Parts a, b, c

A)

The capability of the computer to exchange information quickly from one user to another is limited and often a hassle, requiring too many programs or windows to achieve a simple task. Our user tried to share some information he found online with his teammate on a project for class but was unable to do so without having to take an unnecessary number of steps. First, he copied the web address of the website he wanted to share with his teammate. Then, he opened a new web browser and then entered in the web address for his email server. After that, he signed into his email and waited for it to load. Finally he was able to compose an email and send her the information. However, because he was sitting next to her and wanted to share the information as soon as possible, he ended up spamming her email with each new piece of information he found. When she, too, wanted to share information with him, the same series of excessive steps had to be taken in order to achieve the same outcome.

In addition depending on what technology the user is using, the result could be more annoying.  Yahoo users have single emails come up every single time someone emails you, even if its the same user. As you can see below, there are 6-7 emails all from the same person, clogging up an inbox.

Gmail users on the other hand have it a bit easier as it stacks into one email, making it less painful for the user.  The number of emails shows up next to the name that they are from.  Much cleaner.

Although the users interact with the computer, there is no sense of interaction with one another. The computers separate the users. Our two users do not interact with one another and are, more times than not, consumed in his or her own world. They each do their own work and look up the information they want to find and share it if they wish. The two users have no idea what the other is looking at or working on and must verbally ask or physically move if they wish to find out.

B)

In terms of the social aspect of our product, the Microsoft Surface was a product attempting to reach the same goal.  The idea behind the Surface was to allow for interaction between multiple people at a single location using a table like computer.  The problem with this is it didn’t allow for single user experience along with this.  The Surface ended up being more of a expensive board game more than a interactive experience.  This mistake could easily become an issue in our product as well.  Integrating a new experience on the social level without taking away the single user experience is a fine line.  The idea with our product is to have the social interaction that the Surface brings, along with the solo experience that being a computer allows.

Samsung has been working on an AMOLED technology, which will be very similar to what our product will end up using.  The technology uses active matrices to allow the LED presentation to be presented on both sides of a transparent material. Samsung is currently working on a laptop that uses their AMOLED technology to be released later this year. We feel like using this technology in its current form would remove the single user experience from the computer interaction.  The idea would be that if you were looking at the back of someone else’s screen, you would see a reverse image, which might spark interest and cause you to grab it onto your screen.  If we were to use the AMOLED technology then the interaction between two people in the sharing of the product wouldn’t exist and the product itself would inherit a stalker like experience.

The closest representation of the file sharing experience in current products would be Dropbox.  Dropbox is a file-sharing program that allows you to store up to 2 gigs worth of files online.  From there you can give access to this data to other people that have Dropbox accounts.  The issues with this program is the speed of the uploads and the lack of an experience.  With our product we aim to fix both of these problems.  First, since all the computers will be hardwired together, the speed at which file sharing will occur will be around the speed of accessing information off a flash drive.  Second, because there are no upload/download speed issues, people can share in real time, which creates the user experience.

B)

Our product is a little difficult to grasp when it comes to gathering data on how it might be used.  Interviews can be held in order to try and understand how people use computers, and how they interact with each other.  In addition interviews can be held with professors that use interactive classroom technology in order to curve the product so that it is a helpful product in classrooms and not a hindrance. Questionnaires will not be terribly useful in the design of our product.  Since we have no working prototype, specific questions about the product will be difficult to come up with.  That said, we could poll users on general computer usage, or take a poll of people’s reaction to the Samsung laptop and whether they could see the technology being widely used.  In the end, observation will be the most useful aspect of research that we will be performing.  Seeing how people use computers, especially when they are in social environments, will give us pertinent information on how we can design our product to make the process easier and more interactive.

One of the techniques we will use when researching for our product is the Fly on the Wall technique.  We want to be able to understand the process that people go through in current computer interaction, and take that knowledge to make our product fix the frustrations.  Interfering with the current experience would affect the experience, and skew the results.  A second technique we will use is paper prototyping.  This is a key technique when designing any product and this is no different.  Using paper prototypes of the product will help us nail out the details of exactly what everything should look like and how the social interaction will take place.  It also will help people better understand our product as we give interviews and questionnaires about what they think will better the product.  Another technique we will use in our research is scenario testing.  Along with our paper prototypes, the scenario cards will help in interviews and questionnaires.  Helping the user envision the product in every way will help us get feedback on certain attributes and how they will fit into the final product.

C)

Semi-scripted interviews will be our primary means of gathering data. This allows us to pose hypothetical situations to our target users and judge their reactions while still fishing for ideas to improve on the original design. Questions could include “Would you feel comfortable with others being able to see your screen at any time?”, “Would you change your computer habits if others would see your screen?”, “How often do you show or would like to show others things you find on your computer?”, and “Would the ability to show classmates your computer screen increase your productivity?”

Observation will also play a key role in our data gathering. We will observe students using computers in locations like the CM Lab to find what situations would require the services of our design most often, how to best implement it to make it a fluid component of the experience, and what features may be needed that way may not have considered yet.

Though questionnaires are often useful in research of this sort, we believe they would not prove to be a huge advantage for us. Much of our research involves placing target users in the proper frame of mind for the experience, which is an unsuitable task for a questionnaire.

Environment:  Interactive classroom
Age Group: School-aged -> College
How would you feel about using a transparent computer screen?
How would you feel about people being able to view your screen? Do you
feel that it is an invasion of privacy?
Would you use the computer differently if you knew other people could
see what you were doing?
Do you think using a transparent screen would be beneficial in group
work? If yes, how so?
Would you use a feature that allowed you to drag and drop web
browsers, pictures, etc. onto other people’s computer screens?

For the instructor:
Do you see technology like this being beneficial in a classroom? If yes, how so?
How do you think this would change the way you teach?
Do you think that this way of sharing information could be distracting
or would it enhance the learning experience?
How do you think this would affect the students?
How do you think this would affect the way the students learn?
Do you think this would promote collaborative work in a classroom? If
yes, how so?