Prototype: New Prototype Design

Here are the pictures taken in todays meeting where we redesigned our prototype.

The key features that were developed from the original prototype were:

1. A grip has been added to make the pen easier to hold.
2. The text on the screen has the ability now to flip over so the pen can be used by both right and left handed people with ease(this feature is available in the menu).
3. The sound volume can now be increased or decreased from the menu system.
4. A 'beep' tone has been added so that the device beeps when a scan has been initiated and will beep again when the word has been scanned to indicate that a word has been read.
5. The wording on the menu system has been altered slightly to make it clearer to the user that the 'Dictionary' and the 'Thesaurus' will only show results based on the scanned in word only.
6. The length of the device has been increased from 8cm to 10cm so that the screen on the device can be made slightly bigger and also provide improved comfort in the hand.

Admin: Meeting 10 Summary

Attendants:

Elliot Hyde
John Saunt
Adele Tyler

Apologies:
Ashley Harris - Could not find the meeting location.
Mark Mitchell - Apparently was attending at a WHAM appreciation society.

In today's meeting we discussed our word scanner design more and redesigned our prototype based on our evaluations of the original prototype, persona responses and additional ideas.

Now that a new prototype has been developed it can be reevaluated to see if it more suitable at fitting a users requirements.

The pictures from the meeting will be posted later on the blog.

Admin: Meeting Rooms

Just to tackle Ash's issue of finding out where we are for each meeting.

Firstly, we're not capable of booking a meeting room, we have to check the booking system before we go to the room, and even then there could be someone in there. We were heading to room 245 (the one we went in before for 2 hours) but there was someone in there who hadn't booked it.

Secondly, it's not always necessary to go to a meeting room. Today's meeting may not of critically required a room, but we were doing Whiteboard drawings etc and so thought it was best that we found one. However, we hung around in the Linux labs (Me, Adele and John) for 5 minutes before heading to the meeting rooms.

In the future, if we decide to go to the meeting rooms and you can't contact a member of the team, it's best to try every meeting room, they are as follows:

124, 217, 222, 225, and 245.

If you can get into university/labs slightly before the meeting, then you're guaranteed to see someone in the team heading to it.

I would like to stress that in the case today, no one is to blame. John will be posting the Meeting Summary shortly, so please catch up on what we accomplished.

Case: Pen Grips

I have been searching around on Internet shops for different pen designs available. I have come across many different layouts and shapes that pens have been incorporated into which all have there own unique grip to make the pen more comfortable to hold in the hand.

One pen that got my attention was the Stabilo S-move easy pen which not only has an interesting shaped design to be more comfortable to hold, but also has a hard rubbery grip to make it easier to write with. The rubber used on the grip is of the same type we discussed that the word scanning pen could be made out of, to make it more durable, at one point in a prior meeting. The grip has been cut in a way so that it fits the thumb and index fingers and rests on the middle finger. I happen to own this very pen and have found it very easy to write with.



A simple design like this could be considered for our word scanner device to improve a users grip and make it more comfortable to hold.

More information about the S-move can be found here

Evaluation: User-Designer

A Cooperative evaluation with Paul (scanning only):

Paul is given the device and a sheet of paper on which is printed an extract from Peter Pan.

Designer: OK Paul, could you please scan the third word on the page.

Paul presses the 'Scan' button, releases it and drags the device across the third word. Paul sees that nothing has happened on screen.

Paul: Which button should I press?
Designer: You need to hold the button while you drag it along.

Paul hold the device in the left hand and presses the 'Scan' button down with his right index finger, he then draws the device over the word.

Designer: Why are you using both hands?
Paul: I don't know, I think it's easier.

An error occurs.

Paul: It's not working.
Designer: Umm, make sure you go from the space before the word right up to the space after the word. You can use the light as a guide.

Paul re-scans the word correctly and turns the device around.

Paul: It's working! It says Dictionary and then Mother."

Paul reads out the definition. The designer realises that Paul has turned the device around because from the left handed position the screen is inverted.

Designer: Would it be better is the screen was the other way up?
Paul: Yeah.
Designer: Play around with it, scan some more words of your choice.

Paul scans various other words without problem, reading each definition aloud and looking more excited with each word correctly scanned.

Designer: You can get it to read the words out for you if you like, try turning the sound on.

Paul looks for the sound option and, after locating it, enables it. It takes around 30 seconds. Paul scans another words and listens to the device, he laughs.

Paul: It sounds like my friends mum!

Results

The device is clearly quite easy and exciting to use once you know how. For some it may not be obvious that the scan button must be held down and not just pressed. To solve this problem perhaps an error screen with an animation showing how to scan might be considered.

Screen inversion in the left-handed position is clearly a problem, this could be tackled by having a left handed mode which when enabled causes the screen to be inverted.

Users will each hold the device in their own way. Paul's two handed approach was not something considered during the design stage, this does not seem to be a problem though as Paul was quite happy with his own method.