Research Topics: Conceptual Design Of Digiboard

Build up a ‘conceptual design’ picture of the Digiboard

This key assignment is to generate a PACT analysis of an interactive system to help organise domestic information more effectively and pleasurably.  In the assignment you will conduct a number of activities to build up a ‘conceptual design’ picture of the Digiboard.   Important:  Although you will be working in a group for some of the activities (like brainstorming), you should complete the documentation yourself.  You should first review the lecture notes on PACT analysis – and reread the Benyon, Turner and Turner chapter on PACT analysis. The challenge   Most houses I go into have at least one place where ‘peripheral’ household information gathers. Sometimes it’s a fridge/fridge magnet combo, sometimes it’s a corkboard.  Sometimes it’s the floor underneath a coffee table.   In family houses / shared houses the board is usually a chaotic jumble of postcards, timetables, party invites, really important letters that need signing and returning, shopping lists, post-it notes, gas bills, milk money envelopes….   Lets imagine that we’re going to ‘go digital’ with the household information centre.   It’s a fundamentally bad idea (we can discuss why later) but for now let’s start to scope the design solution and interface.   Technology assumptions   Lets assume that the electronic corkboard (Digiboard) will use some sort of flat panel screen attached to a wall in the house.  It might use a keyboard, a keypad, or handwriting recognition.  It might be able to connect to the internet via domestic broadband.  Maybe it can act as a server so you can check your shopping list online or from your mobile phone. Maybe people can play linear games (like noughts and crosses or chess) as they pass by the board.  What about speech recognition?  Could we use the board to repond to party invitations?           Tasks   Using the material we covered in the PACT lecture and from chapter 2 of the Benyon book, you should develop a set of requirements for the Digiboard based on the following stages:   <li class="MsoNormal"> A PACT analysis </li> <li class="MsoNormal"> Interviews with family members / students who share a kitchen </li> <li class="MsoNormal"> A ‘persona’ or ‘person-profile’ of a potential user </li> <li class="MsoNormal"> Web research on similar systems </li> <li class="MsoNormal"> Based on the previous 4 stages – produce a lo-fi visualisation/mock-up of the main LOST! interface components. </li> <li class="MsoNormal"> Record feedback on your initial design </li>   Don’t worry – I have included some forms to help you structure your work – and as we go through these stages we’ll discuss them   PACT analysis.   The PACT analysis is a way to record and describe:   <ul style="margin-top: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in" type="disc"> <li class="MsoNormal"> People who will use or be affected by the system </li> <li class="MsoNormal"> Activities that the system will support (functionality) </li> <li class="MsoNormal"> Context that the system will be used in (and whether this will affect what you can design) </li> <li class="MsoNormal"> Technologies that can be designed or brought together to support the Activities. (Technologies provide many opportunities for doing things differently) </li> </ul>   IMPORTANT:  It is not enough to just list these items – you need to make notes on how each person, activity, context or technology might effect or influence what you can design.  Look for opportunities as well as constraints.  For example – what might a dynamic internet connection allow in terms of the functionality of the Digiboard?   How do you do PACT?     Observing:   <ul style="margin-top: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in" type="disc"> <li class="MsoNormal" style="color: black"> Over the next few weeks – watch how people collect, organize, discard ‘peripheral’ household information.  How is material prioritized? – do ‘outdated’ messages remain without being discarded or recycled? </li> </ul>   Brainstorming.   <ul style="margin-top: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in" type="disc"> <li class="MsoNormal" style="color: black"> A group of you get together and talk through ideas and possibilities </li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="color: black"> Do not dismiss ideas at first – anything goes! </li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="color: black"> After you have a set of possibilities go through and weed out the more ridiculous ones </li> </ul>   Use the form overleaf to record your PACT analysis       1: PACT form   1:  People.  Who will use the electronic corkboard system?  Who will be affected by its use?  Do any of the users have special requirements?  What about age range and what this means for the input systems.  Who will love it and who will hate it? Why?   2:  Activities.  What activities will the electronic corkboard support? e.g. recording speech, linking notes to speech, a calendar function, what about private notes (does it need security?)  Will it need to archive notes or just delete them, will it connect to the internet, what ‘types’ of notes might you want to display (tables, lists, post-its) 3: Context of use. Not just where the system will be used, but also any special conditions – will the environment be noisy, quiet, will the system need to be used quickly, what about the need for training?  Can everybody reach the board? What about children?  Will the board make sound itself and how will this impact on domestic peace? 4: Technology.  What will the hardware have to do? (record audio, handwritten notes)  What will the software have to do?  How will the technology assist the activities outlined above?  Does the technology you choose suggest any opportunities for further activities?      Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com

Build up a ‘conceptual design’ picture of the Digiboard

This key assignment is to generate a PACT analysis of an interactive system to help organise domestic information more effectively and pl...