Category: Visualising and prototyping

6) North Tyneside Youth Council (week 6 blog)

DISCUSS AND DESCRIBE WHAT USERS CAN DO WITHYOUR PROTOTYPE

Users will be able to engage actively with a game component of a website. It will include improving the environmental problems in North Tyneside throughout the game. The player can only achieve this by answering the correct questions that either directly relate to North Tyne side or globally. The website will also have areas such a blog space. Where people can post thoughts about the community and areas of concern. These will be viewed by the youth council and can become a platform for many people to post thoughts. Additionally, there would be are of the website that includes all upcoming community events that engage the youth directly such as clean ups in the area including time, location etc.

Our main goal is to create a digital method that is educational and will create long term change in North Tyneside. With particular emphasis on schools and the learning program as the students are the next generation and have a platform to create change.

Long term goals can also include the possibility for the website to cover other issues potential planning and developments in the area that the council wants feedback on.

CONSIDER HOWYOU WILL CREATEYOUR PROTOTYPE

  • Marvel
  • Indesign/photoshop
  • Invision

7) TRECC: prototyping.

This week we learnt the importance of prototyping, and the implications it has on our own project (DigiVox). It was interesting to learn and consider that a ‘prototype is a manifestation of a design that allows stakeholders to interact with it and to explore its suitability’. This manifestation has directed our design focus, a goal to create an efficient mobile application to improve community outreach between developers and residents and ultimately, our client’s needs.

Considering our story board, the area we want to prototype is the use of the app. With this in mind, our group has worked on designing and creating are first prototype this week. It was clear the process of a user using the app interface is the most important part of the storyboard to prototype because it is a radical innovation that has not been done before, so testing will be integral to meeting our goal. By doing this we can refine the application, and hopefully developing an ideal way to tackle community outreach between developers and the community.

Moreover, from this week’s lecture it was interesting to understand the broad scope to prototyping, especially with our own prototyping getting underway. With relevance to our own project, it was clear that our prototype has a fairly high level of fidelity. We knew early on that a mobile app was the way to answer our client’s needs, so after a only small amount of research by using other mobile apps, and a few sketches we were ready to create a digital version. By using MarvelApp to formulate our application we have been able to get as close to a final product as possible. This means we can test how easy the final interface is to use. The advantage to this is that we have the opportunity to get our stakeholders involved, and gain valuable feedback.

First use of MarvelApp

Sign Up page

Refined and Detailed version of our prototype (1)

Refined and Detailed version of our prototype (2)

The first use of MarvelApp was to get an understand to how the software works and ultimately organising the basics of our app.  We then added more detail in aesthetics and in the functionality of the app. By doing this there is more and more tweaking done to hopefully make the final product.

8) We love Bikes Prototyping and its challenges

Lecture​ ​8​ ​about​ ​prototyping​ ​was​ ​quite​ ​helpful​ ​because​ ​we​ ​saw​ ​why​ ​we​ ​need​ ​to​ ​do​ ​a prototype​ ​of​ ​our​ ​project​ ​and​ ​what​ ​different​ ​ways​ ​we​ ​could​ ​do​ ​it. Indeed,​ ​this​ ​activity​ ​must​ ​be​ ​taken​ ​seriously​ ​as,​ ​first,​ ​it​ ​allows​ ​us​ ​to​ ​see​ ​if​ ​this​ ​project can​ ​easily​ ​work​ ​when​ ​we​ ​trying​ ​to​ ​put​ ​it​ ​in​ ​a​ ​prototype​ ​and​ ​therefore​ ​meets​ ​our desired​ ​objectives​ ​for​ ​our​ ​project.​ ​Secondly,​ ​it​ ​is​ ​an​ ​interactive​ ​way​ ​to​ ​show​ ​how​ ​far we​ ​are​ ​in​ ​our​ ​work​ ​to​ ​our​ ​stakeholders​ ​and​ ​let​ ​them​ ​have​ ​their​ ​own​ ​point​ ​of​ ​view​ ​on the​ ​suitability​ ​of​ ​it.​ ​This​ ​interaction​ ​also​ ​is​ ​a​ ​test​ ​of​ ​our​ ​overall​ ​design​ ​of​ ​our​ ​prototype to​ ​see​ ​how​ ​easy​ ​it​ ​is​ ​for​ ​our​ ​stakeholders​ ​to​ ​use.​ ​This​ ​use​ ​test​ ​is​ ​important​ ​as​ ​before releasing​ ​the​ ​final​ ​version​ ​we​ ​want​ ​to​ ​be​ ​sure​ ​that​ ​the​ ​design​ ​is​ ​easy​ ​to​ ​navigate​ ​and not​ ​confusing​ ​for​ ​the​ ​end​ ​user.

Then,​ ​this​ ​session​ ​put​ ​the​ ​light​ ​on​ ​the​ ​concept​ ​of​ ​the​ ​prototype’s​ ​fidelity​ ​and​ ​more precisely​ ​the​ ​difference​ ​between​ ​the​ ​low​ ​fidelity​ ​and​ ​the​ ​high​ ​fidelity.​ ​Our​ ​focus​ ​on the​ ​high​ ​fidelity​ ​application​ ​is​ ​the​ ​progress​ ​bar​ ​which​ ​will​ ​show​ ​the​ ​accountability​ ​of the​ ​forum/council/webpage​ ​and​ ​it​ ​will​ ​be​ ​easy​ ​for​ ​the​ ​user​ ​to​ ​see​ ​at​ ​what​ ​stage​ ​of​ ​the progress​ ​the​ ​issue​ ​is​ ​at.​ ​To​ ​make​ ​it​ ​easier​ ​for​ ​the​ ​user​ ​to​ ​understand​ ​the​ ​different parts​ ​of​ ​the​ ​progress​ ​there​ ​will​ ​be​ ​different​ ​pages​ ​explaining​ ​the​ ​steps​ ​and​ ​allowing users​ ​to​ ​comment​ ​on​ ​each​ ​separate​ ​step​ ​to​ ​increase​ ​levels​ ​of​ ​accountability. Information​ ​that​ ​the​ ​council/forum​ ​can​ ​add​ ​to​ ​the​ ​different​ ​steps​ ​of​ ​the​ ​process​ ​and the​ ​users​ ​will​ ​also​ ​be​ ​able​ ​to​ ​add​ ​and​ ​read​ ​comments​ ​regarding​ ​the​ ​issue​ ​and​ ​the process.

In​ ​our​ ​opinion​ ​the​ ​hardest​ ​part​ ​to​ ​overcome​ ​during​ ​the​ ​prototyping​ ​stage​ ​will​ ​be creating​ ​an​ ​interactive​ ​and​ ​interesting​ ​way​ ​to​ ​show​ ​off​ ​the​ ​different​ ​reported​ ​issues and​ ​their​ ​progress.​ ​The​ ​most​ ​challenging​ ​part​ ​of​ ​this​ ​is​ ​designing​ ​the​ ​prototype​ ​to display​ ​all​ ​this​ ​information​ ​and​ ​the​ ​accountability​ ​of​ ​the​ ​council​ ​whilst​ ​still​ ​being​ ​easy for​ ​the​ ​end​ ​user​ ​to​ ​understand.​ ​We​ ​are​ ​attempting​ ​to​ ​overcome​ ​this​ ​challenge​ ​by​ ​not overloading​ ​the​ ​user​ ​with​ ​information​ ​they​ ​would​ ​have​ ​to​ ​click​ ​on​ ​a​ ​pin​ ​to​ ​reveal​ ​its information​ ​to​ ​avoid​ ​the​ ​screen​ ​from​ ​appearing​ ​cluttered.​ ​We​ ​will​ ​also​ ​use​ ​a​ ​colour scheme​ ​on​ ​the​ ​pins​ ​to​ ​illustrate​ ​the​ ​different​ ​stages​ ​of​ ​each​ ​project​ ​in​ ​a​ ​simplistic approach,​ ​with​ ​green​ ​showing​ ​the​ ​project​ ​being​ ​completed,​ ​orange​ ​illustrates​ ​the project​ ​is​ ​in​ ​progress​ ​and​ ​red​ ​means​ ​the​ ​projected​ ​hasn’t​ ​yet​ ​been​ ​started.

7) We Love Bikes : Prototype activities and setting goals

With our last step of the storyboard, we wanted to show how easy it will be for everyone to give their opinion or to raise issues about cycling through the project we are working on. For the prototype demonstrations, we will try to achieve the same goal and make it as simple as possible to use the interactive map or to log in as a member of the forum in order to comment on each individual step of the process.

In order to test this prototype we are going to send invites to two of our stakeholders, Heather Evans and Mark Nelson. During the initial interview of Heather she seemed to be reluctant about bringing new technologies into the forum and didn’t want any changes, so this prototyping session could be a good way to try to change her mind with something easy to understand whilst also being respectful to her role in the forum.

Our stakeholders will be led through our platform and will be shown how we have structured in the minute of the forum and other interactive features. The Prototype will be a replica of our website that contains all the areas we plan to have on our final product. the user will be able to navigate these as they would a website. our first steps will be to design the first page where the idea behind our website is explained and also a section which contains the information on how to use the site to help the user navigate the site.

After that we arrive on the main page where the interactive map will be situated  in the center with all pins representing the issues marked, there will be a menu at its left and a “login section” in the top right corner, just like the picture below:

Through this main page we can access all the features so we will be able to clearly show  our stakeholders how to easily navigate the site including; creating a profile, how to access the notes and minutes of meetings and how to raise an issue on the map. the main section of our website will be the progress bar which show how the council is dealing with this problem and shows feedback from the users from the site, when the issue is resolved there will be a section where people can give their feedback on how the process went and an opportunity to add constructive criticism to the council

To build a convincing prototype, we are thinking about using the website Marvelapp. This tool is quite helpful for anyone who wants to create a “demo” of his project from pictures, draws or sketches. In this way, we can put together all we did as an interactive process and create a convincing prototype for our issues.

Week 7, NUDC: Prototype Planning

Hello again,

This week we started planning out our prototype. We aim to have a somewhat high fidelity design which should be able to be used in an interactive way, for this we plan on using the online tool ‘Invision’. We’ve reached out to our stakeholders and booked a meeting with them so they will have the opportunity to test our design first hand. We hope to discover if our design has an easy to understand and simple to use interface, is enticing and time efficient, relates information about the Streets for People program and the planned changes in a useful way and, lastly, collects feedback appropriately.

To do this we need to create pictures, or so called slides, depicting how the interface should look like. For example we need a welcome screen, a map over Jesmond showing where the locations are, a location slide with information and ways of feedback, a slide showing previous comments, and an ending slide providing the sticker. All of these will then be uploaded into Invision where they will be linked together so as the user could use it in an interactive way.

For our user testing we will divide the stakeholders to try out the prototype on individual screens, with each one of us as a personal guide assisting/monitoring their progress. We will after this ask some prepared questions one on one before joining together for a group discussion about the prototype and design. Hopefully they will give us an unique insight of how the design is perceived by a user.

It’s been a great time

It has been our great honour to have the opportunity to work on this project and we think it’s time to look back on the many things we’ve achieved, together.

When we were first assigned the project, we had no idea how to start. We didn’t know what the young people were after. Our team had to come together to explore and think about all possible options to set out a basic framework.

Comparing with other teams, we’ve come a long way before we finally made the decision of what we were gonna do – an educational app. It was late and so we were pushing the time limit a bit, too. With the invaluable input we received from our project partners, we’ve learnt, we’ve grown, we’ve refined, together.

New look
The bright new look!

This is the final interface update we expect for now and it is based on the feedback we’ve got from our project partner. We’ve given it a bit more of character, we’ve got the street view and we’ve revamped the way it looks. We’re loving it and we hope you love it as much as we do.

Another reason for us to celebrate the finish of this final Plan A Lot prototype is that it responses to our original intention naturally and successfully. It looks good and it is helping young people to learn about planning. We haven’t gone for the ‘hard-sell’ tactics to get the idea of urban planning across, but it is working even better than using the ‘hard-sell’ tactics. So yes, it really is something to celebrate.

To us, we’ve given our best shot to this project. As much as we want to continue bringing this project further, we’re afraid it has to come to a close at this stage. We’re committed and we still firmly believe that this project will really make a difference to the young people and we hope further developments would be considered by the relevant parties, but we regret to say that this might not be something that’s within our ability today. Please allow us to say a massive ‘thank you’ to you for being part of our journey on Plan A Lot in the past three months.

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Presentation visual
P.S. Just before we go, we’d like to let you know that we’ve actually done a presentation plus a write up that chronicles the processes we’ve gone through to produce Plan A Lot. If you’re one of our project partners, you should have received these items electronically already through Teresa, our very charming coordinator whom you really should have known by now. If you’ve never worked with us before but would still like an electronic copy as well as for all other enquiries, please email us at T[dot]Ho1[at]newcastle[dot]ac[dot]uk.

Blog 8: Jesmond Energy Production Platform Prototyping

This week we have been working towards starting making a prototype for our project collating all our data and refining all the content we want to include in our product and with this session we were aiming to see how we use all this within our prototype to show Tony.

We felt the session was pretty clear on what we needed to understand when working on the prototype and that was the fidelity of our prototype and how we should be going about using this to our benefit and not hindering us when it comes to the user tests.

When prototyping depending on the product/idea you’re trying to get across to the consumer is which type of fidelity you should using whether it’s low or high.

We were told that it is sometimes better off using low fidelity prototyping rather than high, due to it being a prototype and will probably be edited, scrapped etc and then you don’t waste high sums of money on the prototype stage. Low fidelity can also sometimes cover the feasibility of it as well.

We feel as our project is based on renewable energy in Jesmond, we felt that the best subject on our app to prototype is this section as it would be the most interacted part with on our app, therefore is the most important to make sure is correct for the users not only with the user ability of this particular section that also all the content is easily accessible and understandable.

On our prototype we’re using Photoshop to create images which we show through the marvel app and edit them on there so it works like an app on the iPad when pressing on the screen for the hyperlinks so that the active parts of the prototype work like they would as if they were using them on a tablet such as the iPad we will be using for our user tests.

As a group we all decided to go with in between low and high fidelity and go in the middle so you can see the real potential with our prototype without it costing much money. We class our fidelity in the middle because of the software we are using to make and show our prototype on with using Photoshop, marvel and an showing it on an Ipad like an app and not for example on low fidelity which would be classed as low fidelity.

You will be able to see from these images how we first started prototyping with and have then progressed in on to something more in depth and better quality which we will take on to use for the user tests.

  1. When we first started prototyping with paper (We have progressed our thoughts into a more in depth conclusion)

paper-12. Multiple different pages we’ve all linked together through marvel.

thumbs

 

3. This is our prototype up to date and ready to be user tested in the coming days.

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Blog 7 :Our approach to prototyping

A prototype is typically a physical manifestation of ideas or concepts and its form can range from a rough to finished take on the proposed end result(Stappers,2014). In the case of our product, we wish to test this with the user in week 10. Knapp (2016) suggests that a prototype mindset which follows 4 principles are key to the success of the prototype and feedback it evokes altogether. A “goldilocks-quality prototype” , that appears 90% real is recommended in order to gain the most from the feedback phase, whilst ultimately remaining time efficient.

knapp


Knapp et al. 2016 “Sprint : how to solve big problems and test new ideas in just five days”

 

In the case of our Community Energy Dashboard a set of facades that are real enough to test and temporarily ready for simulation in the user test is our ideal approach , however we would hope they still equally evoke honest feedback results.

“If the quality is too low people won’t believe the prototype is a real product, if the quality is too high , you’ll be working all night and you won’t finish”(Knapp,2016) .It is also highly likely that the longer you spend on working on something the more attached you will become and the less likely you will take negative results to heart.

We have chosen marvel software to develop the facades of our dashboard application in addition to this a group member allocated the role of asset collector will source for the 2 makers/designers some data and empirical looking visualisations for the dashboard itself, which will require basic use of adobe photoshop 10 to weald these data based visuals such as gauges and graphs together.

The information display in particular regards to consumption and production is integral to our concept, however also is the role in promoting the user to think about their collective neighbourhood energy consumption, thus engaging them and creating a “buzz” to think about these issues and share their thoughts with their local community is also key, so the team is willing to invest time into providing a friendly space for thought and reaction to these topics, also equally important is the tone we deliver to the user.

Week 10- User test feedback

This week we were really excited to showcase our prototype to our user clients. The first user test took place on the 8th December at the planning studios in Claremont. We received a lot of critical feedback that we hope to implement into our prototype.  This was with the Youth Council who we can proudly quote “would play with the app” after a few refinements. It’s really eye opening to have these informal conversations about the app as the youth council have reasonable and well thought ideas to further our app.

 plan-a-lot-2

These include the rating systems for our leader board. We have a feedback box where users can state what they like or dislike about the design. However the youth council suggested we make it so other users can read each other comments to generate an interactive conversation between users. Another idea that came up was once the user had completed the design of the development they would then be able to place it into a geolocation. Such as placing the design in google earth or maps to show how their design would look in context. This would make their designs feel more personal and gives them a visual to see how their design would fit in and interact with the surroundings.

The second user test took place at the North Tyneside Council. This gave us an insight to how the planners and developers would use the app to open up conversations between them and the youth. We learnt that planners go into schools to give talks about planning to raise an awareness of planning issues. We questioned whether our app could be used for the youth to help provide an input in actual planning applications but were sadly informed that it wasn’t feasible. However by introducing our app Plan-A-Lot to the school children it allows both parties to have more open conversations and provides a more interactive experience.  We hope it provides the missing connection between the youth, planners and developers.

From the user tests we gained quite a lot of advice and suggestions which we plan to take on board. Some will be ideas for future development of the app and other ideas will be idea’s we can incorporate now.

Week 9 – User testing

This week we continued working on our prototype on marvel. The prototype would give us a chance to see how the users interacted with the app. They would test this out on the 8th and 9th of December. In the lecture we watched ‘The five act interview’ by Sprint which showed us how to set up the user testing. The five steps are:

  1. Friendly welcome
  2. Context questions
  3. Introduce the prototype
  4. Tasks
  5. Quick debrief

From this we learnt that we cannot just simply ask them to test out the prototype immediately. Instead, we should ask questions in context such as; have they used any apps related to planning? How they felt about them? Although we already asked these questions at the User Interview at the beginning of the module.

Reinforced throughout the interview was to reassure the user. The user should not feel, as though they are at an interview as, this would lead them to believe there is a right answer. We want the user to think aloud to give us a better understanding of how usable the app is.

We realised that without a dragging feature on marvel the prototype would not help us assess how viable the app would be, how the client would interact with the app without us present. We decided the users would test it out on keynotes with the marvel prototype as a supporting model to show what we envision the app to look like.

During the seminar, we assigned roles during the user interviews. We would have three observers and two speakers. We will be showing the prototype to five people, which means 80% of any faults of our app, would be flagged up. Any other details would be minor details that would not affect the function of the app. Hopefully we would be able to get valuable information from the user testing.