Week 10

Week 10 was the week of the presentation, which changed so it wasn't worth any marks, meaning that the main use of it to us was as a feedback tool.  It was really important for us to spend the first half of the week making sure we put together something which would allow us communicate our idea as effectively as possible to ensure we got the highest quality feedback as this would allow us to further refine our idea.

To ensure the communication within the group was as strong as possible and everyone knew exactly what they were doing we organised a meeting on Skype in order to make sure everyone was on the same page with the direction we were taking the idea.  The Skype went well and we talked for almost an hour.  I find that talking, whether it be face to face or over the Internet  is a much more effective communication tool than pretty much anything, the fact that people take in all the information and are required to respond to it is great for making sure that all the information is understood and getting any issues people have dealt with.

After the Skype Max started doing some work on the UI, Hamish did more work on human sizes and disability standards and Kyle continued his refinement of the application.  I realised that our previous user groups were inappropriate given that our new idea was fun, gamified and a bit off the wall, making our original target, socio-economically disadvantaged people, an less effective user group than the alternative.  The alternative being young adults.  I did some research on them and it turns out that from 15-24 to 25-34 is the most significant jump in obesity of any set of two age groups.  This means that raising health awareness and forming healthy habits in this particular age group can be extremely effective in staving off future problems.

The Health summary page from the app

In the lead up to the actual presentation I started organising with the group as to which bits of the presentation we would each be responsible for.  I would handle all the beginning bits, that is to say the design problem, user profile, additional research and design concept, since I was well versed in these areas and there was no point jumping from person to person and breaking the flow.  After those bits were talked about Kyle would handle the Demonstration of our prototype, Max would talk about the UI and Hamish would show his proposed physical set up.

At this point Max was proposing some updates to the UI which included including art, as in the image below.  At this point we felt like this style of art was quite a good match for the overall design aesthetic of the actual app, with out there questions and the like.

An Early UI mockup

As the app and presentation were taking shape Hamish started coming out which his sketches for what the actual installation would look like, primarily based on the research he had done into the size of humans.  This meant that his designs were extremely usable in terms of arm distance to screen etc.

A user interacting with the system. Shown is a height sensor up top, an Ipad and a wii-fit balance board for weight. 

After this we did the actual presentation, which went extremely well.  I managed to talk without hesitation or stuffing up any of my lines for which I am extremely proud and the rest of the group followed suit.  We managed to communicate all the information we needed about the installation without missing any important points.  The feedback we got was minimal, partially because the idea was sound and partially because our group was the last to present, meaning that there were less people listening and they were a bit more tired by that point.  It was suggested to us that we ask the same questions twice to ensure that the user was giving an honest response, indicated by them answering the same way twice.  The key piece of feedback that we got was that we should make the physical installation less clinical.  Our app was fun and frivolous but our actual physical installation was kind of over designed, it was very bare boned and didn't fit with the overall feel of the application.  Martin suggested that we redesign it to be more arcade-y.

In the days after the presentation the group discussed the idea of making the app and installation into more of a arcade based piece.  Max in particular was excited about the idea, suggesting a range of ideas such as a gamepad, animation, timed questions, visualisation ideas and music.  A lot of these ideas were great however had to be reigned back a bit for our final demonstration due to the fact that they were too much work for us to properly execute for our final product.  We all agreed on focusing on minimum viable product, which meant getting the core of the app together and not worrying about the 'extras' until we were sure that they wouldn't detract from the overall idea.  His ideas were just initial concepts so they are something we can definitely work on as there is a at least a core of a great idea in each.

After he had shared these ideas I decided that the whole group deserved a few days off, in light of all the hard work the group had done in the lead up to the presentation.  No one complained about this suggestion!

On the Sunday I sat down and tried to figure out exactly what we needed to do in order to achieve our project goals.  This came down to: Discussing the arcade idea, Designing/prototyping all aspects, testing and iterating and actually building the app and installation.

The end of this week has put us in a great postion.  We've got all of the big details hammered out and now we just need to figure out the finer details.  I think we'll end up with a really great product.