….from a device or technology.
Sorry, I know that was a cheap shot. :)
I am looking for participants for a study on multi-tasking and the constant attention technology asks of us. To better understand this I will be asking participants to give up an information technology that you use on a regular basis for 24 hours. This can be your computer, internet, cell phone/texting, TV, MP3 player, or gaming.
During this time I would like you to carry a journal around and take notes of when you feel the with drawl from this technology, how you feel, what happened during this time, how people are reacting to you, and anything else that may be related to this withdrawal of technology.
Quick Note Survey:
Here is a quick survey that may help be a starting point for your note taking, or may serve as your notes. Either way is up to you, there is no minimum that is required. However, I would recommend every 3 hours to fill out a survey or do a journal entry.
1. What time is it?
2. When did you last feel a withdrawal?
3. How do you feel?
4. What have you done in between these withdrawals?
5. Are you drawn to any technology or media more to fill this void?
Reflection Survey:
At the end of the 24 hours I would like you to fill out this short survey reflecting on your vacation from your technology.
1. How do you feel?
2. Did you enjoy the time away from your technology?
3. Do you feel like you have more or less energy?
4. Do you feel a need to catch up and maybe spend more time using this technology?
5. Did you ever break your vacation and use this technology? If so why?
6. Did you tell anyone about your vacation or did others notice? If so what were their reactions?
7. What day of the week did you take your vacation?
8. Do you normally work or go to school on this day?
9. Was this vacation easy, moderate, or difficult for you?
10. How often do you use this technology per day?
11. What other technologies do you use on a daily basis?
12. How many of these technologies do you use at once?
13. Do you feel overwhelmed by the need to use these technologies, or is it easy for you to manage?
14. How does technology plan a part in your life?
15. Do you think you would take a vacation like this again?
Please let me know if you are interested.
Thank you,
Matt
Problem Space
Most people may have the similar feeling of how time flies and wonder where their time were spent. Everyone is busy. Their google calendars are full of color boxes. But most of them have a hard time to recall what they did just one day before, let alone for a longer time period.
People’s time is scheduled, but few of them have learned how to use time wisely. Many people have time pressure, “I don’t have time for …” One’s daily working schedule may be arranged fully and s/he may fight for minutes, but after work s/he may wait in line for two hours for seats in a restaurant. This is not what the so-called “time management skills” could solve. Everyone can make lists, and everyone can distinguish which tasks are important or not, or which are urgent or not. It is a difference in choice making and quality of time. Sometimes, some people do a lot of things a day, but they don’t feel happy; while sometime, something that doesn’t take too much time, but will make their day.
Importance
Being able to reflect is one important distinction between we as human and other animals. It is due to our ability to reflect that we finally have languages, words and acquire the ability to think rationally.
It is about the wisdom, and the power of mind. Actually, nothing is more important than to discover, cultivate, care, and improve our wisdom, and our power of mind. We are making decisions all the time. Our power of mind will affect our choice making. We can make wrong decisions based on wrong understandings, and we will pay off the wrong decisions by wasting a lot of time. What is worse, we may not even being aware of it.
Being aware of the time spent could help people reflect on their own time use, choice making and further improve their plan in the future. This provides a double-loop reflection-on-action mechanism so that people could make more informed decisions in the future.
Target User Group
In general, everyone who cares about time and wants to make more value out of it falls into my target user group. However, in order to make it doable, I should narrow it down to a specific group. By specific group, I don’t necessary mean by job or by age but maybe by similar problem patterns I would identify during user research.
Client
Possible clients may include companies who do time planning software, mobile application and researchers who do topics that related to slow change and reflection.
This is a rough (very rough!) overview of the problem space that I am exploring for my capstone project. I am VERY interested in getting feedback from all of you. If anyone else is exploring social media, organizational behavior or design theory/thinking I would love to share notes with you. I am also planning to submit a paper to the CHI Student Research Competition and if anyone wants to go in on this with me, just let me know. I feel like the notes below are only scratching the surface. As you can see I already have a nice big reading list to work on and it is already turning up some very interesting issues.Capstone Proposal
Disrupting Work: How Social Media Is Changing The Way Organizations Work - Whatʼs Design Got To Do With It?
Attached are images of some sketch notes that were the result of my efforts to map the area I want to explore. This led to a conversation I had with Christian Briggs regarding social media and organizations. This topic has been fueled by several different experiences I have had over the past few months, many of which were unrelated yet were associated in nature. I started out by looking at what I am naturally interested in along with what my background and experience has been. I have been extremely interested in social media in general ever since Web 2.0 emerged onto the scene. I have used LinkedIn and Facebook for both personal and professional use. I started using Twitter about a year ago in an effort to understand the
distinctions it offered.
Working title/Project name: Connections in Time and Space
Target "user" group: Museum visitors/All ages
Client: The Museum owners/curators
Description "problem space": Provide additional information and interaction for exhibit visitors by means of an augmented reality display overlapping an exhibit. This additional information would be displayed in a number of different ways to form connections between different people, places, cultures and events through time which would help the visitor be more informed as to why these exhibits and materials are so important. The display would help create a better understanding of the past, present, and possible future.
The beauty of using augmented reality to display these connects and additional information is that the visitor isn't limited to just displaying text, but using a wide variety of mediums to better understand the exhibit. This information could be displayed in video, such as documentary clips, pictures, audio, 3D objects, and so on.
Like we may think and perceive our world with any individual perspective for the most part there is no doubt that our lives are all connected and layered in such a way that may be all to complicated for one to see, understand, and possible believe. Augmented Reality may give a hand in showing this layering in a clear and entertaining way.
One of the problem areas that is becoming apparent is what information to use and who has ownership over this information? Is it open to the public and that is why it is being displayed in a somewhat public place, such as a museum, or how controlled will it be?
Why important - for you /target/world: I feel there is a great need to understand the past and how it has influence the now and possibly the future. Part of this fascination has to do with the similarities and differences between cultures, people, etc. I believe that there is much to be gained by looking at what has already been and feel that much can be over looked by the general public.
One possible reason why the general public might have a hard time looking at how things are connected is the simple fact that there is so much information and it is usually presented in a way that is overwhelming and too tedious.
Predispositions: Museums are for learning as well as entertainment.
The past influences the present and the future.
Cultures build upon past generations.
Approach - how are you going to do this/the process: I will be doing research in different uses and forms of augmented reality along with research in the way people learn and how best to layer information. Also I will be visiting museums and doing research on how museums use space, exhibits, instillation, different types of museums that this could be used in, however I am thinking of this being used mainly in history and cultural museums, but I can see it in some way being applied to most museums.
Preliminary plan maybe based on "PRInCiPleS" - Time line/the plan
Predispositions, Research, Insights, Concepts, Prototypes, Strategies.
Insights: as of right now, too much overlaying can be overwhelming, confusing, and distracting. I don't want to have too provide too much information at once making it too distracting from the physical exhibit. From the video demonstrations that I have seen of augmented reality working in museums it is still in its infancy and can be explore much further as far as the type of information that is being communicated and the interactions the visitors have with the technology and exhibit.
Concepts:
iPhone Application - using the iPhone to display the additional information. This gives an interesting opportunity for mobile and instant interaction without the need of an additional peripheral or something somewhat unfamiliar feeling to visitors. Furthermore, gives the possibility of recording video and pictures of the augmented information and the interactivity of the exhibit. Stating the obvious benefit to this is the ease of accessibility and for the visitors to take something home from the exhibit. The downside is that the iPhone screen is limiting the field of view for the visitors.
Glasses - Glasses with a display in them, creating an immersive experience for the visitor. It isn't just a window into another reality, you are up close and personal with it. Ways of interaction could be simple hand gestures. Downside is having to wear glasses to see this information. At the same time it is offering an experience which is very close to merging these two realities together and making it more realistic than most other concepts and forms of augmented reality, it is also another piece that you have to wear and that can be distracting to the overall experience. May not be as transparent of an experience as it eludes to.
Portable Window - Having a light weight touch screen device as a window to see the augmented reality and interactive with it. It would be about the size of a netbook, much like the soon to be released Archos 9. Benefits are the obvious increase in visibility of the augmented space and information. Which as one can hope would increase the amount of interaction and ease of use. The downsides being you would have something else to carry around with you. Would be a little hard to use as a touch screen while holding, observing, interacting, and trying not to break it.
Swivel Window - A swivel touch screen computer window. Much like what is seen here. basically using a decent size computer mounted on a swiveling stand. This would provide the visitor with a large enough window to see and can easily be moved. Even if it may not be that fast of a movement, fast movements are not really necessary. It would also be part of the exhibit and somewhat stationary which there are pros and cons to. The main advantage to this is the size of the screen with the possibility of it being somewhat hands free, until the user wants to move it or change some of the content. The disadvantages being only so many can be installed and it can be somewhat limiting in how the exhibit is setup.
Prototypes: The creation and implementation of prototypes will be low-fi, for the time being at least. My main thoughts behind the prototypes are using transparencies for the screen and creating a frame in the shape of the device. I could easily manage doing this and think it is as close as I can get to the end product/design while still leaving room for adjustments in the design. It is the simplest solution that will give the user the closest resemblance to what the end design would look and how the interactions would feel. As far as a place to test the prototypes in, I was thinking an actual museum, most likely the Mathers Museum.
Strategies: One of the main goals of this project is to keep the information and design as universal as possible, that is to design it to be used across age groups and as transparent as possible.
