Week 12

Exercise:

Revisit Definition of a prototype:

How has your understanding of prototyping changed since week 1:

My understanding of prototyping has changed somewhat since week 1. My overall understanding of prototyping remains the same: that prototypes are creations designed to rapidly evaluate the viability of concepts, either in small parts or as a whole. I have gained a better understanding of the various ways prototyping can be gone about, and specifically which types of prototypes and prototype evaluations work for specific goals.

What would you change about your initial description:

I would not change a great deal of my initial description of prototyping. I would mostly emphasise more greatly the importance of the testers in the prototype, as well as the expectations of the type of feedback expected from a prototype and how that informs the decisions made in creating the prototype.

How is that related to your experiences:

Over the course of all of my prototypes, my experience was that I often forgot to consider what I would be asking of my testers until after I had created my prototype. Looking back on this decision now, I notice that this led to me deciding what I was testing based on what I had made, rather than making something to allow me to test specific things. In the future, I would come up with my testing methods and goals concretely before designing my prototype.

Week 11

Exercise:

Generate concepts for contently reproducing 3d movement in space that allows a musical composition to be accurately played on a theremin.

Concept 1:
A projector set up to project hand positions such that a player sitting at the theremin can line their hands up with the board the projector is positioning their hands on. Projecting different lines allows the musician to move their hands to play the song.
Record notes slowly by finding the note than recording the hand position by adjusting where the projector is projecting.

Concept 2:

Have a pair of armbands linked to the theremin. The armbands record their relative position to the theremin while playing, then use LEDs of different colours to indicate how the player should move their hands. (e.g. red for down, orange for up, blue for left, green for right).

Criteria for Pugh matrix:

- Ease to record music
- Ease to 'read' recorded music
- Accuracy of recording/playback

Pugh matrix:

	Weighting	Basic music notes	Projecter system	Armbands system
Ease to record music	1	0	-1	3
Ease to read music	2	0	1	-1
Accuracy of playback	2	0	2	-1

week 10

Exercise:

This weeks exercise was to discuss experience prototypes using a video of a payment method concept for paying for restaurant meals in a group.

Q1: What is the existing experience from different viewpoints (customers, waiters, chef, etc):

The customers experience is that paying group bills becomes easier, as the group does not have to discuss how much each individual owes, but can simply pass the device around with each member selecting their own parts to pay for. The customers can also choose alternative payment methods that best suit them, allowing for a more diverse payment system. This device makes it much easier for customers to relax after their meal, rather than worrying over the bill.

The waiters experience is that customers can sort their bills out faster, and have less chance of customers calculating the tip incorrectly. Waiters can also request certain payment methods for tips (ie, requesting reward points rather than cash), allowing them to tailor their tips to suit themselves more. This device makes life easier for waiters.

Q2: What external/internal factors impact on the experience:

The internal factors are group dynamics, such as an individual who may want to dispute what they ordered, or an individual forgetting they ordered something, leading to the full bill not being paid (leading to an argument in the group over who owes what).
The external factors would include the restaurants willingness to take reward points or other non-cash payment methods.

Q3: What aspects of the existing experience could be enhanced/augmented or supported with technology:

A device that shows the progress of their meal in the kitchen (eg, ordered... preparing... cooking... waiting on watier... on route to table... etc). The device would allow users to estimate how long they will be waiting on their food and could spark group discussions about the proceedings in the kitchen.

Q4: How would introducing technology in to this context change the experience:

Introducing technology into restaurants could improve the ease and relaxation of customers, simplify proceedings for waiters and make the restaurant more approachable.

Q5: what expereince scenarios might you test with the technology:

A good scenario to test would be during a peak time for a popular restaurant (possibly friday night for example), where lots of customers would be expected, probably coming in groups. Another good scenario to test would be during a lunch rush, where lots of customers want to be coming and leaving fairly quickly.