Wednesday's Meeting

Howdy all. Sorry for being slack in getting this up.
Mainly for Max's benefit;
We all met on Wednesday to discuss prototyping (which is what we need to get done for next week). This was a really productive meeting I felt, and we managed to get some good points raised and some good discussion on what the main UI should have and also therefore what the systems should do. The main points raised were as follows;

- Following on from the video, that even if older people are happy to adopt technology, they often just don't know what we see as basic. Thus, there should be as little user configurability as possible. It was decided that this system would have to be installed by a professional who would then show the user how to operate it. Thus, the system should be as intuitive as possible to use.

- It was decided that the main method of UI would be from a touch screen, sized about half a page of A4 paper (21x14.8). Interaction would be in the form of a large picture of the function, with text underneath explaining what it does. It was decided to have a maximum of 6 buttons on this initial screen. Initially, these were decided as;

GPS\Travel
Phone
Emergency help
Lighting/Heating

- It was decided that there could also be other buttons (such as web/email) but these would be optional, as it was argued that not many older people would require internet access whilst out and about.

- It was decided that each button should be no smaller than a thumb. This is a pretty ambiguous size but it is just a rough guide.

-We decided against using speech recognition for the main method of control, as it was felt that this could cause frustration and confusion, especially if out and about. It was also decided to try and make the functions as simple to use and as familiar to the user as possible (i.e. the phone function would be provided by an actual handset with a graphical representation

- It was also decided to follow the Three Click Rule of web design where all main actions the system can perform can be accessed within three clicks. However, despite me arguing for it to follow this, I found this; Testing the Three Click Rule which argues against it.

- It was decided to split up the design of the prototypes as follows;
Me (Sam) – GPS\Travel
Andy – phone
BJ – Emergency help
Jenny – Lighting\heating
Max – Can you do web\email mate. You’ll need to chat with us about what we decided this should be like.

- Can people add to this with anything else that was said\decided upon (I think I've prob got the last but wrong)?

- I think it might be a good idea if we follow the IBM design principles of;
Simplicity: Don't compromise usability for function.
Support: Place the user in control and provide proactive assistance
Familiarity: Build on users' prior knowledge
Obviousness: Make objects and their controls visible and intuitive
Encouragement: Make actions predictable and reversible
Satisfaction: Create a feeling of progress and achievement
Availability: Make all objects available at all times
Safety: Keep the user out of trouble
Versatility: Support alternate interaction techniques
Personalization: Allow users to customize [Sam; could this one cause extra confusion and frustration?]
Affinity: Bring objects to life through good visual design.

If people could add to this then we can get cracking.

Next meeting – Wednesday 21st. This is to try out an old person in a wheelchair. BJ is worryingly keen to dress up as Ethel and I’ll have a wheelchair so we decided to spend the afternoon starting at Andy’s then making complete tools out of ourselves in Harbourne.

Cheers.