• Synthesize needs and opportunities from both potential product users and other sources.
• Discover the intersection between the needs observed by researchers and the needs people perceive in themselves in otder to find rich areas for product development.
• Design product interactions that support the emotional connections between the person the reader
• Explore the personal and social roles that ebook readers facilitate
• Communicate the value of the ebook reader through the visual, auditory, and narrative channels provided by a video sketch

Though the time line was short, I was pleased with the results. During the final, a user research specialist from Daedalus Excel showed up and was very impressed with the presentations and solutions.

I was really impressed with the quality of the video sketches. I had them read John Zimmerman’s Video Sketches: Exploring Pervasive Computing Interaction Designs and showed them several examples. We talked about the advantages and disadvantages of different styles. But we did not go over tools, video techniques, or audio, which is typically done. Also, I told them that there was no right way to do this and that they should design their video sketch according to what they thought would be most effective given their skills and the time they had. The quality of the results were really impressive.

In particular, I enjoyed one group that used simple sketches and a child narrator to tell the story for an eReader for moms.

The students got to select an audience focus from a list of six options. Some of the groups overlapped. The documentation links are below, which contain links to their videos and final presentations.

Commuters
Starburst Reader
EasyNews

Moms
Kava
Oracle Reader

Family
Flip ‘N Share

To begin the conversation on interactive gestures, we looked at Recognizing gestures: Interface design beyond point-and-click, the Interactive Gestures Pattern Library, and the recently released draft of the first chapter of the upcoming Interactive Gestures. Between the three, the basics of gestural interaction are well covered. The first chapter of Interactive Gestures, in particular, offers a lot in the way of examples for exploring the history and current state of gestural interaction. It was very convenient to have been released just a few weeks before the project began.

The students will have the remainder of the semester to conduct user research, synthesize, produce and test concepts, and then demonstrate their solution in the form of a video sketch. I have no preconceptions for the result of combining the ebook and gestures, but that’s what makes this exciting. In the words of Frank Gehry, “If I knew how a project was going to turn out, I wouldn’t do it.”

Thesis Paper

During spring break, I completed an entirely new draft of my thesis paper. The previous version had too many structural issues. So I threw it out and didn’t look back, not using one word of the 8,000+ I had written. The end result was much better. I just got feedback from my advisor, Jodi Forlizzi, who says, “It’s almost there!”

Thesis Project

My thesis project, now called MetaMe, a mobile application that helps college freshmen project, explore, and understand their identity, is starting to take shape after months of formlessness. This week I’m creating scenarios and wireframes that I will then share with some fellow grad students to get some feedback. After some refinement, I plan to validate with freshmen next week.

Teaching

My Basic Interaction class is going well. My students just completed their first big project, a communication device/service for various user groups. They chose to prototype their solutions on the iPhone, though some also made web interfaces and physical prototypes. The next project is to design an ebook reader with a focus on gestural interaction.

Job Hunting

Talking to potential employers has kept me quite busy, especially over the last week. I’m looking at both New York and San Francisco, but I’m also in talks with a firm in Sydney, Australia. I just got back from San Francisco for interviews with Adaptive Path and Nectarine, and next week I’m headed to New York to talk to Moment. After that, I’m back in silicon valley to meet with SAP. Frog Design also expressed interest, and I’m trying to set something up with their New York office. Also, I’m talking to 2nd Road in Sydney. As you can see, there are some very different companies in different locations. I’m keeping an open mind to ensure I make the best decision. Overall, I’m thrilled with the opportunities and interest I have received. But I can’t wait to have it all figured out.

A: Physical cube

Starting with a cube, design an interactive object that you think best communicates the following uses. The cube should look as though you can:

• rub it
• turn it
• squeeze it

The cube can be no bigger than six inches in any dimension. You may add or subtract from the cube, but it has to remain cube-like. Other shapes may be used as long as they play a secondary role. You may also use color, texture, material as well as a relative context. For example, the final solution might be a green fuzzy cube with little circular nibs placed on the floor.

With no mention of research of audience, the students were left to their own devices in their interpretation. There were a range of solutions, many made of some sort of foam or sponge to afford squeeze, a lot of fuzzy bits for rubbing, and various measures to suggest turning.

After some discussion, we started talking about the success of the requirements from a distance and then once you got the cube in your hands. I saw this as a macro/micro perspective similar to how you might talk about a poster. From across the room you might be attracted to a cube because it looks like you can interact with it in one way, and then upon close inspection you discover further ways to interact with it. I had not thought about affordances as being macro and micro before, so I thought this was an interesting point to emerge especially when thinking about keeping people engaged with a product by not revealing all its tricks up front, but allowing for some exploration and discovery.

We also talked about the range between explicit and implicit affordances. For example, an explicit means of communicating that the cube should be turned might be by an arrow. In the middle of the spectrum might be a quote or line of text that starts on one side of the cube and continues across multiple sides, provoking the user to turn it to read the whole sentence by not explicitly telling them. On the implicit side might be a cube that is a puzzle that can be pulled apart and put back together. This act requires the user to turn the cube to examine all the sides to figure out the puzzle.

Finally, it was interesting that no one challenged the requirements by creating affordances that did not deliver. For example, no one purposely designed a cube that looked like you could turn it but actually did not turn. This brings up a point about intention (and perhaps manipulation) in design. When would you want to suggest an action that could not actually be performed? Unfortunately, we did not have time to discuss this. Perhaps for the next assignment.

As for this assignment, I think it’s a great introduction to interaction design because it gets people thinking about interaction design outside of the context of digital interfaces, it’s easy to talk about because you have tangible artifact to interact with, it’s quick, and it’s fun.

I must say the results were a hard blow. The comments were even harder to take, especially since most of the class are also my peers. The main issues were that it was difficult to know what the course was about, that there should have been a greater emphasis on the tools, and some people felt I wasn’t knowledgeable enough about the material (though others complained that they felt they could have learned more from me).

While not the feedback anyone wants to hear, I understand their frustration. The course is not clearly defined, which was my main concern when planning it. There was a big question about whether the course was about the tools or prototyping design ideas. I questioned why a Flash tools course was required for graduate interaction design students, since many of them already have the skills. Through discussion with other faculty, it was decided the course needed to change from strictly a Flash course, which meant I needed to develop the syllabus from scratch. The school did not help me prepare for this. Other than the meetings I initiated about what I should teach, I was on my own.

This is the norm for graduates students who teach, which is not good for the teachers or the students. And as I stated at the beginning of the course, I did feel unprepared. While I attempted to stick to talking about design concepts within the context of digital prototypes, I was constantly pulled toward more detailed teaching about the tools due to some of the needs of the students. This created a question in my mind about what the course should really be about, which probably didn’t help things.

This is all not to say that I could not have done things better. Definitely, I could have. My idea of keeping the syllabus flexible to respond to the student needs seemed to have worked against me. And I should have learned more about the differences between ActionScript 2.o and 3.0, as it took me a couple weeks to figure it out.

On the positive side, I had an open conversation about the course during the final, and several of the students said they learned a lot and enjoyed certain projects (while others thought certain projects were useless). As for the evaluations, a few students gave me an above average score. And some comments were positive. So not all bad.

I shared the verbal feedback I got with other faculty and hope it will affect the future of the course. For one, I stressed the difficulty of having a graduate student teach his peers, and the odd role dynamic that it creates. I also highlighted the need for the content to be more defined and questioned whether it should be a required course for interaction design graduate students.

The feedback really made me think hard about preparing for the Basic Interaction class I’m teaching this semester. Again, I was on my own. But fortunately this time I had four previous syllabi to pull from, I have taken the class, and it’s my degree, so it was a lot easier to plan. I’m a lot more confident and prepared this time around.

Overall, I still believe my teaching experience last semester was valuable, and I’m happy I was able to help some of the students learn new skills. I’m disappointed that this wasn’t the case for everyone, and I wish it would have gone more smoothly. But I think the experience and the feedback will help me both this semester and in the future.