After some deep brow rubbing and a headache, the realisation is that the funtional aspect of the toolbar will not be able to be demonstrated so time has been spent making an animation that was as natural as possible. Based on mouse clicks starting animations when others have completed but also inclusing text input and browser functions.
A test has just been run with a piece of online screen recording software called ScreenToaster and a small animation.
The results were automatically uploaded and are now displayed below. Just click the full screen icon to automatically play in full screen.
Today there was an insight into years gone by and what would be expected and required for the summative assessment on June 17th.
The main thing that came out of it was focus on conveying the idea when you’re not there to explain it. To this effect there were several videos and interactive walkthroughs. This is something that needed to be addressed in the current project timeline. There was little time for a prototype due to the complexities of creating one and what aspect to focus on.
Today was spent creating a browser in Flash made of screenshots and illustrations of the toolbar concepts and trying to make them dynamic so someone can use the service themselves. This was done using actionscript and not animating directly in the timeline, something that needs a lot more knowledge and thought. The result was a very realistic browser with a slide-down toolbar that acted as it was designed. The features are static images at current but the hope is to make them dynamic too.
Frankly it is more likely that the ‘journey’ the user will take will be done using pre-determined animations and ‘gotoAndPlay’ rather than scripting. This will be quicker and then can be videod using screen capture software so it can be looped to explain the process situated in the exhibition space. Read more…
The project log has seemingly disappeared due to doing too much work and simply forgetting to update it each day. This could be problematic in documenting progress but there is still a huge amount of sketches and scribbles, some of which are dated.
Since the last blog post there has been instructions to become more ‘visual’ and to look at how to best present the concept to engage people and really get the points across. There is a really great video about presentations here which gave a number of insights into what to do as well as what not to. It is little surprise that the presentation of the video is very good and engaging. On the back of that some books have been ordered to try and really push the presentation skills to be the best they can be. ‘Made To Stick’ by Chip & Dan Heath and ‘The Back of the Napkin’ by Dan Roam.
The concept itself has been through ‘what it does’ phase and has progressed to the more visual and more enjoyable phase of UI development. They are yet to be tested, that is the next phase, but the elements have been influenced by some existing elements that can be found in leading applications so hopefully they will only need some tweaking.
The best way so far to convey what the project does was to write an FAQ as it would appear on a website. This allowed real questions that could be asked by people will lower levels of technical knowledge to be anwsered in a way that alleviates their concern and also enlightens others to the purpose of the project. Whether this will be included in the final report is yet to be determined but it is entirely possible.
The project yet to gain a name but the working title should contain the words ‘content aware’ as the main feature is dependant on what information is displayed on pages. Perhaps an acronym like C.A.R.S – Content Aware Relational Suggestions.
This is a shot of the development of the UI and UX.
More images to follow. Read more…
