The final day has come - the Grand Finale. I'm very excited about it and can't wait to see all the groups projects.
I find out what the world needs. Then I go ahead and try to invent it - Thomas Edison
HCI Bibliography : Human-Computer Interaction Resources
Beside the fact that this site has very bad design, I found some very useful resources on the following website:
On this website there are materials helpful for Learning about HCI like:
+ ACM SIGCHI Bulletin
On this website there are materials helpful for Learning about HCI like:
- Recommended readings
- Education
- Publications
- Sites & resourses
- Conferences & Workshops
Weblogs, and Columns, and News:
+ ACM SIGCHI Bulletin
+ Alertbox: Web Usability
+ Ask Tog
+ Design Articles
+ Ergonomics Editorial
+ forUse: Usage-Centered Design
+ Microsoft Developers Network
+ UI Design Newsletter
+ Usability News (BCS HCI)
+ Usability News (SURL)
+ User Interface Engineering Articles
Idea Generation Techniques among Creative Professionals
While reading some articles I found the following article interesting:
Idea Generation Techniques among Creative Professionals
The creative process has been a key topic research over the past century, but it wasn’t until the last decade that creativity became a hot topic of research in the HCI.(Herring, Jones & Baily, 2009). Generating ideas is a key process in every design, because as we know there is no design without an idea. Although we have not thought of that, supporting the idea generation through techniques is one of the key points for helping designers create something new.
After Herring, Jones and Baily identified the 19 idea generation techniques, they were categorized and placed into the IR3 model according to what the technique was used for (inspiration, research, representation or refinement). The techniques were placed into the boundary areas of the model if the technique served many purposes. Therefore some techniques are placed on the boundaries between two categories or in the middle of the model if they encompass all aspects of the ideation process.
Idea Generation Techniques among Creative Professionals
The creative process has been a key topic research over the past century, but it wasn’t until the last decade that creativity became a hot topic of research in the HCI.(Herring, Jones & Baily, 2009). Generating ideas is a key process in every design, because as we know there is no design without an idea. Although we have not thought of that, supporting the idea generation through techniques is one of the key points for helping designers create something new.
After Herring, Jones and Baily identified the 19 idea generation techniques, they were categorized and placed into the IR3 model according to what the technique was used for (inspiration, research, representation or refinement). The techniques were placed into the boundary areas of the model if the technique served many purposes. Therefore some techniques are placed on the boundaries between two categories or in the middle of the model if they encompass all aspects of the ideation process.
Table 1: Categorization of idea generation techniques
Swami Vivekananda quotes (Indian Spiritual leader of the Hindu religion (Vedanta)
Napoleon Hill quotes (American author, 1883-1970)
The guest lestures/workshops
The whole concept of guest lecturers and workshops was very useful and inspiring.
The lady(name) representing Effectus prepared us for the problems that were yet to come in our groups and gave us directions how to try to solve them. In mi point of view, not every problem in a team can be solved completely, but we can try to solve them as much as we can. If we take our group in consideration, we are all from different countries, we have different educational backgrounds and different views in many ways. Overcoming of the misunderstandings was not easy, but after every problem solved the team became stronger and stronger.
After her lecture I was inspirited to reach for the highest star: Project objective- Effect objective - Strategic targets –VISION.
I saw the main objective:
SMART
- Specified
- Measurable
- Accepted
- Realistic
- Time Limited
And customer focused!
Torbjorn, as I have mentioned in some previous posts and the discussion on those lectures really helped me to see the whole idea of the Digital Dinner Party and think deeper through it. I liked his criticism on the projects, he pointed out the good parts in every design, but also the bad ones. Getting critics from outside of your team is very helpful not just personally, but also for the team. It made us discuss more and improve parts of the design project.
The literature seminars
The literature seminars have broadened my views on modern HCI design. The whole principle of reading articles and discussing about them is new to me and surprisingly useful. I filed my mind with questions and answers.
As Lowgren and Stolterman say, the overall character of a digital artifact cannot be described by simply adding up a number of particular quantities. The main purpose of product quality articulation is to develop the ability to make such judgments, which constitute a thoughtful approach to understanding the qualities of digital artifacts.
There are group of qualities dealing with motivation -playability, seductivity, anticipation, relevance and usefulness which affect the user’s motivation to continue using the artifact. These qualities are of great importance since you have to be motivated so you would continue using any kind of artifact. In our Digital Dinner if the user finds something interesting that would keep his eyes on our site (flash video, interesting picture) means we have achieved the goal, we have motivated the user.
Our immediate experience of interacting with a digital artifact, including our handling and perception of it is of a great importance too. Is there an appropriate result of the users move (does he like the response of clicking on the picture gallery?), can he control the artifact on the way he wants? Can we make the user engage so deeply in the task at hand that the world around is forgotten? Providing the right experience is a key point in the design.
When designing we have to take a view on the social outcome of our design. Is it inducting? Will our virtual diner provide connection between users? If we have broadened the user’s social life we have succeeded.
On the other hand, we still have to keep the transparency, efficiency and the elegance of our design. Our design should be combination of power and simplicity, rapid and error-free. Every designer should ask himself if he is providing the right USABILITY.
And at the end, what is the meaning of our design? As Lowgren and Stolterman say, the meaning of a product is never straightforward and unambiguous; it can never be obtained by the use of some objective scale of measurement.
Design is always an act of composition, of shaping a whole and its parts simultaneously.
I found the literature seminars of a great importance for this subject and the knowledge gained on those classes have helped me create the Virtual Dinner Design better.
The 2A Kitchen
Metaphors are basic to our understanding of our world (Lakoff & Johnsson 1980) and they can be consciously used to support imagination of something not yet established and the communication of unshared experience by transferring a shared experience and apply it to the new domain.
A kitchen is a set of tools to design, produce, deliver and consume tasteful and nutritional units for eating. As the ICT manager of the team, I designed our kitchen. Our kitchen elements:
1) Team news and events – Announcements regarding the team and our project
2) Task List – Tasks assigned to specific users or the whole team regarding the project
3) Our digital dinner concept – discussions regarding the project such as “How to name our digital dinner”
4) Links – Useful, interesting links for other web pages
5) Event Schedule – Calendar for our meetings and due dates
6) Infodocs – Our sharable documents open to modification
7) Site Users – All the users of the site
8) Images of inspiriting sites
These are the main elements in the middle of the kitchen. Besides them, there are additional elements placed in the menu.
- Picture gallery
- 2A Wiki
- Discussion board
- Surveys and some more.
I’ve also created a separated digital dinner (web page) for every user of the kitchen allowing to the whole team to learn how to use the kitchen and serve delicious dinners.
Developing the Idea
On the whole, design is a diverse and complex activity, full of contradictions and dilemmas. Being a designer is demanding, but is also something that can be extremely fascinating, exciting and rewarding. (Lowgren & Stolterman, 2005).
The idea was defined
1) Name – Easy Fun Travel Plan
2) Keywords – Travel, Plan, Connect, Experience, Learn, Share, Enjoy
3) Promotion – Short flash movie to keep the users attention
4) Defining the dinner
- Appetizer – flash video
- Three meal dinner - Info, videos, pictures
- Desert – Links
- Coffee – The forum , discuss about your experience
- Check – Plan a trip with your online friends
5) Funding – Museums, national books, magazines, cultural events…
The team got an assignment to get all the needed information about their country, to think of some new gadgets and to start communicating better.
My next step was to create our kitchen.
The Idea of the DDD
To design is to create something new. So on our first meeting we started giving ideas about what should we serve on our Dinner. In the long discussion we had trying to define an appropriate idea for the metaphorical problem we came out with some ideas. Every design proposal is formulated in a close relationship with a changing and growing understanding of the problem (Ref. J.Lowgren, E.Stolterman, 2005). Some time was given to all of the team to think through the problem and came up with the right idea.
On the next meeting, unfortunately, with lack of ides, we decided to start working on an idea, given on the first meeting. We discussed more about the project and the implementation of the idea.
The idea was to create a user friendly, informational travel site with a users touch. This site should connect, make new friendships, give the true information without promoting any company. Since I gave this idea as an explanation of the metaphorical problem just as an example I was doubting if this was the right idea. As Lowgren and Stoltemar have said, design is about uncertainty. To participate in design work means that you, as a designer, play a part in a venture that involves great risks. Design involves chance; it forces you to challenge the unknown and to create the not-yet existing.
All of my doubts were solved on out next class, when we had the Torbjorn as a guest. On our session we had to present our ideas. During this we had to:
1) Give a proposal name to our project
2) Explain out idea thought keywords
3) Think of promotion (something to make you keep your eyes on our website)
4) Define every coarse of the dinner
5) Think of a way to get funding for the project
All of this was discussed with our professor Wallin and Torbjorn.
After that class I knew this was the right idea.
On the next meeting, unfortunately, with lack of ides, we decided to start working on an idea, given on the first meeting. We discussed more about the project and the implementation of the idea.
The idea was to create a user friendly, informational travel site with a users touch. This site should connect, make new friendships, give the true information without promoting any company. Since I gave this idea as an explanation of the metaphorical problem just as an example I was doubting if this was the right idea. As Lowgren and Stoltemar have said, design is about uncertainty. To participate in design work means that you, as a designer, play a part in a venture that involves great risks. Design involves chance; it forces you to challenge the unknown and to create the not-yet existing.
All of my doubts were solved on out next class, when we had the Torbjorn as a guest. On our session we had to present our ideas. During this we had to:
1) Give a proposal name to our project
2) Explain out idea thought keywords
3) Think of promotion (something to make you keep your eyes on our website)
4) Define every coarse of the dinner
5) Think of a way to get funding for the project
All of this was discussed with our professor Wallin and Torbjorn.
After that class I knew this was the right idea.
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