Friday, February 1, 2008
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Project 1 - Shona, Joanne, Kay
Interactions with Parking Meters
Project # 1
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Project 1 - Dave and Josh Preso
Example of Ethnographic Observation
Girl 25, Bay and Bloor
- She had to put coffee on the ground, there was also no room for handbags
- Had to use two hands to open letter box
- Used the pull down handle when she only needed to use the slot
- It was a cold day and she wanted protection from the elements
- The movement of the lever handle made a loud industrial noise
- The box was located a busy street
- The girl did not like how the box looked
DESiGN iSSUES
Physical Constraints
- Large parcels cannot be processed
- Height of the box restricts children and people with limited mobility.
- Psychological constraints
- Unfriendly design of box
- Lack of personal interaction
- Only items can be put in the box. The lever (like a candy vending machine) ensures that only a Canada Post employee can remove mail.
- Only items of medium size or smaller can fit in the box. If a large item were to be placed in the box, there may be not room left for other people’s letters.
- There is no shelf room to avoid trash building up.
- Slot faces sidewalk so users are safe from traffic.
- Bright red colour
- Limited feedback, can include the sound of letter falling on a hard or soft surface.
- Can be hard to find due to lack of signage, especially at night in dark areas.
- Slot is at the top of box, this is logical.
- The horizontal bar assumes the the pull out motion.
Solutions derived from Ethnographic Observation
- Add solar panels, much like parking meters, that will power the safety lighting, and other functions.
- An awning to protect people from the elements.
- A lower slot for children and people with less mobility
- A vending machine for stamps
- A button that opens the hatch, much like a wheelchair access door
- Scanner within the box that gives items a tracking number… a LED screen will give the user their tracking number and the option to print this number on a receipt.
- Built in scale for pricing items
- Shelf to place hand bags or coffee, writing letters and fill out forms.
- Audio feedback
- “Thank you for using Canada Post”
- “Your mail is being tracked by us, you can also track online. Your payment has been received"
- Visual feedback
- LED screen for pricing, date/time, expected delivery times. Printed receipts
- Red light to indicate that the box is full
- Flashing light to indicate the post man is about to arrive
- Visually appealing design, with rounded corners and clearer signage.
- Directional signs on street corners.
Project One: Iliana, Kristen and Miriam
Why is this interaction necessary?
- find store location
- minimize time searching for destination
-less confusion for customer
What are the items of interaction?
- person
-board :
- Plexiglas board (with back lighting)
- different colour categories
- alphabetical order with general headings of all stores
- levels of the mall
- legends and symbols
Where and when does the interaction start and finish?
START – The procedure begins with a shopper unable to find the location of a store. Then the shopper needs to find the map in order to proceed to their initial destination.
FINISH – Through observing the directions on the map, the shopper can then advance to store
PROS
- Colour coordinated
- Lights up
- Large board
- Clean
- Grabs viewer’s attention
CONS
- Small print
- “You are Here” location is small making it difficult to notice
- Difficulty finding board locations
- No headings
- No labels on map diagram itself
- Escalator start and finish points hard to find
Improvements
- Larger font
- Directions/Arrows to locate maps faster
- Headings
- Touch screen the desired location and a track lights up from current location to the destination
- Bigger, horizontal shaped board
- Escalator locations emphasized
- Listing of stores on either side of the map, list alphabetical order and list of categorized order
Project 1 Kaylyn, Gio & Gill
