action
http://www.kraftfoods.com/kf/iFood.aspx
http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2009/05/how-to-get-started-with-iphone-dev/

Development

2009 04 27 – feedback from helen and other students = realtime is essential. secondary research. carried out proving data gathering is tedious for general public.

2009 04 28 – Dotting ideas and solutions on developing the concept. Near Field Communication (Nokia).

http://www.slashgear.com/nokia-6216-classic-with-nfc-for-contactless-payments-2341677/

2009 04 29 – Phone scenerios, illustrations and secondary research.

http://web4.cs.ucl.ac.uk/staff/C.Wallenta/fairtracingblog/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/ecover.jpg
http://abduzeedo.com/25-great-examples-iphone-optimized-sites

2009 04 02 – Redeveloping illustration scenario with new wireframe.

http://www.thewojogroup.com/2009/04/adding-fun-to-your-user-interface/
http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2009/04/40-awesome-iphone-application-websites/
http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2009/05/simplifying-website-usability-the-3-step-approach/

Start of the term

2009 04 13 - To this point, brainstorming ideas and decided on health concept.

Originally the idea was to put people at the gym into ranks as this gave more incentive to compete but was later dropped because the idea was not developed in time for the formative.

The new concept was to make the pre-existing traffic light service on Sainsbury’s own products more useful and motivating to encourage health and exercise to customers not in the know on different calories, fats, omega 3 and other important daily balances.

2009 04 14 - Started searching for presentation influences and started creating.

Sites such as http://www.behance.net/, http://abduzeedo.com/ and http://www.smashingmagazine.com/ gave huge inspiration for slick and unique presentation visuals. The last project’s presentation was taken very well so elements of that have been implemented into this presentation.

2009 04 21 - Finished presentation slides.

2009 04 22 - Presented Formative to Helen and Michelle

The presentation had positive feedback in regards to the concept and its potental to really impress. The key point was they actually would find this useful in day to day life which was the aim of the project from the very beginning. So it is a excellent start in regards to the concept. Presentation needed work in its structure and visuals of the project and a keen amount of research is needed to see this through.

2009 04 23 - Finished milestone Excel document.

4th March

27th February was spent over looking the progress of the prototype and what problems there are. The top issue was still trying to edit anything within the tbeta actionscript code because as it turns out, actionscript 3 is almost a different architecture to actionscript 2. This was a big issue for the group because the knowledge only went as far as actionscript 2. So a solution round this was to send data out of the as3 file and then receive it via the as2 file. This would require next to no knowledge of as3 because the group would ultimately be working in as2.

Research was carried out on all types of ways to do this but to no avail. Nothing worked with the groups as3 script initially and this issue continued.

Development has stopped in regards to the concept and user experiences due to the briefs requirement to have a working prototype for the project. Focus was now to be spent on completing the presentation boards, prototype hardware and completing scripting.

28th February was spent building the prototype framework and although took a long time, was very successful and really looks professional. The group was happy with the results and was later packed up ready for transport into Ravensbourne.

The prototype framework was taken into Ravensbourne on the 3rd March and was assembled relatively quickly compared to Saturdays efforts. The same day, the perspex for the project arrived and was a real sense of achievement as (hardware wise) everything was coming together.

As this only took up the morning to complete, the rest of the afternoon was spent writing out what content the group wanted in the presentation boards, how many and yet another template was created.

Progress on the scripting was really slow and the group was not getting anywhere fast. So the issue was posted on a forum for additional help as there is not anyone in Ravensbourne that has a good understanding of flash actionscript.

Finally the group got a reply from the user ‘Parker’ on the 4th March that summed up the reason why we were having issues with as3. The group simply had to import a class that will enable the localConnection variable.

http://nuigroup.com/forums/viewthread/4634/

This really pushed the scripting issues forward and a lot of progress was made shortly after with both actionscript files talking to each other. This also brought up so many other issues that the project looks very unlikely to have anything fully working for the 11th March. With these massive script issues, presentation boards and the groups personal project logs to make, it looks like this last week is going to be very difficult.

22nd February

Work has really been picking up so these entries may be more common from now on. Yesterday began with Flash Actionscript to get the prototype moving along in terms of not having multi touch all linked up and the rest of it, but just simply mouse clicking objects to get feedback. This resulted in being able to draw an object, visually present that being an object and then giving that a simple menu. The plan is to get everything working via mouse input and then import than class’s required for the touch inputs in there as well.

Here is a list of problems that raised:

• Once a shape was drawn, having that held into a movieclip.
• Accessing objects from an Array to be manipulated.
• Having previous objects stay on screen, not disappear when another is created.

Today involved talking to individuals that do not know anything about this project and proposed current navigation concepts. Through this new gesture navigation was brought up and was well received from the participants. Originally the navigation was to create a shape by touch and that object, be as dynamic as possible, would be the outline of whatever device chosen by the user. The problem that raised through development was creating these shapes was difficult, even to link a circle up proved awkward so the alternative to this was the user drawing a quick line, which dependant on its max height, length and smallest height, length displayed the outline creating a box. This would then give the option of what type of shape the user wanted this to be. Instantly proved more intuitive and easier for the user to grasp.

Yesterdays issues where looked at again today but still no luck. So it was decided to do a different aspect of the project and start creating the framework for the navigation and what would ultimately be involved. This will be developed over time and user research will undoubtedly change the layout significantly.

19th February

14th February was spent on sketching presentation board templates and finalizing the concept navigation before user testing is introduced in Illustrator.

On the 17th the group worked on improving actionscript code with some success resulting in a multi touch painting program but have looked at the progression of the project and prioritized aspects including what’s working and what is not. Depending on Judy’s feedback tomorrow, coding will be dropped for a video representation in replacement for presentation quality. Also including sketching storyboards for the video presentation and ideas which would portray the project as best as possible.

The 18th started with talking to Judy and was sent to see James Uren on the possibility of solving problems the group have recently been trying to fix. This resulted in answering one question but still leaves a lot to be desired in the final stages as the group believes at this point, the quality would be significantly better creating a video based on what is happening instead of prototyping. So in conjunction with yesterday’s decision, the prototype progress will stop. But a prototype is required, so although not particularly interesting, the current prototype will be shown in the final presentation along side high quality presentation boards and video. Stop motion, 3D or just normal video has yet to be decided on.

That evening the group researched potential programs which would best demonstrate the project such as 3D Studio Max, After Effects, Photoshop and Illustrator. A few shots were taken at 3D Studio Max and Photoshop but was decided to concentrate in Illustrator for the boards because of the vectors flexibility.

Today the survey was sent out and currently has over 140 replies which is excellent news and the results are really interesting. Also research was conducted on inspiration for the presentations style and feel. Coming across the lovely vector made by 3LgoRdo, “My Beloved Bella…” was very influencing and including other artwork across the net, this image really ticked the box. http://3lgordo.deviantart.com/art/My-Beloved-Bella-113359509

This image decided the feel and style which resulted in this, a representation of the project concept. This is currently in progress and will carry the next couple of boards in the right direction.

11th February

This week consisted of sketching interface and gesture concepts for the interactive project which came out really nicely and many creative ideas were popping out. These ranged from circular, futuristic and floating menu designs due to the nature of the project. People are not robots, thus can never draw perfect square boxes or circles consistently, so the way the menu appears would be a floating type action and very dynamic to how and where the user finishes creating their shapes. For instance, if the user created a box starting from the bottom right and went round in a clockwise fashion, the menu would appear on the right as that is where the user’s finger was at the end.

Also some ongoing secondary research has progressed in terms of getting influences from already established prototypes on the net. Even simply looking at illustrations for colours, styles and lighting are so inspiring and the group really wants to get a unique feel and intuitive sense for the project. Here are two youtube videos and illustrations to show.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WM8wL24USc&feature=channel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RetJ_W6s-V8&feature=channel_page

http://mariyumi.deviantart.com/art/Lute-106890415
http://yanabondareva.deviantart.com/art/100-102658039
http://luminatii.deviantart.com/art/Organic-REmix-66228502
http://jomino.deviantart.com/art/io-97517210

These and many others gave ideas on how the concept would look and feel from a digital perspective and the way finger inputs would link up to create a centre area as shown in the first youtube video. It had a potently good place to create a menu if the user does not desirer making shapes for their media.

Additionally a number of questions were written down for a survey which will be setup at http://www.surveymonkeys.com. This site was used by many students last term and served them all very well with a number of options for questions and statistics after. Although they are rough, these give an idea on what areas the group are looking into asking. These will be pushed around, removed and improved on what’s relevant to the project.

• Is your wall cluttered/messy and full of images? Because of devices?
• What type of stuff is on your wall?
• Do you think 0.3mm televisions and… is becoming “silly”? Pointless
• How many screens/lights/media in your room?
• Is thinner better?
• When interaction with objects, what do you find easier to navigate with? Colour, sound, touch or feeling?
• Do you fill up walls? Is it colourful/vibrate?
• What type of television do you have?
• Do you care about all this high definition?
• Do wires and linking up devices annoy you?
• Do you keep things tidy?
• Do you currently see interactive walls as a gimmick or potentially something greater could come out of this… way of presenting information?
• Do you like these new touch-screen phones? (iPhone, LG)
• Would you say your quite technical as in know the ins and outs of your “setup”. Television, speakers, wire setup etc.
• Do you prefer a “don’t care as long as it works” attitude towards technology or do you like the option to play with settings?
• Do you find all these individual devices scattered across your home an inconvenience? Would you prefer that device to follow you instead?

Test

This is the first of weekly blog entry’s regarding progress within the group and individual commitment.

On the 14th of January, concept ideas were bullet pointed on a notepad for the collaborative project including:

• Physical digital tagging
• Sand
• Moods
• Lighting
• Network – Bluetooth/Internet
• Headphones as a network device
• Graffiti
• Freerunning
• Staplers
• Biometrics
• Equalizer
• Photos
• On screen, expanding outside
• Fire creating an image
• Grid system

By the 21st January the group decided on a concept and presented the idea to the class. To summarize, the idea is an interactive wall for the home including unique gesture interaction, which is what will differentiate this from other projects. Feedback was given from the lectures and where to go from here but the group was mostly left up to their own devices and carried on developing the concept. Some secondary research was gathered on main priorities such as high risk problems such as projection onto a screen which is also picking up gestures, lighting and possible scripting issues that will undoubtedly creep up. But also presentation qualities and perspective issues will need to be tightened up for the final presentation.
Here are the links mentioned:

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=GB&hl=en-GB&v=NcAm3KihFho
• http://www.aiburn.com/article/create_a_vector_home_cinema_design
• http://www.teamgt.com/forum/cubes01.htm
• http://www.teamgt.com/forum/cubes02.htm
• http://www.teamgt.com/forum/cubes03.htm

27th January consisted of the group typing the draft brief and proposal that will include the “full” idea and what will need to be accomplished. This can be found here:

• 20080127-brief1
• 20080127-proposal

The day after, a list of currently known jobs was bullet pointed and it was decided to assign individual strengths to certain jobs. Craig would be concentrating more on the technical side of the project, were as Russell would look into the creative side regards to presentation and usability although both areas will be over looked by each other.

• Create blob tracking prototype
• Create template for documents
• Sketch storyboards
• Touch up storyboards
• Primary interviews
• Brief and proposal touch up
• Technology research
• Room photos for ideas on space
• Sketch interface proposal

February 3rd started with creating the multi-touch prototype. Both members got involved and following the instructions of http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQpr3W-YmcQ, documented the process with Craig’s camera including a video. A number of problems raised such as the webcams light was reflecting off the surface of perspec, webcam display needed to be mirrored, tBeta program was picking up the wrong webcam and the reliability of third party programs was skeptical. Some issues are still unsolved but as time goes on, the group is confident these will be resolved.

A number of sketches were created to get an idea on how the prototype would ultimately look on the 11th March and included a short storyboard to compliment it. A list of questions was needed to get a perspective on where to start and what the priorities of the project are. So these were jotted down with some extra secondary research.

• How do we want it to look?
• Usability
• Does it start with default objects?
• How would you choose between a radio and television?
• Is a list the answer?
• Colour schemes?
• Consistency
• Personalize for different users?
• Intuitive
• Feeling/touch
• Is it convenient?

http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=166&t=226083

On the 4th February a number of sketches for the final concept and addition proposals relating to what the final device would look like and feel like were sketched down. Today also involved creating the progress map/milestone excel document which was completed and put aside. Finally the group decided to give the project a name and with little debate, “0 Wallpaper” was chosen and an additional logo was created.

Hello world!

Welcome to WordPress.com. This is your first post. Edit or delete it and start blogging!