1. Explain and discuss practical and theoretical aspects of Human-Computer Interaction.
http://superhyperglobalmegablog.blogspot.com/2007/03/heuristic-evaluation.html
http://superhyperglobalmegablog.blogspot.com/2007/03/more-about-hardware.html
http://superhyperglobalmegablog.blogspot.com/2007/02/persona-william-worthington-meeting.html
http://superhyperglobalmegablog.blogspot.com/2007/03/11-conclusion.html
2. Apply HCI principles to practical problems
http://superhyperglobalmegablog.blogspot.com/2007/02/personas-trisha-was-ill-so-i-had-to.html
http://superhyperglobalmegablog.blogspot.com/2007/02/between-last-meeting-and-latest-we-have.html
3. Participate in analysis and design work in HCI
http://superhyperglobalmegablog.blogspot.com/2007/02/initial-design.html
http://superhyperglobalmegablog.blogspot.com/2007/03/software-revised-and-elaborated.html
http://superhyperglobalmegablog.blogspot.com/2007/03/this-is-nursery-rhymes-and-stories.html
http://superhyperglobalmegablog.blogspot.com/2007/03/8-focus-groups-target-persona.html
http://superhyperglobalmegablog.blogspot.com/2007/03/8-cognitive-walkthrough-evaluation.html
http://superhyperglobalmegablog.blogspot.com/2007/03/heuristic-evaluation.html
http://superhyperglobalmegablog.blogspot.com/2007/03/9-re-design.html
http://superhyperglobalmegablog.blogspot.com/2007/03/re-design-hardware.html
Friday 30 March 2007
11 - Conclusion
Designing a product for a child is a much harder task than we first thought. Imagining something from another perspective can be tricky, especially when that perspective is so different from our normal one.
The persona's really helped with this task. We spent a lot of time thinking out our persona's and understanding their families and way of life. This really helped us target our product.
As a group we came up with some great ideas. Often ideas clashed and led to heated debate but this only helped everyone see everyone else's point of view. We spent a few weeks refining our prototype as we kept having new ideas or concepts of how it could be improved. We found that, before we started using formal techniques, we were constantly evaluating and redesigning and we were all really happy with our first prototype.
We were fortunate enough to have access to lots of parents with children of varying ages who we sent questionnaires to and the results were great. Overall the parents were very pleased with our product and one even offered their contact details in case we'd require funding to produce the product. They also offered some great criticism and made us realise that our original research and ideas about what a child was capable of were a little misguided. This led to us changing the age range and look for our product.
We found the heuristic evaluation and focus groups surprisingly helpful. This brought up loads of points we hadn't thought of in our original design. The results of these evaluation methods, combined with the results of the questionnaire made the task of redesigning what we thought was the perfect product much easier.
The product has evolved enormously since our first prototype and we are very happy with our final design. We feel that were our product actually made commercially available, it would be very beneficial for children providing them entertinment alongside education and that it would be well received by parents.
The persona's really helped with this task. We spent a lot of time thinking out our persona's and understanding their families and way of life. This really helped us target our product.
As a group we came up with some great ideas. Often ideas clashed and led to heated debate but this only helped everyone see everyone else's point of view. We spent a few weeks refining our prototype as we kept having new ideas or concepts of how it could be improved. We found that, before we started using formal techniques, we were constantly evaluating and redesigning and we were all really happy with our first prototype.
We were fortunate enough to have access to lots of parents with children of varying ages who we sent questionnaires to and the results were great. Overall the parents were very pleased with our product and one even offered their contact details in case we'd require funding to produce the product. They also offered some great criticism and made us realise that our original research and ideas about what a child was capable of were a little misguided. This led to us changing the age range and look for our product.
We found the heuristic evaluation and focus groups surprisingly helpful. This brought up loads of points we hadn't thought of in our original design. The results of these evaluation methods, combined with the results of the questionnaire made the task of redesigning what we thought was the perfect product much easier.
The product has evolved enormously since our first prototype and we are very happy with our final design. We feel that were our product actually made commercially available, it would be very beneficial for children providing them entertinment alongside education and that it would be well received by parents.
10 - Re-evaluation
We are very happy with our new design and it's fresh unique look and it's much easier to control than before.
However, we still have criticisms of our device:
1 - We thought the camera button would only fit in next to the right button. It's a bit annoying that this button only has a purpose in one application and makes the device less symmetrical. The button could also be pressed by mistake when a user wants to press the right button or vice versa. Whilst this wouldn't be a disaster (the camera button wouldn't actually do anything in any other mode than camera) it may become annoying - the user would think they've pressed the button but nothing happened.
2 - There is little space for the icons with the new, smaller design. Since the age range has been upped it is not so critical that they are large. Ideally they should be bigger or somehow more clear.
3 - The retracting string may be noticeable and pull whilst someone is trying to use the stylus. On top of this using a weak spring may mean that it is easy to break. One alternative is to have a retractable string that works like a pull down projector screen. You pull the pen out so that you have a length that you are happy with, you can then draw away without the string retracting. When you have finished you pull the string and it retracts. The difference between this and pull down projector screen is that you know how far you need your projector screen to be pulled down from when you start. Children may find it hard to grasp the idea of pulling the pen out to a suitable length before they start drawing.
4 - To remove the stylus from the device you need to press the nib side in and the rubber side pops out. We are not entirely happy with this as it wouldn't be immediately obvious to a child that this is what they need to do. We had considered having two gaps so that fingers can grab the pen but we decided against this to save space.
However, we still have criticisms of our device:
1 - We thought the camera button would only fit in next to the right button. It's a bit annoying that this button only has a purpose in one application and makes the device less symmetrical. The button could also be pressed by mistake when a user wants to press the right button or vice versa. Whilst this wouldn't be a disaster (the camera button wouldn't actually do anything in any other mode than camera) it may become annoying - the user would think they've pressed the button but nothing happened.
2 - There is little space for the icons with the new, smaller design. Since the age range has been upped it is not so critical that they are large. Ideally they should be bigger or somehow more clear.
3 - The retracting string may be noticeable and pull whilst someone is trying to use the stylus. On top of this using a weak spring may mean that it is easy to break. One alternative is to have a retractable string that works like a pull down projector screen. You pull the pen out so that you have a length that you are happy with, you can then draw away without the string retracting. When you have finished you pull the string and it retracts. The difference between this and pull down projector screen is that you know how far you need your projector screen to be pulled down from when you start. Children may find it hard to grasp the idea of pulling the pen out to a suitable length before they start drawing.
4 - To remove the stylus from the device you need to press the nib side in and the rubber side pops out. We are not entirely happy with this as it wouldn't be immediately obvious to a child that this is what they need to do. We had considered having two gaps so that fingers can grab the pen but we decided against this to save space.
9 - Re-design (hardware)
The overall response from the questionnaire suggested that the device was too big. It would have been difficult to use whilst being carried. If you were using the old design and carrying it using the handles you wouldn't be able to reach the buttons to do anything. The handles actually have no point other than for carrying it around so we decided to chop them off and have a strap instead. This makes the device much smaller and removes an almost pointless part of the design. We then thought it would be a good idea to have the buttons at the top corners of the device and expand the sides as it goes up. You'll get a better idea looking at this picture:
The user can grab the top left and right sides of the product which are specifically swollen to make it easier to hold. Grabbing the device in this way also means you have your thumbs free to press the buttons.
The point of being able to hold and use the device at the same time is even more important now that the age range has increased. It's much more likely a seven year old will want to walk around and use the device at the same time or even in other situations where it's not possible to rest it on your lap.
The general look is a lot more trendy and attractive. We think it will really appeal to our new age range and it's unique shape will ensure it flies off the shelves.
In our new design we have also included a retractable string which connects between the device and the end of the stylus. The string has a very light retracting force so the string is dragged in but isn't noticeable enough to be annoying when using the stylus. The child can get the pen out from the device by pressing the nib side of the pen in and and make the rubber side pop out.
Based on the responses from the questionnaire we have also decided to make the product available in a range of colours...
The user can grab the top left and right sides of the product which are specifically swollen to make it easier to hold. Grabbing the device in this way also means you have your thumbs free to press the buttons.
The point of being able to hold and use the device at the same time is even more important now that the age range has increased. It's much more likely a seven year old will want to walk around and use the device at the same time or even in other situations where it's not possible to rest it on your lap.
The general look is a lot more trendy and attractive. We think it will really appeal to our new age range and it's unique shape will ensure it flies off the shelves.
In our new design we have also included a retractable string which connects between the device and the end of the stylus. The string has a very light retracting force so the string is dragged in but isn't noticeable enough to be annoying when using the stylus. The child can get the pen out from the device by pressing the nib side of the pen in and and make the rubber side pop out.
Based on the responses from the questionnaire we have also decided to make the product available in a range of colours...
9 - Age Range
We have decided to change our age range from 18 months - 4 years to 3 - 7 years.
The questionnaires were unanimous in pointing out that our age range is wrong. Questionnaires filled out by parents with children under the age 3 indicated that they would have difficulty using it. It was also suggested that the age range should go up to 7 years old.
We originally thought we had a good age range based on our understanding of children's capabilities. Obviously the parents who filled out the questionnaires have a much better idea than us.
The questionnaires were unanimous in pointing out that our age range is wrong. Questionnaires filled out by parents with children under the age 3 indicated that they would have difficulty using it. It was also suggested that the age range should go up to 7 years old.
We originally thought we had a good age range based on our understanding of children's capabilities. Obviously the parents who filled out the questionnaires have a much better idea than us.
Sunday 25 March 2007
9 - Re-design
- Questionnaires
- Heuristic evaluation
- Cognitive walk-through
- Focus groups
Parent control
In our proposed design, The console did not have any sort of functionality that would allow the parent to control what is going on, such as downloading additional software(stories, nursery rhymes etc), changing the settings and so on. A suggestion was put forward to the parents through the questionnaire to ask whether a "Parental control" facility was appropriate. As a result to this question nearly all parents agreed to the suggestion to have a parental control facility as they felt this would be quite useful because they could have more control over their child.Stylus
In regards to the cognitive walk-through evaluation process we discovered that when the child selects a colour in the drawing application there is no indication shown to the child of what colour they have selected. Therefore, we decided to incorporate an LED into the transparent stylus so that it would light-up depending on the colour selected.
Above is an example of a light-up pen which is similar to what we are intending to use but as an alternative we will use a more chunkier pen with it lighting up at the nib with a transparent rubber. This will show the child more clearly what colour they have chosen. in the sense of lighting-up and not the shape of the pen.Progress bar
As stated in the heuristic evaluation and the cognitive walk-through, there is no indication to the parent or child as to where they are in the story application and how many pages are left. To improve this facility, we decided to place a progress bar on the application as we felt this would be the most effective way to demonstrate to the child and parent how far they have progressed and how many pages are left in the book. As shown above it will be implemented on the top of the application to avoid confusion with the words lighting up.
This improvement also applies to the gallery and music feature. In the gallery application it will be used for the same purpose as the story application and for the music application it will be used for the progress of a song and the length of the song. Additionally, we will also use the page numbering effect for this application to show the number of songs in application. e.g. Song 1 of 20. It will be placed on the top of the application to show consistency.Return button
One of the major discussions we had was on either physically having a "Home" button or having a "Return" button on the touch screen. This issue was raised during the heuristic evaluation process which may possibly confuse the child as there was no specific way of getting out of the current screen. Having a home button would mean another button on the console which we did not want. The other option was to have a return button on the touch screen but not all applications needed this feature. In conclusion to this discussion we felt that placing a return button on the touch screen would be the most effective.Error message
As pointed out in the heuristic evaluation there is a possibility of getting an error message when the camera memory is full and the child attempts to capture some more photos. At this point, a sensible error message should be displayed to the childlren whilst it's being read out to them:
Then parents would have to log-in to the parental control program and empty some space by deleting some pictures.Templates
During the discussion with the focus groups an issue was raised in regards to the camera application. The parents thought it would be a good idea to use templates with the camera as you would with a mobile phone. This will enable the child to choose a different template with the forward and backward buttons and use it with the camera.Certificate
Another idea in which would be beneficial to the child would be to have some sort of reward system where the child would be recognised for getting answers right. We thought giving the child a star every time they completed an exercise successfully would be a good reward. Once they had received a certain amount of stars they would be awarded a certificate. Above is an example of how a certificate would look. If the child was to achieve 1-5 stars they would receive a bronze award. If the child was to achieve 6-9 stars they would achieve a silver award and if the child was to achieve 10 stars they would achieve a gold award. These certificates will be stored in the Gallery so they can be printed by attaching a printer to the console later on.Menu Consistency
Whilst discussing the consistency and standards point of the heuristic evaluation we thought it might be a good idea to have a welcome menu to each section. This is already the case for the stories and music section and we thought it might be a good idea to use it throughout. After discussing it further we realised that menus for sections such as the alphabet and numbers section would be inappropriate. We then thought about getting rid of welcome menus for all sections but they are essential for the stories section. We concluded it would be best to keep the menu set up as it is. Whilst it's not as consistent as we'd like, we do think this is best possible layout and makes the most sense.
During our re-design process, there were certain aspects of the console that needed further consideration that would improve our proposed design. The methods that we used to throughout this process includes:
The results from these methods concluded that we need to modify some parts of our proposed design to suit the user requirements. These modifications are as follows:
8 - Focus Groups: Target Persona
One of the evaluation methods that we used is having a Focus Group session with our target personas. Focus Groups as they say is a qualitative research to find out more about the user's reaction to an interface and have an equal contribution towards the design evolution in product life cycle. This has come up very handy because it is an easy and low costly way to gather a group of people to cross communicate their ideas and actually come up with design modifications.
We gathered all our target personas together to give us a detailed feedback on our product design. One of us acted like a moderator who mediated the discussion and gave everyone a chance to speak about in the discussion. A brief conversation amongst the parents of target personas was recorded as follows:
Abbreviation: Britney's Parents (BP), Dennis's Parents (DP), William's Parents (WP), Moderator(M)
DP: I think my child can use all these physical features on the console like pen, buttons and slider immediately. However, he might have to explore a bit before he can use the touch screen, camera and eraser.
WP: Yes, I agree. However, touch screens are quite common and intutive things for kids nowa days. William often plays around with my PDA at home and asks me to let him write on my tablet now and then. It will be great for kids to have their own toy to work with.
DP: Dennis will be actually very excited to own a product like this. I guess after a while he would just not leave playing with this and learn at the same time. I can see great use of this and the physical design is just appropiate.
M: Do you have anything to say here Mrs BP?
BP: Yes, I was a bit taken back whilst thinking about how Britney would cope to use the touch screen, camera features, understanding a slider and use buttons in an appropiate way rather than pressing them like any other toy.
DP: At that age, kids are only fasicnated by pictures, animations, ryhmes and something they can lift and throw.
WP: Not to forget about the early scribbling they do on walls.
BP: That would really save my wallpaper, sofas and wooden worktops.
M: So as a group you have any modifications you think our product would need to change physically?
BP: Weight might be an issue for Britney.
DP: The screen might be too small and handles are too big in comparison.
WP: Yeh, if we can have a wider screen but otherwise appearance is great!.
M: Ok great! Let's see how the colour scheme would affect the overall appearance of the console.
So, we had a long conversation and had several suggestions and contributions towards design enhancement during the session. The process was highly fruitful because parents could actually talk aloud and clear any doubts they had about their child's needs and prospective products like our educational console. They talked about how technology is changing rapidly and is effecting upcoming generation. They also talked about this product could add extra value by having a parental control, knowledge games, have several different versions to cope with the age group difference from 19 months to 48 months. They also quite like the plastic feel yet water resistant and highly safe product. They were quite excited to exchange views on how their child would react if this were to given them as a surprise present. Some of them felt that the kids would open up the box and start using straight away whilst others were concerned that they would have to manually go through each feature to make it any usable for the child. The results of the focus group are summarized below:
Ref: http://www.webcredible.co.uk/services/focus-groups.shtml
We gathered all our target personas together to give us a detailed feedback on our product design. One of us acted like a moderator who mediated the discussion and gave everyone a chance to speak about in the discussion. A brief conversation amongst the parents of target personas was recorded as follows:
Abbreviation: Britney's Parents (BP), Dennis's Parents (DP), William's Parents (WP), Moderator(M)
DP: I think my child can use all these physical features on the console like pen, buttons and slider immediately. However, he might have to explore a bit before he can use the touch screen, camera and eraser.
WP: Yes, I agree. However, touch screens are quite common and intutive things for kids nowa days. William often plays around with my PDA at home and asks me to let him write on my tablet now and then. It will be great for kids to have their own toy to work with.
DP: Dennis will be actually very excited to own a product like this. I guess after a while he would just not leave playing with this and learn at the same time. I can see great use of this and the physical design is just appropiate.
M: Do you have anything to say here Mrs BP?
BP: Yes, I was a bit taken back whilst thinking about how Britney would cope to use the touch screen, camera features, understanding a slider and use buttons in an appropiate way rather than pressing them like any other toy.
DP: At that age, kids are only fasicnated by pictures, animations, ryhmes and something they can lift and throw.
WP: Not to forget about the early scribbling they do on walls.
BP: That would really save my wallpaper, sofas and wooden worktops.
M: So as a group you have any modifications you think our product would need to change physically?
BP: Weight might be an issue for Britney.
DP: The screen might be too small and handles are too big in comparison.
WP: Yeh, if we can have a wider screen but otherwise appearance is great!.
M: Ok great! Let's see how the colour scheme would affect the overall appearance of the console.
So, we had a long conversation and had several suggestions and contributions towards design enhancement during the session. The process was highly fruitful because parents could actually talk aloud and clear any doubts they had about their child's needs and prospective products like our educational console. They talked about how technology is changing rapidly and is effecting upcoming generation. They also talked about this product could add extra value by having a parental control, knowledge games, have several different versions to cope with the age group difference from 19 months to 48 months. They also quite like the plastic feel yet water resistant and highly safe product. They were quite excited to exchange views on how their child would react if this were to given them as a surprise present. Some of them felt that the kids would open up the box and start using straight away whilst others were concerned that they would have to manually go through each feature to make it any usable for the child. The results of the focus group are summarized below:
- Age Group: Out of our discussion it was quite clear that there was a wide gap between the learning process of a 19 month old to a 48 month old. Although the product covered the learning aspects of the entire range in one way or the other, yet it would be extremely useful if we did have a highly focused age range. It will help the child in learning, be beneficial to parents, all the applications would be extensively used, the website will be constantly used for the updates and there will be more feedback from the child if the age group was shifted to 3 yrs and above.
- Wider screen/Attachable to external screen/TV/projector: The parents came to a conclusion to have a wider screen so the kids can have a larger workspace to work with as it will not put a lot of strain on their eyes. Also, if the console can be connected to external devices then some applications can be viewed at larger screens, when required.
- Selectable Colour Scheme: The parents also came to a conculsion that have a variety of colour schemes for the console will have more options for the kids rather than in a basic blue and red. The colour should be extensive and be attractive for kids to buy in.
- Menu for all sections: The parents suggested that there was no Home button or a soft key to take them backwards when they were in a middle of a section. Hence, a menu(soft key) will be implemented that can user to home at any point of time.
- Colour pallette for Colouring in: Parents suggested that kids like to mix and match different colours and having a colour palette will give them an extra section to work on in the colouring in and drawing section. This can be implemented in advanced section to have the basic functionalities simple and straight forward.
- Certificates and Rewards: The kids can be constantly encouraged and motivated if they had some scores they can keep for their work and games on the console. This will be highly rewarding and motivating for them to learn more for an incentive. The parents should be able to modify and set the incentives for them from the parent console. Also, this shouldn't discourage the child in any form if they were not able to achieve any particular goal. So, this can be kept as a rewarding scheme and not a c competition against anyone.
- Foreign Languages: Having foreign language option in advanced level will really get kids started to learn any foreign language in a fun and creative way. The language lessons are quite expensive and highly tedious for a child to get motivated to learn one. However, with this console they can actually start up and can be sent for further learning later on.
- Templates for PhotoGallery: Parents also thought that it would a good idea to have templates for photo gallery so kids can cut and paste the pictures they have clicked in the templates of their action figures like superman, spider man or other themes like barbie, incredibles etc. During this process they can edit their own clicked pictures and save them to print them whenever required.
- Parent Control Console: The parent control console will be highly useful to download the content form the web and also in keeping a track of how their child is doing in different sections. It might even display or highlight one of their child's great interest in one of the sections or more to build up on that. E.g. if you know that your child really likes to solve mathematical puzzles and is doing extremely well then you can download more puzzles or quiz games involving mathematics to push your child in the right direction.
- Music Section having highlighted keys: Parents The parents have also suggested that it would be good to have highlighted keys as the child is playing the music composition on the screen as it will enhance the speed of learning.
Ref: http://www.webcredible.co.uk/services/focus-groups.shtml
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