My Wrist!!!

Well i’ve broken my 4th Metacarple and i’ll find out if i’ve broken my Scaphoid on Thursday morning. Playing football was the culprit, being stupid was my downfall…

It comes at the best possible time when I have to write a 2000 word essay by friday, and a killer app project for Vlad.

Essay hand in

Well I handed my first essay of the year in today, now I can get started on the second part of it which shouldn’t take to long hopefully. One minor problem is the structure of the lectures, the more useful lectures seemed to be delivered when we needed them most. Apart from that everything is good.

Animation Finished!

Well today i’ve been a busy bee. After trying out a plethora of different sounds I have come up with two versions of the animation, the video is the same but the sound on both are slightly different. I’m a little undecided on which to choose so I will take them both tomorrow and show some of the guys in University tomorrow. Katina might get a peek aswell. Although, the AI part of the Eden Edge Project isn’t working very well. The rest of the group are upset because we didnt really have any control over that part and now that is hindering us finishing it as soon as possible for Howard.

On to finishing off the essay… It’s done just needs proof read again.

Todays happenings…

Well today we had another HCI practical, a good one at that! We also got an extension on our essay because of the whole Eden Edge thing, John was very helpful. We then went to PSQ to work on the Flash side of the Edge Project. It’s looking amazing! Just need to get the AI sorted, this area is still a bit unclear and with some people saying they will help then spring stuff on us isn’t really helping.

We have loads of deadlines… an exam tomorrow, the essay was to be in on friday but now its Monday for us 6 and then Katina’s animation project next thursday. I know some of the guys in our group are struggling, I say struggling I mean just have left the essay a bit late, i’ve finished the essay and have done katina’s animation so i’m in a fairly comfortable position and I’m making lots of progress.

Essay update

Well I have now starting writing my essay, iphone and multi touch malarky etc etc…
Rendering is bobbing along nicely just need to animate one more part me thinks then I can start assembling it in Premier.

Direct Manipulation

Definition:
Visual Model of the world
Visual objects that can be operated on
Results of actions are reflected in the objects immediately.
Objects, once operated on, can be further operated on.
Term coined by Ben Shneiderman
Original system: Sketchpad from 1962
“Object-oriented” from user’s point of view
As opposed to “function-oriented”
Usually select object, then give command
Hollan argues this user feel more important to DM than Shneiderman’s methods
Pros and cons:
+ User initiated
+ Easy to learn, intuitive, analogical
+ Fast to use for object that are on the display
+ Easily augmented with menus and forms
+ Provides closure of actions and gesture.
+ Errors can be avoided.
+ High subjective satisfaction (fun).
- Can be inconvenient and slow if user knows the name of an undisplayed object, but must find it anyway.
- Limited power; not all desired actions have a DM analog.
- Difficult to provide macros, other user extensible/customizable features.
- Difficult to implement.

Power Glove!!!!

Augmented Reality

Finally i’ve decided indefinetly what I might want to do my HCI Essay on…

well i’ve just home from work, sat down trying to thikn what the hell I can do my essay on, i’ve been asking people in work, but to know avail just crap that doesnt really interest me. Sat in front of my PC eating chilli and chips then BAM! Let’s do Augmented Reality, i’m a computer geek so why not do it on developing innovative ways of interacting with just like the Wii. I was thinking of a Headset that would cover your eyes like a small TV, and just like GPS tracking it will be able to sense which way you are facing and this would corralate to movement in the game.

Meep.

Research time.

Thoughs on HCI essay again…

Only one lecture today, HCI, firstly we read an article on the Star design made by Xerox, in short they designed this interface by thinking of how the user would relate to the system and then the hardware and software followed after that. Here are some notes that i took while reading the first 3 pages.

April 1981 Xerox announced an office based PC.

Allow user experience in one area to apply to other applications.(consistency)

Star is based on an experiment called Alto.

The Mouse is first introduced as a way of pointing to graphics, Cursor step keys are to slow as there is now more information on the screen.

Xerox devoted 30 working years to the design of the Star user interface.

It was designed before its functionality was decided.Methodologies

The provision of languages by which users can express their commands to the computer.

The design of system/technical information about the system displayed to the user.

Abstract issues that affect the users understanding of the systems behaviour.Task Analysis
Task Analysis involves establishing who the users are:

What their goals are

How they perform tasks

what information they generate and desire

What methods they employDesign Methodologies must precede the design of any successful user interface

After reading some of the article I found myself pondering and over analysing everything which I associate with and interface, this evening both Me and Aqeel got talking on the great and wondering MSN. Here is what we talked about:

1) I hate the remote interface on television, can’t stand em. There’s two much variance between them. Then the volume buttons…they are all so clunky…the rubber aspect. Then the whole point…where is the remote?!

2) The washing machine interface is really does my head in. Or am I just not machine washer friendly, whatever the point. There should be a summary as to what you have entered, or even RFID technology telling you whats good to put and whats not. Or a summary where it asks to check you haven’t added a red with your whites.

3) Chat clients that should be cross platform…i.e. same on all platforms…the same keys etc. So its easier to communicate and share same features. The ability to switch groups of buddies off whilst others on…without blocking.

Still not entirely sure about which direction I want to take the essay, I’ve read other blogs, not quite sure about the Train Control System… I know i’ve never used one and I can safely say most people have never used one, maybe when I was in Toys ‘r us I admit I briefly played on Train Simulator by Microsoft but that surely cant be an accurate interpretation of the physical design…

Anywho, beddy bies time, and I might need a twosies(Scrubs).

I say good day

HCI essay

Well, I should be starting this essay in the next few days, i’m just trying to figure out which system interface I would change, i’ve been looking around at everyday opbjects and thinking how we intereact with them, i’ve asked a few people in work what do find hard to use or what isn’t as safe as it should be, so far i’ve come up with a blender… she said mainly cause it’s a bitch to clean.

Anywho, I managed to find some previous essays so this gives me a starting point in term of what I need to say about the system. Now I just need to read some stuff for my practical session today.

Perception and Cognitive ability vid in ISAD

Only one lecture today, we watched an interesting video in Mr Fordes’ lecture, it was mainly about extreme examples of brain damage and the effects therein. One man couldnt recognise anyone that he knew, not even himself or his wife. There was a woman that couldnt see motion, in brief if you think of the eye as a video camera, her “Frame Rate” was one every few seconds rather than the average of 25 frames per second.

I found it very interesting, John mentioned about how young babies brains develop the
the notion of facial recognition, this starts from a very early age. And unlike the people in the video, it seems that car crashes and strokes were two of the main causes, this suggests that sudden movements to the brain are bad, and prove that the brain struggles to heal itself.

In comparison to software interface design one main point which was mentioned by John was the change between MS-DOS to the GUI version of windows. MS-DOS was completely type based, no graphics were used, the basic concepts of using the software were fairly hard to grasp and potentially put people off using it.

The GUI model was far more successful, a novice with no computer experience was able to use the machine at a fairly competant level, even now windows still use a mixture of text and images to display buttons and folders etc. This greatly increases the usability because the images are representing the words, i.e. a Image–[folder] looks like the word ‘folder’.

Over the years Microsoft have release newer versions of the operating system, I haven’t managed to play on Vista yet but my laptop and desktop both run on Windows XP, the usability in XP is far great than it’s predecessor Windows ME 2000, I can think of a few reasons why… better systems to run the OS, higher demand for computers and of course financial gain, the more people use it the more money they will make.

There may be a few downfalls to changing the OS every few years, people get qualifications in using certain programs, these programs soon become obselete due to the OS moving on and changing the user experience, making things easier or in other words dumbing down everything. To put that into context I would never be able to grasp the lastest 3D modelling program if it wasn’t through the help of those pre-made buttons that aid you in creating something which it doesn’t know what it’s creating…tangent moment there.

Also on the subject the the upgrade of any software package generally keeps the same layout witha few treaks here and there but its mainly adding new features and/or making the layout easier on the eye. The worst piece of software that I have noticed recently is the Office package… what is with all the crap at the top?? It’s like someone has just shit buttons all along the top of the screen and then realised that there is supposed to be some typing going on somewhere.

Summary: good day appart from the surprise essays 2 x 2000 words…

I’m tired and hungry.

Bjork – All is full of love…

That video…

Only one video today and ‘Oh my!’ What a video that was. Neural Darwinism, the subject basics were easy to grasp however the woman that they chose to interview was less coherent than a dyslexic fish pie.

Football was rubbish we lost 7-0, midfielders were too busy scratching golden winnits from there behinds while the rest of the team were being shafted by a bunch of teenagers.

The front of the herald painted a vivid picture of an enderly woman being electrocuted yesterday while cutting her shrubbery without a power surge thingy, again the herald find that stories of no immediate importance will benifit the people of plymouth (its a sad loss but do we REALLY need to know?). The media is full of nonsense stories that no-one really gives a crap about the hype over david beckhams dad, diana… again and of course The McCanns and there quest of innocence.

Grrr…….