Finale Project

Projects projectss projectsss…These things takes up a lot of time and effort out of me, or i suppose anyone who have gone through them. They serve multiple purposes and i think a full development (from endless brainstorming sessions to multiple design sketches to implementation disasters) project will definitely help in my working career in the near future. There are multiple stages in a project development process and they interlink with one another, sometimes there is even a need to revisit previous stages to redefine the product. Design for user experience is as difficult as running in a swimming pool. Resistance in many forms will be coming towards you even if its not welcome. If not careful, you will be drifted away by the current. User experience is a hype word these days. Products out there now do not just target at masses now, in fact, they are seen less desirable. They are shifting to a more individualistic and customized products.

Designing for a individual user is more important, reason being, focus on a user will yield better user experience and in return, good things will multiply itself. Even if designing a product in a saturated market, if the design experience is relatively new to users and it brings joy in using them, this product tend to excel far batter than those competitors. Examples products from Sony PlayStation and Apple’s iPod provide users a more engaging and pleasant experience. Experience is something thats intangible, so how are we suppose to design something thats intangible? We can’t. But we can probably only use scientific, empirical studies and methods that were tested and used in the process. There are also no systematic way of going about designing, however there are guides for us to follow.

Phase 1: (Brainstorming & Needs Analysis)

After brain storming ideas and coming out with a few potential, workable ideas, needs analysis is probably the most common and important method used in the whole process. The project deliverables, be it a product, website or even services have to fit the needs of the targeted users. If there is no demand, no point developing the product at all. We had a few ideas like a collaborative travel guide site, a community driven transportation site that find a shortest route to destination etc. After weighing the pros and cons of the ideas with Mr Reddy, the it might be a little difficult to implement. We need a do-able project! Then….a idea came into our discussion about project management and IVLE 7 community that we are used to. Since IVLE 7 is replaced by IVLE 8, the community service is gone too! Although there is one, but it takes at least 1 day to create it! After creating it, it tries to serve multiple purpose, such as blogging, personal website, but not much about project management. There we got it, we decided to do a Online Project Management System (OPMS) that ease project management and enhance user experience after using it (I certainly hope so). Oh and the report for this needs analysis was not easy too…because there is quite a lot of data to gather and processed…

Phase 2: (Design)

This is where i got a little weary about the idea of having such system, although the survey shows that most would like to have a system that help to manage project online. But just how easy can it be? I chance upon ZoHo project management system a free to use online site that does almost what we wanted. ZoHo interface is pretty interesting but its too wordy for me. Its fully functional and i must say it has a lot of functions too. Simply said, I like those functions in a simple, more intuitive way, but just how to do it? I certainly work around ZoHo, trying to understand their information architecture flow. We also thought of making it more graphical, visually pleasing. From this point, I have an idea of a system that is functional yet pleasing and easy to use. I was trying to get the best out of IVLE 7 easy creation community and ZoHo project management system.

Phase 3: (lo-fi)

I do not want to use paper prototype for several reasons, to save trees, can’t test with many people at one time, quite tedious for an OPMS. Although there are a few strong advantages of using paper prototype, i chose to use powerpoint instead. This is the start of many prototypes…After drafting the prototype, we tested on a few users and as a designer, it breaks your heart when listening to criticism. However, these are the exact things that you should consider. This is important because it might lead you to creating something that is not feasible. I followed quite closely to Zoho’s layout but changed the information flow. However the result is that users do not find it useful and too cluttered looking, worst still, it looks complicated. I’m new to doing a online system of such a huge scale. This system if its going for deployment, will need to take months to complete. The interface itself is the system. With little experience in designing such system in such a short time, i asked myself again what should be done to make it less inferior looking. The interface is the system. I chuck aside the 1st draft prototype, then did more brainstorming to come with a more graphical, drag and drop kind of calendar along with other functions.

Phase 4 (Hi-fi Prototype)

The final phase of the project was not easy. firstly, I’m new to using the power of javascript along with other web toolkit that help us in achieving what we had. I wanted to do up a calendar like Google calendar but i’m short of time. So, i link it directly to Google! hah. Cheating…but hey at least it shows what i wanted to be in it….right? Besides the main calendar for all projects, i find it hard to make them link without a storage for data. I could use XML and a storage system provided by web toolkit, but I realize it too slow. After hours and days and nights of doing it, i finally completed coding only the project and members paart. Thats the main purpose and something thats different about the site. Other functions such as adding documents, announcements, forums and changing profile can be done…later. It really took up most of my study break week to do these, and im not satisfied with it yet. Even if some users do grade the system relatively good, i’m always thinking i could do more and better. till then…and oh it is highly possible to deploy such a system!

Reflection

The course have open my eye to more methods and methodology(kano’s analysis, culture probe etc) that i did not know it exist. User experience to me can not be designed. But we can design for a better user experience. Methodology’s and method are out there for you to use, but ultimately different products will need slightly variation of methods or even a completely new method. There is no fixed rule in design. Thats what makes it difficult. Along with the knowledge of Human Computer Interaction, this module have widen the scope of my interest area.

Reflections on Design v Science

Firstly, I would like to clarify that my title actually means reflections on design and science. Just like how you read a legal case title. That’s because I think both of them goes hand in hand. There is certain amount of cognitive science, psychology in design but yet design itself is subjective, so instead of competing with one another, i believe they should compliment instead.

Non-Scientific Results

Methodologies and empirical methods of user research does somehow influence the design, eventually it is design for users. User centric design is definitely useful and I think it is the way to go. But some of these research is evaluating something that is apparent on the first few glance, so why research? Besides being a political tool in companies, I think that’s because it is easy for people to follow. There are many who thinks that there is a certain template in the design process. Well they are just guides, they serve us a good purpose in finding our own research methods for different design product. To make full use of it, it must be carefully planed and executed. Vary some of these methods to suit your product. Non scientific research serves as the quantitative approach and can usually tell much about the product if the target users were selected carefully. It does certainly give you some insides about how popular your product will be or will be used. So designing for target audience is important? Well, not quite. Designing for a specific group or individual may lead to success as well, look at Apple’s iPod. They did not follow what is out there, they design for specific group of consumers. It is not for most people since there is a need to sync with iTunes and only iTunes. It does not work like an extra storage disk and with no radio built in. They just need to do one thing right. Play music.

To me, conducting an empirical research can be good if you interpret results correctly. It is easy to find assurance that your product is good if results are skewed towards success. However, how accurate are these methods int he first place. Take for example, survey questions, or interviews. Questions asked maybe bias towards our own perception. Interviewees might not wanted to share so much information or worst provide wrong perception of the product especially if the interview involves such reward.

Scientific Results

The eye tracking tool does not provide anymore information than what a good design will know. Spending less time on certain area does not make the content bad. interpretation of the result is most important factor in using such a device. There are also certain methods that calculate the amount of time one will take to click a button or link in a website. For example, the total amount of time to complete certain task is calculated based on researched average time. It is called the Keystroke Level Model that estimate certain specific time to do things such as reaching for the mouse. In average it takes about 0.4sec for user to reach to the mouse, the model defined it. Such a calculative method is said to used when creating a manuscript editor. It is also now being used in website usability testing. There is even a calculator that will do the job for you. Completing a task in the shortest amount of time is important and it will help to better the experience, but it should not be given much emphasis. Shortest time does not necessary means enhanced user experience. The aesthetic part of the product is important, along with many other aspects such as affective engineering, cognitive science etc to better user experience.

Design is an art, and like music it is subjective. Take music therapy, there are now neuroscientific studies to try and provide evidence of what is considered as soothing or relaxing music. It is hard to prove which is soothing music since in the first place music is subjective; it could have different meaning to some. With a mixture of both quantitative research and science, the user experience could be better if a good and seasoned designer interpret it correctly. Which brings me to my view of having both compliment one another instead of excluding any of them.

Reflections

Assignment 3

After looking through other group presentations, there are some interesting findings and solutions! And very interesting video presentations too, one of them is in youTube and the other used the idea of pod cast for presentation! Nice! Come to think of that we should do a video presentation too since it goes well with e-learning week, but we try to make it up for our content! haha I certainly hope so. Most of the groups used ethnography studies, laddering and interviews for this assignment. Their findings and solutions are quite coherent in that most of the problems with lectures in NUS have to do with the limited space in the theater, the layout of the theater and the speaker who is the lecturer. But none suggest the recipients could be at fault sometimes too. When students comes late or not listening even if the lecturer is talking clearly and firmly. Although there are a lot of variables in this experience, we can try to improve the non variant attributes that affect the whole learning experience. Invariant attributes being the equipment used, the layout of the seats, the time and place of the theater. If we minimize the problem from these invariant attributes, we can then improve on those variant attributes to have a enjoyable learning experience.

E-Learning Week

For week 6 (18th to 22nd Feb) of the semester CNM department is having a e-learning week. All or most of the NM modules are going to be presented online, in other words, no physical appearance is required, in my terms, its break time! Its is really a step forward in introducing e-learning to local university students. I’m still quite skeptical about this type of learning, unless there is a conducive environment for me to do so, then I’ll probably begin to like it. But from this experience I think we still have a distance to cover for me to be convinced that e-learning is effective. Although I did not take a lot of NM modules this semester, from my discussions with my friends I found that most of the online lectures are in given in Power Point slides, some with narration and for those which did not have narration, they have a online discussion via forum or chat rooms. I understand the problems and challenge we faced in CMC, but with today’s technology now I think we can have a more interactive and interesting system for the use of e-learning. Interactivity is important in helping one’s learning experience. I personally find that Power point slides with narrations alone can’t help a student to learn better, since its a one-way communication, there is hardly any feedback. For those modules which did have some feedback via forum or chat rooms, the issues students faced deter them for giving feedback, except unless they are rewarded if they do so. Topic of the interaction aside, if students can not easily give feedback in time or take too long for the system to response to other students comments, then the system have failed to do what it should deliver. What I’m trying to say is that if feedback or discussion channels are not accessible to students how would you expect a student to interact and learn from it? Some students might not even look or listen to the power point slides! I just want to suggestion a better system for interaction when in the online realm. We can use the idea of avatars in a virtual class room and each of us are a character in it. It mimic the position and environment of a real classroom or theater and when someone wants to speak, he just have to click a button for him to raise his hands. The system should also not allow more than a certain amount of students to speak at the same time. In here, the lecturer will be given a lot of controls, which maps the equipment in a lecture theater or tutorial rooms, such as the power to give a poll about some issues, to disallow students/avatars from talking etc. In here students are suppose to have a microphone connected for them to speak. I do not have very concise plan in this system but I hope you get the idea. I think it will be feasible with the right amount of controls in this virtual classroom system.

Assignment 3 – Emotion Design Probe

Task: Improving Learning Experience in Lecture Theaters

Hey all, welcome back! This week’s 2 week assignment is what Dr Reddy classified it as a nightmare assignment! Thanks for the warning Dr Reddy. Well it sort of is, because it’s a open ended problem, we can use any related methods to achieve this and this flexibility is not something very welcoming. Firstly, we need to find out or at least prepare what methods and analyzing framework to use before deciding on how are we going to tackle this. My Team, j.ed.ka (pronounced as jed-ker) brainstormed about the methods and framework. We adopted Ethnographic studies for the preliminary work then by using the 4 thread of experience framework of the technology used during lecture for the analyzing part, we then need to decide on which theater to go into.

We wanted to go to a lecture that will potentially use more technological stuff in the lecture theater than any other lectures. And with the help of these technologies does it help to make student experience better or the converse. We try to shy away from most potentially sleeping lectures even though the potential issues and problems can be obvious, we wanted the use of more technological equipment to be used than just the computer, projector and microphone. With all these criteria in mind, we search for an interesting lecture to crash into. Eventually we chose a Arts module, GEK2020 Introduction to Film Art. It’s a GEM for all, which means there will be a mixture of different faculties of students. That mix will widen our scope of study. We should be able to understand the lecture too! Besides doing ethnographic studies, we will also be interviewing students and the lecturer using the 4 thread of experience framework. With all these criteria and method and framework, we are ready for our discrete outing. In order to be discrete, we video tape down more than half of the lecture before the battery went flat. Besides placing the video camera in a camouflage area, we locate ourselves in different areas of the theater to get a overall view of the lecture. It was a pleasant lecture and an interesting one. The concepts are clear and i can still remember it till now! Not bad for a first timer in this lecture even after school started for weeks. One of the reason is of course the interest in the topic itself, but i think the credit should give it to the lecturer too, Dr Gilbert Yeoh. He is dressed pleasantly, folded up long sleeve shirt and pants, wore glasses and he is a Harvard graduate! He must be smart! Real smart. Hah. Throughout our observation, i must say he is quite prepared in his lecture. He knows well how to operate the DVD player, lightings, and most of the technology stuff in theater. He is meticulous as well. He knows when to dim down the lights, knows when to give break, and also explain it clearly with video examples. However he is a little bland in his delivery. He also tends to repeat his points a tad too many times. There are a lot of influencers in the whole experience of the lecture.

Article 1: Using evaluate to improve student learning.

Article 2: Ethnographic Studies can Inform Agencies’ Action.

After observing the students, lecturer and the surroundings, we read up a few articles that talks about ethnography. They helped us to understand how to further break down our problems into related parts and also gave us a group of points that might affect the experience in a lecture. Besides categorizing our findings into time, place, environment/situational factors, lecturer and students, we adopted another kind of categorizing for our problem solving section. This type of categorizing is broad enough and yet covers those problems mentioned in our findings. We also interview some students and lecturer using the 4 threads of experience method. We are glad that Dr Gilbert Yeoh did reply our email on time! Appreciate Dr Gilbert Yeoh for your valuable feedback!

I think ethnography studies is fun and interesting and also self reflecting when the problem is something you can relate to. As research have already shown that facilities in a lecture theater can help improve the learning experience, there are still other factors that are incontrollable. That is the lecturer and students. To monitor/observe behaviour, using cameras and other sort of image capturing devices tend to fail as it will have an affect directly or indirectly on the participants. Being a spy physically is still by far the better option in doing this type of observations. And i had fun doing that! Although i have to hide what i was scribbling down during lecture. haha. We could also actually use Culture probe method to study about this learning experience if we were to be given more time. That study will probably last about a year. However the participant must do it willingly without any incentives involved, other wise the findings might not be accurate. To see what I have scribbled down during the lecture, click here for part 1, here for part 2.

To download Power Point slides, interview with Dr Gilbert Yeoh, interview with Respondent 1 & respondent 2.

4 Pleasure Analysis

Ok this should read as 4-Pleasure Analysis. Sorry for the anti climax. But there are pleasures involved, 4 different pleasures to be specific, read on to find out.

User Profile (any resemblance to any person living, or dead is purely coincidental, please do not sue me…)

Name: Jude

Age: 26

Race: Eurasian

Citizenship: Singaporean

D.O.B: 06/06/1978

Height: 175cm

Weight: 76kg (Well build)

Background: Comes from a large family, with 5 siblings, he is the eldest of all. Family was not that well to do when he was young but business grew exponentially throughout the years. Being the eldest, he is responsible for the well being of his siblings especially during the tough times. He even have to delay studies for a year or two in order to look after his siblings as well as earning some pocket money through selling newspapers and other ad hoc jobs. He believes that with determination and hard work and good time management, he is able to achieve what he wants. All he wants is not to fail his family business; he has a sense of responsibility in helping his parents and the family business. With a MBA from Harvard Business School, he worked in the US for several years before returning to Singapore. He believes that the knowledge that he gain will benefit his family business, which is in the shipping business. He is determined to bring the business to the global stage with the help of his siblings. He is an independent bachelor and stays in an executive apartment.

Likes: He is sociable and likes to be with people, whenever he is with friends, he will try to entertain all of them. He likes the attention he gets whenever he talks to his friends and he feels a sense of accomplishment when an outing is successful. With a well build body and chiseled looks, he is a head turner. Accompanied with his wide smile showing his beautiful white set of teeth, he oozes charm, which is why it is not surprise that he is popular with the ladies. Being in the business industry, presentation is very important and that first impression always count. He is careful in what he wears and carries; it must go well with his personality.

To maintain his fitness and body, he is a frequent gym visitor and sometimes he will go for wake boarding during weekends. He usually works out 1 to 2 times a week. On Saturdays he will either go to the gym with his friends in a country club or wake boarding in marina cove and the rest of the day is usually spend lunching in country clubs (along with some business talks), drinking wine in clubs, pubs and likes to dine in exclusive restaurants. Sunday is a time for him to catch up with his family. They do not have much time as a family, but when they do, they would sometimes go for picnics, movies and most often dine out. Relationship with his family has always been good; siblings often look up to him more often than his parents. He would often take some time off to have a short getaway either with his siblings or relatives.

Besides all these, he is passionate about arts and music. He can still manage to make time to watch plays, musicals, and even visiting museums. Being a pianist himself he sometimes plays alone in his home or with his band. Whenever he is surrounded by inspirations, he will sometimes compose a few songs. Being a busy man as he is, he often needs to fly overseas for meetings with potential or current client. Whenever he is away he will enjoy the vast variety of wine available there. More than often he will bring back a few good wines.

Physio-Pleasure:

Likes to work out and wake boarding, not only to maintain his fitness but also to distress [Need]

He also has refine taste, drinking fine wine with friends, ladies and even with business partners. [Appreciation]

Passionate about music and plays and the arts, attend musical and plays usually with accompany of lady/ladies. [Appreciation]

The mobile phone must be able to not only look good and professional; it must also have entertainment functions in it. So that Jude can listen to music on the go or record any inspiration that he might have. Besides it has to be rather durable and yet not too heavy for him to carry it around when he goes for wake boarding or working out in the gym.

Socio-Pleasure:

The opinion of others upon him is important to his image. He wants to be recognized and be seen the best side of him. He tends to dress in trendy clothes most of the time, even doing sports. [Appreciation]

Being a sociable and meticulous person, he will always try to make his friends or new found friends feel at ease whenever they are in a group, and most of the time they did. He will then feel a sense of accomplishment. [Need]

The phone needs to be able to connect to various networks such as 3G and GSM. It must have internet connection for he is a quite frequent traveler, he can check his email on the go. It has to look sturdy, sleek and stylish for him. It demands functions similar to a PDA, so that he can keep in touch with his family and friends when he is away. Besides, it should come with a built camera that allows him to take pictures whenever he visit galleries or taking pictures with is friends.

Psycho-Pleasure:

Likes challenges and believe that technology will be a useful tool for his family business. He tries to keep up with the latest technology that also must do justice to his overall image. [Need]

It should not be too difficult to use and should function well and trust worthy. If there is any need for servicing, the customer care for the phone should be international. It should come with Bluetooth technology that comes in handy when transfer small data files such as pictures to his notebook. The ability to add more applications is needed as he is quite in touch with technology, any application that will help him organize his tight schedule.

Ideo-Pleasure:

He believes that functionalities/character do not have to sacrifice image of that product or person. Looking good can be functioning very well too. Technologies that he carries will tend to have both of the characteristics. [Need]

He believes that no problem is too difficult to solve, if you put effort in and work for it, one will be able to do what ever one want to achieve. Just like how he was poor before. He likes to learn new and exciting stuff, for example, would not mind learning golf, new gadgets. [Need]

The phone should reflect what he believes in, substance and style an come together without much or any sacrifice.

Possible Mobile Phone

HTC Touch Cruise™

- Full multimedia experience with the large 2.8-inch touch screen

- Revolutionary TouchFLO™ touch-screen technology that allows finger-touch scrolling, panning, and photo zooming

- Innovative 3D Touch Cube interface for quick and easy navigation

- Worldwide connectivity (3G and GPRS/EDGE/GSM)

- Windows Mobile® 6 Professional with Direct Push Outlook® e-mail

- Live HTC Home™ featuring time and weather display, quick launcher, and one-touch ring tone settings

- 3 mega pixel camera with auto-focus for shooting photos/videos and a second camera for video calls or self-portraits

- Built-in turn-by-turn GPS navigation with TomTom® software offers you a full navigation experience

- Entertainment features including an FM radio, MP3 player, and video playback

Reasons:

It is a new multi touch phone that touches the right spot for users like Jude. First, it looks stylish and sturdy and fits right into your palm. This also fits Jude’s image, professional and yet stylish. With the revolutionary TouchFLO™ touch-screen technology that allows finger-touch scrolling, panning, and photo zooming it is one of the few phones out in the market with such technology. With a built-in 3.0 mega pixel camera, he can take pictures whenever and wherever he wants and navigating in them will be a breeze. With worldwide connectivity, he can carry this phone whenever he is away for business trips, he can even use it to check emails via Wi-Fi. And since he is an avid fan of music, this phone allows hundreds or even thousand (with an expansion memory slot) of songs to be packed; now he can have a relaxing moment where ever he is. With Bluetooth technology, he can transfer songs wirelessly and even listen to it with a Bluetooth headset. And if he ever feels that he is lost in any country, the GPS system will bring him back on track to his final destination, perfect for any frequent traveler like him. And on top of that, battery life of a phone is an important consideration too, with about 7 hours of talk time when using GSM, it is pretty decent. With such a powerful, yet stylish and sleek phone, this phone will be the perfect phone for a person like Jude.

 

Assignment 1 – Products & Emotions

Before we start evaluating and categorizing products in terms of 3 different levels of processing emotions, how much do we understand about emotions? And all these talks about emotion and affection, do they differ?

Taken from one of Don Norman’s article, “Emotion is the conscious experience of affect, complete with attribution of its cause and identification of its object. Affect is the general term for the judgmental system, whether conscious or subconscious.” An example of emotion, if you are angry with someone or about something there is a certain reason and there is an object tied with it. And when you feel uneasy or weird about something or in any experiences that might lead to an emotion without knowing why, is affective. All these lays in the studies of cognitive psychology.
Taken from an article form About.com: “Cognitive psychology is the branch of psychology that studies mental processes including how people think, perceive, remember, and learn. The core focus of cognitive psychology is on how people acquire, process, and store information.”

Don Norman also wrote that “…cognition and affect influence one another: some emotions and affective states are driven by cognition, while cognition often impacts affect.” We here focus on emotions because it does affect the decision making process. Products that make you feel good are easier to deal with and produce ‘better’ results. Using 3 levels of processing (Visceral, Behavioral, Reflective) that give rise to human emotion attributes, 3 different products were chosen.

Philips|Swarovski Active Crystal Flash Drive FM01SW60/00 (Visceral)

Visceral

Never mind what is the name of this beautiful shinny piece of jewelery, not only it is decorated with Swarovski silver shade crystals, it is actually a flash drive! It is such a cute piece of jewelery with a design of padlock, it will be a hit with the ladies. This new creation by Philips and Swarovski intend to bring technology and jewelery into new heights. They launch several crystallized flash drives in their flash drive series, name Active Crystals. One of them is actually a heart-shaped pendant flash drive! Flash drives have been sprouting everywhere in different forms but I think this will take wearable technology to another level. Technology was initially associated with men, but with more fancy and beautiful designs of flash drives, this is starting to change. Philips took a strategic move and collaborate with Swarovski crystals to introduce fashionable and stylish flash drives targeted to high end women.

Behavioral

First look at it, one will wonder where is the USB head. A press at the side of the arch shape stainless steel will reveal the USB head. Pretty neat, but the USB head is not that long, and it has a fat base. Would it have difficulty slotting it in a port that has limited width? Imagine slotting it into a Dell’s Desktop, like those in NUS. The head might be too short to have a good connectivity. Also it might not even slot in well with those notebook thinner than this flash drive, try plugging into a MacBook Air. With a reasonable storage power of 1GB, transfer rate of this drive is pretty slow. It reads max 15MB/s; writes max 3MB/s. That is pretty slow compared to other flash drives with similar storage space. It also has password feature that protects data. However the cost that comes with it is definitely going to be higher than those with similar specifications.

Reflective

It certainly turn heads when near a PC or notebook. With its stainless steel body decorated with Swarovski crystals it is truly at league of its own. It will send a ‘wow’ factor to others. Imagine taking out your pendant and plugging it in a notebook during a presentation, it made you feel good so that you can perform better in your presentation too. It looks classy and refine yet sophisticated because it function as a flash drive. Enough said.

(sources: http://www.consumer.philips.com/consumer/en/sg/consumer/cc/_productid_FM01SW60_00_SG_CONSUMER/USB-Memory-Key+FM01SW60-00)

Corsair Flash Padlock USB 2.0 Drives. (Behavioral)

Visceral

Rectangular shaped looks dull and boring much like any other flash drives. With numbers on the surface one might wonder what is this device, a remote control that lock a car? Buttons on the surface let one wonder how is it possible pressing a number since 2 numbers are displayed on each buttons.

Behavioral

Let’s look at the features of this highly secured flash drive.

Features
• Auto-Locking – Self locking after removal from computer
• Customizable PIN – Set your own easy to remember PIN
• Easy to Use – Direct keypad access and indicator lights make
locking/unlocking simple
• Plug and Play – Hardware based security works without
installing or running software
• Platform independent – Works on Windows, MAC and Linux
platforms without the use of software

So how does it work, This specialized security processor enables or disables operation of the Flash Padlock drive. When the drive is “locked” or disabled, it will be completely invisible to the system that it is plugged into. When the combination is successfully entered, the drive is activated, and operates as a normal USB flash drive. This operation continues until the drive is unplugged from the system, whereupon the Flash Padlock will
automatically “lock” itself after 15 seconds of being disconnected. The combination itself is programmable, and can be entered regardless of whether the drive is plugged into the computer. Green and red LEDs are used to indicate successful entry of the combination. Buttons are huge so that it is easy to press.

It has storage capacity of either 2GB or 4GB drives to choose from. Transfer rate are pretty decent too according to test run by www.hothardware.com.

Reflective

It will turn heads from curious neighbours or friends. But they may be turning for a different reason compared to Philips Swarovski flash drive. They too might wonder what kind of new device is this, especially with buttons on the surface. Many think that it resembles that of a remote.

(sources: http://www.corsair.com/products/padlock.aspx,
http://www.corsair.com/_datasheets/CMFUSBPADLOCK-4GB.pdf )

Lexar JumpDrive® Lightning (Reflective)

Visceral

Although it takes the usual shape of a flash drive, it is made of stainless steel casing and even does engraving on this piece. It does have a hook at the back for lanyard too. Design is simple and sleek.

Behavioral

Features:

- Lightning Fast Speed, 4GB capable of minimum sustained speeds of 30MB/s read and 21MB/s write, ideal for quickly transferring vast amounts of data.

- Includes PowerToGo Portable Applications Software; install and run most standard Windows applications right from the drive, and also allows you to carry personalized settings and favorites with you wherever you go.

- Advanced Security to Protect Your Data; create multiple password protected areas called Encrypted Vaults that automatically encrypt your data with on-the-fly 256-bit AES encryption, while the File Shredder feature securely and thoroughly deletes files so that they can’t be recovered, giving you peace of mind that your data is secure.

- Option of 1Gb, 2GB or 4GB drives.

Reflective

Beside being sleek and simple, it does portray a certain look on you when you whip it out. It brings the professionalism in you. Stainless steel design and the ability to engrave on it provides individuality for all. The person carrying does not only care about how well it performs but it must look good too. Lexar being one of the fastest flash drives out there, there is certain prestige when carrying it too. Moreover with a limited lifetime warranty, it says so much about the quality of Lexar’s product.

(sources: http://www.lexar.com/jumpdrive/lightning.html)

Some thoughts

Sometimes it is not that easy to differentiate a product between visceral and reflective. A product might fall into these 2 categories. I had difficulties between the Philips Swarovski flash drive and the Lexar flash drive. Philips Swarovski looks really nice and beautiful to have it, most girls like anything that sparkles! But at the same time it might be reflective as well as it is Swarovski crystals, most will associate the brand with a certain class, a refine taste. But I categorize it as a visceral product because it basic function is a USB flash drive and not a jewelery. Meaning the reflective part comes mostly form the crystals itself, which is not directly influence in the core function of this product. Whereas the Lexar flash drive is a refelctive product because of the reverse reason given for Philips Swarovski. Lexar is considered the brand for flash drives. It has fast transfer rate, the design is simple and sleek, and more importantly as i mentioned, it looks professional. Thus base upon the base function of the product I differentiated them in this way. This is in my own opinion, if nothing seems to make sense, please do let me know!

Assignment 0 – Bad Design

User Experience Design

Just what is user experience design? According to interaction design organisation: (http://interaction-design.org) it define as:

User experience is a term used to describe the overall quality
of experience a person has when interacting with a product
or a system.

As the definition suggest, user experience is the characterization of what a user feels while using any product, this can extend from a car to a mobile phone to a magazine or a child’s toy. (source: http://www.paradymesolutions.com/articles/what-is-user-experience-design)

For this bad design assignment, I chose the infamous mobile phone that changes some of us the way we talk in which it sprouts a community of side talking! What is this phone I am talking about? It’s none other then N-Gage, by one of the top mobile phone maker, Nokia. First, some history and specification about N-Gage.

Original N-Gage First Appearance

The original N-Gage became available from 7th October 2003.

Features of the Nokia N-Gage include:

• Large 4096 colour display (176 x 208 pixels)
• 5-way directional controller (works 8 ways in games)
• Online gaming and multiplayer gaming via Bluetooth™
• Digital music player (MP3 & AAC formats) & digital recorder
• Stereo FM radio
• Stereo headset
• Nokia Audio Manager PC software
• WAP, GPRS, HSCSD (high-speed internet), Email, XHTML browser
• Symbian operating system
• Java™
• MMS multimedia messaging & enhanced SMS
• 64 Mbyte external memory card
• USB connectivity for music download from PC
• Built-in handsfree speaker
• Calendar, contacts
• Voice dialling
• Size: 134 x 70 x 20 mm
• Weight: 137g
• Battery standby: 150 – 200 hours
• Battery talktime: 2 – 4 hours (3-6 hour game play; up to 20 hour radio play)
• Vibration alert
• Tri band

User Review/Experience

It is meant to be revolutionary phone when it first launch. Indeed no other phone is quite like a N-Gage. Besides being huge; you need 2 hands to operate, it changes the way one normally talks on a phone. There are numerous reviews about this phone, gamers would like to have this device around as it is a digital convergence that is new to the industry. It does not only serve as a game device like gameboy, it double up as a music phone too. Playing game and listening to music at the same time, besides it is actually a phone too. The screen resolution is not that great (4096 colour display) causing pixelation to occur in some games. A few  games introduced were not bad but some are a tad too expensive. It uses MMC expandable memory card that is located at such a weird place; it is beside the battery but to remove it, you have to get pass the battery first! This makes changing games or exchanging memory cards terribly troublesome. Sound play back in monotone and quality is not as great compared to other phones that period of time. The ultimate drawback of this phone from most of the reviews and from a user before (who is my friend) is the hardware design. The screen covers a fraction of the phone space. Besides, the speaker is actually located at the side of the phone! This make anyone look like holding a huge taco to the ear! Volume of the speaker is too soft too. The basic function of a mobile phone is lost. Many did not know how make a call when they first receive their N-Gage. Moreover the microphone is located at a awkward position causing the other party to strain their ear, trying to hear what the N-Gage user is saying.

(source: http://www.mobile-phones-uk.org.uk/nokia-n-gage.htm, http://www.neowin.net/forum/lofiversion/index.php/t159366.html)

Personal Review

There are a number of bad things in this phone. I did not use it before but I do know about the side talking ‘phenomenon’, its such a huge disgrace I can’t miss it. After so many bad review about it, it is easy to pinpoint the bad points. I decided to review it for the first time in a neutral position. Actually as a concept phone, it is not bad. With games, music and a phone pack into one. First impression of the phone is that it is huge in size and rather bulky, how am I suppose to slip it into my pocket? It looks like a game device more than a phone, it needs both hands to operate which is really cumbersome. Buttons are rather organised, there are even dedicated music and radio button on the left, most buttons are except for the cancel button. It is located on the left hand side, away from keypad. This makes messaging slow. It distract users attention from right to left and back to right again. Symbian OS as its software it is pretty straight forward, much like some of Nokia phones, its relatively user-friendly. But at first I did not know how to select an icon. The 5-way navigation button is quite badly design. I did not think that the middle of the navigation button could be pressed. Why? Because it simply does not look like one. It does not look like a button that I should be pressing. Eventually I run out off buttons to press, I thought of pressing the navigation button down and viola! I got it, but it was not that easy to press it correctly, most of the time it will activate the direction buttons too.

As for the hardware, I agree with what most reviewer had said about it. The position of MMC, location of speaker and mic. As a phone it fails. So can it still be considered a mobile phone? I think it is mobile, phone…well it can be unless you don’t mind getting caught talking to a taco or something thats so huge it looks really ridiculous, who will want to own a mobile phone like this? Check out the side talking community here.

A video that tease itself by coming out with N-Gage QD. Click here.

NM4210 Blog

Hey yoz there folks, I’m back again with another module blog. User Experience Design. Been wanting to take this module for a long time cause I wanted to specialize in this area but too bad, not many related modules are offering. So let’s start, what the heck is User Experience Design? It is simply a term use to describe the overall quality of a person has when interacting with a product or a system. It is a broad term. It consist of many subcategories that will affect the overall experience. Technically it might consist these fields:

1. Interaction design
2. Information architecture
3. Usability
4. Human computer interaction
5. Human factors engineering
6. User interface design

And possibly hardware design could be added in it too, which includes ergonomic design of the product. All these factors plays a critical role in having a good overall experience. For more information about what is each factor about, click here. This course will take us through several important topics and theories that are essential. With some hands-on projects along the course of learning, this blog will hopefully give you a pretty much insight into the bolts and nuts of what is user experience design all about. Will be back soon for more assignment posting. Cya.