Week 4

Previously, in our contact class we discussed our possible major project ideas concepts. At the start of our class we got a few team members from another team and was god to do an exercise that critiqued and highlighted the positives of our projects. 

Great Barrier Reef

Positives:

• provides a good source of information 
• interesting for users
• targets a nech market for reef enthusiast 

Negatives

• bland 
• not that exciting 
• targets toward neck market 
• too simple 
• nothing that entices users 

Recommendations 

• show the user the predicted future of the reef and how long it will last without changes being made 
• how much is being destroyed each year 
• how it is being destroyed 
• the wildlife distinction rate (graphs and timelines)

 Festivals and Events Identification 

Positives:

• good tool to identify events and festivals 

Negatives

• No information found on trove

The negatives of this concept is that Trove only provides articles and material that may not be as recent as needed for this concept. 

Recommendations

• too hard to execute 
• would not meet the brief 

Murders 

Positives:

• good concept
• interesting to users

Negatives

• needs to be more interactive 
• a lot of research 

Recommendations

• needs to more expansive 
• no limitations on murderers 

Overall, all the concepts gave good feedback but all the concepts need to be more interactive and make it fun and educational. 

To figure out the positives and negatives, we completed the hats activity. The purpose of the activity was to work out the positives and negatives of each concept.. Within this, we needed to get other peoples opinions of the concept ideas and what they thought about the perspective application ideas. Within our group, 3 people went around to other tables to give an opinion of there ideas, while 2 people stayed at the table and displayed our ideas. 

The six hats activity incorporated the use of six different hats. They included the ones displayed below. Each hat portrayed an different opinion on the given paper prototype. 

Lecture

In this weeks lecture we were notified that we had to display a poster and pitch for next week, it had to be A3 printed and what it should cover.

We went over what should be in the concept document and how it should be displayed. The concept document had to include:

1. the purpose, audience, interactivity and the use of data within the application 
2. sketches, storyboards of supported visuals
3. background research and inspiration 

After covering what we know about the the poster, pitch and concept, the lecturer taught us about interaction design and what it is. 

"Interaction design is about shaping digital things for peoples use" (Jonas Lowgren)

From this first quote i understand that interaction design is about design digital concepts that people us. This means that interactions design is used within the digital age to design concepts that incorporate the use of IT. 

I found it interesting that interaction design shapes digital things for people. This meant:

• creating a personal experience for a use

The user gets to decide how good or bad the concept is, allowing the user to majority of the control over the application and the designer decides what level of freedom they have. 

I found this really interesting as the designer has to develop the user experience for the user by creating an application that gives the basis of the concept but then the user manipulates the application as they wish. 

The lecturer then showed us examples about some people work. 

i found serious play very interesting as the user has to design stuff and keep inspired from using chocolate. 

This week i contributed by:

• With the group deciding on the final application concept
• Decided on the layout of the poster
• Did my allocated parts of the concept document 
• I made one of the paper prototypes

Sketch of the poster - brainstorming: 

Week 3

Contact
For this weeks contact, we were asked to brainstorm 4 project ideas that we could potentially use for our future assignment. All the project ideas come from using the Trove Search Engine(National Library of Australia)

1st Idea:
My first first thought for Trove was to create a search engine that incorporated the use of providing a search engine that specialised in information about Australian murderers and their victims.
Within the search engine, i would provide information about:

• murderers 
• the victims of murder 
• unsolved murder mysteries 
• the history of the murders 
• the history of the victims 
• how the murder was taken place
• where the murder was taken place 
• timeline of when the murders occurred in Australia

2nd Idea:

My second idea concept for trove, incorporated the Australian history of diseases and how they impacted the world. 

Within the search engine, i would provide information about:

• the history of the disease
• the victims of the disease 
• the locations of where the disease started and how it spread
• what caused the disease to start 
• how hospitals dealt with the impact of the disease
• timeline of when the diseases occurred

3rd Idea: 

My third idea concept involves tracking the Australian history of plane crashes.

Within the search engine, i would provide information about:

• what countries have the highest percentage 
• what caused the plane crashes
• the victims
• the terrorist that caused the plane crash
• timeline of when the plane crashes occurred

4th Idea:

My fourth idea concept involves the mapping of Brisbane cycle routes.

Within the search engine, I would provide information about:

• map of the bike routes provided in Brisbane
• safest bike routes provided in Brisbane
• tracks to be established

This Weeks Activity

What did you learn about your attitudes to working in a team? Which Belbin roles did you identify with?

I have been identified as shaper, followed by 12-15 point scores as a planter, Completer-Finisher and Team Worker. In all other categories i scored0 0-30, this did not surprise me as i usually try to work well with everyone in the group in a effective and efficient manner. 

Were you surprised by either your Leadership or Team Score following the first quiz? Why/why not? You don't need to specify the scores that you received - rather was it higher/lower than you expected.

My leadership scores received indicate that i am a strong leader and direct my team well.  I am a bit surprised at that result as i usually override most conversation within the group. 

From this i am surprised from my high results. In the future i hope to help my group by listening to everyones ideas individually and work constructively as a team unit. 

Did you identify with any of the causes of conflict? Is it something you have a tendency to do or something you have experienced from previous team projects? How will you manage this if it occurs in this team project.

In my previous teams that i have worked in, i have actually had a really good history with group work. All my team members have co-operated well together and each member inputed into the conversation to a good level. The only negative aspect of group i have had so far is missing group members and not being able to contact them. It has been a very frustrating ordeal not being able to contact someone when you need their part of the assignment. 

In this team project i hope for my team members check the Facebook forum regularly and keep up to date with all the work that is assigned to them. 

What is important to you when working in a team?

Cooperation, listening, constructive criticism, input 

Lecture
This weeks lecture, we learn't about Web API's and how we can use them within developing our application.

What i learn't:

• Application Programming Interface
• creates a link between software-to-software
• it manipulates how software interacts together
• remote calls through HTTP requests

I know that we will need to know how to use API request within the our application so it was good to show use how to use it and show use how we can implement it. This week i hope to test how to use the API request format and perform it on basic tasks.

Week 2

Today was our first contact class. I was very excited about meeting my new class mates and learning about what we have to do in this course and who we were doing it with.

When i first walked it, it was very quiet. There were only a few people talking to each other, meaning that literally barely anyone know each other in this contact class (which was a good sign for me). Luckily to break the silence, the head tutor organised for everyone to stand next to there birthday month displayed on signs around the room. This is where we were asked the question:

• what is your favourite animal?
• what is your favourite colour?
• what is your favourite super hero power?

We then went around the group and answered the questions in a polite manner. This luckily broke the tension within the group. We then followed with some activities displaying the same short of notion to break the tension among peer members.

The question was then asked in small groups to us.

What idea would you like to analyse within Trove (a search engine website)?

We then conversed for about a hour about some ideas that we could make more specific within Trove and what specific audience we would want to target.

Many ideas that were discussed were about many random topics. They ranged from information about fries to history of diseases in Australia.

My favourite idea was about finding out about murders. Within Trove we would implement a new search engine that was specific about:

• Finding the history of the murdered.
• How old they were
• How many kills
• How they were killed
• What time period that they were active
• Finding information about there victims
• Newspaper articles about the murderer

Another idea that was put forward was an idea about diseases within Australia.

We thought about:

• history of the disease
• how it the disease came about
• how many deaths from the specific disease

Below shows a few more ideas that we came up with :)

What i thought about this week:

I thought this week was good as we were able to break the ice with the other students and people were able to express there ideas about the Trove concepts. 

What I liked:

i thought the team building activity was great as it would be really awkward without it 

What i disliked:

I didn't have a clear idea about Trove was and what information we could find on the search engine; so i just started blurting out ideas that wouldn't make sense for future applications. 

LECTURE

Started the week in my DECO1800 lecture where i learnt about many aspects of design and what the steps are to formulate the design life cycle.

What is Design??

Quote :

"as designers, we observe, build on the ideas of others"

This quote got me thinking about the different approaches to design and how they can be formulated into many different aspects of our everyday lives.

"making thing’s better for people"

This quote also made me think. What is design???

• Is it fixing the dishwasher for effectively??
• Is it cutting a apple differently??
• Is it arranging the cushions in a particular fashion that makes it more comfortable??
• Is it arranging your new furniture??

I think all these questions can be incorporated into design  as each individual idea is new and innovative.

We also learnt about the Design Life Cycle

The problem > Design process  > First insight > preparation > incubation > illumination > vertification

From this design life cycle i learnt that the cycle doesn't end. This meaning we are forever trying to invent new innovative items that make things better for more people.