Julie Chen | Thesis

Fab Research/Wire Frame/User Test 2/14~Research 2/21~Wire Frame 2/28~User Test

Mar  User Test Justify/Post-design Interface and Function 3/6~User Test Justify 3/13~Final Justification/Design Interface 3/20~Design Interface/function 3/27~ Design function

Before designing an iPhone application, it's important to understand the task of an application interface in order to design a user-friendly app. I read some of the articles on how to . In iPhone Apps Design Mistakes: Over-Blown Visuals, Alex Komarov talks about how over-blown visuals of an application could affect users' decisions on downloading an application.

Five Most Frequent iPhone Design Mistakes 1. Over-blown visuals 2. Neglecting technological limitations (e.g. internet connection, slow processors..) 3. Confusing navigation (e.g. flow, layout, taxonomy) 4. Confusing the iPhone with a computer 5. Disregard of context. A lack of understanding of how, when, where, and why the mobile device is being used.

And in other article iPhone App Design Trends, Jen Gordon introduces some feature trends on iPhone application, and they are 1. Mirroring native iPhone UI elements 2. Simplifying the interface 3. Hardware-ish Look 4. Rich, padded and pretty list views 5. Layered interface 6. Icons for the list view 7. Illustrations in use 8. Using gesterues 

|*Topic My thesis topic started with a personal experience of time management that I figured more people are using digital agenda instead of physical one for their daily schedule. I got interested in people behavior pattern and tried to observe how does it related to their time management. If they are related, what can be done to improve people’s time management skill? 

|*Purpose

I’m aim to design an application that  visualize personal daily schedule based on geography shapes and hope to improve users’ time management skill as well as to influent their behavior pattern positively.

  |*Audience My target audiences will be design students becasue they have a better sense to conceive visual images to deliverables. I also hope the application will help students to manage their time from school schdule to personal life.

 |*Method For solution, I want to use colors and geographic shapes to represent differnt period of time as well as categories of doing things. Basd on information design concept, graphics will automatically visualize user’s daily schdule once users enter their schedules.By combining multiple graphics, the visual graphic will become the new schedule device for the users. 

 |*Channel

Personal  Device + Information Design + Interactive Platform = Smart Phone Application 

I was worried that my new prototype weren't well-developed for final critique because we had so little of time to really work on it( compared to the other critiques we had) but I did get a lot good feedback which is great.

Originally, my concept was "to document time in order to manage it", but during the process between my first and second prototype, I decided to just focus on the "manage" part. The solution/outcome of these prototypes seems broke the original concept, and they became ordinary planner. But for my final prototype , Procrastination became my new focus that I came up with something rather different, a physical device. I guess for my thesis, there's lack of celerity of ORIGINAL concept which caused disconnection between my prototypes. I need to finalize my concept before I move to next step.

2011 December: Research//Prototype//Possible solution//User Test

For my very first prototype, I did a chart called Time Filter for Thursday group presentation. This chart suppose to document and calculate the time that people waste unconsciously during the day.  From outer block to inter space, each layer suggest user to document the events of the day as well as the time that they feel like they are doing nothing. (Time for waiting elevator, checking e-mail/twitter/FB every 2 mins...etc) By the end of a day, user is able to calculate the total time he has wasted, and improve his time based on the result.

Some feedback I got from the presentation: ● The number of Hour is confusing since it starts from 4 instead of 12, maybe put   all twelve numbers like a clock, so people will think about Time ● 5/10/15 should be darker to show the importance ● The total calculation block should be bigger ● Does it necessary need to be this exact shape? Could it be other shape? ● Maybe change the day/night color ● Definitely do a digital version, maybe an app ● Space for planning to do list is too small

I feel like I'm still finding a right direction for this particular topic.  After seeing David Seah's Productivity Tools, I'm confused and wonder  what kind of tool that I could design. Even though I did a tool for my first prototype, I'm not so sure it's the proper format to present the idea. Maybe something more like a product? Or maybe something like a manual?

When I presented my "T for Time", there were different voices for the project. Main critique was arguing about whether it should be physical or digital/electronic since we are in a digital world right now.  I guess that's because in my presentation, there were not enough supports about the advantages of using a physical one. Some other feedback were maybe rethink the relationship between time management and documentation.

I chose to go to  the "Creating Participatory Learning Through Performance" workshop of Mobility Shifts, and it was very interesting and inspiring.  Through the virtual interactive website "Second Life" , Sheila C. Johnson demonstrated how users interact with each others through the virtual world avatars. For the workshop, she showed us a specific example through dancing performance. Each users was controlling their own avatars, and interacted with each other by manipulating the avatars to do dance move.

It was fun to watch the demonstration. There's no gravity in second life's virtual world, so avatars were doing dance move that normally human weren't capable of. Sheila was explaining how this would become the future of Internet Users because most of us already participate such interaction through online game and social networking. After the workshop I was actually able to build my own avatar on the platform and do the dance move. At first, It was hard to control but I got used to it by following the advices from other avatars. It was an new experience for me because I don't play any online game at all, but it was like talking/playing/interacting with someone that sits next to you. 

For my 5x5 project, I did several pieces that I felt relevant to my concept of branding for my thesis. But as I went through each project, my concept became more confusing and unclear. Without a real client (subject), it's really hard to develop the whole idea of branding. And that's also my problem was- not having a real client, 

I got a lot of useful feedback from the the critique, many of them were suggestions for the branding concept. Options like branding for a client, or re-design of an existing brand, or even do a book incorporating branding concept. My original idea was to brand a cafe and some one suggested me to brand Parsons Cafe.

During the past few days, I stepped backa bit and re-examined my domain map, mind map and design problems and tried to find what's in common. I realized that time and interaction are the two elements that I found most related to myself. I did a survey asking people who do they value their time and interactive activities. I've also done a research on.