Tutorial Week 13

Tutorial Week 11

User Experience Design

Have enough material to run a UX test in the class. Don't forget to do a self-evaluation of your product before you come to class. If possible share a link with your friends to get some feedback.

Clearly define what kind of experience you are providing for the user. List appropriate words to define associated emotions. Prepare questionnaires to capture user emotional response.

Week 11. 

tutorial

measure experience - emotional state

pleasant to unpleasantness - calm to active

ask about the emotional state of the user to capture the experience of the product

have categories and ask to rate out of 1-10. emotional state. with a questionnaire.

UX test in class - this is with the invasion app creator. Share with 

Tutorial Week 10

Get familiar with the InVision app. Transfer your wireframes in to InVision for quick functionality linking. During the tutorial go through the interactive InVision wireframe.

Book of Emotional design - read for unit.
emotional attributes
understanding these layers will allow for better design
understanding the different design attributes is something that I struggled to understand
have a clear identity - with the product. Branding the product with UC, maintaining product norms as well as innovating the product so that it is "sexy" visceral.

Tutorial Week 6

Paper Prototype

Finalise requirements of the solution in terms of task and workflow.
Prepare information structure to show how your users accomplish heir intended goal.
Prepare wireframes for your solution.
Most importantly: please view all the required viewing to understand the process of creating a paper prototype and testing it.

I had never specifically produced wire frames before, not the way that the lecturer had shown us. It was a challenge for me to complete this task because of this reason and I was a little unclear on what we were to do. I researched the paper proto-typing videos that were linked in Moodle and watched several videos on the subject to produce the work that was required. Paper prototyping is a great tool for usability checking and I will ensure that I complete this task as early as possible in the future. I can see how this would be useful to use in my future as a graphic designer as it will allow for me to determine whether the usability is on point or needs to be tweaked/overhauled.

My initial idea for the solution was broad and unfocussed, after a discussion with the lecturer I was determined to narrow the scope and finalise the requirements. I had to discover the core issue I was trying to solve and not worry so much about the peripherals. I revisited my research and the lecture notes from the previous weeks to help guide my solution to be more in line with them. I then revisited the requirements I had set out and made them more specific. This allowed the solution to be more absolute and have an identity. The ability to narrow down into the details and determine what to keep and what not to will be vital in the future for both assignments and work. This will allow for a more well thought out product and therefore solution to the issues presented.

Tutorial Week 4

Refinement

Refine your selected idea. Review how it adresses the identified problem of your target users. Investigate if your target users find a need for the proposed idea. Based on your data list requirements of your proposed solution prepare a short write up listing: methods and methodology you used to investigate, how your idea conformed to users needs, requirements of the proposed solution (list of tasks that help users achieve their goal). List a few scenarios.

Idea

My idea is to have a chat room that connects UC students with each other as well as lecturers creating a support network that is informal and fun.

Identified Problems

Issues were identified through the following investigation methods:

• Research (Quantitative Data) - Data from the UES Consortium 2014 showed that satisfaction of student engagement at universities was only at 61% the lowest rated of the issues polled, and student support was second lowest with a satisfaction rating of 73%. This was my first point of solid research data which indicated that there was underlying issues surrounding these points. This data directed the questions I asked in both the interviews and the Questionnaire. 
• Interviews (Qualitative Data) - The interviews strongly supported the research gathered from the UES Consortium. The most common issues raised were no/little support network and lack of engagement, others raised were time management, finding people for group work, financial disadvantage and having no friends in class. These issues led to feelings of fear, being overwhelmed, being isolated, anxiety, feeling inadequate and a disassociation from the university. This data allowed me to generate a list of issues of which to address. 
• Questionnaire (Quantitative Data) - Finally a questionnaire allowed me to gather some numbers surrounding the issue and generate some figure values around what to address. 

Addressing The Issues

The idea addresses the identified problem of students feeling disassociated from the university and isolated from their peers. It conforms to the needs of the users as it will allow for them to be connected with each other generating feelings of belonging and feeling like they are a part of the university community.

Requirements

Outside of the requirements outlined in the brief, the requirements I identified were:

• Cultivate a support network 
• Help students find groups for group work/study 
• Assist with time management 
• Integrate students with the university and student community 
• Engage students 

Reflection

Being able to research the target audience was hard, the students who were dropping out were not really interested in being interviewed. This made identifying the issues as a primary source very difficult and seemed like an overwhelming task. I was trying to figure out how to interact with students in order to gather the data that I needed. Reflecting on the lecture and tutorial notes, additionally being encouraged that even 5 people would be ok (that I didn't need a large data group) I was finally able engage students in the online space via email questionnaire. The ability to engage the target user group is extremely important in the Graphic Design industry. To be able to create a user centric design having a network of participants who are willing to give genuine feedback is very important. Learning to engage with the audience will be a skill that I will need to develop further if I want to get anywhere in this industry.

Tutorial Week 3

Project One Brief

Go through project 1 brief: Improving university learning experience Identify your primary user group. Observe target user group to find issues that needs attention and can be addressed with help of technology. Make sure by addressing the identified issuers you are improving quality of university learning for the target user group. Develop 3 ideas that could address identified issues Make a short pitch for your ideas and bring them to the tutorial next week.

Primary User Group

Primary user group are 1st year students, be they school leavers or mature age students.

Issues

A disassociation from the learning environment and the social aspects surrounding that. Lack of friends or someone to talk to, a lack of support. Study skills are not refined, self-driven learning was not part of their education. On campus the interaction that users have with technology is either a smartphone, laptop, tablet or library computers. Not everyone has a laptop, tablet or is able to access a library computer therefore a phone app would be the best

Ideas 

• A chat application that links UC students with other UC students – so they can discuss assignments, workloads and how they are coping. Providing each other support like a buddy system. Users can choose to talk to someone in the same unit, course, year or just ALL. This would also have lecturers and other support staff online providing a less formal and more casual approach to student interaction. Instant messenger. 
• An application that acts as a timetable / calendar, recommending how much time should be allocated towards assignments and alerting the user when assignments are due. Integrated with Moodle so that it automatically DLs results and alerts the user when a forum is active or there is an announcement. Also indicates where a student is sitting in terms of class rank. 
• Creating more shade and more gardened areas, a pub or place of relaxation with a large beer garden. Lots of power ports, phone chargers and cheap food. More on campus student activities to engage students and make them feel a part of the community. 

Reflection

During this class I had many ideas for a product that I felt would be amazing to deliver to students, however many of them did not fit the criteria of the brief. This was pointed out to me by Raghu and forced me to look back over the brief and compare my ideas to what the issues really were. I felt like I had some good concepts, I just needed to tease them out of the list of ideas I had. Looking back over the brief then re-listening to the lecture materials allowed me to refine my ideas and generate a better understanding of my clients wishes. The ability to rationalise or simplify ideas will be vital in my work as a graphic designer, to be able to step back and maintain an objective opinion will be a great asset in the future and something I should practice more often.

Tutorial Week 2

User Interface vs. User Experience

    

What is a good or a bad interface design? Choose one good and one bad interface design and prepare a rational for why you think one is good and one is bad.

Important to keep in mind: Pick both good and bad examples from the same category and platform to make it easy for comparative analysis: For example, shopping list app for android mobile: Pick one shopping list app which you thinks is good and one that you think is bad. And, explain why.

Good Interface Design

  

Australian National University Website
While not at all innovative the ANU website is a sturdy reminder that not all websites need to break away from the norm or what is expected in order to achieve good UI Design. The ANU website is clean, easy to navigate and both the visual and textual heirachy is balanced - creating an overall pleasing aesthetic.
  

Bad Interface Design

        

University of Canberra Website
The UC website is opposite - it has tried to break away from these normal conventions and in doing so created a UI that is harder to navigate by nesting pages in areas that is difficult to find. The menus are overwhelming and the non-static images are distracting to the user. There are multiple elements trying to grab attention creating disharmony and a lack of balance to the page. The visual hierarchy needs attention.
  

Reflection

  

This tutorial had us looking at various interface designs, trying to decipher the bad from the good. My position during the exercise was to think like a designer not a user - this ability will allow me to fully understand and interpret good design from bad design. This is something I found difficult to do separating my experiences, preferences and emotion from the equation. In theory I understood the differences but in practice it was much harder to determine.

This difficulty forced me to reflect on the argument of UI vs. UX. They can't really be separated, one leads to the other and when designing they similarly cannot be separated. While it is entirely possible to pick out UI flaws these are therefore also flaws with UX. The experience and interface design should always be at the forefront of design strategy working cohesively to create a product that is well balanced and well received. This understanding of UI and UX design will be of great benefit to me moving forward with Graphic Design as it will allow me to design and better product.