uxmelina

Lately I’ve been think a lot about cloud computing…specifically how it’s going to change the way people interact with technology and even more specifically how this will change the way people use technology to collaborate. I’m really excited to be working in technology as we make this shift, because it’s going to be a big one. People won’t have a “desktop” as we see them today. They will have some virtual identity that will house all their “stuff”. This will drive a great shift in interaction methods (from a desktop, from a cellphone, from some dumb public terminal, etc). I’ve been looking at the desktop metiphor and considering if it will still be appropriate.

Will it resonate with novice users like it did in the past? Will we even have “novice” users or will the cloud be something like fridge where everyone knows how to use it, and can’t really pin point when they learned it? Even if we don’t have novice users, do we need a different model?

All those questions made me think. If we aren’t interacting with a desktop, what metipor would be more appropirate? I explained earlier in this post about the idea of humans interacting with a virual version of themselfs. I’m wondering if a person or human metaphor could be something to consider. Here are a few ideas.

Memory: Objects could be stored in a virtual brain or even a pocket (I think this is cute, and would be great for quick assess similar to the “Desktop”)

Software and Programs: These never fit into the desktop metaphor and they would change with the cloud. Their will be a lot more task based workflows as software services become more integrated (see ubiquity) so performing “actions” or “tasks” (instead of running programs) would keep consistent with the metaphor.

Trash: This is actually an element of the desktop metaphor that I can’t think of way to convert to a human metaphor (Unless you wanted to think of bodily waste every time to you hit delete…I think not!). However I don’t think that’s a problem with the human metaphor because why would you delete something in the cloud? I know this is a stretch, because it’s a learned behaviour, both in technology and in life, but look at what archive has done for gmail…no more trash! Out of site out of mind.

That’s all I have for now. I will post more on this later as I think about. Please comment on your thoughts/ideas!

Thanks

The fall is here, the leaves are changing colour, nights are cooler and snow is around the corner. As I walked to my night class, I reached in my purse to turn on some music, I pressed the one physical button on my ipod touch followed by a quick touch of the music icon on the touch screen, as I had done so many times before. Only this time, the task was a FAIL. My gloves acted as insulators and the ipod could no longer take advantage of human capacitance.

Which design is flawed?

The iPod clearly didn’t account for people wearing gloves. In my case, I slipped off my gloves and set the music, put the glove back on, and began listening, however skipping a song, or adjusting volume would be a real pain each time. What if it were really cold out? Would there be a situation where I would choose the warmth of my hand over the music? What if it was an iPhone and I needed to answer a call quickly?

On the other hand (pun intended!), the glove design didn’t consider its environment of use, as the iPhone grows in popularity people need their actual figure tips available for use. This also applies to big thick gloves and use with any tech devise with small buttons. I was actually shopping for leather gloves earlier in the day, I saw ones that had a small leather flap over the thumb figure tip attached with Velcro, it almost look like a leather Band-Aid over your glove (they were really ugly). In hindsight they do meet a key design requirement, now if someone could just make a stylish version of them….

Two clear solutions to my problem are to change the input method of the ipod or the material/design of the gloves; can anyone think of any other solutions? More importantly, should the use case even be considered in the design? Please comment!

One large part of University that I don’t agreed with: Exams.

My main beef is due to the fact that they are really unlike anything you will ever do in the real world. I know I have only worked in “the real world” to a total of 2 years, but at each job, I have yet to EVER be placed in a traditional exam situation. Please comment if you have ever been stuck in a room with 100+ people, all solving the exact same problem, without the aid of a calculator, a textbook or the internet and told not to talk or make any noise, and doing it all in an extreme time crunch. It’s just not realist. I have thought up a few solutions, but that’s not the point to this post.

On Monday I did something more ridiculous then writing exams. I handed in my proposal for my design plan. This 20 page report detailed everything my partner and I will do to complete our 8 month project (I will post details on it soon). The funny part comes with HOW I handed it in.

Try to follow this,

The prof who was marking us (our awesome supervisor) was at a conference, to ensure we had it completed on time, she was emailed a copy. Then according to course requirements, 2 copies were left in her mailbox. This was so she could read, mark and return one copy to us and kept the 2nd copy for future reference. Now a 3rd hard copy was given to the prof running the course so he could also make sure everyone’s projects were approximately similar (since we all have different supervisors).

So, 60 pages of printing, 3 cover pages, 3 backing pages, 3 bindings and one email later we handed in our report. A report that will be read by exactly 2 people (until I post it on this blog). Does anyone else see the problem with this? Actually some people do, I read another blog about this a few weeks ago, but can’t seem to find the link.

Imagine if instead of hard copies the report was posted on website. Each prof (and anyone else) could give their feedback in the form of comments. Students would have a higher sense of accountability since the viewing audience would be higher. If the report was any good, other people could learn from it. Students wouldn’t spend all morning in printing labs and a few less trees would die. The report, in all it’s glory, could be accessible from anywhere. New media (like videos and links) could be added to actually enhance the report. Referencing would be so much easier and so much more accurate and verifiable. The list of benefits goes on and on.

Their are some drawbacks that need to be worked out. Sometimes inline comments are nice on reports and that’s not really supported with traditional comments. Also, I don’t really know how many profs would want to read hours and hours of reports online, some user research is required there.

How does this relate to design? Earlier in the term, when I was trying to think up something fun to research and redesign, a friend of mine (who is actually redesigning a tattoo gun) said to me “think of something that hasn’t changed for many years”. Likely, due to new improvements in technology, their is something that can be improved and enhanced that hasn’t been designed, exams and report submissions both fall into this category. This reminded me of the idea about TV viewing (a task that has reminded pretty static since its inception) and realized that it would be a fun topic to explore.

Please comment if you have used an alternative method to submit reports that is more efficient then my adventure on Monday. I am using Google sites for 2 of my courses as a method of content submission, but only in addition to, traditional methods. Also, our school has an online course distribution tool that allows us to submit electronic copies of papers, but is not used by all profs. So their has been some movement in the right direction.