Skype Video

I decided to film myself talking to my family so that i can study how people interact with the service Skype. When i called my parents i found that they were using the TV computer to talk to me, this is unusual as they usually use the laptop. This gave a good point of view of what I'm trying to accomplish for Siemens with a video calling unit so that you don't have to leave the computer on for anyone to call you. It was good to see the interaction with the possibility of being engrossed into the family despite being miles away, also video calling allows for me to see what's going on in the family with work they have done. Also the ability of seeing body language gives a great benefit over traditional methods of communication. 

The video is at a really low quality for upload speeds and i have a longer video on my computer with sound.

Survey

I made a quick survey, please feel free to fill it in. Thanks

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Siemens

I've been meaning to put this up a while ago. It's my Siemens Rationale board.

Telephone Advert Boards

I looked into old advert boards for the telephone as it's interesting to see how the shape of the phone has still stayed the same and nothing has really changed. However I know i'm looking into this to see what changes can be made but from the adverts i quite like the idea of keeping the same elements of the phone. For example you have a dock, where the phone sits and you dial the number in or charge your phone if you have a wireless phone. Then you have the handset that you talk into and listen.

I think these 2 components work well together because when the phone rings you pick up the phone to answer it. This is quite a nice physical action and i don't want to loose this to pressing a button if necessary. However does it have to be a handset? Could it be a headset? Does there only have to be 2 components could you have 3 or just 1? These are things i need to explore further into.


 


http://www.myinsulators.com/commokid/telephones/telephone_ads.htm

BT Ads

I've been looking into British Telecom adverts to see how BT portrays people using the telephone. This was quite interesting because it shows the freedom and flexibility of being able to pick up the phone and dial the number. However in comparison to modern forms of communication that are now becoming more computer based this seems like an advantage for the average handset. Also the ability to walk around the house is a very appealing idea when calling someone as you can do your work whilst talking or just relax whilst talking. This may not be available for people video who are video calling as this demands you to keep visual contact.

Lem Bar Stool

I've finally decided on a chair i want to do for my next project. I'm planning on making a fifth scale model chair of the Lapalma Lem Bar Stool. I spent a lot of time trying to decide on what product i wanted to do because i wanted to do something metallic as metal is a material i'm not too familiar with so want i to improve my skills in that department. Also i wanted something not too difficult however this will still be a challenge but at least it has parallel lines and a clean shape. I'm looking forward to this and Lapalma have almost full measurements on their website which will be very helpful. Also Luna stock the chair as well so if i find i can't get a measurement then i know at least i can take it manually. 

http://www.lapalma.it/allegati/teckdata/LEM1.pdf


http://www.luna-online.co.uk/index.php?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage.tpl&product_id=1488&category_id=85&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=28


http://www.lapalma.it/product.asp?lng=01&m=2&id=87

Microsoft's User Interface Video

I watched Microsoft's lecture on user interface and how Denis Wixon made the user interface for the computer keyboard which is still used today. He challenged convention on how hard it was for people to use the arrow keys on a keyboard. He covered peoples keyboards and asked people to write out the keys in order of how they appear on the keyboard. He found that most people were wrong so he conducted more research on how people interact with such equipment. He studied which direction people move the most on the keyboard and made it so that you would rest your fingers on the 'left' 'down' and 'right' keys so that when you want to move up you would instinctively move your finger up.

This was very interesting and has given me some ideas on what to research for my interface change for the house hold phone. I want to research into how people interact with a standard phone and how people interact with a computer when they're using a video calling device.

Also i need to look at the past to know what the future will be like.Therefore i want to study old handsets to see whether most people would be able to instinctively adjust to a new design.


HCDE521 W10: Dennis Wixon from Human Centered Design & Engineer on Vimeo.