We worked through some storylines to help make sense of our screens and find any gaps in information. We quickly discovered a lot of complexities with the information we were working with. List creation, inventory browsing and product comparison were all important elements that we need to incorporate, but were difficult to organize. We drew up on the whiteboard a lot of different layouts and screen interactions and came up with some UI elements we felt would be interesting to test in front of users. We came up with sliders to create the boundaries the user was willing to shop in and have the products fade in and out highlighting those that met the parameters. More information would be disclosed as few items were highlighted and given more pritority in screen real estate on screen.

Jumping forward in time..

Another challenge was integration with the physical device we were using: the keychain. How would this device be synced?, when and what does the interaction look like in store? This was something I personally enjoyed because the keychain afforded the event of having lighted shelves give immediate feedback on what the person can choose as a better alternative. However, looking at it now today, it just makes our system far too complex given our time constraints, and lack of testing. So we dropped the whole idea. No keychain. No lighted shelves. Sad story. My baby died, but at least we are making it easier for our user.

Instead of using a separate device and reinventing the wheel, we are going to adopt the usage of club or membership cards currently used by these stores that track transactions. This is practically the same data we want to record and report progress for our shopper.

We’ve presented our first round of prototyping to our class and also three guests from Microsoft (one MSR researcher, two MS product designers). We received some constructive feedback. Reiterating what I’ve stated above, we need to drop a few items. In addition, we have changed our model of being store independent to making a shopping application for Whole Foods. In order to show the success of comparison shopping and informing the benefits of better choices, we need to focus more specifically on a scenario our audience is familiar with. We needed to give them an example they can visualize and predict, like a story. We have our problem, a protagonist, but we needed a setting. Whole Foods will be our new playground from which our design will build upon.

Another bit of feedback that we were already concerned with going into the presentation was our usage of color to inform quality. The colors derived from the initial idea of using lighted shelves to show what choices would be better, same or worse than the shopper’s current boundaries. We had difficulty translating this into the entirety of the system. So we dropped it. It didn’t inform how much a product is better than others or even an absolute value of it’s quality in general. Time to hit the information design books for some inspiration.

We are now left with 2 weeks left to prototype another iteration, make it fairly polished and prepare our material illustrating our process. I have to admit, we have been doing a poor job of documentation. I’ve used this blog as an informal method of capturing some important events. Even then, I haven’t made that many updates. It’s a shame. This week will be dedicated to design and partial documentation - at least organizing how our process should be laid out. I will do my best to update next week on our progress and provide links to past prototypes/sketches/deliverables.

Here are some more at work photos:

Past entries:
Ambiguous Beginnings
Research and Analysis
Concepts and Design

Again, I’ll post some stuff on our earlier work to keep the flow going.

In the meantime, here is a snippet of dialog I just had with my partner as I’m thinking about how to visualize aggregated user data (caveat - we want to make our system fun and engaging, almost like a game)…

1:46:37 AM kdubz313: we should do a hang man thing
1:46:42 AM kdubz313: every time someone buys a red item, it starts to draw the hang man sketch
1:46:51 AM pandahachiroku0: lol
1:46:54 AM kdubz313: that’d be hilarious
1:47:04 AM kdubz313: and we can tell them how many times they died
1:47:07 AM kdubz313: so cruel..
1:47:13 AM pandahachiroku0: LOL
1:47:15 AM pandahachiroku0: that is so cool
1:47:16 AM pandahachiroku0: haha
1:47:19 AM kdubz313: haha
1:47:19 AM pandahachiroku0: u know
1:47:24 AM pandahachiroku0: when he said make something fun
1:47:26 AM pandahachiroku0: I was like
1:47:30 AM pandahachiroku0: shit…we should make it a game
1:47:36 AM pandahachiroku0: seriously
1:47:40 AM kdubz313: well remember
1:47:41 AM pandahachiroku0: we should come up with a kick ass game
1:47:43 AM kdubz313: we want to keep a positive light
1:47:49 AM pandahachiroku0: ya
1:47:55 AM kdubz313: that’s the tricky part
1:47:58 AM pandahachiroku0: so if it’s a guy
1:47:58 AM kdubz313: it’s easy to make people feel bad
1:48:04 AM pandahachiroku0: they get a virtual chick
1:48:07 AM pandahachiroku0: and if it’s a girl
1:48:13 AM pandahachiroku0: they get a virtual guy
1:48:23 AM pandahachiroku0: to strip for them
1:48:25 AM kdubz313: ..
1:48:28 AM kdubz313: haha
1:48:33 AM pandahachiroku0: c? japanese mind in thinking no offense
1:48:45 AM kdubz313: hahaha no kidding honestly, we were laughing at each other…
1:49:36 AM kdubz313: or we can make a health bingo
1:49:43 AM kdubz313: oh!
1:49:47 AM kdubz313: a social network game
1:49:52 AM kdubz313: where you play connect four!
1:49:56 AM kdubz313: or tic tac toe
1:49:59 AM kdubz313: hahaha
1:50:13 AM pandahachiroku0: nice

wtf does that mean?!

Simply, it is a metaphor of our purpose. A single pebble dropped into a calm pond, causes ripples to spread further and wider. There is a dualistic relationship here: One is that the change the pebble has made spreads farther over time and reaches the edges of the pond. This is indicative of the change and impact we as individuals have on the whole. Secondly, the wave formation is also a pattern of knowledge spreading. Each educated person will share their insights and pay if forward. As more individuals become involved and active, the more influence will rapid transform our old way of living into something new, cleaner, healthier and simple better.

So back to the concepts and designs.

Our group has come up with two strong candidates. The first being a list making system that uses a profile of an individual to create a list that is used during grocery shopping indicating healthy alternatives. The recommendations would not replace the list of goods normally purchased by any individual, but provide them knowledge of alternatives and details of why it is healthier. There are two components: An online system where detailed information is researched and tracked while the other is the list itself acting as a simple artifact of transferable knowledge. Other similar systems exist, where individuals can provide a service provider with options of food to be delivered to their home. While this is great, there can be more involvement from the user to make it more exciting, educating and useful.

Secondly we have the mobile (wearable, think bracelet, watch, keychain, etc) senor. This idea spins off the notion of boy scouts and their badges that they earn. Imagine you had this keychain where it knew when you decided to recycle instead of trash the can of soda or you decided to ride the bus instead of taking your car. Hell, you decided to walk instead of riding the bus. Each instance triggers the keychain to calculate new values of how much carbondyoxide you are eliminating from your everday decisions. These values can be viewed from an online profile (yes another one, but they are necessary to do anything personal these days, unless I’m oblivious to something revolutionary). Going even further, if these values are traced over time, then trends can be inferred showing to some estimate the awesomeness that you are by being a little bit wiser. Even better, you could possible infer the money saved by not driving your Hummer or BMW.

More to come as we sketch out some scenarios and I can get some scans in to show you all the cool stuff we’re working on. Stay tuned!

The Game Plan

Our team broke up into two main groups: Marilyn had scheduled a focus group in Bainbridge Island (where she lives) with a few of her friends. Her plan was to do some make type activities to get people to share their thoughts on health and wellness in relationship to purchased goods. The second group (Scott, Tojo, Hulya and myself) planned to travel out to Northgate Mall and conduct observational studies in different stores. Our goal was to better understand the ecology of a typical consumer shopping environment and the interactions that go on between products, people and sales associates. In addition, Scott and Tojo planned to contact local specialists on campus to get some feedback from expert opinions while Hulya and myself went on to ask the online communities for some help in answering questions on their past experiences with health and wellness. Last, we were all expected to have at least three interviews completed with people within our network. Mostly people who are easily accessible like friends, family, or colleagues at work.

The ultimate goal is to get an initial understanding feel of what we are getting into and how well our initial vision withstands the real world views of those around us. What we found was interesting, and will only be more compelling as we move into a more focused research attitude in the days to come.

Field Observations and Interviews

At Northgate Mall we made some interesting observation. Here are some bits from my notes:

• Shopping is done at a glance and involves a lot of browsing activity
• Shopping in pairs
• Requires a lot of feedback (ie testing products in store, touching, evaluating, asking questions)
• Brand names carry a lot of assumptions on qualities
• Different ecologies: difference between a store front and a kiosk
• kiosks require standing and very engaging interactions
• store fronts allow sitting and hands on browsing
• Elderly people and boyfriends/husbands spend time at the waiting areas and have little to do
• Read into marketing material and labels (ie “Style infusion” and “volumizing”)
• Using lists to keep track of what needs to be bought
• People go into stores with expectations because of the store name
• When people know what they want, they really want it

The other guys got a lot of great information too from their interviews. Marilyn was able to follow two of her friends as they went shopping at a local farmer’s market while the rest of us did more indepth interviews gettings them to talk about the last significant purchase they’ve made and what it means to them. Our goal was to get people interested by having them talk about something they thought was meaningful. Plus, our intent was to observe the behaviors of shoppers and what they think. This sort of came about after listening to Nelle Steele doing a practice interview with Marilyn. After the interviews, Hulya and I posted questions up in a futile attempt to cast a wider net. Isn’t it like, doing online research, expect 10% in response (on average). Well with an online community of hundreds, 10 would’ve been fantastic! To this day, we got three, one of which is the Chairman for Wellness.com. He was interested in supporting our research and design if there was a way to benefit mutually. Neato. Well, until we figure out what exactly we are designing, there isn’t much to discuss. But we will be looking forward to it!

Information About Data

What did we learn? A few things.

People do care, they only think about it when they are told they did something great.

If Apple told me that buying this iPod was good for the environment, then I would probably buy more from them.

People do care, but the information isn’t there.

When I hear about child labor conditions and other things that just don’t seem right, it makes me think. I believe that if more people knew about this, then more action would take place.

People will find information when they want to. They are their own person.

I don’t need someone telling me how to think or what to do. If I really wanted to find out about something, I’d go out and do it myself.

For those more active, it’s more than just about them. (duh, kind of)

When we go out to buy goods like foods at the market, we don’t consider our own benefit, but what it means to the rest of the community and the environment.

These interviews showed a lot about the attitudes and feelings individuals have around the topic of environmental health and consumption. You can see these also in statistical data found here (granted a little dated):

Source: Green Marketing: Opportunity for Innovation

We see that a great opportunity that would have significant impact would be to design for the “sprout” population. Sprouts are considered as:

One-third of the US population is classified as Sprouts. They are willing to engage in environmental activities from time to time but only when it requires little effort. Thus, recycling, which is curbside in many communities, is their main green activity. They read labels for greenness - although less often than the True-Blues and Greenbacks neighbors. Their greenness ends at the supermarket check-out: even though Sprouts and Greenbacks have similar median incomes, Sprouts generally won’t choose a green product if it is more expensive than others on the shelf. When they do, they are only willing to pay up to 4 percent extra. More than half (56 percent) are female and at 43, they have the highest median age of any of the five groups. Sprouts are distributed evenly across the country. They are well educated, and just under two-thirds of them are married. They comprise the swing group that can go either way on any environmental issue. With more education, they are often the source for new Greenbacks and True-Blues.

The part about more education is key. How can we help educate these people? By doing what we proposed, showing them the immediate feedback that is normally invisible to see or experience because change happens over time. Being able to interact with change will be the motivational factor that drives people’s curiosities and inspirations into actionable pursuits. Sounds easy right? Hell no. We haven’t even gotten to designing anything. That’s where the next part comes to play…

Next Steps

Make a nifty presentation and let the whole class know what we found out! Most importantly though, is developing concepts and design scenarios based on our research after the show.

Next up, concepts!

We just ended with week two and while we are moving forward, I personally feel like we should be further. Other participating schools are under a semester system affording them more time to explore, conceptualize, prototype and evaluate their designs. Our entire class however has less than a quarter (about 8 weeks) to get a solid prototype ready and submit it for official entry into the Design Expo. Not much we can do other than run with our ideas and have faith right?

So far, we have had a few meetings as a group to really dive into the matter and start realizing what we were approaching. Keeping on the same page is difficult because we are such a diverse group of students with all kinds of interests. Since this and other following entries will be strictly on the ongoing process of this course, I should introduce my team memebers. We never actually did an official ice breaker or anything like that, but I have learned over conversation where everyone is coming from:

• Scott Tsukamaki, our resident Industrial Design extraordinaire. He is currently working on his undergraduate and from what I know taking a class with in last quarter, he has incredible skills. His portfolio is filled with amazing sketches, concepts and final renderings that make the future a safer, healthier place. It’s good to have his perspective because he has experience with the physical landscape where many interactions happen.
• Marilyn Ostergren is current a graduate student at the Information School. Her background has been in information technology and a passion for information visualization. Having her expertise and experience will help handy especially during research and conceptualization. Not to mention her adaptability to learn technologies as needed.
• Hulya Akca enables our group to communicate our designs and ideas through powerful visual communication techniques. Studying Visual Communication Design (VCD), she adds on to Marilyn’s passion for visually stimulating and useful information with a solid traditional design background. We are glad to have her on.
• Tojo Andrianarivo is also practicing VCD. His knowledge in best practices in design, design thinking and creativity adds a lot of value to the team. It’s also great that he has experience with Flash as that will be our primary tool when generating prototypes in the near future.
• Last there is myself. While I studied information technology and architecture, I’ve recently (if you didn’t already notice) shifted over to focus more on Interaction Design. This quarter will be great to try some things out like mood boards, context mapping and other methods. Previous design projects followed a more “waterfall” lifecycle which was good practice, but this will hopefully be more inspiring.

Our group formed out of this common interest in developing an awareness for individuals about the impacts of their decisions when purchasing goods (food, services, automobile, etc) and visualize this in a positive manner. More formally:

Choices are always available. Some are just more obvious than others. The funny thing is, those obvious choices aren’t always the best ones for our friends, our community, or ourselves. When we buy a locally grown organic apple, we are supporting the life of a person we may meet one day, and encouraging that person to continue doing what they passionately believe in benefits everyone. The orchard from which the apple came is the same orchard we grew up remembering.

The decisions we make regarding health and wellness have significant impacts both on a local and global scale. Because the effects of our decisions are difficult to see, making the right choice does not come easy. We believe a thoughtfully designed system can raise awareness of the environmental and social benefits derived from better every day purchases and actions through visual representations. It’s time to abandon the ease of obvious decisions surrounding us, and think about how some small changes can put us back in the right direction. By helping others see the potential of their everyday actions and decisions will encourage a sustained motivation for healthier living.

We are not offering to support the pesticide company that is contributing to water pollution in the next state, nor are we asking a farm worker to be exposed to those pesticides while applying them to the trees (farm workers who thin fruit in Washington state have elevated levels of toxic pesticides in their bodies–their children do too 1). But at the moment of purchase, we don’t see that farmer, the polluted river or a sick child. We see a choice between two apples that taste the same, look the same, but vary in price. Our design will help people see their neighbor, the farmer whose children are healthy and feel the greater benefits of making environmentally and socially healthy choices.

1. Thompson, Beti, Coronado, Gloria D., Grossman, Julia E.,et al (2003). Pesticide take-home pathway among children of agricultural workers: study design, methods, and baseline findings. Journal of Occupational & Environmental Medicine. 45(1):42-53

I hope that wasn’t too thick of a read. If so, and you might have just skipped over that whole part, what we really want to accomplish is to encourage people who are interested in making healthier/sustainable decisions and realize the good they are doing instantly. Something that Al Gore has done successfully in his recent documentary, where the frog jumps into the gradually heating water. We want to make that difference more obvious, under a positive light by rewarding better deicions, to those are want to know how they can make a difference.

The difficult part about our current situation is that we are stuck with referring our project around the notion of goods = food. I hope we break that soon as we are now stepping into our research and exploration phase. Our goal for Monday is to come together into our team meeting with two research articles elliciting more information on current spending/consumption habits, talk to two people about when they last consciously thought about making a better decision (if at all) and to start creating a mood board.

As an aside, I have this really cool idea of making an online service where designers can make mood boards online as easily as drag and drop. These mood boards can be composed and shared with others who are looking for more inspirational sources of information other than text, or individual graphics. Could be a good chance to flex some Flash skills.

Anyways, I still feel like our team isn’t completely onboard or enthusiastic about where we are, but maybe after doing some more digging and the creation of mood boards will swing us the other way. Looking back, we should have begun with a mindmap. Those have always helped me out in the past and it’s funny that I didn’t even think about it until now. I’m going to bring this up Monday if I feel like we are still paddling in the same water when we met Friday. It should be expected that the beginning of any project is always a little awkward, just like starting to write a high school essay. So I still remain optimistic. There’s too much talent in this team and our professor kicks ass.

That is pretty much where we are and more to come in the following days. You can learn more about the whole project at the University site here.

Backed by Microsoft with patented MSR technology, this mobile widget shows off a zoom based interface. Think of it like a bunch of tiles and you can slide left, right, up or down. You can view 32 (6×6) of these tiles or zoom down to 4 on a screen (2×2). Depending on the type of phone you have, you can slide and zoom by touch screen or by the key pad. You can see from this video from the site:

We won’t have control over the kind of information that we view because these are sponsored spots. Companies on board are mostly advertising and media companies that will give you stuff like the Family Guy and useful information like traffic and airfare. This isn’t the first example of this zoom-based grid tile interface, but it is a sign of where mobiles may be heading.

I like it. I just hope they will allow us to be able to select what tiles we want to display and browse through.

ZenZui

It seems like some people expected me to write about Vista and it’s launch. I don’t think there is anything much to say that what everyone has said already. It’s pretty big news that other blogs have covered more extensively. I have a copy of the Business Edition to install on my old rig back home. When I get that on over the weekend (if I’m not playing FF12), I’ll let you know my thoughts.

2006 gone by…

Year 2006, where it is six years after the new Millenium, I went sky diving, I started my portfolio, I quit Banana Republic after 5 years, I turned 21 years old and we had the opportunity to experience a date such as 06.06.2006, or 6/6/6 for short. Scary, but interesting none the less. The year 2006 also meant my considerable investment with my fraternity.

Three years ago, my chapter house has been in troubled times with excessive substance abuse and negligence on all responsibilities. Then, a turning point with the senior class of 2005, who took it upon themselves to take the initiative to enhance the quality of our experience. Given that momentum, our executive board has continued a vision of higher standards to lead the greek community back into a brighter light. Rewarded by our own international fraternal organization, and by our local university community, we have proved that 2006 has been a successful story of our efforts. My personal contribution has been specifically on career development and leadership. This involvement became a significant theme in my life moving forward.

Thinking about my career and my impact on my peers as a team player went into overdrive. It was pretty much all I talked about and thought about. So much, that 2007 will be a time to start letting go a little and trusting in progress working out for themselves. I’ve really become a tight ass, strung up on responsibilities and idealistic obligations. However, it has given me the chance to work at Microsoft, and seeing first hand, what it’s like to work for such a large software company in their IT department.

My next step? Well, I accepted an offer to a great part time job at the Center for Environmental Visualization at the College for Oceans and Fishery as their Graphic Designer. From what it sounds like, I may also be an User Interface Designer too. Yay! On top of that, they are looking to build it into an internship program - which I get to help develop - that may lead to a full time position. woot!!

School wise, I’ve completed my required courses to earn a BS in Informatics at the Information School ending with a sweet Senior Capstone. More importantly I’ve found my calling to be an Interaction Designer and found my inspiration through my professor, Axel Roesler at the Art School at the University of Washington. The final 20 credits before graduation will focus on HCI, Usability, User Experience and Interactivity through media and information technology (nerd talk is sexy, no?).

Photography has finally started becoming a serious hobby and it has been long over due. Every since picking up my Nikon D50, I feel in control and more creative with what I can do as I capture the events of my life so that I can share them with you, my friends. Bless Flickr for being such an addiciting inspiring service.

2007 to come…

So with 2007 on the way, there are many things to look forward to and more goals to add to the pile. First I want to mention that my sister Sharon is pregnant, so number 2 will be on the way! She feels it is going to be a girl again. Deep down inside though, I wish she felt it was going to be a boy. I’ll still love the new addition anyways. You guys already know how much I love my niece Lauren.

With 2007, I want to start Project 365. Before during my Xanga days, I used to reflect a lot on my daily/weekly moments. Reading those gave me a lot of insight about what I was thinking about and what actually went on, with detail. Being busy doesn’t allow me to do that anymore. Now since “pictures are worth a thousand words,” I will take a picture(s) each day for the whole year to capture my life. You can do it too, especially new owners of a wicked cool Mac with the built in iSight. You can find useful links to make Project 365 easier for you thanks to a special Lifehacker post.

Last, I want to be more charitable. We are blessed with such fortunate lives and we want even more things that makes our lives better. We compare ourselves with others who are just as comfortable with their lives. Don’t get me wrong, our parents and your parents worked hard to give us our quality of life. On the other hand, what I’m hoping is to just give some of my time that I spend on myself and help out others. Realizing potential in others is something I’ve been experiencing a lot lately, so why not help others realize their opportunities as well? I’ve found a great website that tracks the various charitable organizations internationally. Whether you believe these organizations are worth your time, whether the money you invest is going someplace needed than for salary, or if the research is really making an impact, I urge you to check the website out and to look to your local community and see what they know about how to help others. Get involved! There is something to do if you’re bored with life, help others.

So cheers to 2006 and I welcome 2007 with open arms and an open mind.

Title says it all.

I’ve been meeting with a ton of talented people inside Microsoft who are working on projects like Office and Dynamics CRM.  From designers to researchers, I’m learning what it takes to work in Microsoft focusing on the “user experience.”  It is an exciting period of time where you can see that there is a building momentum driving the design influence.  Looking at Vista, Office 12 and even Windows Mobile, you see that changes are more than just slapping on a glossy interface.  That is the obvious artifact of a new design approach.  However, you also see a move away from deep heirarchies and static information that requires your changes in styling done manually.  Comparative to the last iteration of Windows and Office (granted the time gap) you have to admit that working with projects that not only impact millions of people on a daily basis, but is also more complex than your average script. They did some good work, eventually.  Thinking also in context that Microsoft initially came from a traditional computer development vision, this kind of change is really significant. That’s why I think in the next five or so years, it will be really exciting to be a part of the influence that drives the “user expeirence.”

Yes, I am interning at Microsoft.  Yes, I am studying interaction design as an undergraduate degree.  No, I don’t have a proper portfolio.  Yes, it matters, a lot. A lot, a lot.

So what are my next steps? There are some options…

1. Freelance/contract work through a firm
2. Magically find a design position in Microsoft
3. Stay in IT at Microsoft and maybe move into design later (but how long?)
4. Find a design position in another company (most likely marketing and ads)
5. Work at Banana Republic again (ha! never again…)
6. Go to Carnegie Mellon University and earn a MS in Interaction Design

Each having their own pros and cons.  My next steps? seriously find someone else to take over my responsibilities in the frat and focus on my portfolio.  Sheesh!

Here is the breakdown of my day to day these days:

7:00AM Wake up
8:00AM Arrive at work
7:00PM Leave work (sometimes 6:30PM)
7:30PM Eat dinner with dad
8:15PM Drive home to the frat
8:45PM TV or work out (runnning/lifting) or check/write emails
10:00PM Shower
10:30PM Check/write more emails and other business
12:00AM Bed time

That in a nut shell is my new life.  Weekends are hectic and chaotic.  Sort of like that good ‘ol college fun. Lot of beers for sure. Throw in a few company picnics or intern events and you get the idea.  Add in frat business come Fall and we have ourselves a partay!

PS Jump rope is AWESOME!

PPS Nike+ iPod is pretty cool too