Some updates

I didn't attend Monday's lecture cause i was kinda under the weather. So i will do some updates on project and stuff.

Final project is pretty different for me as compared to the previous 2 projects. I'm not doing much designing now but i'm focusing mainly on the UX/UI review. Last time, i had to come up with the content for critique and prolly get feedback from others and now, i get to critique designs and bring the app out for users to try. Through that i will be doing vigorous QAT and observing how different people uses the app differently and noting down feedbacks. I realise this is something that i like to do cause in 2359 media, i've done QAT for an app and i find it interesting. 

Everyone behaves differently, but it's wonders how a specific good design bring out a same set of actions from users. For example, a button, how do we know its a button and how do we know it should be clicked on. Good designs make their buttons obvious lets say using embossing and color gradient. How can we make an app that is intuitive to kids who might not have prior iPad experience? Things we really need to ponder about. At this point of time, i wish i'm doing a parttime job at some kindergarten then everyday can interact with kids!!

For Million Eyeballs!

Just to zoom into 2 points i really like.


Acceptable Response Time: 
According to Fiona Nah's study,  everyone has a 2 seconds tolerance for loading time of webpages. TRUE. I'm really sick of those websites that does not show all the graphics and text properly within 2 or 3 seconds. Users may leave the website asap and switch to other websites as loading time is the most basic from of UX, and the very first interaction with a new website we encounter.

User satisfaction is achieved when experience exceeds expectations.
* Do better than your competition
* Do better than your users' expectations

CSS Sprites:

Using CSS sprites, we can redue the number of image requests. By loading a big image containing all the different images in it, CSS can simply call out for different individual images within it later on .

Example.

Image from this pretty cool tutorial. 

I guess this method is also pretty simple on the designer side, we just have to simple put everything together and save on a single .png file? awesomeness!

Final projjjj

Hey peeps, 

It's blogging time again. It's really the hell week. or i would say WEEKS. I just had to rush out a photo collage design for critique session and present at the end of the class. I started doing at the beginning of the critique and i uploaded the work and presented at the end of the class. Mentally stressed up ttm. Following lect which is now, i realised i didn't do the survey for mobile assignment!!! So had to rush out again. (sorry for doing it so late, really >..<) 

Anyways, sometimes i look back to the previous 2 projects, i nvr had to rush til the last minute cause it seems designing always happens at the beginning of the proj and programming stuff are at the back. Even when rushing, our pro programmers will be the ones suffering. Of course, let's not talk about trivial documentation which can be done fast fast when writing inspiration comes. I wish i can do more for the group. Somehow no coding background is really unfair to other members... Moreover, for final project, i wont be doing much designing except UI/UX review. 

My final project team have 4 members, Hoang, Wayne, James and me. We decided to go ahead and work with 2359 media to create a interactive storybook iPad app. the content will be for a really nice cartoon with awesome graphics that is going to launch on Disney Channel Singapore. (shall leave out the name for now cause of NDA)

So it will mainly have elements like storytelling, video showcase and games. And all of that will appear as a continuous episode. Simple swiping can bring kids through the different scenes with karaoke-style subtitles. This is followed by video playback that shows part of the cartoon. Lastly, we will try to incorporate interactive games in between the episode! We came up with several awesome ideas for games and i really hope they can be implemented! Kids will be brought into a whole new world when its complete. hee. 

The app will have really awesome cutsey graphics which i believe kids will love!! My role will be doing QAT with kids and reviewing the UI/UX to make the app super intuitive. Prof Ben already gave us some suggestions during the consultation last week so we are going to work on that. However, i have to say, we don't really have complete control of the project cause we are working with external parties so it will take abit more effort for our ideas and suggestions to get through. The difficulty for us would be the coordination part, within group and with external parties. I'm learning :D.

Cheers. 

Case study L.

GUI


Lesson 1: Too many choices = confusion!
Check on what users click.
By observation. Look at Google Analytics. A/B testing.

Lesson 2: Users need guidance
Be explicit.
Step by step instruction to get user input.
Warm and personal rewards.

Creating context from user interactions.
Notifications for different actions to get more people onboard.

Focus user interaction at key features. 
Give them 1 key thing to do and make them do it well then increase features.

Interaction Diagram
Draw out the simple design. Show how from one page brings users to another page. And draw all all possible routes.

UI is not UX.

Team Dynamics

Ideas first OR team first? 
TEAM for me. Working with smart and understanding people will create give good results. Ideas will sprout. If you are working on other people's idea, it's likely that ownership and commitment will be lesser. Cause it's someone else's baby, not yours..

Vote to make decisions OR strong leader?
Best if we have a team of strong individuals who are versatile enough to be leader or follower. Of course all have to compromise.

Empathize vs Escalate.
Teammates unable to deliver on the work he promised because of personal problems, how? I would first empathize, and help abit if i can, but if it carries on, gotta rethink the scope that we are trying to do. Cut down features would be inevitable.

Know your team!!
I agree!! It's definitely good to get to know groupmmates and know what they like, their passion and their areas of expertise. Will be easy for workload distribution and of course the funny funny things we do during project meetings to spice up stressful atmosphere.

1 thing to mention. I really enjoyed working with Kenneth, Joshua, Hoang! They are all so funny! We sang and went crazy together on those no-sleep nights in com1. I like this kind of team dynamics, relaxing but serious when needed.

I'm like merely summarizing the whole lecture. But I really find the above mentioned points really important! Ciao~

in the midst of ass2

6 hours and 35 mins before assignment 2 submission!!!

I'm taking a chill pill here writing this post. It was an awesome experience working with my groupmates! This assignment has given me the opportunity to design the interface for iPad web. So shiok!!! Finally made use of a few of the iPad GUI psd thingys i got from the net. lol. 

Special thanks to Sharon from NLB. She helped us alot! especially the gathering of photos from different archives or related orgs. :D TYVM! 

Visit Singapore River: Mobile, a mobile heritage trail, @ http://bit.ly/sgriver
(currently only works well on landscape mode on iPad) :/ working on the rest soon

GetHelp! Case Study

GetHelp! is a pretty cool idea aimed to help people with their doubts by crowdsourcing yeah? Looking at the general layout of the app, I actually think its a pretty simple and easy-to-navigate app. Without reading much information on what it does, i could guess the use of the app from the several screenshots provided. However, the initial design definitely has room for improvement:

Usability vs Aesthetics

I think the app has good functionalities. Users can do these few main tasks: 

1. Add post to call for help --- with the choice of adding details

2. React to a post --- offer help OR refer friend

3. Check out stats and badges

These 3 main functions are pretty easy to understand but their UI will easily make users somewhat confused coupled with misleading/unclear copywriting. 

Overall design:

This app is not attractive enough and does not have a design feel of its own. It looks like any random facebook iframe app that has standard fb features = no fun. I think the app uses way too many icons also. Some are appropriate some are really redundant for example the ones in Add post page >> add more details. The icons are not serving any purpose other than complementing the words 'deadline', 'estimated time' and 'location'. Those icons can be taken out to reduce the clutter of info and can probably align the text fills to be neater and more presentable. 

I guess the designer was trying to make the design more unique, but the 4 slanted tabs on top do not serve much purpose! Slant =/= nice. I suggest it should be rotated to 0 degree. If they want to make it more creative and special, they could employ specially shaped icon holders that suits the theme. Also, is there a special meaning of having 3 tabs on the left and 4 tabs on the right? 

Add post page: [Options/freedom when posting a need]

Good to have the title 'I need help with' and the button 'call for help!': clearly emphasizes what to input into the text area. However, I don't understand the rationale for separating the below section for inputing details and 'who do you want to ask?' from the main call for help title by using different coloured background. I would think for every post, users should have the option of choosing who to ask and which social network to post because it's the most fundamental mean of communicating a message to people. 

So this should probably be directly below the title within the darker background area and the 'call for help!' button should be placed below these selections. As for the other details about a post, it can be designed as a dropdown style where once a button named "add details" is clicked, a form containing additional options will appear below. If i'm not wrong, this should be able to using AJAX? 

The options given under 'add more details' are misleading. What exactly do 'deadlines', 'estimated time' and 'location' refer to? Of the object/project/task? No one knows.. But i like the 'description' option, posters are free to include whatever extra info they about the task.

Overview page:

The layout looks okay for this page. But the colour red is overly used! I think 'help him' and 'refer a friend' can be in a lighter shade of red perhaps as red is not exacting soothing to eyes and it may cause users to be irritated by the repetition. 

Individual 'need' page:

The comments portion is not pretty! Centre alignment makes all the comments and post time and name of poster messy. The use of 3 red rounded square icons is actually not bad. The cartoons seem appropriate for what each icon does but RED again... lol. Try to change to a lighter shade of red to lessen the impact would be good. 

Cycle of interaction & incentives

I think the very concept of the app is engaging. True enough, many times we have requests and questions that even Google can't solve. So when it's time to turn to friends or friends' friends, it would be efficient to have this app. But, it is not the most easy app to use for question and answer. Even though it has game elements like rewards and stuff, it might have neglected the very key fact of people wanting an answer or help desperately, and thus the need to publicize it in an efficient way. It may have too many functions and lose focus on the key driving factor of this app.

Compare GetHelp! with Facebook Questions now, which do you prefer? I would say fb questions. Based on its simple and intuitive featureless features. see screenshot below. :)

Step 1: Type a question

Step 2: Add options or wait for friends to add

Step 3: Wait for friends or strangers to vote or add options.

I mean this is a really simple feature of fb. GetHelp! has nice ideas of increasing connectivity by linking to twitter or even SMS which is awesome. But probably the developers can try to learn from the simplicity of fb questions? hee.

Lecture: PhD in Human Nature

Vsee's CEO, Milton, came to give a talk! And it's so coincidental cause only a few days ago, i heard of it and googled it. Turned out that the company came out with a video sharing programme that can edit and share files in real time while conversing with each other. It's amazing that they can share files like word doc even if one of the participants of the video chat do not have word installed on his com. See their website here.

Vsee (See Share Send): solve remote work challeneg, set people free (from all the commuting to and fro work)

3 Key points learnt
1) Microlearning

• Surround ourselves with learners! 
• Every day 3 things
• Break patterns 

I really liked this concept as i feel i'm always forced to learn in school for exams or quizes. We learn for the sake of scoring but rarely for self enrichment which is just sad. Like the speaker mentioned, we need to be with learners to learn. Everyday, reflect about the 3 things learned! I used to do that for a particular module where we had to write down the 3 points learnt in class every session which i thought was pretty meaningful. It will be more meaningful if we do that everyday. The example he gave for breaking patterns was 'using a weaker hand to brush teeth'. I find relevance in activities like this: Used to practice writing with left hand in JC; changed the side which i carry my bag. By doing these, it sure did gave me alot of unique experience even when doing everyday tasks which does not only add colour to our lives, but also give us sense of achievement from time to time!

2) Aim for boredom

• Brain is more active when bored!
• Breakthrough in thinking
• Defense against info overload

'Let your brain wander and feel the boredom'. i was really surprised by the first point, but i agree after thinking!! A lot of times, i realize that it is actually more difficult to think of good ideas when we actively forces ourselves to think. While often ideas come to us when we are unprepared and when we are doing nothing. I don't know what's the science behind it, but i guess it makes sense to say that the brain cells are actively waiting to be put to use when bored as compared to times when occupied while multitasking! Let's al go take random strolls in beautiful utown and think about nothing. hee

3) Learn Sales

I AGREE. The sales people earn alot. Let me rephrase that: the BEST sales people earn ALOT. Of course, not that all of us should learn sales and become a sales person in a company. In life, all of us are salespersons. We need to learn how to convince our parents to trust us; how to sell a party idea to friends; or sell a cool project idea in cs3216, etc. 

I liked Milton's sharing. :D

I shall end of with a quote from him "Live life with urgency, but do the important stuff!"