Project 4: Part 2

PowerPoint Easy Love

Project 4: Part 1

Biegert and Funk’s Qlocktwo : http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2009/09/qlocktwo_clock_tells_time_with_word.html

Biegert and Funk’s Qlocktwo challenges the current status quo of dialog and analog clocks by instead creating a clock that uses words instead of numbers or ticks. It tells time by illuminating the right words instead of the right numbers. This brings to question what to most efficient way to tell time is. Is it more intuitive to tell time by numbers or by words?

Samsung Transparent Screened Laptop Protoype

The Samsung Transparent Screened Laptop is the beginning of a new direction many technological devices are turning – the use of a transparent screen. However, the beginning of this idea brings to question if people are comfortable with the use of this type of screen? How private do people consider their computers to be? Is having the latest technology worth the potential loss of privacy?

Link to Project 3

http://socialzombieninjadinosaur.wordpress.com/

Project 3: Five Ideas

1. Restaurant Idea: As you walk in you will sit down with your friends or date, and will eat appetizers with your desired guest. Then when you finish your appetizer you both will be moved per conveyor belts to a different table with different people and a different sort of food. This will encourage you to try new things with new people, which is always a conversation starter.

2. Ticket Stubs in Stores: Forces people to come to one location when they are done shopping. Allows people to talk about what they are getting and talk about different items. Possible to make it electronic with a scanner or something.

3. Removing Stalls from bathrooms: the stalls will be placed in a circle – this will break the social boundary that we have set within bathrooms and force social interaction or if nothing else group awkwardness.

4. Transparent Screens: allows you to see what people are looking at along with the ability to see their reaction to different things. In addition you can move your screen to their window or copy what they are looking at on your screen. Encourages social interaction as you cant hide what you are looking at, and also encourages pranks.

5. Movie Theater Competitions: The questions on the screen before movies become a competition between people at the movie theater. Prizes are awarded for the people that do the best. Allows for more opportunities for advertisements along with encouraging social interaction rather than sitting talking to only the people you came with

Project 3: Twenty-five Ideas

1. Restaurant with moving chairs – multiple stations that have different types of food – chairs move around so your forced to eat different things with different people

2. Prismatic clock that must be viewed from 2 locations to view a time.

3. Gigantic pencil – requires multiple people to be able to use

4. A book with every other paragraph in another book

5. Horseshoe tables – this way people at the ends can talk to each other still

6.  Excessively long stop lights – forces people to exit car and talk to each-other

7.  Screen in cars that shows you music and information about the other people at stoplight – you can then comment on them or ask questions or talk to other people

8. Table that has a seat in the middle

9. Gaming consoles / Karaoke machines in buses

10.  Ice breaker game machines in places where people are standing around

11. Pedophile buses in parks

12.  Multi-person obstacles in playgrounds

13.   Huge, i mean fucking giant, Umbrella – requires multiple people to hold – possible for tour groups

14.  Lamp post with music – attach speakers to lamp post that plays different types of music at different times – spontaneous dance party

15.  connected monitors – you can move screens from different people’s screens onto your own

16.  semitransparent screens

17. before movies in movie theaters – put terminals in so the questions on the screen are a competition to answer the fastest – like the things on planes now – let there be prizes for the winner

18.  beeping shopping carts – encourage people to be closer to each other – giggity

19.  cell phones call out who is calling – forcing conversation about who calling – “how do you know bob” “who’s kristen again?”.

20.  global nerf gun fights – bullet is only usable by a single gun – forces you to find the person you shoot it at to get your bullet back

21.  washable markers places around a building – encourages creative art on different surfaces, along with people able to build off what others do

22.  remove stalls from bathrooms

23.  building wide trackers – of coworkers and guests ect.

24.  escalators with large steps that can accommodate multiple people

25.  in stores – get tickets for the product that you want – and central location to pick up the items – allows people to inquire about the items of different people

Social List: Classwork

facebook
internet
phone
myspace
fondue
alcohol
board games
card games
games
multiplayer
groups
computer games
computers
zombie games
preventing the zombie apocalypse
planning for the zombie apocalypse
parties
guilds
dance floors
clubs
class
band
music
concerts
bowling
pool
pools
bars
billiards
fraternities
sororities
greek life
competitions
events
dorms
communities
chatroulette
chatrooms
stickam
aim
msn messenger
omegle
/b/
message boards
skype
forums
yahoo messenger
gmail
gtalk
wikipedia
youtube
xbox live
itunes
4chan
adium
hangout spots
restaurants
vortex
sports games
football
baseball
basketball
hockey
swimming
tennis
olympics
skiing
watching movies
curling
interviews
pictionary
charades
apples to apples
driving

Project 2: Final

Final Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41jBdS-VLmQ

Short Assignment 4: Evocative Objects

Throughout my life, many products have come and gone. Some things seem to always be present while others fade away as soon as their usefulness is gone. One product that has been present throughout my life is the computer. Ever since I could remember, my family has had a computer in the house. When I lived in Taiwan as a child, it resided in the corner of the living room. Just thinking about it as an advanced technology now is humorous because it was literally a gray box on top of another gray box and contained no aesthetic appeal.

As I got older, I began to actually interact with the computer. It was no longer just a gray box to me but became something I spent time and learn with. At this point in my life, most of my interactions with the computer were through educational games-Reader Rabbit, Dr. Brain, and electronic, interactive versions of children’s books including the Aesop Tales, the Berenstain Bears, and the Magic School Bus. Although these games were meant to make children learn, and even though children are notorious for disliking education, I truly enjoyed them.

I played and replayed the same games over and over again. I learned the same things over and over again. This was something that was fun for me. As we get older, we seem to get tired of repetition, but as a child, we do the things we enjoy and we keep doing it. When I think back on those days, it makes absolute sense why I am where I am today and that this interaction was crucial in the development of my interests. Although I did go outside a lot to play, it is not the bikes I rode nor the sports I played which stand out, but the things I learned while playing on the computer. The Magic School Bus games are especially clear in my memory because of the amount I played them.

The next stage of my life stripped the computer of its educational purpose to where it became solely a social tool. I was in middle school when I was first introduced to the ability to chat with friends. My mom and sister had moved to Taiwan during this time of my life so the computer became a big part of my every day, especially since my dad was at work for most of the day. Every day after school, I would sign into my America Online account and listen to the screeching sounds of dial-up as the computer slowly struggled to complete its task. I no longer used the computer to play educational games. Instead, I would spend hours chatting with my friends. Although there may not be a complete correlation, the side of me which loved to learn also began to diminish during this time. As my desire for a social life became more prominent, my grades in school began to slip.

As I progressed through high school, the computer’s role began to evolve again. The line between the social and educational aspects began to blur. The computer was a way for me to keep in contact with friends and to even make new friends, but also was also there for me to learn. School projects required me to use the computer to do research, but I did not find enjoyment in it. As I got older, the educational aspect of the computer moved from being fun to being a chore. Learning through the computer became something I had to do instead of something I wanted to do. I did not find pleasure in learning like I did as a child and I thought of high school as something that was uninteresting. My relationship with my computer became bittersweet because it encompassed two aspects of my life: something I enjoyed and something did not enjoy. It was difficult because the part I enjoyed was completely by choice while the other was something that is mandatory of me.

Sometime between my later high school years and the beginning of my college years, learning became something I enjoyed again. I discovered the computer as an entertaining educational tool beyond the games that I played as a kid. While educational games are much harder to find for someone of my age, I do not need “fun” to be motivated to learn anymore. Because of the vastness of the internet, I was able to learn about, not only what I had to, but what I wanted to learn, too. The computer is something that is still a part of my everyday life. In fact, it is more a part of my everyday life that it ever was before. It is what I use to socialize, work, and research. It has gotten to the point where if I did not have a computer, I would almost be completely lost. I am almost completely dependent on it to do work and even to physically get from one place to another. started as a gray box in the corner of the living room became something so intertwined in my life that I could not get away from it even if I wanted to.

Short Assignment 3: Information Design

Part 1. Use the “five ultimate hatracks” framework proposed by Wurman to analyze the organizational concepts behind the ‘library’ section of iTunes. What are some of the ways that you can organize information in this environment? What are some of the ways that you use to search for music in your library? How does the organization help or hinder that?

The “five ultimate hatracks” are category, time, location, alphabet, and cotinuum. Using these to analyze iTunes, it is very obvious that everything is first put into categories within the library: Music, Movies, TV Shows, etc. depending on which categories the user want on his or her main screen. Then the organization depends on what the user prefers. The information can be organized using time (length of the song, year of release), alphabet (alphabetical by song title, artist name, album name), category (genre), and contiuum (rating, play count). The only aspect of the hatracks that is not applicable is location. Each category (Music, TV show, etc.) has their own set of organizational tools depending on which category the user is within.

When searching through the library, the user can use the search bar to limit the number of songs, movies, etc. that appear on their screen. The search bar for music can be narrowed down to search through all aspect, artist, album, or composer. For movies, it can be narrowed down to all or title. Again, each category of the library has their own subcategories which can be used to search through the collection. Words can also be typed directly in the collection to come to the closest outcome without narrowing down the number of songs that are shown on the screen.

The search aspect of iTunes is helpful if the user knows which subcategory to first go into when searching through their collection. If they know they want to find a song, they can go under music and then continue their search. But this aspect of iTunes also hinders the user’s ability to search. What if the user does not know what they are searching for is a music video or an mp3? The search only applies to one subcategory of the library. Movies and TV shows are similar so that it may take the user more than one try in order to find what he or she wants.

Part 2. Compare and contrast two of your favorite news sites. What is similar and different in the way that they organize information? Suppose you didn’t have the option to search. Try to find the following recent news and record the steps you take. How does the organization of information compare to your expectation of where the material is located? How can you improve the sites to support multiple ways of finding information?

The news pieces are:

1. Endeavour lifts off on two-week mission

2. Republican Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama will stop blocking Senate confirmation of about 70 government appointees nominated by President Barack Obama, his office said.

What is similar between the New York Times and CNN websites is that they both have “top news stories” on the home page and have subcategories of news located somewhere on the screen. New York Times has a weird non-symmetrical six column grid which starts out as five and ends up breaking into six at the end. New York Times has one column at the top which is larger than the other four which includes a picture, drawing attention to it. There are more categories and subcategories on the New York Times website. CNN uses a four-column grid which starts out as a non-symmetrical three-column grid with in the middle being the largest, also drawing more attention to it than the others even though all three include pictures.

CNN chose to put their categories at the top of the page, a place where people’s eyes naturally look first and used color to distinguish the difference between the content and the tool bar at the top. New York Times, however, made their categories a smaller font size and put it to the size, making it harder to find and navigate the site.

Finding the news articles:

1) Endeavour lifts off on two-week mission

• New York Times: First, I looked on the website and went to the categories on the side. I scanned them and decided that “science” is probably the best choice to look first. After clicking onto the science website, I scrolled down the webpage and could not find the news story, so as I scrolled back up to try again. I realized that the tool bar had moved and there were subcategories under it. I clicked on “Space and Cosmos” and the first story was about the space ship Endeavor.
• CNN: Since the CNN website did not have a “science” section, I first checked the “Technology” section, I scrolled through the home page of it and could not find anything related to Endeavor or Space as a subcategory so I went back and tried the “U.S.” page. Again, I could not find it. Next I went back to the “Home” page to look around and could not find it on the there so I  tried “Health” hoping there would be a “Science” sub-section. Again, I was wrong. I then decided to go back to Technology and look under “more stories”. It was there that I located the story.

2. Republican Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama will stop blocking Senate confirmation of about 70 government appointees nominated by President Barack Obama, his office said.

• New York Times: Traveling from the “Home” page, I click onto “Politics”. I scroll up and down the page but could not find it at first. After scrolling through again, I found that it was in small print near the middle-end of the website.
• CNN: I traveled from the “Home” page to the “Politics” page. I scrolled up and down the main page for “Politics” and could not find the story. I then clicked “more” and continued to click “more” with no luck finding the story.

To improve the sites, I would have a mixture of the two sites. Building off the CNN site, I would add more categories like there are on the New York Times website. These categories make it easier to navigate the site and to find information. Also, more stories should be readily available to the user instead of having to continuously click “more”. While the New York Times site looks much more cluttered, the information is actually easier to find if you are actually looking for something instead of just browsing the news.

Project 1: FINAL

This is our final poster that we created:

Click on it to see the full size!