hi, i'm chris.

Old pic of Ada

Wed, 15 May 2013 16:22:41 -0700

Old pic of Ada

Photo

Tue, 07 May 2013 00:19:50 -0700

Photo

Tue, 07 May 2013 00:12:39 -0700

Photo

Tue, 07 May 2013 00:06:16 -0700

Compiling Unzip for use on Heroku

Sat, 27 Apr 2013 01:47:09 -0700

I recently needed to unzip a file on Heroku. I attempted to use gunzip without success. I also tried tar but that didn’t work either. I needed unzip, but Heroku doesn’t include this in /bin on the dyno.

So I set out to compile a version of the binary on Heroku and add it to the bin directory of my app. Because the source itself was also a .zip I actually had to unzip the source on my local machine then create a tar ball that was guaranteed to decompress on the dyno. After I had my tar ball I uploaded it to s3 and did the following..

heroku run bash

curl -o /tmp/unzip.tar.gz "http://somes3bucket.s3.amazonaws.com/unzip.tar.gz"

cd /tmp && tar zxvf unzip.tar.gz

cp /tmp/unzip610b/unix/Makefile /tmp/unzip610b/

cd /tmp/unzip610b && make generic

At this point you should have the unzip binary in your /tmp directory. I mv’d this file to a public folder in my app and curl’d my app for the file. Add this to your bin directory and you should have access to it as /app/bin is automatically in your path on a Heroku dyno.

Zipasaurus upgrades

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 03:44:00 -0700

So I’ve had some downtime recently while interviewing for a new job in SF. Interviewers invariably bring up zipasaur.us and how much they like the service. I enjoyed the compliments but I wasn’t entirely comfortable with the state of the service so I decided to make some upgrades based on some recent learnings.

The biggest change was in the selection of a new datastore. After reading how amazing PostgreSQL tends to perform vs. MongoDB (http://nosql.mypopescu.com/post/47692111874/posgresql-as-a-schemaless-database), I decided to ditch MongoHQ and pay the $9/mo to use a Basic PostgreSQL database on Heroku. The addition of indexes on zip code, state, and county improved performance immensely. Note: postgreSQL was the obvious candidate back when I launched the service but Heroku’s next largest database plan after FREE back then was $50/mo and I was a cheapskate. C’est la Vie.

Next upgrade was to ditch thin in favor of unicorn. Zipasaur.us is built using Sinatra and is small enough to run 10 unicorn workers on a single dyno. Heroku allows up to 20 connections (to the db) on the Basic plan so this was another no-brainer.

It was a little known secret that the data used by zipasaur.us was actually from 1999! This was old when I first launched the service 3 years ago but I deemed it “good enough”. I also wasn’t aware how often postal codes changed. So I headed over to GeoNames for a fresh set of postal codes. I’ll likely automate this in the coming weeks.

API updates! Previously it was a bit verbose, so I trimmed all that extra language so you can query right off the root domain with your desired scope. e.g. http://zipasaur.us/state/or. Note, I’ve also updated the API so you can also query with the full state name as well. e.g. http://zipasaur.us/state/oregon

Lastly, zipasaur.us got a bit of a face lift thanks to Flat UI.

Happy Zipping! RAWR!

Hipster Ada (at Carmel Rincon (Rincon Towers))

Wed, 10 Apr 2013 21:11:45 -0700

Hipster Ada (at Carmel Rincon (Rincon Towers))

Relocated to SF

Fri, 29 Mar 2013 20:23:50 -0700

I recently relocated to SF. Recently as in 3 days ago.

My fiance and I have been trying to move here for a couple years but struggled with the timing. In fact, when we first started dating I was interviewing with Heroku.

Both of us have lived in the North West for over 10 years and we’ve really been looking for a change. Change of climate, change of atmosphere and really we wanted to challenge ourselves in the fast-paced, competitive startup culture. But either she was just starting a job and I was ready to move, or she was ready to move and I had just started a job.

Fall of last year we finally decided that there was never going to be a perfect time to move. We’d apply to some great companies in the Bay area and if one of was hired, we’d uproot and move.

So here we are! We’re ecstatic to be here and really looking forward to the challenges the lie ahead. Drop me a line if you want to meetup and talk startups. I’m new in town and looking for friends :)

Human Computer Interaction Assignment 8

Wed, 06 Mar 2013 15:17:00 -0800

Application name and one sentence description

Clatter (Class + Chatter) is a web-based, classroom-focused chat application. Users and teachers can send messages, ask/answer questions, post relevant course material, and tag and search content. Chat rooms exist at unique, easily-bookmarked URL’s.

Goal of Test

Purpose: Comparison test + Field test

Objectives

What feature is missing to make this application “real good” at the core functionality it offers: chatting with students in the class?
How better to avoid clutter in the class chat window?
Try laptop and phone interface to compare the two, find how the layout and functionality is rendered at different screen sizes

Subject Profile

User1 was a 26 yr. old male graduate student of Linguistics. He is a student most of the time but occasionally lectures.

User2 was a 22 year old female, intermittent student in Biology and statistics. She works at a museum most of the time and does statistics courses to help her job.

Instruction Script

Create an account and Log In to Clatter
Write a message into Winter CS101 2012 class chat in response to a message already present.
Using Search, find the line(s) that mention the word “homework”.
Enter the Fall CS 101 chatroom. How many messages have been written?
Log out of the system.

Performance Criteria Results

User 1

Create an account and log in in no more than 20 seconds	Completely functional.
Enter chat room and write a message within 5 -10 seconds	Pass
Search for a keyword and find a line that contains something about it within 5 seconds.	Pass
Exit current chat and enter the chat room for a different course within in 5 seconds	Pass
Log out of system in 5 seconds	Pass
Scale of 1 to 10, rate ease of finding your way around the application	8
Would you use voice-recognition technology instead of typing, not in lecture hall?	Probably not

Open Ended Questions

If you could add just one feature, what would it be? Better Search, File uploads
What interface would you use this most on? Laptop or phone
What do you find most annoying about the application? Laggy
Would class size, subject, location (online vs. tradition) change your usage habits of the application? If so, how? Larger class sizes might create environment where chat would be more useful. More engagement. More input from other people. Hard to get excited about class and chat about it if you don’t enjoy the class material though. I’d probably be more likely to rely on the chat room if the class was remote.
History of conversations: how long to keep them? Forever?

User 2

Create an account and log in in no more than 20 seconds	Pass
Enter chat room and write a message within 5 -10 seconds	Pass
Search for a keyword and find a line that contains something about it within 5 seconds.	Fail
Exit current chatroom and enter chat room for different course in 5 seconds	Fail
Log out of system in 5 seconds	Pass
Scale of 1 to 10, rate ease of finding your way around the application	10
Would you use voice-recognition technology instead of typing, not in lecture hall?	Maybe, in the car

Open Ended Questions

If you could add just one feature, what would it be? Separated Threads (by topic)
What interface would you use this most on? Laptop (because better typing on laptops), or tablet
What do you find most annoying about the application? if you open a sidebar, and try to type something while it’s open, the sidebar pops back in.
Would class size, subject, location (online vs. tradition) change your usage habits of the application? If so, how?

Class size: if 5 person class, threads wouldn’t be needed, but with huge class, you would need threads.

Subject: Boring class, then user would use the app to ask questions about what they want to do this weekend, but if interesting class, then user would actually use it for class-related questions. i.e. social studies: user wouldn’t really ask questions related to the class. Doodle could be a nice add on, especially on tablets.

Location: for online, definitely use it more. For traditional classes, maybe, but would need to “catch on” - would ask for clarifications or little things, but she wouldn’t necessarily answer questions.
History of conversations: how long to keep them? Active until end of class, or when everyone

Learnings on Application

User 2 helped learning on application by thinking aloud. This is the first time she has played with it.

List of classes: not sure if it is a list that is default or those that user is enrolled, but would be obvious if she knew she was enrolled in. They are clearly classes.

When clicked left arrow, she thought it would take her to the next class, but got a navigation bar. Didn’t bother her, but she thought that because that’s all the information she saw before

Right arrow she thought “was also something hidden” - should show users when they’re signed in (correct assumption). She prefers that there be an option to keep sidebars open on right and left - useful on a laptop. With a cellphone, with side view, should be able to drag in sidebar with finger.

Same feedback as user from previous studies: too many students, too many messages. User 2 likes idea of a thread - start a thread -> enter topic -> if any of those topic match a previous thread, then you can enter one of those, or start a new one, choose privacy level (by user/ users/everybody). chose to join, leave (close), to join again, search for thread again. Having a “History” tab to show threads you were in. Could work as a search or asking a question, or posting something.

Learnings on Usability Test

Users may have a completely different idea that may require rewrite of the organization of chats (in our case). Based on the feedback, it sounds like most users are interested more in a forum than they are real-time chat. The idea of chat by topics was the most important thing to user 2, which is not supported, and may need complete rewriting of how the conversations are organized. Using the same group of users throughout (and as many users as possible) would have helped us correctly design the application from the start rather than getting new requirements in the last phase.

Human Computer Interaction Assignment 7

Wed, 27 Feb 2013 12:52:00 -0800

By Chris Eigner and Ildikó Tóth

Goal

Subject

Male, 27, media/film major. Uses computers mostly for visual purposes. He is above average computer-savvy, uses computers and interactive interfaces every day.

Questions

SET 1

Create an account and Log In to Clatter User knew to go to sign up link, but on the next page, clicked “sign up” button without putting in account information, which redirected him to sign in page again. Clicking the Sign up link again, he figured out that the page was to CREATE the username and password. The page looks too much like the login page and could be confusing.
Find how many users are logged into the class chat for CS101 Winter 2012 quarter. This functionality was not yet enabled in the Prototype, so was not tested.
Write a message into Winter CS101 2012 class chat in response to a message already present. User successfully navigated to the correct class page, and wrote a response to the existing chats. No difficulty found here.
Using Search, find the line(s) that mention the word “homework”. User found the search bar without a problem, and typed in homework, as expected. Prototype search isn’t the best, so he was a little confused about the outcome, but did like the highlighting feature.
Enter the Fall CS 101 chatroom. How many messages have been written? This step, user did twice. First time was directly from the winter CS 101 chatroom. In this case, he clicked on the winter chat’s header:

instead of the back arrow. When that didn’t do anything (just stayed on the same page), the user moved his mouse over more to the left, and clicked the left arrow directly. Once back on the courses page, user had no trouble navigating to the fall CS 101 page, and after waiting a bit (he noticed previously that for the chat to appear on the screen it took a little lag time), he wrote the answer to this question. The second time, he logged in, and went straight to the correct chat page without any difficulties, writing a new message.

Log out of the system No difficulties.

SET 2

Login to Clatter using the username and password you created above. No difficulties found. Browser suggests to save password, which is a browser feature, not part of this app, it is purely an extra step before it lets you log in.
Enter the chat room for Winter term of CS101 No difficulties.
Find all conversation about last week’s assignment User uses search function typing in directly “last week’s assignment”. In this case, the directions weren’t specific for a reason - to see how user blundered through the question. Since the chat refers to this assignment in multiple ways (homework, reading assignment, etc), the user had to use multiple search queries before finding the correct section of the chat that had the link. This may be a valid use case, since the chat will contain many messages.
Open link to assignment1 Once the link was found in number 3 above, the user clicked the link, and opened the file without issues.
Log out of the system. No difficulties.

Changes to UI

Relating to number 3 in set 2 of the questions, the search is good with highlighting the chat lines, but a tabbing feature may also be useful so in case of a longer chat window, user doesn’t have to manually scroll through everything, rather jump from found term to found term. And/or, search could show only those lines with the search term included, with […] between each line where there is other content not related to the search word; i.e.

User 1: hi there, what is your name

User 2: why do you want to know

User 1: because I forgot…

User 2: ok, my name is John

would turn into UI view of the following when the word “name” is put in the search box:

User 1: hi there, what is your name […]

User 2: ok, my name is John

the […] should be clickable to expand intermediate content while search is still active. A different background color could also be useful when expanded to indicate that it is not a result of the search.

User 1: hi there, what is your name

User 2: why do you want to know

User 1: because I forgot…

User 2: ok, my name is John

Relating to number 5 in set 1, a more distinctly different back button could help user understand where to click. In addition, the link/button to current page could be moved to below the back button and act more of as a title to the chatroom. The value of it being a link may not be so high, and could be confusing.

Relating to number 1 in set 1, the login/sign up interface is mostly for testing, and in the content model, we do not have create an account because it is envisioned to be through the school authentication system and class database. However, if we were to keep this, the sign up should look different than the login/have instructions. For example, instead of this:

The instructions “Create Username” and “Create Password” should be in the username and password boxes respectively, or to the left of the boxes. Instead of the Sign up button, since you’re already on the sign up page, it should say “submit” or something of the like.

Human Computer Interaction Assignment 6

Wed, 20 Feb 2013 12:36:00 -0800

Chris Eigner and Ildikó Tóth CS 560

Description of App

Description of Subjects

User 1 is 20 years old, female. Studies Aerospace engineering at Virginia tech. She is also a math tutor.

User 2 is 25 years old old, male. Works in media and is concurrently an online student in IT.

User 3 is a 27 year old male Linguistics Ph.D. candidate at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana.

Key Findings

The subjects liked the idea, but made it clear that it was very important for the app to be easy to use and set up - i.e. school would do most of the heavy lifting so the students would be able to log in and not have to set up their classes.

They also liked the features of tagging and searching. User 2 suggested to have a tab-like interface where the user list is, consisting of “user” “tags” and “uploads”. User 3 was particularly interested in tagging as a loose way to organize messages and files.

The uploads was something user 2 said would be helpful to really combine the functionalities of current online tools such as groups, class websites, etc.

The function of notifications they said should be customizable, specifically if someone responds to the user’s question - which both user 1 and 2 said should be indicated in a notification. These settings would be especially important, according to user 1 if the class is a really large lecture, where in the entire class chat, people wrote all the time, someone’s question could be easily lost, or notifications could get overwhelming. In the large lecture case, the notifications should be disabled. User 3 was quick to point out that many notification systems are naggy and was less interested in this feature.

Another function they would have liked to see is a back button, and an upload file button/option next to the chat input box.

User 1 mentioned that for engineering and math especially, another function that would be amazing is having a doodle-like interface that is zoomable - especially on a smartphone. Instead of just replying in a text-only format, she said it would be very useful to be able to scribble out math formulas, and graphs to respond to tutees questions. Although sending just the image is probably good enough she said, a further improvement would be interaction through this doodle interface, so the tutee could respond back using the doodle.

One limitation we have right now is that one user could only be in 2 groups at once: All, and one other custom group. Both users 1 and 2 indicated that is inconvenient, in case you want 1 person in a hw study group, and also in a project group.

Human Computer Interaction Assignment 5

Wed, 13 Feb 2013 09:34:00 -0800

Chris Eigner and Ildikó Tóth
eignerchris@gmail.com and ildiko@ildikototh.com

Application Name

Clatter

Description

Clatter (Class + Chatter) is a course-specific, web-based, mobile-friendly chat tool for student/teacher collaboration.

Device

The device for which we’re building the control model is a modern smartphone.

Control Model

large version

User Feedback

The user liked the group functionality but was confused about how to target a single group or person when sending a message. We didn’t build controls for specifying this and so this will need some revising.

The user liked the long-tap to tag. He said this was an elegant way to keep tagging out of the way yet still easily accessible.

He suggested course setup should be done automatically through the school. We’ve long assumed automatic course setup was possible but hadn’t counted on implementing it. This bit of feedback was quite insightful.

The user also liked that uploaded material would be linked and downloadable with a single tap/click.

The user expressed some puzzling feedback regarding sending messages. He suggested that to avoid accidentally sending messages there might be a confirmation dialog. This isn’t behavior typically associated with chat clients but we’ll consider the feedback.

The user wasn’t particularly excited about notifications systems citing that he had enough things begging for his attention.

The user wasn’t sure if search was contextual to the current chat room or global. Our thinking was that it would be contextual and it sounds like we may need to call this out explicitly somehow.

The final piece of feedback from the user pertained to the size of the chat window on a smart phone. We’ll have to be sure to support a landscape view of the application to give users the option of rotating their phone for more chat real estate.

Content Model Differences

large version

There were several implicit actions like scrolling, pressing “Enter” to send messages, and swiping that were not shown in the control model. Scrolling is expected of historical, threaded conversations. Removing the “Send” button was an attempt to increase screen real estate for the chat window. Swiping left/right to go to the prev and next screens was also an attempt to devote as much real estate to the chat experience and that navigational element was not present in the content model.

The organization of the four main “ideas” under the course: User, Notifications, Class Material, and Chat Room are less “separated” in the control model. The Chat interface provides a shell for the former three. It may be more clear to have tabs switching between these, but in efforts to have 80% of the content in the main chat page, the following implicit functions were used:

For displaying class material, we incorporate the use of tags and links to uploads in the chat window. The specific content can be filtered on by a “tag cloud” or the search, which we haven’t fully developed in the control model, as it would be an enhancement to the core function of the app.
In addition, the user list is used as a way to select the specific chat room the user wants to enter, which could also be described as a “conversation”. Each conversation would open the chat room to the person(s) who the user wants to talk to. The use of groups is ingrained in the chat room concept; tapping a group name opens a conversation with only those people in the group. Analogously, the user can open a chat room that has only 1 other person in it (aka a private message). Finally, the option of “All” opens the chat room to the entire class, as does a message in google groups to the whole group.

The above difference between the content and control model differs mostly in the concept of the relationship between the chatroom and the user list - in the content model, they appear completely separate, only connected by the class function, but in the control model, they are essentially the one concept, with the user list providing an “access definition” for each of the chat rooms. One limitation of this is that a user can only be in 2 groups at once - the “All” conversation (the word conversation replaceable by “group,” or “chat” in this context), and one other group which by default is “Other,” but could be in a user-defined group if set up that way by the user.
Notifications are embedded as metadata next to the names in the user list as to be minimally intrusive to the user, but is one aspect that could be dropped, especially given the feedback above.

Scenario Differences

The control model covers all cases and UI interactions described in the scenarios. The control model differs from the scenarios in that the scenarios contained references to said implicit actions that we removed or optimized in the control model (i.e. extra steps like “submit”). Two of the following scenarios differ the most:

Group Assignment Case: This case differs in the steps taken. In the control model, since it is designed on a mobile platform, the way to add users to a new group is by dragging and dropping people into the group after it is created via the + sign, which is not what the original case described - it used a more traditional screen-to-screen wizard style.
Retrieving messages Case: Due to feedback from the user, the incorporation of notifications is no longer a separate section, but rather incorporated into the user list, or would be dropped entirely. The path to viewing messages is via the user list rather than by a notifications window.

Human Computer Interaction Assignment 4

Wed, 06 Feb 2013 13:27:00 -0800

Chris Eigner and Ildikó Tóth eignerchris@gmail.com and ildiko@ildikototh.com

Content Model

large version here

Validation

Note: nouns and verbs are bolded for clarity

Material Inquiry:

User scrolls through course list
User selects CS101 course to enter chat room
User sends message to ask about course material

Topic Search:

User scrolls through course list
User selects CS101 course to enter chat room
User searches for topic in chat history
User reviews messages related to search query

Missed Reference Case

User authenticates by filling out username and password
User selects to CS 101 chat room
User scrolls up to view chat history
User searches and navigates to linked article on data structures he/she missed during class

Feedback Case

Users selects CS 101 chat room
Teacher sends message containing question to chat room while teaching
Users send messages to answer questions

Group Assignment Case

User enters CS101 chat room.
User creates group
User invites 3 classmates to group.
Invited users accept or reject group invitation.

Retrieving messages Case

User enters CS101 chat room
Meta info shows there are 2 notifications
User views list of notifications
User sees message that invited user has accepted group invitation

User Feedback

For the interview the potential user was given a summary view of the content model. Each noun and verb was described. Special care was paid to the language the interviewee used to describe how they might interact with the application. Verbs like “scroll”, “tag”, “search”, and “message” came up often. The user was particularly interested in a file management feature whereby he could upload notes and assignments and students could access these via a sidebar. We correctly anticipated that course material access/management would be a desirable feature and built this into our content model.

Human Computer Interaction Assignment 3

Wed, 30 Jan 2013 12:27:00 -0800

Chris Eigner and Ildikó Tóth

eignerchris@gmail.com and ildiko@ildikototh.com

Selected Application

The proposed application is a persistent, real-time, classroom specific chat service. Users login with university credentials and are shown a list of chat rooms for the classes in which they are currently enrolled. Upon entering a class chat room they are presented with a global chat where the teacher and students can exchange questions, answers, class lectures, draft assignments, and links to relevant material. Note: There is a lot of room for add-ons. The simple base of this application is based on the chatroom interface.

Scripts

Missed Reference Case

User opens web browser and navigates to CS 101 chat room
User scrolls up to view history of messages
User locates and navigates to linked article on data structures he/she missed during class

Topic Search Case

User opens web browser and navigates to CS 101 chat room
User searches for “linked list” using search field
Questions and answers in chat room tagged with “linked list” are show in results list
User reviews common questions and answers about linked lists

Feedback Case 1. Users in class navigate to CS 101 chat room via mobile web browser 2. Teacher posts links and questions to chat room while teaching 3. Users answer questions and share relevant material

Material Inquiry Case

User opens app via smart phone, chooses CS101
Chooses “Users>Instructors” from next screen
picks TA’s name, which opens a simple chat-like dialogue box.
User types in question relating to assignment, sends question.

Group Assignment Case

User opens app via tablet, navigates to CS101.
Chooses “Users>Classmates” from list of options
Clicks on “Create Group” from subsequent screen
Invites 3 classmates into a workgroup for the first assignment. A pending group appears under ‘groups’ with custom name.
Users can accept or reject group invitation. Accepting will allow users to interact via a group chat, and a google-drive like file share between students.

Retrieving messages Case

User opens app via smartphone, chooses CS101
Notices that there are 2 notifications
Taps the “Notifications” link, which takes him to a news-feed like list of notifications
User sees reply from TA and a note that User2 has accepted group request.
User taps first item and is taken to the chat screen that shows answer.
TA’s answer also points User to a supplementary image the TA has uploaded into the system, and has opened to share strictly with our User.

Storyboards

Material Inquiry

Topic Search

Interviews with Users

Photo

Sat, 26 Jan 2013 21:41:05 -0800

Berkeley clock tower

Sat, 26 Jan 2013 21:37:52 -0800

Berkeley clock tower

Human Computer Interaction Assignment 2

Wed, 23 Jan 2013 10:08:00 -0800

by Chris Eigner and Ildikó Tóth

Intended Users

This prototype is an iPhone case with a pocket for credit cards, intended for anyone burdened by having too many personables and not enough hands, including students, professionals, or travelers. We attempted to construct a phone case with a sleeve or pocket for commonly needed cards.

Usage Guide

Our first attempt was constructed from tape and cardboard. It ended up being bulky and didn’t convey the idea very well.

The next iteration of our prototype was built using an Origami mesh material. This too proved less than ideal but the idea was starting to take shape. We constructed corner tabs to keep the cards in place, but had trouble affixing the small piece of mesh to the phone case. We finally settled on a paper-wax like material that is often used as larger envelope material. New corner tabs were fashioned and shaded with black sharpie.

Here it is shown with the iphone inside the case We were able to fit 3 cards in the sleeve, ample space for the bare necessities.

Estimated Costs:

iPhone case ($8.18 per unit)
- distributor: http://www.dhgate.com/aaaaa-best-lifeproof-waterproof-shockproof/p-ff808081384b6e3f013850ace2a90455.html#s1-3-null
Elastic ($0.96 per unit)
- distributor: http://www.amazon.com/Stretchrite-2-Inch-10-Yard-Stretch-Elastic/dp/B0018N5MS8/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1358903613&sr=8-3&keywords=elastic
Cost per unit: case + elastic = $9.14

Benefits

Under the assumption that it’s easier to manage a single thing that it is two, the benefit of this product is that it consolidates two items that are typically cumbersome to manage into a single unit.

Areas of improvement

The biggest area for improvement is the sleeve material. The next version would likely be made using elastic. A tight elastic band would be more effective at holding the cards and have the added side effect that the more cards you store, the stronger the hold on the items.

Another enhancement would be to make the inside of the elastic a rubbery-sticky surface to further prevent loss of cards. A non-stick surface on the underside of the elastic would help ensure cards don’t fall out during use.

The addition of a touch-toggle status LED would also allow the unit to act as a status indicator for availability. If the user is busy, he/she toggles the LED to red and places his phone in plain sight. When he/she becomes available, the LED is toggled back to green to signal those around that they are available to talk or collaborate.

Having fun on Christmas w some fake mustaches. Dad, bro, me.

Fri, 18 Jan 2013 01:39:12 -0800

Having fun on Christmas w some fake mustaches. Dad, bro, me.

Park blocks #nofilter

Fri, 18 Jan 2013 01:36:40 -0800

Park blocks #nofilter

Human Computer Interaction Assignment 1

Tue, 15 Jan 2013 19:44:00 -0800

User Bio

The user I observed is a 25 yr. old, male, Ph.D candidate in the field of Linguistics. He attended Western Washington University, receiving a B.A. in English and continued to Binghamton University in New York where he earned a Masters in Creative Writing.

I observed the user in three different circumstances, all via recorded video from his iPad; first, as a student in his Phonology and Phonetics class; second, during a break and short preparation period for a Composing Research class he is teaching; finally, for the first 10 minutes of his Composing Research class he is teaching.

Artifacts

Activity Log

Videos

Candidate Applications

During my observation I noted several behaviors, annoyances and frustrations from the user.

user had to break concentration to take notes
several times the user strained to see the blackboard
a chatty office mate prevented the user from properly preparing for his class
the user struggled to find his keys while hands were full
power cables were retrieved, plugged in, and tripped over multiple times
syncing notes between devices consisted of email the document to himself
user had to retrieve an RFID card from his wallet to gain access to building

Candidate applications I came up with included:

wearable availability LED indicator for back of neck. online/do-not-disturb/busy states
- touch to cycle through states: green (available), red (DND), yellow (busy)
an automatic note taking application for your phone
- transcribes voice to text
- leverages open source auto summary library
- auto tags sections of notes with timestamps in original audio
phone case that has compartment for a single, commonly access key
- potentially 3D printable!
pouch sewn into a laptop case or jacket that held a single, universal power cable
a camera application that would automatically send the photo to any number of connected accounts: email, Evernote, Facebook, Blackboard, etc.
phone case that has compartment for single RFID card