3 weeks left

This week we now have a working role of honour to a point, the way in which the results are shown and the pagination of multiple pages of results needs to be added, this is not going to be easy as I understand the principle of pagination within php web pages but the needs of flash are entirely different as I have found out so far and this may present some problems.

I had a meeting with my client liaison within the last week and this went very well, she has provided me with some nice visual content for me to incorporate into the application and she is very happy with the current state of the application and my approach thus far.

Working on this project has been very fulfilling for myself but I have had to fulfil many roles within this project, I have had to liaise with the clients this involves listening to their needs and hopes for the finished piece and I have needed to research, listen and learn the importance that this project has on a personal and emotional level. I have had to empathise with their needs whilst remembering my role as an industry practitioner this means I have also had to consider the technical restrictions, the users needs and experience and the time constraints for the purpose of this project.

This project has also given me great experience of the restrictions and problems that working with a client may present, my clients have been extremely easy to work with but working with clients is different to working with other industrial professionals. When working with fellow professionals you expect them to provide you with information and files in the right format, at the right size, within strict deadlines and if this does not happen you would be within your rights to complain and request the appropriate files or content to be resent in the correct manner but when working with people who may not have a knowledge of technical problems or best practices you must anticipate and over come any problems that may arise. Files may have to be edited or reformatted, information may need to be adjusted for the purpose of suiting you user’s needs etc…

I have had to work as project manager, designer, developer, data inputter and user tester, this has presented its own problems but overall I believe it has helped me develop a greater understanding of the entire process and it has given me a good understanding of the individual roles within designing an interactive project, if I was to be working as part of a team in the future I now feel I would have an understanding of the other team members roles and through this I could have empathy for their needs.

I have been extremely lucky so far but I am still lacking content and with the deadline been only 3 weeks away I need to start putting some finishing touches in order to put the application through user testing.

one step forward two steps back

Nothing is working again, I noticed that I was only getting single results where there should have been multiple results and i'm stuck again, I'm getting worried about finishing this on time.

better week

Much better week this week, I have had some help via the newmedia forum from Dave and the final bit of help came from Jay and we now have a working roll of honour. I have been working on the page that precedes the Roll of Honour and the following page as well. The images are below:

I have started inputting the rest of the roll of honour data and I am twenty pages in, it is very boring but necessary, the script Liam Smith built is making it a lot easier but I have learnt one thing, I won’t be applying for a job as a data inputter anytime soon.

I have also been designing a retro tape deck and an old television, at the moment there is no plan for audio or video content to be used within the application but I am developing ways in which any future audio or video content could be displayed within the thematic design of the piece, see the development below:

I am feeling more positive now and the momentum is building again as we head towards the finishing line.

Not much progress

Hi, been working hard this week but with not a lot to show for it, I have been working on the roll of honour and integrating the flash and php at the moment. I know my php works as far as searching the database and finding results but somewhere along the line my search from flash isn't reaching the php file and or it is not displaying the results from the database in the flash file. I am having similar problems with my other project at the moment. I have ordered two books that will hopefully help me solve the problems but there is going to be a delay with any progress as I wait for delivery.

On a more positive note I met with Leslie this week and showed her the onscreen typewriter that I had created to facilitate the role of honour search functions and she seemed to enjoy using it and she also said it was beautiful and she was very impressed.

The positive reaction from the client lifted my spirits as I have been feeling down with regards the amount of time and effort that I am placing on this project with hardly any return in terms of progress. I have been very stressed and I feel as though I have been neglecting my responsibilities as a father recently but the positive response from the client reminded me that I am doing something that I can be successful at and the time and effort will pay off in the end.

meeting the clients, developing the database and the future of kiosk interfaces

I forgot to upload last weeks post so here it is.

I had a meeting last Friday for the first time with my clients from the Hull Merchant Navy Association, it went very well. I had the chance to show them the work that I have already produced in development and more importantly it gave me an opportunity to understand my client’s needs and to gauge a feeling on how important this application is to them. I need to produce a piece that is usable by everyone but it also has to sell the message that the client wants to deliver and it is up to me to sell that message in the accessible way for the end user to understand.

I have been working on the database for the roll of honour section of the application, there are sixty pages of data to insert into the database and this presented a slight problem. It is possible to insert the data using phpmyadmin if the data is organised in a consistent way, this is where the problem was. I needed to find a way to check and prepare the data for insertion into the database. I called on the services of superstar php guru and fellow student Liam Smith who developed a script to check the data’s consistency and for that I am very thankful.

I have decided to develop my onscreen keyboard in the style of an old style typewriter, I have researched and developed the design for the keys and thanks to my lecturer Gareth Sleightholme I have been given the opportunity to photograph a real old fashioned typewriter to incorporate as part of my design. Here is my design process for the onscreen keyboard so far:

I was thinking about the future of information kiosks especially museum based pieces and I believe that the new technology “multi touch” would provide increased interactivity options that would offer a more interesting experience. Using multi touch would allow the user to resize different elements, so increasing accessibility for the visually impaired. The user would also be able to restructure the information bringing the parts they are wishing to view to the front of the display and this means that user has increased control over the content they wish to see. If I needed to develop a kiosk in the perfect world I would choose a multi touch interface.

Some visuals this week

It's time to catch up on my blogging again and I thought I should show some of the design process in image form, so I have been converting files ready for this blog.

Ideas generation is a key part of the design process and I started by using the mind mapping technique followed by the creation of a mood board.

I then broke the structure of the piece down and started developing ideas for the individual elements used with the application, backgrounds, content holders, buttons etc...

I have tried to take time to carefully consider every element of the design, taking into consideration best practices, aesthetics, symbolism, usability, and the customer's requirements not necessarily in that order. This shows how a design can be considered to try and avoid any potential problems at a later date. The only problem with this process is that it's possible to become emerged in one particular area i.e. usability and the fact is you need to create an end product that has met as many of your requirements as possible which means that sometimes there must be some give and take, it is no good creating a useable product if it does not have a visually pleasing interface if the requirements of the project include providing an attractive aesthetic design.

I have also put together an official communication enlisting the services of a fellow student Chris Wood as an illustrator to provide some visual images for my application, this will be used as part of our professional practice as it demonstrates a process that a professional designer would have to follow if they needed to outsource work as part a real world project.

I have also being looking at and developing the onscreen keyboard for our touch screen interface. I found an example which was very complex, I have also been introduced to a much simpler example that may be more suitable for this project, I still need to consider the usability aspects of the keyboard although user testing will provide me with any feedback about possible changes that may need to be made.

During my client meeting on Friday 05/03/2010 I received my first piece of content for the application from the client and it raised some important questions about providing information to potential users. The client provided me with a written piece with over 2500 words, it is well written but ultimately in my opinion there is more content than a potential user would be willing to read. My client is obviously very passionate about delivering his knowledge about a subject that is very important to him, the general public may not hold the subject matter in quite as high a regard so the information needs to be brief interesting and informative, from a designers point of view you are then left with the needs of the user vs. the needs of the client and a fine balance needs to be struck through the mediation of an informed professional mediator in this case me, I will advise the client using my knowledge of user expectancies and needs to try and create a piece that suits both parties.

The Development Process So Far

I have fallen behind slightly with the blogging process on this assignment so I thought I should show you the visual development of the project so far.

I started with a mind mapping session putting together ideas that relate to each other and to new ideas that were popping into my head at the time.

I then created a mood board by looking for merchant navy images and general sea faring images.

Followed by a mood board on touch screen kiosks:

I then looked at a project I did in the first year where I designed an information kiosk, I reviewed the research I had done at that time.
Here you can see that project:
http://www.newmedia.artdesignhull.ac.uk/pshakesby/level1/interactive_product.html

I then decided to investigate as much as possible the best practices involved in producing user centred kiosk designs, these websites where useful:

http://www.frontend.com/products-digital-devices/designing-for-touch-screen-kiosks.html
http://www.will-harris.com/verdana-georgia.htm
http://www.devarticles.com/c/a/Flash/A-Simple-XML-Based-Searchable-Database/
http://www.pdfgeni.com/book/kiosk-design-pdf.html
http://ergo.human.cornell.edu/ergoprojects/dea4702kprojs/LSCkiosk/intro.html
http://www.deyalexander.com.au/resources/uxd/kiosks.html
http://www.wirespring.com/Solutions/retail_web_kiosk_design_touch_screens.html

I then worked on ideas trying colours, textures, shapes and sizes for every element of the application including navigation, buttons, borders and backgrounds. Every element in the application needs a considered development process this makes it easier to produce an application that meet the needs of all potential users.