Reflecting on the course

Our design process has now come to an end and it’s time to reflect upon the results and the process itself in order to improve ourselves. We think it has been an enjoyable journey although there are some things that we might have done differently if we could do it again. For example, it hasn’t always been easy to schedule meetings with five people who have completely different schedules. It would probably have been easier if all people in the group took the same courses.

In hindsight we should probably have chosen a less ambitious idea to work on, since the objective wasn’t to have the most innovative idea but to learn how to run a successful design process. The fact that our design had such futuristic technology made several of the steps more difficult than they needed to be. The two most obvious examples of this were when we built and tested the prototypes. As they were so different from the original idea, it was very hard to get our point across to the testers.

We did not apply brainstorming to the same extent that was recommended, but we feel this was a good decision. Us having our own time to reflect on the project rendered several good ideas, and after reading a little bit more about brainstorming it has become clear that it is more popular than it is effective. In an article about a study conducted by Michael Diehl and Wolfgang Stroebe (Michael Diehl; Wolfgang Stroebe (1991). "Productivity Loss in Idea-Generating Groups: Tracking Down the Blocking Effect". Journal of Personality and Social Psychology), it is concluded that a group that uses the technique that we used (discussing ideas, having our own time to think and then meeting again) came up with both more and better ideas than a group that used brainstorming.

In our design process we had some design constraints, one being that the product should allow the children and their guardians to have a shared experience of the exhibitions in the museum. We really thought about this and had a lot of ideas to make sure that this was actually implemented in the design, but with our difficulties in building a prototype that actually reflected the product that we designed, this was unfortunately a bit forgotten. Therefore we think this might not have been clear to the audience when we presented our product.

Overall we are pretty pleased with both our design and our process. We had a Facebook-group which made it easier to communicate fast and efficiently, as well as keeping discussions in different threads to make it easy to find the information you were looking for. We feel that we were successful in following the steps of a design process recommended in the course, and that the whole group had a good understanding of the concepts and methods. The fact that we can identify things we would have done differently doesn’t feel like a disappointment, but only like we have managed to learn something.

Summary of Think-alouds

We found it difficult to get good insights from our think-alouds. Our concept is, rather than a simple app, something that requires input from both location sensors and the camera and will only provide a meaningful experience when one is actually at Fotografiska.

The prototype we made was interactive in that the tablet was overlaid on a museum wall background and was able to be moved around. Other than that, we found that we could not easily implement location detection. This meant that rather than the app reacting to one moving around in the museum, we had to provide external buttons for browsing through the different steps. Furthermore, the parent's mobile app was implemented using a different tool.

This meant that all of the comments we received during the think-aloud were related to the way the prototype worked rather than to our actual idea. We were able to explain how it was supposed to work, and then the subjects liked the idea, but since we were able to explain what our interface didn't already make obvious we were not able to get insights into how the app could be improved.

The Parents App Prototype

Interview Transcript

Due to the fact that group D3 already chose a target group so quickly after conducting their interviews, it felt unneccessary for me to do leap backwards in their process instead of participating in going forward. However, since it is compulsory to conduct an interview and since we already are done with the project, I went to Fotografiska Museet and managed to conduct an interview containing questions where we can see if our thought process of the idéa seems beneficial enough.

Föräldrar

1. Hur visste ni att museet existerade och varför bestämde ni er för att komma hit? Har ni varit här tidigare?
   → Frugan gillar konst och vi kunde inte lämna barnen ensamma, så vi googlade runt och hittade att det var gratis inträde för barn just här. Ja, vi har varit här tidigare med barnen för längesedan.

     2. På en skala 1-4, hur var er upplevelse med besöket? Vad var bra och dåligt?

        → 3, Det var som vi hade förväntat oss. Det som var bra annat än utställningen var ju att det var              andra barnfamiljer här, känns  mer bekvämt då vi inte behöver tysta ner barnen så mycket.                  Enda nackdelen är priserna i restaurangen.

     3. Känner ni att ni kan vara avslappnade och njuta av utställningen?

        → Så mycket som det går Ja men man blir lite distraherad av ljudet från andra barnfamiljer och                sedan så måste vi ju också hålla koll på barnen.

     4. Så ni känner en liten konstant oro gällande vad barnen håller på med?

        → Ja.  (Mannen och frun gav varandra en gemensam blick)

     5. Skulle ni låta era barn göra det de vill och vandra fritt i museet?

        → Nej, det skulle göra oss mer oroliga. (En gemensam blick delades och frun svarade)

     6. Om ni alltid visste vart barnen befinner sig och ha möjligheten att navigera till dem och även bestämma när de ska komma till er, skulle det ta bort er oro? Skulle ni då kunna njuta mer av utställningen?

        → Ja om vi bara hade med oss Linda (11år), då men nu när vi har Pontus (8år) så kommer det                  nog alltid kännas mest bekvämt om han är inom vår synhåll.

      7. Ni sa att ni googlade upp museer innan ni valde att komma hit, brukar ni oftast kolla upp i förväg på nätet innan om evenemanget ni ska till?

         → Ja det gör vi alltid.

      8. Om utställningarna innehöll någon form av nakenhet, våld och/eller droger, skulle ni valt att ta med barnen då?
         → Vi skulle förmodligen ha valt att gå till ett annat event för att vi känner inte för att besvara på frågor om könsorgan offentligt om en sån fråga dyker upp av barnen.

      9.  Har ni båda smartphones och har ni någon slags surfplatta i hushållet?
        → Ja, vi båda har smartphones och ja, vi har en ipad hemma som familjen delar på.

      Barnen (11 åring)

      1. Hur var din upplevelse idag ? (Emoji-skala 1-5)
       → 3 ( barnet kollade på föräldrarna först och svarade därefter)

      2. Vad var roligast/intressantast och vad var tråkigast/sämst?
       → Roligast: färgglada roliga bilder

       → Tråkigast: Svartvita bilder, ledsna personer.

      3. Din pappa sa att ni har en surfplatta hemma, vilka spel brukar du spela och vad gör man där?

        → Toca Hair, där man kan byta hårfrisyr och färg på mig och mina vänner och andra roliga saker. (Man tar bild på sig själv och kan byta hårfrisyr,färg,lägga till örhängen och sånt)

      4. Vad gillar du mest och minst? Måla in färger i bilder, pussel eller frågesport?

        → Jag gillar att måla färger. Jag gillar inte pussel eller frågesport.

      5. Vad skulle du vilja ha i ett Foto-Museum som skulle göra att du har det roligare här?

        → Ett lekställe där man kan göra vad man vill och låta föräldrarna bli klara med museet.

    Summary

After showing the parents the parents app prototype, I received positive feedback and feedback on some features we could improve on or take into consideration. A short summary on valuable points to notice:

+ That parents look up in advance about the exhibitions. This is good so that they will know to bring with their own Tablet to the exhibition.

+ That parents would let their 11 year old take part of the experience and this will make the parents enjoy the artwork in a more comfortable manner. 

+ That the child (11 year old) would probably enjoy to have an Augmented Reality game where she can paint on black & white pictures (a game we had).

- Even though the parents will have total control of the experience and have the ability to navigate to their child, they would still worry about their youngest (7 year old) child.

- If the kids wander freely, there is a chance of the tablet being lost or stolen.

- Battery drainage will be extreme on both devices if they choose to stay for a long period of time. 

     

Final presentation

This presentation is done under free web-app Prezi.
Here is the link to it: http://prezi.com/akn2v0lrkou4/untitled-prezi/
Iframe:


Link to the parents app prototype made under Popapp: https://popapp.in/w/projects/545b7961684533a018031c4c/preview

Links to prototypes

For the record

Prototype with focus on Augmented Reality
http://www.icosacid.com/DH2620/proto3

Prototype with focus on app-scenario
http://www.icosacid.com/DH2620/proto4

Prototype with other game ideas
http://www.icosacid.com/DH2620/proto2

Picture painting game

Most museums in the UK turn out to be very children friendly with often dedicated areas for kids to enjoy the experience in their way: touching, playing.

One of the devices for children at Edinburgh Castle caught my attention because it reminded me of the painting game we though about while brainstorming. Here is what it looks like.

On a fixed tablet was displayed the UI below:

This is designed for all visitors, the bottom right feature is made for kids.

Taping on it leads to the game itself:

Touch the jester to choose an area to paint

When you touch the jester, the borders of the selected area are drawn:

Then touch a colour

The area is filled with Gold and some information about the colour is displayed:

 Same process to colour the rest of the jester:

There is a little number of possible actions (Reset, Finish, Exit) and the focus is on the game. If I remove my spectacles I can still play with my short-sight owing to the presence of colours that clearly stand out from the background and simple shapes. 

Simple GUI, children-friendly and entertaining. 

Few children would read the texts, though.

The technical complexity of detecting where the user touches the screen and highlighting the corresponding area is here reduced by less accuracy. I guess hands are modeled as circles, the head might be an ellipse. Based on such simplification of touch areas we could integrate such a feature in our prototypes.

Last point, I witnessed very aggressive behaviours of children in their use of tactile devices. Some would even hit them without mercy when not responding, with surprising violence. I assume they would not act that way with tablets owned by their parents or themselves, but if Fotografiska were to lend tablets they should consider purchasing this sort of protection: