28 Aug 2009 FRI - Final aesthetic fine-comb

Today we discussed minor changes to intro screen and buttons. Everyone was quite busy because today we had to hand in the hard copies of our dissertations with all revisions included. I also spent some time coordinating the printing of business cards with Dee. We are going to print 500 cards with the final web address for our project (CUBE being one of the subprojects):

http://www.museumbuilding.org

Marcos

27 Aug 2009 THU - Testing interface

Today I tested the interface on Neil Kearney, the administrator of the building (he is one of our interviewees). He didn't know how to use it initially and felt overwhelmed by the lack of clear buttons and text content, but once he figured out how to use it he started recognising elements of the campus and the building and spent more than ten minutes browsing sounds and images inside the museum building. He was delighted about it and amused with the "unusual" approach we used. He commented that we must have put long hours doing it... True enough!

Marcos.

26 Aug 2009 WED - Sound fine-tuning

Spent the afternoon fine-tuning ambient sounds and reviewing the names for the clickable sounds with Dara and Killian. We changed position, loudness and range on existing ones and added and subtracted a few ones (we are limited to 32 sound channels on each interface - the campus and the building).

There were a few empty spots and some of the sounds were either too high or too low. We did a lot of testing to ensure that if users follows circulation lines (although he might decide not to), they will get a continuous soundscape.

Marcos.

25 Aug 2009 TUE - Testing and Sound fine-tuning

Today Killian worked on the Flash Prototype, Marcos and Dara re-edited sounds and XML files for campus and building interface and Bin Bin did some user testing inside the Museum Building, getting people to try out our interface on a mobile connection (O2 dongle) on his laptop. The results were good, people are spending between 5 and 10 minutes browsing the interface. It seems that some users are clicking randomly expecting to find little "easter eggs" and some users don't look at all the clickable content, but that is not a big concern for us as our interface is discoverable and it is up to the user to create his/her own experience of it.

Tomorrow we will put together a protoype with all sounds and XML files re-edited and text information changed (research and pre-load panels) and we will keep testing it. We will also talk to our supervisor Nicky to get some feedback from him.

Marcos.

24 Aug 2009 MON - Reports and more testing

Today we handed in our reports and in the afternoon we had a meeting to analyse our findings from the prototype testing. We still need to change the loudness and adjust position of ambient sounds on both campus and building interfaces, as this is probably the most important element of our interface. Once we've done that we will test is again on people that have never been to the Museum Building.

I will send link to prototype to our supervisor Nicky to get his feedback and also to Feargal, who gave us some important advice on the design specification prior to the final implementation phase.

We are happy so far with the outcome and there doesn't seem to be any major issues with the interface, so that gives us plenty of time to fine-tune it based on the feedback that we get.

Marcos.

21 Aug 2009 FRI - Testing and small changes

Today we had a meeting to discuss our latest prototype and the testing phase. We have all tested the interface with friends and colleagues across different internet connections and computers. It seems to take about 10 seconds or less to download on a standard 1Mb broadband connection. On most computers the ambient sounds take another few seconds to start playing after the initial preloading. We will look into that as we don't want users to enter campus interface and discover that nothing is happening.

In general people tend to spend a few minutes browsing the soundscape on both the campus and building interfaces. Some people miss the clickable items altogether, but most eventually find them.

We did some minor visual changes to the interface and Killian is going to put together a new prototype including the movie transition between campus and building. We also have to write our individual reports about the project for Monday, so that will keep us all busy over the weekend!

Marcos.

19 Aug 2009 WED - Towards a final prototype

Today we have a workable building interface prototype with all sounds and images plotted, but we still need to change XML file names. Dara reedited images in movie transition and it is down to a workable 2.5 Mb. It will have to be preloaded to run smoothly. We should be OK for Interface delivery, which was extended to the 21st of August (this Friday). The sounds are all edited and we decided on msueum building clickable button. Research page content is done, so our only standing concern is to edit final Actionscript code for individual elements such as slideshow and buttons.

Our submission to the Parsons Journal of Information Mapping was accepted, which is great news. We are also aiming to submit it to design competitions, but we need to get it finished first!

Marcos.

15 Aug 2009 FRI - Prototype and Ambient Sound Plotting

Killian presented us with a prototype in Flash of the ambient sounds and the image popup. They work well and it seems we are on the right track to finish final prototype. We tested it with a few classmates and observed them. It seems that people are engaging with the sound experience and eventually finding their way to the clickable sounds and images. We still need to bring in a lot of content into both interfaces, it will be interesting to see how interface works when all images and sounds are plotted onto it. Hopefully our idea of interrelated layers (circulation, flow and people) will work out in the end. Image above represents the plotting of ambient sounds we have been working on. I like the visual representation of the sounds, it relates to the circulation paths plotting in a way, although for our minimal approach methodology it might just be a bit too much to show this layer, rather we would like the user to discover it.

Marcos.

12 Aug 2009 - Touching base

I am finally back from my duties as Coach of the Irish National Surfing Team during the World Surfing Games 2009. While I was away I worked on compiling the research process and edited and abstract for an academic paper for the Parsons Journal for Information Mapping (PJIM). Today Dara, Binbin and Killian updated me on their progress and we discussed the final interface. We've split the workload and will work towards prototyping the final interface and editing the final content.

Marcos.

06 Aug 2009 THU - Research Process Documenting

As I am currently away coaching the Irish National Surfing Team during the World Surfing Games, I have been documenting the research process. On Tuesday (4 August) I had a Skype meeting with Dara and Binbin to check out the progress. It seems that there are a few issues regarding the streaming of mp3, but Killian is working on it. Dara has been editing sounds and Binbin is organising content. Dara sent the latest interface design by email to Feargal and we are waiting for his response.

Nicky suggested that we send an abstract to a publication, so I will work on that in the next few days. Internet facilities are very limited here, but I am still able to check the progress of our project on a daily basis.

Marcos.