Category: Refining and story boarding

Blog 6: Storyboarding our product

Before we jumped straight ahead into prototyping, the team had reservations about the number of potential conflicting concepts we had. Therefore, we approached the means of storyboarding to set the design in context , which would help us to visualise the app itself and clarify the key function we would like to include for our prototype.

Plot

Set: Friday night

After a long working week, our main character, Mr. X went back home and planned to have a chill out night. He then took out his iPad, went on Facebook and starting to browse his wall.

Suddenly, a notification from Jesmond Community Energy Dashboard pops up, saying ‘your estimated monthly bill for the end of the month: £124’. Mr. X was shocked, he didn’t expect to pay that much, since he normally pays £50-70 for a month.

He then went on the app, checked on the energy usage and found out the main source of energy usage was the radiator in the living room, which he always forget to turn it off when he doesn’t need it.

He’d like to share this experience with his family and friends, warning them not to leave any electric applicant on when not using it.

Luckily, there is a share button in the app, making it a convenient way for Mr. X to share it to his friends and family.

storybvoard-1

Unfortunately, this was the storyboard specifically for the app only. There will be some alteration so that there’s an influence to install a solar panel for their house, aiming specifically to the Jesmond Community. However, we’ve managed to determine that there are several key aspects that we would like to include in our dashboard prototype.

  1. Monthly Energy Consumption (i.e. the graph that shows how much energy used for the month)
  2. Estimated Monthly Bill (what all users care about the most)
  3. Energy Consumption Pattern of user
  4. Graph that shows the amount of energy used for the past months (Archives)
  5. Push Notification (smartphones and tablets specifically)
  6. Social Media Buttons for easy shares
  7. Of course, some extra minor widgets to add a little spice to the app.

 

However, after feedback on our first storyboard we as a group decided to alter our storyboard and we now have a new story based on the most important feature of our project which is renewable energy.

storyboard2-feedback

 

The concept is very much the same as previous just slight alterations.

They are as follow:

Setting is now end of July and the new production figures have come through from the company, so he/she goes signs into the app, goes onto the production page where last month’s figures for June are present, they then select the add new button which then takes them onto another page where they can enter the new data, once that has been done they can then submit the new data which updates on their production stats. Then finally they share their monthly figures with everyone on the JEPP app to show how much energy they’ve made for the month.

We have now finished with the storyboarding and are now moving on to start thinking about making the prototype, watch this space!

Blog 5- Refining our Concept of an Interactive Energy Dashboard

Following constructive feedback from our ideas presented to the class on the 1st November we took initiative to reassess the core functions of OUR dashboard and who it could effect. An energy dashboard typically meters and displays quantitative energy consumption data primarily through reading the interior energy inlet and CAN provide a starting point to raise awareness. Sub metering is also an optional strategy that provides a broken down consumption figure based on external appliances from the main inlet in the home.

Ultimately the dashboard we wish to create will highlight real time consumption data based on the national grid provider with projections of informed hypothetical figures regarding renewable resources too. However we wish to motivate and engage the average user, whereby we see the homeowner as the impetus of change and to share an energy saving culture. The drive to “do better” than others would be an encouraging step towards energy saving. This way the neighbourhood will feel as though they each have a part to play in the broader context as a global citizen too.

 

The Diagram below highlights a real time production/consumption energy dashboard interface for the home.

cropped-filonik

Features such as the energy quota bar (bottom left) are customisable so that the user can track their own progress of kWh consumption.

Source: Filonik ,Queensland University of Technology

Designing Interactive Dashboard Interfaces

On the 9th November members of the group put together dashboard interface concepts which they considered to be core to the function of the product.

Also factored into our concepts was means of engaging the user in a stimulating way, for example provoking the individual to think about the role they could play in doing their bit and encouraging their neighbours to likewise for the good of the community.

This reiterates that in order to influence the individual’s consumption patterns and to encourage them to be the “impetus for change” in their neighbourhood. Setting this data in context and educating the user contextually could be the answer to this.

welcome

Above is a sketch of a welcome page that attempts to grab the attention of the user and their immediate surroundings in Jesmond

 

9th November, Meeting with Delvin and Geremy from Open Lab

The team organised a meeting with Delvin Varghese on the 9th November, Delvin was able to critique our designs and provide a useful insight into what makes a good dashboard interface that easily interpretable to the homeowner as well as stimulating to use. Delvin undertakes research in the field of Human Computer Interaction (HCI) and so it was useful to hear from his perspective about what makes a simple but stimulating experience for the user that fulfils our task.

Proposed design to Delvin which assumes a website format:

layout2

This design comprises 5 navigable web pages:

(1) Home Page – Aiming to grasp the user by both identifying and familiarising them as a key member of the community that can facilitate change for themselves and the good of the community. One is also prompted to “sign up” on this page.

(2) About – The second page to navigate to is the “about” page which provides contextual information of the drive of the co-operative , as well as community personalities Tony and Steve and their visions ( which the neighbourhood can hopefully relate to)

(3) Stories (with picture wheel)-This page is an area for users to interact with each other, such as sharing their energy saving tips. These will actually be featured articles although users will be encouraged to send over articles.  A factor for consideration would be moderating the suitability of the content to enter the public domain or “go live”, so this would most likely be in we form format.

(4)- Introducing the dashboard -The concept of an energy dashboard is then introduced and how one interprets the data so one can utilise it to their personal benefit as well as the wider communication and the environment.

5- Contacts

The content of this page would list the steps the user would take to install the solar energy hardware and a directory of recommended renewable energy providers.

Information on additional hardware such as SMAPPEE energy monitor box devices which measure consumption of individual household appliances would also be available.

Reflecting upon roles of the dashboard in engagement and fulfilling our task

A recent study by oxford university “open to change project” highlighted that game designers are good at representing quantitative measures of performance as qualitative indicators of social capital. It was echoed by Delvin also that the user may understand the cause of saving energy but to set it as a trend the best process to do this is by instilling reward by social capital in addition to obvious individual financial gain.

It became apparent that engaging the user so that there was some sense of immediacy to the data or put into a relatable context would be far more effective and interpreted more instantaneously.

  • A customisable “quota function” as a progress bar so that the user can set themselves goals.
  • Visual/contextual prompts for energy saving displayed in different measures such as money and also kWh converted to kg of C02 saved.
  • Gamification of the savings could also make co-operating to save energy amongst the community more appealing for example to share your progress and challenge individuals and groups.

Moreover it would help us reach the goal that underpins our project .

 “Support residents, organisations and businesses in Jesmond in adopting a more energy efficient approach to their current consumption patterns”

 

 

 

Plan A Lot. Planning a lot at a time.

Cogito ergo sum.

Just as we started to go deeper and refine our offerings, we stepped back. We thought.

Why did we do it? Who would it help? What made it deserved to exist?

We simplified. We started over. We’ve made it better.

And this is it.
Storyboard

Walkers: Designing Storyboards (week 6)

Week 6

While we have settled on the function of the webpage, we will be focusing to demonstrate the voting system and the volunteer point system in the storyboard.

photo-20-11-2016-01-51-40

 

The voting system is a function for basic members to create their event on their own via Notice board. When they choose the ‘event’ categories in the notice board, they may be able to uphold their own event concerning no matter what. For example, in the above picture, a resident may be unsatisfied with a dirty park. He may send a post recruiting volunteers to clean it up. By inserting a number of minimum participants need (e.g. 20 people need here), the event will be created automatically on the calendar when 20 interested participates click ‘yes’ in the post. This save works in administering and can allow people to have a first try in participating in volunteering without processing a lot of registering process that gives pressure on them.

 

photo-20-11-2016-17-40-36

Another storyboard showing is one demonstrating how the volunteer point system works.

Volunteer points can be earned through holding and participating events. We try to make the online points to have an actual benefit in real life so as to encourage the community to involve in it. There are three major ways to use it:

  1. It can act as a counter for organization to know how active a participate in the community. It somehow works as an online cv, but more informal one to show some organization in the site who are potential volunteers or employee.
  2. When the points continuously add on, participates may unlock achievement and level up as higher level members to have higher authority (like admin) to edit post etc. Achievement may include exchanging for volunteer hours on CV in certain rate. (1 :1 may do also).
  3. By cooperating with business we can offer discounts through exchange points. (may involve another unit for exchange since the volunteer hours should not be gone when you purchase anything)

Both story boards are just showing the basic concept and may not be complete and thorough enough. We will continue to try editing for the final output.

Young People Engagement – Week 5

After a successful site visit, we came together as a group and discussed the different possibilities of creating a digital device. We were inspired by a number of non-digital and digital ideas. We came across ideas such as having a VR hologram projecting the user’s propositions of the development. We debated other potential ideas, like the use of chalk to make graffiti visualisations on a surface that could show the user’s proposals but chose to keep a more digital approach to our final project because we considered the non-digital ideas to be less suitable for our users.

At first, we thought of making a QR code. The idea was that the code would be scanned by the users which would lead them to a government related website with information about the current development site. We knew this idea would appear quite late during the planning process and thought it might have an affect on the user’s propositions. We were also worried that the website would provide too much information at once for the users which would not be easy to understand nor enjoyable to read.

The second concept we were trying to develop was an app. We thought the proposition of an app would allow the users to take part in the planning process at an earlier stage, therefore giving time to the Council and developers to consider the user’s propositions. The app would work like a visual interface. The app will allow for new topics and activities to be created. How does it work? Well, once the app is opened, a plot of land would show up on the screen. Through its tools, the app would support a large variety of subjects, like inserting different types of infrastructures or ponds onto the plot of land. A dragging feature would allow the plot of land to be filled with houses, schools, parks, roads, shops. These would be designed through Sketch Up (One of our design software’s) and then integrated into our app with the help of our technician. We want these animated features to reflect what the users want to see in the new development like leisure centres, open spaces and well linked roads. We also suggested that the app would have a share button indicating that the user designs can be commented on by other users, or shared with developers and the community and downloaded for future use. This is where we have got to so far, next week we’ll be looking into more detail about our concept while discussing it with our project mentor.

photo-on-10-11-2016-at-18-18