Week 7

Week 7 was a bit of a slow week project wise.  Everyone has several other assessments coming up combined with the fact that we are at a time period in which research is the main thing we can actually do with this project.  Everyone was working on the tasks assigned to them last week and there was some stuff being posted on Facebook page, a few pieces of research from each of the group mates.  Thankfully it seems that we're narrowing down on the technical aspects of the project, Kyle, after running in to lots of trouble with scales sending their data to a computer, has found out that Wii balance boards are able to communicate weight to a computer much more easily.  Thankfully my girlfriend has a Wii balance board that we'll be able to use.  It's nice to have that aspect of the project more or less dealt with.

Personally I've been getting into the advertising research heavily, looking at a range of scholarly articles about advertising, particularly in the health field.  These are sources of really great information and help highlight how relevant that advertising would be to our solution.  I think it’s important we design a comprehensive advertising strategy for our solution as this will make our design really viable and interesting.  Health advertising is interesting as there is only one really well documented and back up strategy, scare tactics.  The only real way to force people make a change in their own lives is to make them afraid of the consequences of continuing on their bad habits.

I also found an article about improving general health literacy which I haven’t actually got to completely analysing and breaking it down to figure out what parts are particularly helpful to us.  However this article is talking about the wider problem and has serious implications on our main idea, suggesting ways in which we can use the design to improve people’s own health literacy and therefore make a real change in their lives.

I also had the realisation this week that, at least in terms of privacy, our design was very much like an ATM.  This means that our original idea of having a fully enclosed booth was probably an excessive measure, ATMs have to be completely private and only require an enclave in the wall.  Max quickly took this idea and found the industry standards for ATMs which we need to look into further ( http://www.bankers.asn.au/Industry-Standards/ABAs-Accessibility-of-Electronic-Banking-/ATM-Standard).

Going into the next week my personal plan is to thoroughly analyse that article as soon as possible.  As far as the group is concerned I think we need to have a proper sit down and talk on Wednesday about where we’re going and divvying up the tasks that are required to get there.  The challenge for me, personally, is stepping up and making sure we get this organised, whether I feel like doing it or not.  Last week I was a bit apathetic in the class and didn’t properly make sure we were on track.  We’ve run out of time for me to be unmotivated and I now have to make sure I’m on the ball and keeping on top of the situation.