Reading response 5--A review of this course (Inquiry into digital content)

The last two weeks past so fast, I cannot believe I have learnt things taught for three months. First of all, I want to appreciate Nancy, the instructor of this summer course for her wonderful guiding in this inquiry journey, which provided me with a big picture on digital content about theories, applications, realities and ethical issues as well as tons of information and research. In the class, we were offered opportunities to discuss the application of digital content in educational field and the relevant hot topics, watch excellent videos, examine articles, digging out what we’ve known and exploring what we don’t know. What an unforgettable knowledge-building experience in such a short time! I even cannot believe I could make videos with storytelling via available digital tools, along with critical thoughts just within two weeks, which will definitely help me use these skills in my future career.

I am also grateful to my great team members—Vanita and Amanda, to collaborate with me for the final project (http://digitalinquiry.webs.com/). I am so proud of my team and this project as it is the achievement of our hard working in such intensive class. I will never forget the experience that we three got together for brainstorming and designing then went back home until 9pm in the past whole week. This final project is like a comprehensive package, allowing us to integrate the theories we’ve learnt in the class into the real practice. We indeed had difficulties and experienced frustrations during the process of the design, which were articulated in our narrative part in the project web link. Although Nancy helped us build the confidence in the class that it is the human being control the technology, I felt that we were sometimes controlled by technology in the real practice no matter whether we admit it or not. The digital tools we used have many limitations and they cannot 100% realize the effect we expected. We did spend a large amount of time fighting with the difficulties and figuring out how we could obtain the effect that we expected in the design of the video and the website. However, we are aware that there is no best, but better in the world. If we were offered more time and if some digital tools are better designed, we might do it better. :-)

This process of completing the final project reminds me of the experience in Dr. Michele Jacobsen’s class—User Centered Design (http://people.ucalgary.ca/~dmjacobs/eder679.27/)

through which I got a better understanding on the notions of usability and utility in a interactive digital product. And, Nancy’s course enhanced my skills in using storytelling to better communicate for educational purposes. Both of the two courses helped my team members and me a lot to finish a digital package within our capabilities.

In the end, I want to finish it with a question for myself, maybe it is a little bit unrealistic. As users and residents in digital world, everyday, we not only enjoy the conveniences and joys it brings to us, but also face many frustrations caused by digital tools. Take I movie and movie maker for example, the only way for our team to combine two videos done by these two tools was first to upload them to youtube, then use other convert software to download them and finally merge them.  It was just one step for our whole project, and there were at least three sub-steps to successfully finish this marriage. Therefore, there is no wonder many educators fear the changes brought by technology. How many unexpected things will they confront with if their whole days are full of digital tools? I sometimes teased my husband, a software developer, using this question, “can you software guys design the software more usable and reasonable, so that we educators can better use them for teaching and don’t have to waste time to cry?” From this perspective, is it a good way to have all the engineers or technology guys take relevant courses to enhance their digital literacy or design skills before we users frustrate these problems?

Once again, a big thank you to my instructor, Nancy, and my wonderful classmates. 

Final group project--Technology, as a partner, helps to build learning environment and community

Final group project---http://digitalinquiry.webs.com/

Group members: Amanda, Phoebe and Vanita

Topic: Technology, as a partner helping to build learning environments and communities.

Target Audience:

Our Digital Production is targeted towards Educators, parents, potential students, software designers, aging community and everyone interested in understanding the importance of technology in developing meaningful learning environments.

Reading response 4—Principles of Good Design

The discussion topic for today was Principles of good design. Although the video we watched did not talk all the principles and it was not just limited to digital products, I really like this topic as it is closely concerned with our everyday life.

In general, the author summarized the principles as the following points:  

Good design is innovative;

Good design makes a product useful;

Good design is aesthetic;

Good design helps us to understand a product;

Good design is unobtrusive;

Good design is honest;

Good design is durable;

Good design is consequent to the last detail;

Good design is concerned with the environment;

Good design is as little design as possible.

The interesting thing was the majority of the class had the same feelings that this video reminded us of IKEA products, except the “durable” seems not match with the brand. Should a well-designed product meet all the above criteria? Not really. Everyone knows that IKEA is usually criticized for the quality issue, but this brand is still very popular around the world. I personally think it is mainly because of its aesthetics, being consequent to the last detail and concerned with the environment which were mentioned in the above principles, and certainly, the low price, another very important factor. Thus, my assumption is the notion of good design has no unique connotation, it might be different for individuals. It is also concerned with the “need” and “want” and all depends on if it meets your needs and if you really want it.

It is unrealistic to look for a perfect or “one size fits all” product in the world, especially for the digital productions produced by the fast-developed technologies. Thinking of the laptop, I am sure even though you have already owned a Mac, you still have another PC or other digital product at home as a good supplementary. You might also want or desire to have an updated one in the coming three or four years, maybe the time will be shorter than this. I bought a smaller and very portable laptop (PC) early last year, but only in one and half year, I am now considering replacing it by a Mac. Thus, today, I consulted with Connie and Scott in the class for the comparisons of Mac and IPad, as each of them brought both Mac and Ipad to the class and used them at the same time. I know it sounds ridiculous to compare their differences, but I really need others’ suggestions to help me make the final decision, to buy either a Mac, or both Mac and IPad. After the discussion with them, I found Mac might be the one I truly need, but I still cannot resist the temptation of IPad. That is my hard fighting with “want” and “need”.  I once imagine to buy one laptop that is “one size fits all” (also for saving the money in the pocketJ), but it is too idealistic. We users usually fall behind the technology and are more likely to be allured. Just count that how long IPad 1 was updated to IPad 2 after its first launch. When we still enjoy IPad 2, it is said IPad 3 will be released in the end of this year. Undoubtedly, we are going to struggle with a new cycle of the “need” and “want”!

Here, I also want to introduce three interesting books that were recommended in Dr. Michele Jocobsen’s classes of last Fall and this Winter. They are talking about good design for digital and interactive productions.

Vicente, K. (2006). The Human Factor:  Revolutionizing the Way People Live with Technology. Taylor and Francis. ISBN:  13:9780415978910

Norman, D. (2005). Emotional Design:  Why We Love (or Hate) Everyday Things. Perseus Books Group. ISBN:  13:9780465051366

Preece, J., Rogers, Y., & Sharp, H. (2002 / 2007 – 2nd edition). Interaction design: Beyond human-computer interaction. John Wiley & Sons, Inc: New York. ISBN: 0-471-49278-7. 

Reflection 3--Digital Literacy

"If people are not taught the language of images and sound, shouldn’t they be considered as illiterate as if they left college without being able to read and write?"

“We must accept the fact that learning how to communicate with graphics, with music, with cinema, is just as important as communicating with words. Understanding these rules is as important as learning how to make a sentence work. ”

                                                                    -----Daly (2004)

These two quotes are about the perspectives on digital literacy. In today’s table discussions, we group talked about its definition and exchanged opinions on it. We thought that it was partially true in current trends, but it all depends on the extent to which he/ she relies on digital world in his/her everyday life, such as whether digital world is related to his/her job, or how often he/ she has to use digital world. Yes, I agree that it would be much better and convenient if one masters the skill in well communicating with images and sound, for social networking or in working settings. To those seniors or old generations, however, who don’t have to frequently use digital technology for communication, the traditional way to communicate with others might also be valid and useful. In this case, digital literacy is not as important as “learning how to make a sentence work”.

It also reminds me of a funny comparison between my retired parents and 11-year old cousin. Just in grade 5, my cousin has interacted with digital world for more than two years, it seems he is learning the digital technology by himself through playing online games and improving digital communication skills by using various online chatting tools. By contrast, my parents are just at entry level on computer, they are even learning how to download and save files to their computer, let alone using images and sound for online communication. I cannot help questioning, “does it mean my 11-year old cousin has a better digital literacy than my parents? ”; “So what?” If we strictly follow the definition, the answer might be “yes”. But, so what? Is it necessary for my parents to improve their digital literacy to catch up with the current trend? Not necessarily. In my parents’ case, they got used to traditional ways and don’t have to use digital tools to make friends, to work or construct the sense of community. All they need online is talking with me and receiving the files/photos I send to them. That’s it! They told me they don’t have to spend time on figuring out various digital tools to improve computer or digital skills, because there is no need for them. I think my parents’ case is not a unique one, but represents many cases of the old generations.

Although we can do tons of things by using digital technologies, many of us still rely on traditional ways under many circumstances. It does not mean that we deny the digital world, but prefer a mixed way of combining the new technology and the traditional ways in order to work better. I noticed that in my twelve courses, more than half of the professors printed out our final papers, marking them and commenting on the hardcopies. I also found that many of my classmates in different classes, including me, usually printed out reading materials and highlighted the important contents. It seems that working with hardcopies is handy, easier for us to work and think. We can read it on the bus, or wait for others, don’t have to concern about the battery issue. Of course, different people have different habits. For some, they might prefer doing everything through computer and digital technology. Thus, I personally think the marriage of the digital technology and personal habits would work best for me and those like me.  

Resource: Daly J. (2004). Life on the screen: Visual literacy in education. http://www.edutopia.org/life-screen

One minute video--A Warm Drink (with personal replection)

When I started to create this video, a lot of ideas came to my mind at the same time. I was struggling for how I could take advantage of one minute to include a meaningful story as much as possible and make an argument well. From my point of view, the best way for a storytelling is to narrate something that is concerned with our own experience. Therefore, this video should not only be a demonstration to show a comfortable place but a story or a personal experience behind it. As my favourite warm drink is hot tea, which also represents Chinese food culture, it is natural for me to relate it to my hometown, a neat southern city where the tea culture is rich and pervasive. Thus, my preferred answer to this topic “The best place for a warm drink…” is anywhere in my hometown with my family, in which there are beautiful sceneries, yummy food and nice people. Furthermore, the most important thing is that my family is still there, drinking tea reminds me of the hometown and the whole family.

It is the first time for me to use windows movie maker to create a complete product. I actually tried a similar software before, but just for a trial not a product. It is not hard to handle it. The key issue is how to edit the video, making the content coherent and interesting, having the selected music match the tone of the video. I did spent a lot of time on editing it in order to ensure a high quality, which was a bit frustrating for me. However, due to the one-minute time requirement, I have no other choices, but to make each picture go a little bit too fast. It might be the key drawback of this video. In the middle of this video, I originally wanted to use the image of some real people, but, as it is concerned with ethical issues, I decided to use some cartoon images in this section to try to avoid the ethical issue. I was personally satisfied with this solution. Also, I initially intended to use all the pictures taken by myself or owned by myself, however, I found it really hard to make all my pictures fit this video. Therefore, many pictures I selected for the video were from google images. By doing that, I provided with the recourses in the end of this video. In a word, I personally like this video, which not only conveys the culture of my hometown but demonstrates my nostalgic feelings.

Reflection 2 ---The Use of New Technologies for Social Research

From the class reading materials and in-class discussions, it is the first time for me to hear the term of "digital ethnography". I have already taken two research courses, it is interesting to know the new term(for me) in this class which made me continue to reflect on this issue. As the author mentioned, the article of "Digital Ethnography: An Examination of the Use of New Technologies for Social Research” critically examined the possibilities and problems of four new technologies –online questionnaires, digital video, social networking websites,blogs, and their potential impacts on the research relationship. 

Before I read this article, I had never thought more details about the links between the research methods and the digital ethnography. But, it is true, with the introduction of new technologies, the ways to collect data for ethnography have changed. Researchers currently don’t have to physically present in the research fields, and might reach participants around the world at the same time. From this perspective, I agree that the use of new technologies is convenient for researchers. However, we should also be very careful to apply these digital ways, especially I found the online questionnaires and emails might not have us get the expected results due to the low response rates. In the online environment, researchers cannot control others’ participations. On one hand, researchers have to make efforts to get the email addresses from the target interviewees. But how to get them in a short time? It might take researchers extra time to figure it out before conducting the real research. On the other hand, it is no guarantee to have high rate of feedback before the due date. It is usual that this kind of emails might be deleted as junk mails. Thus, it relies more on the participants’ behaviour and researchers might lose the control of the data collection process. 
Resource:  Murthy D. (2008). Digital ethnography: An examination of the use of new technologies for social research. Sociology 42 (5) (pp. 837-855). SAGE Publications http://soc.sagepub.com.ezproxy.lib.ucalgary.ca/content/42/5.toc 

Digital content--Reflection 1---We are all connected in the digital world!

My sparking thoughts for this reflection came from the above video regarding the introduction to youtube. I summarized the most impressive idea to one sentence which is talking to the camera, we are then all connected in the digital world.

Is it necessary for us to physically meet each other in the current society? It is not a simple question to get the answer. On one hand, we found that it is hard to physically connect each other in the real life as everyone is so busy with the job, study and family. Thus, digital world help us connect with each other in time. On the other hand, due to the digital world, we friends are just a screen-distance away online, it seems unnecessary for us to physically meet together, especially under the circumstances that are costly and time-consuming? I actually don’t know the answer. What I am well aware is that the sense of community changes, the way of social networking changes, so does the whole world.

Digital world is now dramatically changing our daily lives no matter whether you are willing to or not. Online connection is the quite often used means for me to contact with my family and friends who are currently in China. Take my mom for example, she is in her 50s, she once said she hated to change the life style even though internet became people’s everyday life. She had never touched PC, let alone internet, before I came to Canada. To her, PC seems like a decoration at home. For her generation, in general, it’s true that people don’t get used to online connection in my country. They cannot understand why digital society is so popular and attractive among teens and young adults. It is the cheapest way we found, however, to contact each other since I am here now. Therefore, my mom forced herself and my dad to learn how to use Skype and MSN to chat with me. The most convenient thing is that internet allows us to see each other although it is not physically meeting each other. My parents gradually like the way and are so glad with the convenience brought by the digital world. Right now, they not only chat with me online, but contact several friends who also have MSN accounts, they even use internet to check stock markets and watch TV series. PC is not a decoration any more, but becomes a part of my parents’ life.  

As a digital native, I just experienced three awful days without internet. During the past three days, as something wrong with the internet in my house, I could not access to it until the technician came to fix it today. I felt I lost connection with the world, I kept thinking and concerning what if my friends email me; what if my parents wait for me online; what if I need to google some information; what if my online bills are not paid before the due date, so on and so forth. Thus, the first thing I did when the internet was fixed was to open the laptop immediately, replying emails checking online banking, leaving messages to my parents and friends. It seems I survive from it and get energy again. It also reminds me of the stories that lots of friends shared with me if they left their cell phones at home someday, they felt they got lost in the world and were not able to do anything for a whole day. I did have the same feelings, maybe much stronger, without the digital world.

When googling for more information about digital community, I came across a newly-published book, Digital community, digital citizen. It is written for teachers, school board members, parents, community members, anyone who are interested in our children growing up digitally in ways that are safe, informed and optimistic. I think it would be very helpful for us to get a better understanding on our kids in school settings. Also, another global survey digital world, digital life conducted by TNS (a global market information and insight group) in 16 countries in 2008 provided us with a useful snapshot of our online behaviour and perspectives around the world.

Reading response 10- Chapter 6 and chapter 7

The evidence suggests that extended contact with technology—long hours spent practicing musical instruments or typing with the thumbs on cell phones or other hand-held devices—constitutes the kind of practice that can affect the brain (p167)… Experience does change the brain, especially prolonged, early experience of children (p167).  

Brain changes brought about by learning and practice are not inherited, just as increased muscle mass is not passed from one generation to the next. Still, as technology enters the life of children at an earlier and earlier age, it will impact how they respond, think, and behave (p167).

Coincidently, these Norman’s statements regarding the impact of technology on brain and thoughts are relevant with a debate I experienced in my instructional design class last week. I agree with Norman. I actually registered as For side which supported that today’s net generations think and process the information differently than the previous generations. Our support was originally from Marc Prensky in his article Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants of 2001 in which he stated “It is now clear that as a result of this ubiquitous information environment and the sheer volume of their interaction with it (technology), today’s students think and process information fundamentally differently from their predecessors.” Our side proved it basically from these four arguments: access to digital information has biologically rewired brains; the net generations form a different personal and work values; digital technologies are used as a natural and useful way for net generations’ learning and the net generations have particular learning preferences that differ from the previous generations. While, the against side addressed that the evidence is not enough to convince us that our brain changed so that there is no difference from the old generation; we digital immigrant nowadays also interact with the technology and think and process the information in the same way as what the digital natives do. During the debate, another intriguing but controversial topic emerged from it that goes to the disadvantages of technology. As we concerned, the advanced technology are causing today’s students never sit, read and think of the classic literature, like Shakespeare, as the previous generation did. Statistics did show us, by age 21, the average net Generations will have spent:10,000 hours on cell phones; 10,000 hours playing video games; over 20,000 hours watching TV; over 250,000 sending/receiving emails and IMs; watched over 500,000 TV commercials, But, less than 5,000 hours reading. Here, probably, my focus is not on the advantages or disadvantages of the technology but the differences between digital natives and digital immigrants that the technology is bringing to us. Whatever, I still believe that the children’s brains will be modified early in their lives to accommodate new skills that technology requires. To them, technology is not technology but a natural way to interact with everyday things. It’s not surprising why my friend’s 6-year old son can play Wii very well without any tutorials in the first time, for me, however, it took me about more than 10 minutes to figure out the function of each button and how to correspondingly handle the controller well.

Smart technologies have the capacity to enhance pleasure, simplify lives, and add to our safety (p156).

Design, today, is taught and practiced as an art form or craft, not as a science with known principles that have been verified through experimentation and that can be used to derive new design approaches (p172). ..We need a new approach, one that combines the precision and rigor of business and engineering, the understanding of social interactions, and the aesthetics of the arts (p173).

It is so true that today’s design is not merely a science issue or an art issue. As Norman suggests, the new trend for design everyday things is to apply a comprehensive approach to try to make our lives ideal.

I think this trend is currently realized and advocated by our societies. It reminds me of 2010 Seoul international design competition. It envisioned the realization of an egalitarian society and human values through design proposals that are easy, convenient, and pleasant to use. It also emphasized the importance of digital technology-based communication that was rapidly increasing in the environment of a contemporary city, in which design could bring convenience, safety, equality and pleasure to citizens. The motto—‘design for all’ objective is made to increase the efforts and the pursuit of design production that can be shared by all, removing emotional and physical barriers by becoming an universal communicative social solution.

Among those winners, I was so impressed by Yoga traffic lights (see the fun design from the below video). The designer tried to make the time spent waiting at traffic lights more productive with the Yoga Traffic Light. It was designed exactly like a regular traffic light except that it shows yoga poses during red lights. The Yoga Traffic Light turns what would be wasted time into a fun mini yoga session, which helps you kill time and avoid getting bored at that moment. Plus, such slight design change on the traffic lights could go a long way in preventing accidents and promoting a more leisurely and safe lifestyle.

We are fortunate generations, as we are experiencing a society with hi-tech development and witnessing tons of possibilities turn into tons of realities. We human beings are so imaginative and are optimistic on how the future things will be. Yes, “This is a future that is emotionally appealing and engaging as well as educational and entertaining (p174).”

Reading Response 9---Norman’s Chapter 5 The role of automation

The future of design clearly lies in the development of smart devices that drive cars for us, make our meals, monitor our health, clean our floors, and tell us what to eat and when to exercise (p134).

I have to admit that my imaginary ideal future life is like what Norman mentioned in the above phrase. We currently live in an automatic world. Unconsciously, automation has changed the world a lot and it seems we could not go back any more.

According to wikipedia, automation is the use of control systems to control processes, reducing the need for human intervention. Putting this into context, automation is having technology do things for us so that we don’t have to. Automation is all around us, just briefly review them, we realized that there are tons of automation that we might not pay much attention in our daily lives but they indeed exist, bringing us convenience and maintaining a smooth society: traffic lights on crossroads, automatic doors in malls, treadmill in the fitness center, water tap and hand dryer available in washrooms, security doors in the airport and the automatic check-out system in the library, so on and so forth.

It is an automatic world now, not automatic enough though. We are struggling for more advanced technologies to achieve automation in more fields which satisfy the infinite needs of ourselves.

I assent that a good starting point is to automate the things that we don’t want to spend time doing. I cannot count how many times I have been wasting on the house cleaning, grocery shopping (not for fun) and sorting out materials on laptop, etc. Specially, my occasional bad experience in the library makes me cry for automation when it took me more than 20 minutes to find a wanted book, sometimes without any result at all. Although they are sorted in a certain order by library staffs, we cannot avoid if someone before us just picks it and has a look, but later puts it back in a wrong place even on the same shelf. In this case, if the future technology, no matter in which form, could make it automatic, we absolutely save time on finding books. Instead, we could be able to put more effort on research which is more worth doing.

Augmentative tools are comforting, for they leave the decisions about activities to people. .. Autonomous devices can be useful when jobs are dull, dangerous, or dirty (p131).

In this chapter, Norman takes Mozer’s home as a fully automatic example and he personally would not want to live Mozer’s home, neither do I.  I don’t feel comfortable if the systems always attempt to infer my intentions, sometimes make wrong decisions and conversely annoy me. I prefer augmentative tools at home, as I can take them or leave them, choosing those that I feel aid my lives, ignoring those that do not. By doing that, I could feel my ownership in my own house. Below is an example for smart home I found in a houseautomator-like website, but I would rather categorize it into an augmentative technology at smart home in the future. Although this cool canopy bed--home theater is seemingly designed by automatic philosophy, it gives us options to interact with it, not just simply infers our intentions nor determines by itself.

Automated Canopy Bed by Hi-Can - home theater, game room and an office---A specific control allows you to activate lighting blinds that close up, giving you the privacy that you deserve. If you’re not comfortable in bed, adjust the bedding controls, which move your bed into the-just-right position. The Hi-Can comes with a state-of-the-art sound system and a theatre screen that slides down to the foot of the bed. No need to leave home, you can have dinner and a movie in bed, or simply play the music that suits your mood. Plus, a built-in PC allows you to surf the web or do work while you relax. The Hi-Can canopy bed also boasts a full multimedia system with a game and entertainment console that connects to a projector and shows up on the theatre screen. This is truly a multifunctional bedroom.

 Retrieved from http://www.houseautomator.com/arch/home-theater/

Reading Response 8—Evaluation issue (cont'd)

We wanted to know what users thought of a site after using it. And that's best assessed by asking them (Nielsen, 2010).

The DECIDE framework suggests identifying goals and questions first before selecting techniques for the study, because the goals and questions help determine which data is collected and how it will be analyzed (Preece, p 379).

It really makes sense that the DECIDE framework gives us a useful guideline for evaluation phase. If you still remember, I quoted DECIDE framework in my last blog which caused me to conjunct it with my group project Feed Me Well (FMW). Here, I once again review my group’s initial ideas and considerations on evaluation phase, which would help examine my understanding on this framework and furthermore reinforces my skills of using it in the real world. Certainly, these considerations were included in the end of our production paper:

Based on tutorials-focus tasks we have done, in the next evaluation phase, our goals would be to evaluate the effectiveness, ease of learning and functionality of the tutorial, to examine how the tutorials help users understand and operate the watch if they need this kind of assistance. In addition, in terms of the questions from which our groups want to get the answers, before my group reach agreement, I just personally came up with several questions that probably fit our FMW evaluation phase regarding the tutorials. It is not a final nor complete one though, I just want to keep them here when they are still fresh in my mind. (My apologize to my groupJ for showing them here) If applicable, questions might be like these:

1. In general, how do users like the tutorials?
2. What is(are) users’ favourite feature(s) or part(s) regarding the tutorials?
3. Is (are) there one (some) part(s) users don’t like on the tutorials?
4. To what extent do users think the tutorials help them operate the watch?
5. Are there any improvements for the tutorials? If so, what are they?
   

Thus, the questions showed above need to be figured out in the evaluation phase. Based on Nielsen’s suggestion, we can definitely get the answers by asking the tested users, knowing how they think of the tutorials from both macro and micro perspectives. We probably could carry out an interview and change the questions above into a questionnaire format. Therefore, the main evaluation techniques we plan to use is observing users, testing users’ performance and asking their opinions (interviewing users). For the detailed procedure and implementation, I think I’d better leave them to our final evaluation paper.J

I just came across an online book relating to this EDER course when I googled for evaluation materials. The name of the book is User-centered design stories: real-world UCD case files, written by Carol Righi and Janice James in 2007. It is the first user-centered design casebook, follows the Harvard Case study method. I attacked it here for providing myself with more materials and reference that might be available in my future practice. Please click here for direct link of this book.

Reading Response 7----Norman’s Chapter 3 Natural Interaction

A better way to design the future things of everyday life is to use richer, more informative, less intrusive signals: natural signals (p59).

Implicit communication is an important component of the design of intelligent things because it informs without interruption, annoyance, or even the need for conscious attention (p62).

Because sound can be both informative and annoying, this raises the difficult design problem of understanding how to enhance its value while minimizing its annoyance (p64)... .Implicit communication can be a powerful tool for informing without annoying (p66).

                                                                         ---------Norman, 2007, chapter 3

I indeed have several experience towards Norman’s argument. I agree that sound is a good thing and an annoying thing in our lives. To isolate the application of sound for design from its detailed context is meaningless per se. It all depends on which product the sound is designed or used for.

Here is my first example: I bought a new humidifier recently and put it in my bedroom. It is so noisy when the fan embedded the humidifier is working. The sound let me know it works well but I could not bear it and fall asleep if I keep it working all night long. For the sake of health, I choose an expediential way—turning it on about 2 hours before I go to bed, which makes my bedroom moist enough and turning it off when I go to bed, which ensures me to have a sound sleep in the moist temperature. I keep suspecting if it is the reason for the store to have it on sale. I am also wondering if a more expensive humidifier would avoid this problem. In this case, “comfort noise” is not applicable. I felt that not only I but others prefer quiet to noise as the sound here is more like an intrusion annoying us in our lives.

On the contrary, there is another opposite example from my kitchen, which well applied sound to interact with me—a normal daily user. That is my microwave---one of typical good designs in my kitchen. My experience on it is pleasurable, satisfactory and enjoyable. Believe it or not, I was sometimes interrupted by other kitchen issues which usually made me forget what I had put into the microwave. I just keep doing other things and neglect I should take out the food from it. In this case, my microwave makes a sound “da da, da da” every 30 seconds until I take the food from it. In this way, it seems to remind me that I had something in the microwave, giving me a warning like” “Attention! It’s time to take it out! ” That’s so useful and convenient, isn’t it? However, one of my friends has no this interesting experience like me. She usually uses her microwave to heat a cup of milk or tea. As her microwave is not an updated product, it does not have a remind-like functionality to remind her of this thing. Thus, she sometimes forgot to pick up food from microwave until the next time she had to reuse microwave to heat other food, then you can imagine what happened—Yes, when she open the microwave, she suddenly found her old stuff was still in it. As such, she complains a lot, and the same complaint goes to her laundry machine. Although the laundry machine gives her a sound reminder that it finishes washing, but if she was interrupted and did other things first instead, she would definitely forgot her clothes and they would stay in the machine several hours until she realized it. I agree with her that the washing machines should be also invited a sound to remind users of things that are still inside it.

For these needs, sound is so helpful for those Mr. and Mrs. Forgettable. As sound is very necessary in these cases, another question emerges: what sound should be used for specific product? Back to my microwave case, I think the sound of “Dada, dada” is appropriate, it is not like music but at least it is not annoying and acceptable for me. Whereas, different users have different tastes. Even the natural signals are to be used, it might also annoy others if the users are not in a mood. So, it is really hard to satisfy all the users at the same time. For instance, like the sound for emergency or ambulance car, I frankly don’t like this type of sound, making me nervous and anxious, but I am well aware that it is in need for our society. No matter how, for designers, the fundamental principle it to minimize its annoyance as much as possible.

                                                   There, they sound a lot better now.

Reading Response 6---Thoughts on evaluation issue

"From this selection of examples (a word processor, a cell phone, a website that sells clothes an online patient support community), you can see that success of some interactive products depends on much more than just usability. Aesthetic, emotional, engaging, and motivating qualities are important too (p 322).

Evaluations done during design to check that the product continues to meet users' needs are know as formative evaluations. Evaluations that are done to assess the success of a finished product, such as those to satisfy a sponsoring agency or to check that a standard is being upheld, are know as summative evaluation. (p323)

The HutchWorld case study--The evaluator also asked the participants to fill out a short questionnaire after completing the tasks, with the aim of collecting their opinions about their experiences with HutchWorld. The questionnaire asked (p330):                                                                       

What did you like about HutchWorld?

What did you not like about HutchWorld?

What did you find confusing or difficult to use in HutchWorld?

How would you suggest improving HutchWorld?

Some practical issues that evaluators routinely have to address include (p336):

• what to do when there are not many users
• how to observe users in their natural location (i.e., field studies) without disturbing them
• having appropriate equipment available
• dealing with short schedules and low budgets
• not disturbing users or causing them duress or doing anything unethical
• collecting "useful" data and being able to analyze it
• selecting techniques that match the evaluators' expertise"

Frankly, I have never systematically or carefully thought about the evaluation issue until I read this chapter. I love the HutchWorld case study. It shows us a vivid example with very detailed process how the team carried out evaluation from the earlier stage to the last stage. I once again realized that how important the evaluation is and there are indeed too many things to be considered regarding evaluation. No joking that I once took it for granted that evaluation or assessment usually need to be done at the end of a project or study (at least until last year). However, my idea was gradually corrected since I took the user-based design class last semester, which is so useful that widens my horizon. Yes, both formative and summative evaluation are indispensible for design. That is so heuristic that makes me review my group design product—Feed Me Well. I still remember we applied an User testing questionnaire as below for the user testing last December:

1. How do you like the watch? Like it, dislike it, or neutral?

2. Any confusions when you interact with it?

3. Any suggestions or any comments?

Compare it to HutchWorld’s questionnaire, I joyfully found they are so similar (I swear I did not read it and copy it thenJ). But it should not be a coincidence why they are similar as we trust and followed Preece’s ideas which had already been mentioned in the earlier chapter that the goals of interaction design include both usability goals and user experience goals. No wonder the evaluation should integrate these goals to make a project as a complete and coherent picture. Feed Me Well now goes to a new phase—production phase, in which we mainly focuses on its tutorials. We’ve almost done it and will go to the next evaluation phase. We agree that the success of interactive products highly depends on both usability and user experience—such as aesthetic, emotional, engaging, and motivating qualities. In view of these factors, back to Feed Me Well, in the evaluation phase, we should pay more attention to these questions: how do the tutorials work? Whether and how users like the means of multimedia that we apply to reinforce the effect of tutorials? How does the application of multimedia help the tutorials?, etc. 

An evaluation paradigm is an approach in which the methods used are influenced by particular theories and philosophies. Four evaluation paradigms were identified:

1. "quick and dirty"

2. usability testing

3. field studies

4. predictive evaluation

Methods are combinations of techniques used to answer a question but in this book we often use the terms "methods" and "techniques" interchangeably. Five categories were identified:

I. observing users

2. asking users

3. asking experts

4. user testing

5. modeling users' task performance

The DECIDE framework has six parts:

1. Determine the overall goals of the evaluation.

2. Explore the questions that need to be answered to satisfy the goals.

3. choose the evaluation paradigm and techniques to answer the questions.

4. Identify the practical issues that need to be considered.

5. Decide on the ethical issues and how to ensure high ethical standards.

6. Evaluate, interpret, and present the data.

Drawing up a schedule for your evaluation study and doing one or several pilot studies will help to ensure that the study is well designed and likely to be successful.

                                                                              ---Key points of chapter 11 (p357)

I boldly attached the whole summary contents of chapter11 here as it is so hard for me to choose ones and abandon others and I cannot tell myself how useful the whole chapter is. I think it is just like a timely rain for our evaluation phase. I assume my FMW group members would reach agreement to use the above key points as a guideline for the evaluation phase. Especially, the DECIDE framework with six parts reminds us how to logically organize the tasks of evaluation and avoid the possibility of neglect. I was also impressed by the elaboration of pilot studies. As Preece argued that “it is always worth testing plans for an evaluation by doing a pilot study before launching into the main study”, a peer review is exact a good pilot study to ensure the project on the right track in time. Thanks to peer reviews, we FMW group got many valuable feedbacks and comments from them since last semester. It is such a quick and inexpensive way that saves a lot of trouble later, bringing new and good ideas to the design group. In a word, all these elements regarding the evaluation undoubtedly ensure the success of the evaluation, and to a large extent, ensure the complete success of the product. 

Here is another link about “Basic Guide to Program Evaluation (Including Outcomes Evaluation) which might be applicable for general fields in case it would be useful in our workplace settings: http://managementhelp.org/evaluatn/fnl_eval.htm

Reading response 5—Form follows failure

"But whereas the shortcomings of an existing thing may be expressed in terms of a need for improvement, it is really want rather than need that drives the process of technological evolution…Thus we may find food indispensable, but it is not necessary to eat it with a fork(p22). "

"Luxury, rather than necessity, is the mother of invention (p22). "

When I recalled everyday things around me, I couldn’t help pondering how many of them are the need and how many of them are the want. I really like these chunks as I will show my own interesting example of want vs. need.

I have various pans, bowls and plates in my kitchen. To deal with different food, I usually use the corresponding utensils which is so convenient for me when cooking, mixing and serving. Also, I define a very clear function on each pan, bowl and plate (in the name of both health and usability). My husband and some of my friends could not understand why I have such preference in the kitchen. I cannot specifically tell them how many differences there are when want versus need in my kitchen, as I not only prepare for meals everyday but enjoy the cooking process from the feeling of such convenience. By doing that, I don’t have to concern whether the utensil is too big or too small, rather, I have many options to handle different amount of food and furthermore distinguish raw or ready-to-eat food. The funniest thing is I am still not satisfied with the amount of I have had so far. What I did not tell them and what will surprise them is that I still keep an eye, during shopping, on such new usable, elegant but unnecessary things that seemingly complicate the cooking process. If applicable, I will purchase more.  

I could also assume that in some other’s kitchens, they probably don’t have so many utensils as those in my kitchen or some might have more than I do. However, it doesn’t matter since it is neither the matter of good or bad, nor won’t it impact any diet in everyone’s daily life. It all depends on individual preference. It is really my want but not my need as I actually can merely use one or two pans to fry eggs, vegetables, even to cook rice etc. It is absolutely unnecessary to have various pans or bowls in my kitchen, but I am so pleasant to possess them. I think it compatible with the users experience goals of interaction design demonstrated by Preece, that is enjoyable and satisfying. I believe I am not unique in this case. It is reasonable that industrial designer invented so many different pans and bowls for girls or housewives, like me, to choose. Likewise, it is understandable why designers tried to design these luxurious cars, such as BMW, Benz, for men to consume, other than just limit to design a plain car with four automatic wheels---no one doubts we can still drive it to replace our two legs.

"In short, the table, like all designed objects, leaves room for improvement (p27). "

"But when aesthetic considerations dominate the design of a new silverware pattern, the individual implements, no matter how striking and well balanced they may look on the table, can often leave much to be desire in their feel and use in the hand (p32).  "

Nothing is perfect in the world. We are more likely to be picky when the everyday things doesn’t work or look like the way we expected. We human beings complained a lot about the imperfect no matter whether the current technology allows them to act perfectly. Anyways, it seems that it is much better in the dreams than that in the reality.  However, we should appreciate the shortcomings of an object and our dissatisfaction as the driving force to bring tons of inventions and innovations and to improve our lives to be better and better. I attached below a brief evolution of forks along with the figure that I have never ever thought about until I researched it today. The whole process from being ugly to be good, and then to be usable and delicate gave us infinite inspirations when developing our own class project. 

“It is suggested that the evolution from pointed knife to two-pronged fork occurred because of the problems of holding food in place with a single pointed device where the food in question was largely free to rotate about the point and thus impeded the cutting action. Introduction of the second prong eliminated this rotation problem. The problem then, however, was that, although good for holding, the fork was of little use in carrying food from the plate to the mouth. And thus emerged three-tined forks, and, even better, by the early eighteenth Century, the four-tined fork we know today.”

Retrieved from http://www.triz-journal.com/archives/1999/09/b/index.htm

Reading Response 4—Chapter 2 The psychology of people & machines

Someday cars will no longer need drivers. Instead, people will all be passengers, able to gossip, read, or even sleep while the car chauffeurs them to their destination (p47).

Just imagine how convenient and how cool our daily lives would be with the functions of such intelligent machines. That is why I was so struck by this idea in a minute. I like Norman’s imagination, this car not only navigates and drives by itself, but also knows how to take care of the comfort and well-being of the passengers, providing the right lighting, temperature, food and drink, and entertainment. How well we enjoy this fascinating situation!

In terms of the driverless car, Norman’s idea is actually not new, as the initial idea was raised and developed by others long time ago and the history (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Driverless_car) could be first traced back to 1933. However, the unique one is that Norman argues machines will be intelligent enough to interact with humans and take care of humans as maids in the future. For humans, the cool and intelligent machines are not just for fun, but more for meeting the needs of humans. For example, women are comparatively not good at driving or have a bad sense of directions. Just recall that how many times you still got lost and were late to important appointments, even with the guidance and assistance of GPS; how annoying your snow tires did not guarantee your safety in winter. Thus, we need these intelligent machines to have a better and safer life. I wish I could have a car like the one described by Norman within the next 10 years. Furthermore, these intelligent machines could be around us to help us deal with the laundry, cooking, studying and more tricky things. Hopefully, it is not a dream.

U.S. Creates Vehicles That Operate Without a Driver (2007)

The lack of common ground is the major cause of our inability to communicate with machines (p50). ..but systems that avoid this danger, that suggest rather than demand, that allow people to understand and choose rather than confronting them with unintelligible actions, are perfectly sensible (p55).

Norman mentioned that the future intelligent machines could successfully interact and communicate with humans, but the fundamental limitation in human-machine interaction is the lack of common ground. I am curious about that and wonder through which ways human-machine interaction could be made. I also doubt it. In my opinion, can we really communicate with other species or objects, like pets, computers? Nope! If the human-pets interaction is regarded as a kind of communication, they are not really like the communication between peoples---that is, one people can share common ground with another people. Given that a conversation was occurred between two friends, if there was no common ground in the very beginning of the talk, it is hard for them to understand each other and continue the talk as well, let alone the interaction between two different species. But, it seems that Norman will convince me that future design will successfully turn such incredible interactions into reality. With this curiosity, I am really looking forward to the next chapter.

Reading response 3 Animation—How should we take advantage of it?

There are some important questions you should ask yourself before incorporating animation into the site. Here are a few of them:

• Does the animation add anything of value?
• Does it make the page/site/button easier to use?
• Does it make the purpose or meaning of the page/site/button clearer?
• Is the animation distracting? Does it draw the user's attention away from the page's actual content or the site's core message?

The important thing to remember here is that you are not your website's target audience. Just because you, your employees, or your friends think the animation is cute, funny, or technologically advanced is no guarantee that your site's visitors will think so.

Animation can be a really useful tool. It can make a website more usable, more engaging, and more effective. But like any tool, animation is only helpful when it's needed. You should only use animation when it serves a clear purpose, and even then, you should use it carefully, because too much animation is much worse than not having any at all.

Resource: Animation: Is it good for your website? Retrieve from http://www.inspire-consulting.com/resources/article.aspx?id=10

Regarding the application of animation, it seems that I have never thought carefully about these rules and relevant gentle reminders until I have the chance to review our course wiki of animation for assignment. I am always a visual person. I love animation since I was kid. Even now, if I have to make one choice, I prefer a website with the combination of texts and visual images (including animation) to the one that just full of texts without decoration---even those visual images are just for decoration purpose.

I agree that well-applied animation can improve learning skills and abilities, whereas, constantly running animations can be distracting when used excessively. In most cases, the appropriate application, in my opinion, helps us understand the content faster and more easily, while, ill-applied animation sometimes challenges our patience and makes us weary. Its application has more implications than we expected, such as the consideration of the contexts—formal or informal situations, the target users—age and gender, the purposes—for acquisition or for entertainment/ fun, the content demonstrated---academic or practical, so on and so forth.

Let’s imagine two different scenarios. Mrs. Little is now teaching her grade one students basic daily disciplines—say, how to be a polite kid when borrowing and returning other’s pencils or what is the proper behavior when playing games with other kids, etc. She prepared a relevant PPT or created a website by applying cute and funny animations that well demonstrate the proper behaviors that a polite kid should follow.

The other scenario is Dr. Vaughan is now providing a serial seminar for his PhD students. The topic is related to the bottom line of human’s morals. And, the discussion outcomes have to be recorded and prepared for a paper to be issued. Should Dr. Vaughan prepare the stuffs for the seminar with animations as Mrs. Little does in her elementary class? Obviously, not at all.  

Animation is really a fascinating tool for Kids. Kids will benefit a lot and have better learning outcomes from animations. In the first scenario, kids may be illiterate, but they are impressed by the colorful animations at the first glance, then gradually go to where the instructor desires for them.  However, if the potential users of a website/ PPT/ product are adults, along with tons of information delivered in a formal situation, animation is not a good choice unless it is helpful for the content clarification, or, even it is helpful, it should not be overused. Otherwise, it must be ignored at all. Therefore, animation is meaningless in the second scenario. Furthermore, I think males will be disgust animation more than females do in formal situations for academic purposes, as “Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus.”; males are usually more sensible than Females. In a word, “Whether or not you should use animation depends on the purpose of the animation. Or rather, it depends on whether the animation has a purpose. ”