Archive for the ‘DJ22011 – Interaction Design (media products) (11/12)’ Category
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Finished App
Last week my group and me got together and tied up a few loose ends and completed the Gemma Mathieson App. We showed her the app on the iPad for some user testing and she loved it. There was some minor complications that were highlighted as she did not know how to exit from the video player. However this was beneficial to us and we then went back a stage and corrected this. This is why user testing is very important as you could easily miss something that a user might not.
We also presented our app to tutors and held an exhibition. This was a great experience as we got showcase our work and also look at the others groups’ work. This also helped me gain some experience on holding exhibitions and I look forward to doing more in the future.
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Developing the App
Last blog post I mentioned me and my group where looking at the design side of this app, for artist Gemma Mathieson. This past week week we have been busy developing the app on xcode, which is software that lets you develop apps for iPads and iPhones. We allocated tasks and held meetings regularly to achieve a high standard iPad app for showcasing Gemma’s work. The image above is a screen capture of our app.
The image in the middle is scrollable and when a button is clicked the image will break apart showing video, audio or an image. We wanted to create a journey effect to this app by creating a timeline as Gemma believes that the journey of creating artwork is just as important as the outcome. With that knowledge we wanted the app to better reflect her creative processes.
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App for Artist – Design Process
Yesterday we continued with our project on the app for artists. We were instructed we have to design and prototype the app for the artist, this is the last part of the semester. We started this process of by watching our individual D&AD concept videos to give us some inspiration. We then took notes and drew little ideas of what we wanted to achieve. We wanted to have a good understanding of what our app will do, its functions and how it will behave before we got into the whole aesthetics. We made mind maps to help us with this.
When that was agreed we moved onto the design. We like the idea of having the one of the artists work constantly moving across the screen and a timeline at the bottom with pin drops. Our artist believes the process/journey of an artwork is just as important as the actual art itself so we wanted to make the app design tie in with this belief. There would also be a subtle menu at the top. The menu and timeline will be a greyish metallic colour. We also had a good idea where when run, the app will start at the end and run everything very quickly right back to the start of the app. Then there would be a video of the artist telling you a brief description of herself and the app. We had discussions on what the app would be more suitable for: an iPhone or iPad. We all came to the solution that the iPad would be best as it will clearly portray the artists journey and with a bigger screen this would be the best solution.
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D&AD Brief – Concept
My previous blog on this topic discussed the brief and some of my initial ideas. I am now pleased to say I have completed this task and you can watch my concept video at the top of this entry.
It is based on an art exhibition for artists to showcase their work in a new innovative and interactive way. The app iExhibition lets viewers have full control of a gallery by selecting an image then swiping a copy of the image onto the wall. You now have two copies of that image: one on your phone and the other on the wall. You can use your device to resize, move and rotate images around the exhibition space. There is also an option to allow the user to create a more real environment that brings the art to life. You set the theme of the room so you actually create a new environment that reflects the art work on display. There is also a feature that uses augmented reality that shows a live description of the artist and their work by hovering your camera over an image.
This has been a very interesting project and has let me feel creative in new ways. Creating a concept video and not actually creating the finished app was new to me and it was a great way to explore new innovative and interactive ideas.
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D&AD Brief – Ideas
Yesterday in our groups we looked at the D&AD Brief in detail and created mind maps that helped us break down key points from it. The D&AD Brief is about creating an app that will make use of multi-screen purposes and will relate to augmented reality. We are not needed to develop this app but come up with a out going app that we can convey in a two minute video. This is a difficult challenge but an interesting one as you can let your imagination run wild with creative ideas.
We then talked among ourselves our initial ideas and noted them down. We then expanded them until they could not get any more exaggerated. We are keeping it slightly linked to our artist app in development in this module. Here is some of my notes from today’s class:
During this week I will keep thinking and adding to my notes to let the creative thoughts flow.
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Putting The Pieces Together
During the past few weeks a lot of information has been collected in relevance to create an app for an artist. This week we concentrated on putting this information together in a short video highlighting the key ideas we got from Gemma(the artist we interviewed). This was an interesting task as we had to breakdown all the data we gathered to fit a 2 minute video. We had footage of Gemma making paper, her work, some landscape footage and an audio recording of the interview. We used iMovie to create the video.
While doing this we broke down our information into categories and wrote on post it notes all the key ideas Gemma gave us. We also dissected quotes from the interview and added that to our sheets. This process helped us create the video as it showed us what the main ideas were.
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Interviewing Art Student
After all the fieldwork and observing the art studios it was finally time to get an interview of the art student. It did not really go to plan at first as we found it difficult to arrange times when we could all be available. Eventually it was done last week and it went really well.
We came prepared with paper to record notes and a camera to record visuals. However we hit a stumbling block when she asked us not to film her. This is one of the problems when undertaking this task as you have to have a back up plan to record information from an interview. She says that she would feel uncomfortable and would not answer the questions to her best as she would be worrying about the lens of the camera than the actual interview itself. This was understandable and our group asked if we could just record audio instead and take photographs of her work which she happily accepted.
We had a set of questions ready and we conducted the interview. We learned a lot from her techniques to her influences to her preferred styles and to her dream environments. The interview was very insightful and we gained a lot of knowledge of what she is like and we will try and implement this into our app.
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Fieldwork Skills
Going out into the field and making observations can be quite tricky. I learned that this last week in class when we were asked to go out and observe people in different areas around the University. Before we went out our tutor showed us a framework that would help us in taking notes,
POEMS: People, Objects, Environments, Messages and ServicesWe based our notes on this and this is what I came up with:
It is always a good idea to take visuals or audio when in the field, it will help you remember points and it will pick up on something you have left out in your notes. Here is some of the photographs I took with my iPod Touch:
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Client Environment
When designing for a client it is always a good idea to understand what the client does, where the client does it and how the client does it. Like I said in my last blog, to get knowledge of all this you would conduct interviews to understand the client’s need. However to get a deeper knowledge visiting their working space is crucial in gathering ideas that a client could not give you in an interview.
I visited the working space of my groups client, the art studio. The studio was white with designated work space for each student to do their work. It was quite messy with paint blotches in random areas and material lying around. It was interesting to see how these students work and two students talked to us to give us an understanding of what they are working on. By studying the environment and looking at there work you get a better understanding of what techniques and styles each student has. You can then use these styles and try to implement them in your app to give your clients app more personality and will be more unique to them.
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Gathering Tales
Today was all about looking at different interviewing techniques. When interviewing people you need to be organized, meaning we need to have questions picked out(questions that will raise a story just like what I talked about in my last blog) and any recording devices at the ready.
Firstly as a class we looked at how our tutor tackled these problems in his honours project, Biscuit Profiling. He started by gathering his user group, which was disabled people, and interviewed them about there problems and how they overcome difficulties. However he also studied how they did there day to day lives, what they do, how they do things thus gathering a story on just watching them behave. With all the different tales we now have a better understanding of what the clients are like therefore giving us designers a greater chance of creating a better solution. This talk really helped me and I will try and import these techniques not only in this module but my design module too as both consist of user research to achieve a solution.
Other techniques to gather information from users is involving different recording methods. Using video footage is one method and you can position the camera in a certain angle to increase the story being told. By watching interviews/documentaries you will notice that depending what type of documentary it is the camera will be positioned to make the viewer feel the story more. For example like if a person is directly talking to the camera it will show a personal informal type interview very similar to the Big Brother’s Diary Room. Recording just audio can make the user feel more at ease as not everyone likes to show there identity. When using these techniques it is always still crucial to take notes as well. This is because you may miss a vital point and if you write it down its always there for back up.
Today was very productive in learning about how to make users feel at ease and yourself by trying to gather as many stories from your clients to give them the best possible product.
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- Assignment 1
- Assignment 2
- Assignment 3
- Assignment 4
- DJ21012 – Screen Based Interactive Media 2 (11/12)
- DJ22006 – The 21st Century Designer (11/12)
- DJ22011 – Interaction Design (media products) (11/12)
- DJ31035 – Interaction Design – Physical Digital Products
- DJ32005 – Design & The Market Part 1 (12/13)
- DJ32013 – Social Mobile Apps (12/13)
- IM11002
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