Reading Seminar 2 – Marcus Ahlström

The chapters contained in this week's reading seminar describe the different approches to: Going from a blank paper to an idea (brainstorming for instance), thinking thoroughly about the ways in which the user will use the product, design decisions, refining and lastly prototyping.

Reading this made me notice the massive amount of ways to tackle a problem while designing. It feels like we have only nibbled a bit on the edge of the entire cake. Our brainstorming sessions went along well although a bit fast and hectic. The method called brainwriting seems to be a good alternative to the one we used: Yes, and. A little bit more relaxed. As they said – most ideas often come inbetween the sessions. The bizarro world feels really interesting - the inverted way of thinking might bring a fresh perspective on a missed oppurtunity (Like when you mirror a picture to see hidden flaws when drawing).

The second chapter thoroughly went into the process of refining the ideas you got. Thinking about our project, I feel that user feedback will become an essential part of the project, especially when designing the interface and the way our remote will function. The concept of feedforward could be really useful when the guide wants to highlight a showcase, so the guide knows what is about to happen (maybe a faint light or something on the remote display) before the choice is made. Many of the tips in this chapter seem applicable to our project: Our interface for setting up the tour will take more of a sovereign posture while the remote used on the actual tour is supposed to be hidden and non-intrusive (almost daemonic).

The last chapter about prototyping had some interesting things in it. The thing about our eye movement in the west world compared to the east, going from left to right, top to bottom seems like a really important aspect. Furthermore the method about squinting makes sense, seeing areas of rest and detail (Don't want the interface to be all jittery noise). About the different prototypes, low- and highfidelity I feel we have to atleast make a lowfidelity one where we use the Wizard of Oz method (Using smoke and mirrors) before we go on. Our project is almost built for it and it will help encapsulate the feeling better. Later on they were talking about a work method named Agile, where you break down the bigger pieces into smaller ones and rigorously working on them. It does sound a lot like the Scrum method where you more or less do the same, work on separate modules, setting goals within each week. I wonder what the exact difference is.

My question: Are there any design projects where you would actually want the product to stammer (wait for 0.1 – 1 second) after a user input, instead of responding immediately?

Reading Seminar 2 - Fredrik Berglund

Brainstorming: I think there are some really good examples of brainstorming techniques covered in chapter 6. If we had planned more before our brainstorming sessions and maybe used one of the examples in the book like Brainwriting or Questioning we could have gotten more ideas in the same amount of time.


Design principles: This is definitely something I think we should do to make sure the team is working towards the same goal and make sure we are designing something different enough from competitors.


Affordances: A great concept about how the properties of a product provides an indication of how to interact with it; just how a product looks, it's weight, texture etc. indicates what to do with it.

"The size, shape, and even weight of mobile devices let us know that they should be carried with us. [...] The empty space in a cup is an affordance that tells us we could fill the cup with liquid."

Cool stuff.


Feedback is really important in all products and we have to make sure the user gets appropriate feedback for all their actions. Feedforward is also great to have in mind so the user knows e.g. what a button press does before it is pressed.


My first thoughts about the part on controls: This part feels to me like it's targeted towards people who don't use... stuff; who hasn't learned what kind of control should do what by just using standard products not made by imbeciles?

But then I started to think about where I've seen these simple "rules" about controls being broken before, and a great example came to me:
The original GoPro HD Hero had two buttons, and their functions – as described by  the company – are:

"Basics: Turn the camera on by holding the front button for 3 seconds; turn it off by doing the same. Press the front button to cycle though camera modes: press the top button to enter these modes/adjust settings."

GoPro HD Hero

Sounds simple enough. 
Unfortunately it is a pain to change settings (like resolution or picture mode) on this thing since one button is used as a one-way navigation to the next setting – with no way of coming back to the previous setting except going through ALL the other settings. The other button turns on/off the setting or cycle through options (such as different resolutions).
The way you have to go through all other settings to get back to the previous one really messes with my mental model of how it should work.

There are certainly a lot more examples of bad control use in our everyday lives. We should think through how we use controls in our design and what those controls should do.

Now I'm well over 400 words so here's my question:
Is the best idea for our project to do many low-fidelity prototypes and one final high-fidelity prototype, or just make one high-fidelity prototype and iterate on that?

Reading seminar 2 - Linnéa Björklund

Chapter 6

Brainstorming is hard… It’s especially hard for me not to think critically during the process, to remember that even outlandish ideas are welcome. Larry Tesler’s thought on beginner mistakes are really good, like the tendency to design only for someone like you. (Stanislavsky! I never did get his method acting to work for me…)

Of the structures I like

Metaphors: Oh, this sounds cool!

Brainwriting: Sounds like a less chaotic and more controllable way of doing the “Say Yes” thing we did at one of the exercises.

Questioning: Why is an important question that often gets forgotten.

Design principles is basically deciding what your most important focus points are, and seem really helpful. But how do you decide what the most important bits are?

Brainstorming can be mysterious indeed. One of the more difficult bits, especially for engineers who are not used to think outside the box.

Chapter 7

Oh god, the constraints...How, who, with whose money? You, what skills you have and so on is really important and can tend to be forgotten. Can I really do this? 

I heard a game developer say once that if people are complaining about the load times, just put a progress bar there. That seems about right about the importance of feedback. Also, delays that you are used to are not a concerning as when something that usually works fine just doesn’t. With feedforward you need to be careful so that what you say is how the action is then perceived. 

Everything should be standardized, always! Okay, Cooper has a point with unless it’s markedly, significantly better but standards becomes better just by being a standard. Ctrl-C is in my muscle memory, I can’t change that.

Magical Number Seven, like in one of Jan Gulliksens lectures. Although wasn’t it five numbers a person could remember? Maybe that was just me having an off day.

Chapter 8

I didn’t think about the thing with Western vs Eastern cultures, and the reading order with left to right or right to left. Squint test: proof that the easiest way is sometimes the best. Sound effects can be used as feedback as well, like the clicking sound when you type on a smartphone keyboard.

We should probably work a lot on low-fidelity prototypes, but for the controller/remote we need to build a physical prototype. You can’t judge something like that that you can’t hold.

Testing, testing, testing. How will we find the time? Where will we find the users? It’s a good thing we had lectures explaining the testing bit in more detail, otherwise I’d be terrified at the prospect. (I still am, a little).

The difference between a high fidelity prototype and a final development is important, but if I understand things correctly we won't actually get to final development. 

Reading Seminar 2 - Ellinor Jutterström

Chapter 6 

I never really thought that much about brainstorming before I began my studies at KTH, but it really is a useful method. The process of just emptying your brain of all ideas you can think of, no matter the quality, is quite liberating. I like the idea of putting all your brainstorm material up on the wall, to bad we can’t really do that now (perhaps digitally though, but it’s not the same).

They list many cool brainstorming techniques, the poetry one sounds both funny and strange (to reduce the problem down to a Haiku or short poem). It seems a bit excessive though, but still want to try it sometimes.

The TiVo mantras are awesome! I can totally see where they come from though, the team had quite some challenges to overcome. Maybe it’s easier today, since we are more open for new things and technology, and used to working with it?

We should have read this chapter several weeks ago, I’d say :/

Chapter 7 

“The best designers are those who can juggle the most constraints”. Ooh, I like that! Very true, some of the best inventions and designs comes from nothing, really.

Haven’t thought about it that much before, but instant feedback really is important, better remember that! It reminds me of people on the subway; when the train has stopped and the doors don’t open immediately, people get a little antsy and start pressing buttons. I think people get used to delays though. For example, my computer is running a little slower than it should normally do (it’s getting old), and I’m ok with it since I’ve used it for a while. However, when someone else is using my computer, they go nuts. When we use an application for the first time, we expect it to have no delays and get annoyed if it does.

There clearly is a lot to think about when designing an application, such as the users cognitive ability, not to have too many options, placement (Hicks Law), no errors (the errors popping up should explain why there is an error, else the program should manage them itself), Poka-Yoke (avoiding errors) etc. A think-aloud user test seems more and more useful in order to avoid possible traps!

Chapter 8 

In the beginning of this chapter they mention the same thing as the speaker at the last lecture: the placement of graphic content is important, e.g. we tend to believe that information on the top of the page is more important. We need to create a flow in our app, the users eyes should not have to jump all over the screen! 

They don’t seem to mention that one major benefit of prototyping is that it greatly reduces the costs (and time!) of a product. I have worked at an engineering company, who was developing products worth hundreds of thousands SEK. Since they bought a 3D-printer, which prints all their prototypes really cheap, they have saved quite a lot of money.

Design sketches

Brainstorming session

As a guiding aid this concept will allow preprogrammed light patterns combined with ambient sounds and maybe sound effects to be sequenced and controlled by the exhibition guide much like a slideshow. The guide will be able to control this through the use of an app on a tablet, she will also be able to control the audiovisual elements down to individual source level. Some kind of area sensor will automatically pick up which exhibition display the guide is using, maybe an RFID tag or NRI technology. The visitors will be able to enjoy a limited version through the interactive displays when the guide is not around.

Exercise 3 - Brainstorming

A visor which put the object on display into another context. For instance, a rifle: When looking through the visor you will instead see the rifle in the same worldly position but in a different scenario, like a 3D still frame. There could be a soldier holding the weapon in a crouching position with his comrades right behind.

A robotguide, small and neat with the possibility to work forever.

Developing Personas and discussing Horror Movies

It's hard to schedule a meeting when people have wildly different hours. We had this problem, and we solved it… Drumroll please… With Technology! Skype and Google Docs is a marvelous thing, that let us do things together without actually being in the same room.

We had some basic ideas when we started: We knew we wanted the personas to be a female guide in her twenties and an older male visitor. During the meeting we sat with open mics and brainstormed. Basically, everyone typed their thoughts, just to get them down on paper, and then we gradually worked it into something resembling a coherent work.

It was a bit difficult to keep the personas and scenarios loose enough to be interesting, and yet focused enough to actually be useful. There were some flights of fancy (there is an alternate ending for Katarinas first scenario, that will be posted below…) but I think it was tied together rather nicely.


If only she had a… rifle. To show them something cool like that might calm them down and get them interested. Katrina’s hand grabs the nearest showcase and smashes it to the ground. The sword, lying under the shards pierce her long fingers, but it’s worth it.  The sword, glistening in the spotlights from the ceiling, feels so good in her hands. She raises it above her head… And the kids were bored no more. Then she woke up. :)

Scenarios: Olof

Scenario 1: Rise of the planet of the apes

Today Olof will be visiting one of his favourite museums; the Army Museum in Stockholm. He has been here many times before, but always seems to learn something new, much thanks to the many different guides working there. Today there will be a guided tour about the Swedish king Carl XII. Olof grabs one of the portable chairs, a blessing to his aching back, and follows the guide through the exhibition. The tour starts off really interesting, and Olof is having a great time. But suddenly a chilling scream is piercing the atmosphere, effectively drowning the sound of the tour guide. The stuffed monkeys seems to have awaken from the crowd entering the room, and is now fighting each other in a game of who can sing the loudest. The tour guide smiles apologetically, but Olof is not amused.

Scenario 2: Let the not wrong one in

This weekend Olof has brought his wife to the army museum to indulge her in his world of the past. This is only the second time he has been here so the first thing on schedule is to find a guided tour. Olof knows that this surely will make Gunilla interested in his hobby. Walking up to the counter, the cashier tells him that “I’m sorry, there are no guided tours available today”. Something feels off, there is cool breeze flowing from behind. The goosebumps multiply like never before. She asks him if he wants to use the audio guides instead, but Olof will have none of that. Gunilla takes a pair and the “tour” begins. Here they are, separated by a layer of macguffin. He tries to talk to her, explain the things he know, share the experience - but there is no use. The tour quickly turns bitter and sour for our protagonist as he tries to enjoy himself. Deciding to find more information on his own, he turns to the interactive displays - but what a mess. The text is so tiny and his back aches from crouching down over the display. If only there was a way to experience the content in a better way.

Scenarios: Katarina

Scenario 1: The Shitty Kids Project

Katarina spent several hours last night preparing for the tour she is going to lead later today. She knows kids that age will have a hard time concentrating when with their classmates at a place filled with new stuff to explore. Therefore preparation is vital for Katarina’s success.

When the time for the tour has come the kids are, just like she anticipated, all over the place. Hyperactive little buggers, they run around screaming and not paying any attention. If she had something more physical to show them, something that felt real and cool, maybe they would be interested. She knows that they could be, it’s a museum about war. But instead she drags them from room to room, the teacher meandering along at the back of the group staring at his Iphone. Finally, she is done. The kids go away and she drinks half a pot of coffee.

Scenario 2: The walking silent dead

It’s an evening group, and those consist of random people. This makes her job harder, since she’s not able to prepare a specialized tour. Instead she must try to figure out as she goes what the group finds interesting. The problem is that no one in the group is asking any questions, or answering hers. It’s difficult to tell if they’re uninterested or just quiet. When they stop at the room of trophy room, there is finally some life in one of the ladies, as she knows for sure what county has a symbol of two crossed arrows. After this things go a bit smoother, but it is still much more quiet than Katarina prefers. Having gone through her regular tour at least ten minutes faster than usual it is done. One or two of the visitors linger, asking a few questions they could very well have asked during the actual tour. She goes home to an empty apartment and a frozen pizza, still not knowing if the people were bored, or just quiet.

Guide Persona

Name: Katarina Sundqvist
Age: 27
Hometown: Uppsala, Sweden

Background:

Katarina studies History and Ethnographics at the Stockholm university, and is currently working on her master thesis. For the past x years she has been working part time as a museum tour guide, sharing her interests with visitors from near and far. She aspires to become a historian, and would not say no to traveling the world and discover ancient artifacts and mysteries. Katarina lives in a small apartment outside of Stockholm with her roommate.

Personality:

Katarina considers herself a little nerdy, and loves her job even though the pay is low. She is confident talking in front of people, and thinks that the best part of being a guide is to get people interested in things that they used to find boring. Katarina is very creative and makes her own historical outfits that she sometimes wears during tours, seminars or other gatherings. She also likes to bring props, the fancier the better! When not working or studying, Katarina enjoys reading fictional books or watching Dr Who.

Today:

She is trying to find a postgraduate position so she can get her PhD. Since this is not easy, she enjoys working with something related to her field of study.

Visitor Persona

Name: Olof Ek
Age: 68
Hometown: Stockholm, Sweden

Background: 

Olof used to be a factory worker back in the days, but is now enjoying his life in retirement along with his wife Gunilla and their Irish Setter. They live in a small house close to the woods in Nacka. Olof has an interest in warfare, especially the second world war, and is a frequent museum visitor.

Personality:

Olof is a peaceful person who has always been a big reader. He does not like having to tinker with technology. Seems to be the know-it-all, and has strong opinion on everything. The aching back isn’t helping either. Does like to go on guided tours but he feels that he can obtain the information from a more reliable source if he wanted to.The audio guides was never a fond spot, too frustrating to use. Olof has always had a soft spot for carving wood into tiny figurines, it helps him relax.

Today:

Spends his days reading and exploring the past. Tries to find new places to explore in the city each day. Slightly bored since his retirement he looks around for things to do with all his free time.