Holidays

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night. I look forward to sharing more insights on interaction design.

Project Management in UX

I have been trying to find examples of project management charts for MS Excel. It is important that I stay on task and continue on refinements to my interaction design. This is a wonderful site that explains how to create PM Gantt charts using Excel.
http://chandoo.org/wp/2008/03/13/want-to-be-an-excel-conditional-formatting-rock-star-read-this/

@Chandoo.org

Completing MS in HCI

Posting Again

It has been a while since I have posted my thoughts on Interaction Design. A lot has happened most recently I successfully passed my oral defense for my MS in Human Computer Interaction. It was a cold and blustery day in Iowa but I went in and treated it as a pitch meeting. I do have some minor revisions that I have to complete but I know that I can do it because I believe in the subject.

This will be my second Masters degree. My first came before User Experience studies had taken off. I earned a MFA in Design from OSU. Friends and informed recruiters have told me what a unique combination I have: the creativity of a designer and the analytical capabilities of HCI. 

I have been amazed that I have been able to work in various industries that many may consider outside the expertise of a designer. Not only have I worked in these positions but I have made innovations in architecture, aerospace and robotics. In every domain that I have entered I have had to learn that there is a hierarchy with regard to the disciplines. I will expound on this further in future posts.

I would like to use this opportunity to share some books that influenced me the past couple of years.

• Work Like Da Vinci: Gaining the Creative Advantage in Your Business and Career by Gelb, Michael
• Prisoners of Our Thoughts: Viktor Frankl's Principles for Discovering Meaning in Life and Work by Pattakos, Alex
  
  
  
  
  
  
  More to follow
  
  

An Augmented Reality application development.

This is a CHI paper delivered by Disney Research . Its a interesting idea and you are able to see what caliber of published papers.

Semester Ending

Working on completing final for HCI522. Its very long and involved exam that covers a whole semester of work in research methods. I think that I have the experimental design part figured out. The proposed study methodology that I will use in my study is between-groups design.

Augmented Reality and Air App Mashup

This is a augmented reality view that I adapted from various tools. I wanted to develop a way to share 3d models of architectural designs.

I conduct a research project where I wanted to explore the topic of baby boomers in the sandwich generation. I have so many friends that are sending a child off to college in addition to caring for an older parent. I don't believe that a lot of studies have addressed the toll that increased technology demands take on the sandwich generation. This is the hypothesis that I began with.

Hypothesis:

1)     If the human computer interaction were usable for older adults then the workload on the Sandwich generation would decrease.

2)     The workload on the sandwich generation will be decreased if the younger and older generations receiving care has access to computers.

Virtual Reality Reflections

This glove helps blind people see by sending out sonar pulses.

A motor applies pressure to the hand based upon how close they are to an object.

This way an individual can perceive their proximity to an object.

http://www.trendhunter.com/trends/tacit-glove

$300 Million Button

The $300 Million Button

This is the power of UX design in E commerce.

Importance of Logo in Branding

New Logo Sketches

This is a redesign sketch of a new logo for the HCI site. I attempted to keep some of the same language of the existing logo. The existing logo has several hexagons with the human computer interaction on a circular path around that. I interpreted the hexagons as camera flares which makes a statement about human vision and machine vision.

I sketched a human figure interacting with elements in a circle. I wanted to make it clear that the figure had command of the objects.

Branding

It is essential to the design process that a mark is made that is memorable creates a connection with the viewer. The 3 things that all successful brands have is a visceral, behavioral and experiential connection.

Here are some very successful logos that have multiple layers of meaning. Are the logos enhanced by the "hidden" meanings? I think so.

Logo proposal

This is the working logo that I propose for the site. I would love to get feedback on it.

Creation of App For HCI site.

Wireframe for HCI site

This is the wireframe for the proposed redesign of the Iowa State University Human Computer Interaction site. The home page features a redesigned logo which is intended to create a brand identity.

App Design

There is also an app featured on the home page that helps users decide upon the education track based upon key words of some of the interaction careers. There are so may terms used in HCI that it can be confusing for anyone considering this field. This is an attempt to compile some of the terms in a useful training search.

Some of the terms used to describe this field:

• Experience Design
• Interaction Design
• Information Architecture
• User-Centered Design
• Graphic User Interface
• Service Design

Most of these terms were taken from a Nettuts article.

In the first drop down menu a visitor to the site selects their current status. In the next box they can input a term. The search box is connected to the HCI course descriptions. The information that is returned is a course of study for the user. This diagram illustrates the process.

Existing HCI Site Layout

Wireframe of Existing HCI website. This was done in Fireworks.

Prototype for Pharmacy Kiosk

Storyboard for Pharmacy Kiosk

HCI Existing Website

This is an analysis of the site structure of Iowa State University HCI program. This shows how shallow the hierarchy is. This was made using Axure software.

Target Service Design Blueprint

This is a service blueprint for Target pharmacy. This is an analysis of the existing service.

Card Sort Exercise

Lecture number six had a section about a method of research from the information technology discipline called card sorting. This is a method of testing that prompts the participant to organize items under logical categories. A detailed explanation of the process can be found at Boxes and Arrows .

There are two types of card sorting: open and closed. In open card sorting the participants are given cards each with information on it. They are asked to organize the information in a way that makes the most sense for them. So the participant actually creates the category for the cards.

In closed sorting the participant is given the cards and each one has a set of possible grouping. The participant places the cards in the group that makes the most sense.

Websort.net is free online application that allowed the information architect to conduct this research remotely.

Service Blueprint for Panera Bread

My Wireframe

This is my wireframe for the Iowa State University HCI homepage. I used fireworks to complete this because I thought that it would be easier to migrate to Adobe Flex. The Design uses large buttons because I wanted to simplify the current design. Also I wanted to make it a portal so that current students can go to the site and use it to access information about programs and classes.