Website
31 May 2011 Leave a Comment
Some screen grabs from the website. Since it’s just an informative site its a simple low-key design. There will be a link to our blog within it, so that the full process can be seen.
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iPad User Testing
31 May 2011 Leave a Comment
in focus groups, project design, Research, touchscreen
While sorting through our files for the documentation I came across some of our User testing we did. As part of researching into technologies I did a little testing using the iPad. The aim of the user testing was to test multi-touch technologies; to find out how comfortable people were with using them, how the interacted with it and what was their experience and any comments in general.
My brother kindly let me annoy his neighbours one evening and I got a couple of them to play a downloaded two-player game of finger football. I chose this group of people as my brother lives on a small street behind the Mercy Hospital. Most of the people on the street would be in their 20′s. They haven’t lived their very long and recently some of the empty houses filled, so they knew everyone to see but actually hadn’t properly some of them. I felt this mimicked the idea that you might see the same people everyday at the bus stop but not actually know them.
His neighbours were great sports and were kind enough to give me a few mins of their time. General findings were that;
- People got very comfortable with the touch surface very quickly
- They were more familiar with touch screens because of newer phones
- They found typing hard, but thought that if the device would be larger then that might not be such a problem
- The games to be chosen had to be simple, the finger football was surprisingly hard to play
- Maybe some instructions should be given for game play (this was in reference to the surprisingly hard learning curve for touch football)
An interesting point to note is that other neighbours were more inclined to stop with the level of noise that was coming from those using the device. So the level of shouts of annoyance/winning drew attention. Possibly could have some effect on the game choices.
It should be noted that this user testing was done in regards to the original arcade game idea, which is why I asked some follow up questions on gameplay
Here are a couple of photos, some are a bit blurry, the camera person was laughing a lot.
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Final Posters for Gallery Space
31 May 2011 Leave a Comment
in design Tags: design, logo, poster
So here’s the actual final images of our posters for our Coda exhibition space. We had to make a few adjustments and we added a few more additions! Enjoy 
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Table Prototype
30 May 2011 Leave a Comment
in project design, prototype, touchscreen Tags: multi touch table, multitouch DIY
Sorry for the backlog of posts, but at least now you can see the progress we have made!
So, we are having a simple wooden shelter made to hold the touchscreen. We tried unsuccessfully to find other shelters to use, but they are quiet expensive and no one was willing to lend us one for our project. We had almost found a touchscreen but unfortunately it was not multitouch, only single touch and therefore would defeat the purpose.
So as we knew that we wouldn’t be getting the shelter until late into the project we still had to do some testing and build the touchscreen so we made a touch table that would then be vertically integrated into the project.
So here are some shots of the set up that was used. (Thanks to Ray for the table)
The interal set up of mirror lights and camera
After it was calibrated
Infra Red lights
30 May 2011 Leave a Comment
in interaction design, project design, prototype, touchscreen Tags: Environmental Lights, infra red, IR lights, multitouch DIY, NUI Group
So to actually get our multitouch working properly we had to have an infra red light source, we had a MTBiggie set up, but we really weren’t getting much blobs, they were a bit sketchy. (sorry about the poor quality, camera phone images)
this is with a serious amount of pressure on the screen
So we went looking for solutions to this problem. Our first thought was to use an infra red lamp, however we then have the problem of red light and heat.
We then went looking at soldering lights, however this seemed like a pretty complicated idea and we would definitely need to find someone with soldering skills.
So finally we went looking on the NUI Group and found Environmental Lights. After some research we decided to buy their bars as our IR emitters.
The people at Environmental Lights were wonderful and extrememly helpful, I wish we had found them much sooner. So here are a few shots of when the lights came and how much stronger the blobs were afterwards!
After the IR lights were added with light pressure
Business Cards and Stickers (ssshhhh!)
28 May 2011 Leave a Comment
in design, Exhibition Tags: business card, design, logo, stickers
So for our exhibition we’ve ordered from MOO a business card company, mini business cards and stickers. We were originally just aiming to get our business cards but thought the stickers would be a nice additive to the night and our exhibition stand. I’m not gonna quite say exactly what we’re doing with the stickers, you can see it for yourself on the night if you come 
It’s a well kept secret at the moment. But here’s the images were using first for our business cards and then the images for our stickers, enjoy:
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Posters for Gallery Space
27 May 2011 Leave a Comment
in design Tags: images, interactive bus stop, logo, poster, social shelter, user centered design
So here’s the designs of the posters we’re getting printed for our exhibition space. I just need to add in the actual text in the about poster, we’re just proof reading it tomorrow and then we’re ready for printing on Monday!
Bus Shelter Construction
25 May 2011 Leave a Comment
in Bus Shelter Tags: building, Bus Eireann, Bus Shleters, designing, interactive bus stop, touchscreen
So we visited the gallery a couple of weeks ago to measure the area we thought would fit our shelter while also giving us the ability to control the lighting needed so that we could calibrate the touchscreen without having variance in light exposure and consequentially having to recalibrate it. From the measurements of the gallery space we designed the shelter so that it gave us space for all the equipment needed while also recreating a bus shelter environment relatively realistic. We made sketches of the bus shelter design with accurate measurements. I got my boyfriend’s dad who is a carpenter to then start the construction of the bus shelter for us. We plan on then painting it this weekend and then doing some more user testing on it next week and adjusting and tweaking anything else that needs to be changed. We received the gallery space plan this week and we got our required space we wanted, which was great! No worries there! So here’s just a few images of one of the sketches we drew of the bus shelter:
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Bluetooth, bluetooth where forth art thou…
24 May 2011 Leave a Comment
in issues arrising, project design, prototype
Throughout this project we’ve wanted a trigger action when a potential user walked into our interactive space. Through research we found that 83.3% of users surveyed had Bluetooth, this came out higher than wifi, 3g and infrared. We decided to use this to create a trigger. It was something that I spent a lot of time researching and looking for programs and research on bluetooth. 
Unfortunately, smartphones seemingly are too smart for our bluetooth advertising. Iphones in particular but also many Android phones are not automatically discoverable when your bluetooth is switched on. This seems to be mainly to reduce battery usage, but it does mean that unless a user manually edits their settings our bluetooth trigger is rendered useless.
Despite trying to find a workaround we’ve sadly had to say goodbye to our trigger and try something different. The interesting thing, is that in all my research into bluetooth marketing, this was never mentioned by those selling the marketing packages.
And we Giveth a Name! Logo Design for Social Shelter!
24 May 2011 1 Comment
in design, project design Tags: designs, logo
Okay so we finally decided on name(s) there awhile back so I began creating various logo designs. Tap Shack, Social Shelter and Social Stop were our choices. We asked various users what would they would prefer and they choose Social Shelter because it corresponded and suited the project as a whole completely, it incorporated the bus environment and the experience we’re creating there. Using this name I created final logo images and chose a colour palette etc. for our project. Here are all the designs I created for our logo:
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We decided to go with 3 of the designs. We had 3 colours and liked these 3 designs the best. So here they are:
