UCD Paper prototypes

Started looking at simple editing software on PC's, camcorders and phones and sketched out different approach's for paper prototypes.

User Centre Design-Notes

User Centre Design UCD - Re-Design. Intro to the module-read through of brief.
Intro-methology-development-conclusion-reference-bibliography
Ideas- left handed, ambidextrious camcorders.

Lecture Notes
Stages of design

• Develop alternative designs
• conceptual level
• physical level
• building
• test & evaluate
• final development

Look at others designs, ask users, put yourself in users shoes.

Lifecycle models

• Traditional waterfall
• Rapid application development RAD
• A simple interaction design model (Preece et al 2002)

Christine Falken/Norman/Neilsson

USD in my work

• Long Timerecording
  unavailable with any
  other storage
  medium.
• No Costfor or need to
  buy additional
  recording media.
• Direct Access
  to scenes you want.
• No Risk of erasing
  something by
  mistake.
• Easy Deletion
  of unwanted scenes.
• Simple Editing
  is possible by
  camera itself.
  Playlist function.
  

Using these 6 descriptions of the advantages of using the hard disk camcorder taken from JVC's broucheres. I want to ask users what thier expectations of the product are concerning each of these statements. I might use these answers to see where the expectations fall short and re-design appropriately.

UCI - BRIEF THREE

Ring Riders Arcade Game

To play Ring Riders you sit on replica motorbike shells, which move and tilt with the weight of the riders but doesn’t unlike other bike games offer much steering control. To steer you have to use the handlebars on the front of the replica, which also contains a throttle and brake control. During game play the interface is of a racetrack with different characters on bikes with your character at the back who’s movements are controlled by your movements on the replica bike.

In relation to HCI and usability I would say

• The user is attracted to the game by the motorbike shells, which get you more involved than by just using a joystick. And the fact that there are two bikes means you can interact not just with the computer but with one of your friends as well.
• In regards to health and safety the replicas are designed to move like real bikes but without the dangers of toppling or throwing the users to the floor.
• Before the actual game starts you choose from a range of difficulty levels linked to weather conditions and type of surface. So you can make the task easier or harder depending on your experience of the game.
• Your character gives you immediate feedback on screen as you steer and depending on if your using the throttle or brake, and the noises coming from the game link your actions to the action on screen. Bikes revving and crashes.
• I found the fact that you used the bikes movements less than on other bike games that I’ve played frustrating on my first go because I was bringing what I thought was prior knowledge to the game and getting less feedback than I’d expected.
• In terms of learnability and re-learnability, the instructions are easy to follow and given to you step by step. Once you’ve played it once you’ve unlikely to forget how to use it even after a few months.
• The game is effective in that your involved enough to believe that you’re on a bike racing other bikes round a track. Sitting on a replica adds a sense of reality to the whole experience.

The forms of interaction experienced playing the game are
• Instructing – you are shown instructions on how to use the controls on the replica to help you play the game.
• Manipulating – you can alter the environment (weather/track) and you can choose what you character looks like.
• Exploring – every lap you make helps you explore what the track looks like and where certain hazards might be.

The exhibits at UCI compared to those at Techniquest
• In terms of design they try to entice you and keep you forsaking all other games so that your addicted and spend all your money on that one game. Bur they both use shape and colour in similar ways, its just the time spent at one game or exhibit that differs.
• Are aimed at an over all older target audience, teenagers and young adults (or forever young adults). Especially some of the more gruesome graphic games.
• Are designed more to specifically entertain than educate.

arcadeflyers

Techniquest

Today we visited Techniquest to look at and interact with the exhibits they have on show there.

PRODUCT ANALYSIS - BRIEF 2

Product Interface Interaction

The product that I have chosen to review is JVC's GZ-MG26 Everio Hard Disk Camcorder. It is portable (handheld and compact), has a multimedia interface (display screen), and has some features that could be redesigned or features that could be introduced.

Description and Functionality

The product itself is a handheld digital camcorder with a built in 20GB hard drive. You can also be use it as a digital camera to take still images. It is built out of a strong black and gunmetal plastic (as are the buttons, knobs and levers) and the lens housing is made out of aluminium.
Shooting is simple. Just flip out the LCD monitor screen, select the camera or video mode and press the record button. All photos and video are stored on the large built-in 20 GB hard drive which can hold between 290 to 1500 minutes of video and up to 9999 still images depending on the compression rate and picture quality.

Judging by its online brochures it's intended users are families in there 20's and 30's who are computer literate and willing to learn simple editing software to produce their own DVDs.

Apart from taking video and stills you can use the camcorder to view these image in its LCD screen or hook it up to a TV monitor or via saving them to a PC. You can re-order the scenes or delete them and add special effects to the playback of the video.

Concerning the environment within which it can be used its mainly designed for daylight conditions but it does contain a white LED and a night scope for darker conditions. You can also buy tripods, flashguns and a marine case for under water shooting up to 30 metres.

To access the functions of the device you mainly use the menu button, the index button and the control lever to move around the display and interact with the onscreen interface menus. In terms of multimedia you can view what you have recorded on TV, copy it to PC to edit fully from there, or you can burn DVD’s directly onto a “share station DVD burner” and view the footage on any device that plays DVD’s.

Interface Design

The interfaces look and feel is typical of most camcorders with various symbols, battery levels and other information on top of the footage on screen. But when you press the main menu button the interface is more like a mobile phone menu with animated icons next to text descriptions. Even the control lever, which you use to navigate up, down and left, right through the on screen options is reminiscent of the joystick controls on many mobile phones, especially Sony Ericsson models.

In play mode as opposed to the record mode the interface splits the screen up into 9 rectangles, each one containing a snapshot of the first frame of a video or a photo. If you have more than 9 videos/photos stored on the camcorder a scrollbar appears on the far right showing that you that you can scroll down onto further content. Using the control lever you can view full screen photos or play full screen videos. You can also pause, scan and zoom into the videos and photos using the control lever and the interface.

The interface is easy to use but when using the menu functions you really need to have the users manual to hand to know where to look for relevant functions and what they do. Using trial and error here would just lead to a lot of errors and you would lose track of where you’ve been. When in play mode, since its all visual you can instantly see where you are and what videos/photos are only one click away. This instant feedback is more user friendly and invites more trial and error interaction because your only one click back to its main interface so its hard to go wrong and lose yourself.

In terms of human cognitive processes I would say that the interface
• grabs your attention with its use of animated icons.
• in terms of perception uses easily distinguishable icons but not all of them have obvious representation.
• in terms of memory and learning has some actions in common with other camcorders which aids the learning experience if you have prior knowledge to bring to the device but would be difficult to master if you didn’t have a user manual to refer to.

Task Analysis
The online brouchures mention that you can perform simple editing in camera, so this is the task I’ll try to analyse. First of all you have to create a playlist which will enable you to organise recorded video in order of preference. To do this you select the power switch to the play mode; set the mode switch to video; press the menu button; then select the “playlists contents” option on screen; choose “NEW LIST”; then select a file from the scenes you have saved on the camcorder to add to the playlist; when using multiple files in the playlist you can choose the exact order you want the scenes to run or delete unwanted files; when you’ve finished your playlist, save and quit. To play the playlist when in the “playlist contents” screen select your required playlist and use the toggle switch to play/pause or stop the scene.

To perform this task you definitely need to have the users manual to hand (which is 70 pages long and printed in black and white). But once your on the editing screen you’ll find the interface is really easy to use. The left of the screen has all the scenes on the disc, which you can scroll through and the right of the screen is where you place the scenes that you have chosen in the order that you want them.

Design For Interaction 1

Groups looked at interaction with apple macs, photocopyers, and nokia 8210.
Briefs were given out for us to look at. Trip to techniquest, product interface interaction, trip to UCI. Break down of marking is brief 1 blog report 15%, brief 2 blog report 20%, brief 3 blog report 15%, and brief 4 presentation 10%

Take camcorder in tomorrow for brief 2 Product Interface Interaction

Debbie Lamont
dlamont@uwic.ac.uk