Project One - Anna, Anthea, Nicole & Komal

Setting An Alarm Clock

We have decided to study the interaction of setting their alarm clock. We concluded as a group that this would be a necessary interaction between one person and an object around them. People use alarm clocks practically every day of their lives, although they are very difficult to set to a desired time. We decided to deconstruct this interaction and seek any possible difficulties associated with the interaction.

Design

The interaction is necessary in order to connect or relate with the environment around an individual. It leads to different actions and reactions. There can be many items of interaction; ours is setting up an alarm clock. Alarm clocks are designed as a clock with a bell or buzzer that can be set to sound at a particular time, as to awaken someone.

Start and Finish

Our research is specified for setting up an alarm clock for 7:30 a.m. The interaction would start when the individual holds the alarm clock, sets the time and then when the person places it back, the interaction ends.

Steps of Interaction


The following tasks are performed during the interaction:

1. Hold the alarm clock
2. Turn it around
3. Twist the dials to bring the needles to appropriate positions in order to set it up for 7:30 a.m.
4. Pushing another key or knob left in order to turn it on
5. Set the actual time again and put the clock back

Ethnographic Observations

From the beginning we knew different people have difficulties setting alarm clocks.

The most problematic elements:
-multiple buttons
-unclear labeling of the buttons
-the labels are very small and hard to read
-placement of the buttons in relation to the time display
-speed of time change while using the buttons
-turning the alarm on and off
-the dials are little smaller in size to be twisted easily with the fingers
-the instructions or options on the keys and dials are not clearly visible
-some individuals forget to push the key left in order to turn it on
-the clock had only two options for the alarm on and off, not the snooze



We noticed that everyone had different reactions to each clock; some understood what the buttons did and what the labels meant, while others did not. In some cases, the clock was set instead of the alarm, the alarm was set to PM instead of AM, there were difficulties to figure out HOW to set it, and there is no REVERSE button located on the alarm clocks to go backwards if the intended time was passed. Through our observations we found that 75% of the people we observed did not have trouble setting the alarm clocks, whereas 25% of them did. Our new goal of the interaction is to reduce frustration and increase user productivity and satisfaction.


Alarm Clock Diagrams

These are examples of the alarm clocks we used during our deconstruction and analysis.

Proposal

If the following things are changed in the design it might be more helpful towards the consumers:

-the dials should be at least two fingers in size so that they are easily rotated or twisted
-the instructions and options on the keys and dials must be clearly visible such that of contrasting colours (i.e. if the clock is black the instructions must be in white)
-some people might find it difficult to push the key left or right so there can be a button which can be pressed in, in order to turn it on and off
-the alarm clock should have a snooze button
-on the back of the clock the keys and dials are made along with their purpose shown on them
-on and off options and which way the dials turn should also be mentioned

Our New Design


Our new design for the alarm clock makes the interaction with it much easier. Its clear visibility shows when the clock is working, and its affordances are uncomplicated, distinctly separating the clock time from the alarm time (a main concern during our ethnographic study). These affordances also have very defined physical constraints, such as the slider paths, which only have 2 positions, and the axes use dials to maximize the space. The alarm clock is designed in such a way that each button gives clear and concise feedback; the dials for the alarm point to the number that it is currently set at, the sliders have only two positions that lock into place, and the buttons give resistance when pushed. All of this is mapped on the back of this simple alarm clock, clock time and alarm time evidently separated down the middle, and are set on different displays, eliminating any confusion. The hour and minute dials are also mapped to naturally reflect how they would be read on a clock.

Project One - Andrea Rodriguez, Garrett Tonge, Dennis Oba, Gretchen Romin and Kyla Blair

THE ZIPPER

The interaction we studied is zipping up and the problems this brings upon. Zippers are part of

our day life and not only during winter. We have zippers in jackets, bags, sweaters, boots or even

tents.

For that reason, we are going to give a brief introduction history of the ziipper.

History of the Zipper

- In 1893 Whitcomb Judson was recognized as the inventor of the zipper. However, at this time it was known as the “clasp locker” which was a complicated hook-and-eye shoe fastener. - Gideon Sundback, an electrical engineer, was hired to work for the Universal Fastener Company and was responsible for improving the 'Judson C-curity Fastener.' Therefore, Sundback designed the modern zipper in 1913. He increased the number of fastening elements from four per inch to ten or eleven and had two rows of teeth that could be pulled into a single piece by the slider. This was called the 'Separable Fastener' and the patent was issued in 1917. Furthermore, he also created manufacturing machine for this zipper and began making a few hundred feet of

fastener per day within the first year of operation.

- The name “zipper” came from the B. F. Goodrich Company

Types

Coil

- form the bulk of zipper sales

- Two basic types of coils are used: spiral and ladder

Invisible

- the zippers' teeth are behind the tape and the tape and sliders colour matches the garments

Metallic

– classic zipper

- The teeth are individual pieces of metal set on the zipper

- mostly found on jeans

Plastic-molded

- identical to metallic

- teeth are plastic instead of metal

- can be made in any color of plastic

Open-ended

- uses a "box and pin" mechanism to lock the two sides of the zipper into place

- often seen on jackets

Closed-ended

- closed at both ends

- often used in baggage

Problems with the Zipper

- Zippers getting jammed

- Fabric getting caught in the teeth causing it to be stock

- Hair getting caught in the zipper

- others have issues getting the zipper started on the track (putting the edges together).

There is a huge problem that we saw on each person: zippers need two hands to be done, without them you can struggle for minutes before you get to put the ends together.

How did zippers become popular?

- Zippers were featured in a 1930’s sales campaign where they were praised for promoting self-

reliance in children by making it possible for them to dress themselves in “self-help clothing”.

- In 1937 the zipper beat the button due to the support of French fashion designers in men’s

trousers

- Esquire magazine stated that the sipper was the “Newest Tailoring Idea for Men” and that it

would prevent any embaressing

Zipping up is pretty simple:

Alternatives of the Zipper

Buckle, button, rack and pinion, safety pin, shoelace, snap fasteners, velcro

Pros & Cons taken from our observations

pros

- can prevent cold air from entering

- strong

- can be easier to do up than some of the alternatives

- many variations available

cons

- can jam a lot

- teeth can break

- hair may get stuck in the teeth

- fabric behind zipper may get stuck in teeth.

Conclusion

-Based on our observations, girls actually wore more zippers than guys, in a ratio of 4:1

-People had a very hard time trying to use a zipper with one hand.

-23% of people observed did not get “ziped up” on the first try.

-Zippers on bags, are typically coiled where it is a stronger zipper.

Note: due to an uploading problem, the video and the flow chart are in the power point presentations, unfortunally we were unable to upload it here.

Project 1 - Katie, Kaitlynd, Andrea, Christian

Recycling at Home

Torontos Waste Diversion Program

Recycling in Toronto

Living in a society where mass production and convenience are essential, the recycling of all possible waste products is necessary. In 2006 alone, Toronto shipped over 690,000 tonnes of waste to a landfill in Michigan. Concerns for the environment began to surface, and the city of Toronto introduced a remodeled blue bin program to promote more recycling throughout the area. Recyclable materials waiting to be collected by the city are stored in easily recognizable blue bins. Our study is focused on the public’s interaction with these bins.

Interaction-Action

The Interaction
The interaction starts in your home where a variety of recyclable materials can be collected and separated from materials that are non-recyclable. Most people store their recyclable materials in a designated bin or container, until they have enough to transport outside to the blue bin, or to the recycling room in an apartment building. The apartment building setup creates a quicker and easier interaction with the use of the recycling room. Inside this room, tenants open a chute where the building’s recycling is collected and their interaction with the process is complete. Other residential areas, like homes, have blue bins situated outdoors. The individual needs to carry their recycling from their home, outside to where their blue bin is located. Recycling does not have to be seperated by the different types, and can be placed together in the bin. The next step is to wait until the designated recycling day to place your bin on the curb for collection. Finally, when the collection is over your bin goes back onto your property until next recycling day.

Items Used
Items used in this interaction are: blue-recycling bins of various sizes
recyclable materials ex: paper and plastic

Space
Space is the environment of a subject, system of controlled and uncontrolled variables. The alterable elements are the variable in which an agent has control in the improvement of a spaces function and the agents spatial interaction therein. This agency of control is the fundamental factor in the interaction of recycling in the home.

A system in space
The design of the recycling system in a large apartment building is simple and convenient. The individual walks down a hallway with their recycling to the designated recycling room. Inside the room, they open the chute and empty their recyclable into it, and are done with the interaction. For areas without recycling chutes, the blue bins are present. The large recycling bins are blue, have handles, a lid, and a set of wheels for easy movement. These bins are designed to be moveable between the curb and residence and usually stored outside. This design directs the interaction from interior of the home, to the exterior. Depending on where outside your blue bin is located, influence how much or often a person will interact with the bin and recycle.




Observations
•Most subjects divided their recycling even though the blue bin program does not require it.
•Subjects often had garbage and recycling in distinct locations in the home.
•The farther ones recycling pick up is from their home a positive corrolation affects the inclination to recycle on time and regularly, if at all.
•The blue bin program may have the effect of decreasing inclination to recycle with less need to distinguish recyclable goods.

Constraints
Tasks performed in this interaction are collecting recyclable materials from your home and storing them, and making sure those stored items are collected by the city to continue the recycling process. The goal is to recycle, and the accessibility to these bins is crucial for the goal to be met by society. The easier recycling is, the more the population will recycle.

Improvements
The system of Interaction, that of recycling, is dependent on the agents relation to their space. As one develops a spatial relation in the framework of the recycling interaction the system begins to drive itself. If it is conducive to the act of recycling then the system continues unharmed. To improve the spatial relation of the interaction dependents on the individual environments of each participant.

Project One - Lesley, Jeannie, Karan, Steph, Wendy

We have decided to study the process of peeling an orange in order to find the most reoccurring difficulties people come across while peeling an orange. This is the interaction that happens before a person is able to eat the fruit inside of the skin of an orange, and is necessary to avoid the bitterness of the outside peel.


Design of the Orange

An orange’s design is biological. Most people know either by trial and error, or simply by observing the rough and hard texture of an orange that one is suppose to remove the peel first before eating the fruit. This is nature’s way of keeping the fleshy parts of the fruit protected by an exterior layer while still making it accessible to desired organisms.

Most people start peeling at the most tender part of an orange because it is easiest to penetrate. However, others may start at the firm nub of the orange as it allows for more control. More often than not, the rest of the work follows the natural curve of the orange.


Start and Finish

From observation, we have decided that the interaction of peeling an orange begins with the unpeeled orange. Therefore end of the interaction is the naked orange; however the end of the full experience is after eating the orange!


Steps of Interaction

1. Obtain an orange.
   
2. Supporting the orange in one hand, and with the other hand use
   
   1. one fingernail (preferably your thumbnail)
      
   2. multiple fingernails
      
   3. kitchen knife
   to dig into the peel of the orange, typically starting from the top or middle.
   
3. Start peeling the orange
   
   1. in a spiral from top to bottom
      
   2. in vertical strips
      
   3. in random patches
      
   4. in an “elephant” form
4. Continue repeating Steps 2 and 3 until the orange is completely peeled.
   
5. Hold the orange between your thumbs in a position where the divide of two wedges are in the centre.
   
6. Gently pull the orange apart at the divide into halves.
   
7. At the core of the orange, there are usually white stringy pieces, called the pith. Peel those away as well.
   
8. Now pull the pieces of the orange apart, and enjoy!

Research and Analysis

For our observations, we filmed various people peeling oranges in order to see how they go about doing it, and watching what difficulties they come across.

We also surveyed random people on their thoughts about the orange-peeling process.

What do you find most difficult when peeling an orange?
How do you solve this problem?

Problems With the Interaction

Despite that, there are still some difficulties for people while peeling an orange.

1. Our group has discovered that the biggest problem lies at the starting point. Steps 2 and 3: digging your thumb into the peel and removing that first piece. Some orange peels are harder than others; some people have blunter nails or weak fingers; some people may be disabled; there may be no cutting instrument within reach -- all of these factors and more can attribute to why many people have a difficulty at the beginning.
   
2. Oftentimes, the orange peel may also break in mid-action. There is a tendency for the peel to become disconnected, which makes it frustrating for some to restart or get rid of the patchy areas.
   
3. Because a lot of people prefer not to eat the white remnants of an orange, they find it irritating to have to pick away at the albedo (the leftover white layer immediately under the peel) because it usually still has residue of the bitterness of the peel on it. It is also equally irritating for people to remove the pith at the core of the orange.
   
4. During the orange-peeling process, hands and fingers may become sticky from the juices of the orange. This generally leaves an unpleasant feeling in the end, as the orange can be a very messy fruit to eat.

Proposal

While it is difficult (and potentially harmful) to genetically modify the orange to sprout a pulling tab out of its peel, we could suggest ideas that may improve the experience of orange peeling, such as delving into the health aspects of orange peels.

In order to promote these ideas, we have decided that an advertisement campaign would best suit our goal. We will use ads that will encourage people to peel oranges for their own health and beauty benefits. In doing so, orange peeling essentially becomes appealing.

Annika, Olivia, Claudia and Margarita

We investigated the interaction of opening pry-off bottles

The items needed for the interaction are a beverage that has a pry-off lid and a bottle opener, or the knowledge of opening a pry-off using an alternative method.

To open a pry-off drink with a bottle opener:

1. Take a firm grip of the bottle, generally around the lower half of where the neck meets the body.

2. Use your other hand to position the bottle opener on the cap

3. Lift up the bottle opener, while holding the bottle down

4. You should hear a pop from the seal breaking, the lid will then come off and the drink may or may not start foaming

Common problems and constraints when opening a pry-off are:

1. There are no instructions for first time users

2. Most of the time there is no why to tell if the lid is pry-off or twist off

3. No bottle opener

4. The opener could slip

5. The bottle could slip

Survey Results

1. 100% of participants stated that pry-off bottles where a problem for intoxicated people

2. 100% of participants reported having difficulty with opening pry-off bottles in the past

3. The majority of participants use an opener for pry-off caps

4. The most common alternative to using a bottle opener is to knock-off the cap on the hard surface like a table

Suggested Improvements

To have a diagram on beer boxes to show users how to open the bottle without an opener. To have a rough texture on the bottle neck to prevent slipping when opening.

Project One Edited Ethnographic Video Example

Project One Example

Below is an excellent example of the blog post component of Project One that was prepared by a group of my students from last year.

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Project One - Opening a Pop Can

Our interaction

For this assignment we studied the process of opening a pop can and some possible problems that occur.
Map of the pop can opening











The interaction of opening a pop can is necessary in the context of a consumer society, in which people often drink out of cans for convenience. Without the opening, the product has no purpose.


What are the steps of interaction?
The steps of this interaction where designed to be quick and simple.


a. The first step is putting your finger (either middle or index) on the small space between the lever and the end of the pop can as seen in image one.

b. The second step is to lift the lever, by putting your finger underneath it and pulling backwards

c. The third step is to pull all the way to the other side of the rim so as to puncture the opening with the pressure.

d. The final step is to bring the lever back to it's original location so that the drinking whole is not obstructed.


Where does this interaction start and finish?
For our study, we specified our research on the opening of the pop can. Therefore, in the case of our project, the interaction would end when the opening would be punctured and the lever returned to it's original position. But on a larger scale, the interaction of using a pop can is in fact completed when the beverage is finished and the consumer is ready to dispose of it.

How does the design direct the interaction?
The design and the location of the opening instantly triggers automatic hand placement of the consumer. The signal-noise-ratio is well executed in pop can openings because there is never any sort of distraction from this interaction on the actual product. Presumably, this is why there usually are no advertisements on the top of the can.

Take a look how it's done:




Unfortunately, the design does not take into consideration manual malfunctions. The lever is very closely located to the base of the top of the can, which makes it difficult for some consumers to lift. Thus defeating the concept of convenience because of external tools (such as keys, knives, other the like) are needed. 75% of people interviewed expressed some sort of difficulty when opening the can. 95% of them where male.

Elements that are most commonly problematic

Our Design Proposal
After ethnographic research, our team concluded that in most instances, the goal of opening the pop can to drink the beverage within it is usually met, by one mean or another.

However, the percentage of people who struggled was too large to ignore. This is why in our redesign proposal, we decided to elevate the lever and make it and it's attachment out of a thicker concentration of metal.

It is a minor change which could not be too costly and hard to get used to, and would facilitate the opening of the pop can for many of those who have difficulties.
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Remember, every interactive experience will require a unique format - don't assume that this format will work for your deconstruction.

Project One Release Form

Click here to download the Project One release form.

Project One: Deconstruct an Interaction

Click here to download Project One.

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Project One
Deconstruct an Interaction

OVERVIEW

In teams of about four students, you are to document a common interaction between people and their environment, deconstruct this interaction, and suggest reasoned improvements to the interactive experience.

As discussed in class, there are many possible interactions worthy of deconstruction: be creative and find an interaction that interests you.

The purpose of this project is to employ the techniques and concepts presented in the first three classes, including:

• Mental Models
• Usability Research and Ethnography
• Perception and Cognition
• Establishing Structure
• Maps and Diagramming
• Conveying Information
• Fundamental Principles of Experience Design

OCAD equipment access is limited. You can check out digital still and video cameras overnight from the A/V offices located throughout the school. If you have access to your own equipment, please use it.


BREAKDOWN

1. Brainstorm a minimum of ten interactions, and choose one to deconstruct. Study the interaction through ethnographic observation. You are encouraged to establish as large a sample population as possible, but you must obtain the informed consent of your subjects, using the release form provided. Your participation in the interaction should be limited to shooting stills and video, making observations and taking notes.

2. Review your ethnographic material and uncover the structure of the interaction. Things to consider will vary depending on your chosen interaction, but may include:

• Why is this interaction necessary?
• What are the items of interaction?
• Where and when does the interaction start and finish?
• What are the tasks performed in the interaction? Which ones are critical?
• How does design direct the interaction?
• What are the goals of the people in the interaction? How are those goals met or not met by the system?

3. Make an annotated map or diagram of the structure. Things to present in will vary depending on your chosen interaction; there may be several interlocking maps or diagrams. Some or all of the considerations above are likely to appear in your maps or diagrams.

4. Using your maps or diagrams, along with any less tangible observations and gut feelings, identify opportunities for making the interaction a better experience. With your team, brainstorm alternatives of task, timeline, form, function and appearance that would substantially improve the interactive experience. Present a coherent vision for changes to the system. Feel free to identify both near-term and far-term possibilities for an improved design.

5. Create an electronic presentation that synthesizes your ethnographic observation, your deconstruction, mapping and diagramming of the interactive experience, and your suggested improvements. There is no specific format for the presentation, though PDF, Powerpoint/Keynote and Quicktime are suggested mediums. Your presentation is an experience in itself, and should be clear, creative and compelling.


DELIVERABLES

1. Your electronic presentation, delivered to the class on Wednesday, January 28. You are to speak for no more than 10 minutes, and you are to make use of my computer: come prepared with your presentation burned to a CD or on a USB device.

2. An abridged version of your presentation, posted to the course blog by 08:30 on Wednesday, January 28.


EVALUATION

Quality and Extent of Ethnographic Observation: /6
Use of Course Concepts to Deconstruct the Interaction: /5
Appropriateness of the Suggested Improvements: /3
Clarity and Impact of the Presentation and Posting: /6
TOTAL: /20