ASKING FOR IT TOTUR
naif 1411
final_phase.zipFinal Phase/COMP325B 2014 Project Phase III.pdf
COMP325B 2014 Project, Phase III
Designing a system to help people brand their personal identity Your task, this semester, is to design a system that will help people to brand their personal identity. Phase I of this project involved understanding how people currently deal with their personal expression. Phase II of this project involved building on your understanding of users and tasks from Phase I to create and test prototypes of a system design to support these users in their tasks. In Phase III, you will implement a proof-of-concept prototype of the Phase II design. This assignment consists of 4 steps. There are deliverables associated with each of these steps.
Step 1: Construct a Computer-‐based Horizontal Prototype (50%) In the environment of your choice1 (e.g. Visual Studio, Glade, Flash/Director, Dreamweaver, etc.), construct a computer-based prototype of your system design. Please note that your prototyping environment does not have to be the same as the environment that would be chosen for fully developing the software: eg, you can prototype for a handheld device using software that displays on a desktop machine, you can prototype standalone software in Dreamweaver, and so forth. Your design should cover the whole of your system at the level of a horizontal prototype. This means you can use fake data. However it should be possible to move around the prototype to show the various elements of the design and (using hard- coded elements, canned text etc.) it should provide sufficient interactivity to give the impression of a functional system. Deliverables: a) Write a brief summary of the target user group for the system you are designing
and the sort of identity expressions that your system will help those users to create, manage or share. (1 – 2 paragraphs)
b) Explain how your interface appearance and functionality are designed so as to be
appropriate for these target users. (1 page)
1 The environment that you select must have the following characteristics: you must be able to use colors and images so that your prototype looks like ‘real’ software; and you must be able to include clickable links and other screen elements that give the appearance of functionality (eg, the user must be able to type into a text box, select one radio button, etc).
c) Present a set of screenshots of a scenario you used to show your paper prototype (in Phase II Step 2). Include the scenario description. List and explain any changes made in the design between Phase II and Phase III.
d) Present a set of screenshots showing the rest of your system design. List and
explain any changes made in the design between Phase II and Phase III. e) Your prototype code:
All students must submit your code electronically on Moodle. You should provide an executable version of your code that we can run. If you have developed on another platform (e.g. Linux) provide clear instructions on how to run your prototype.
f) Conduct a 5 - 10 minute demonstration of your prototype during study week 20th-24th October 2014. We will post a sign-up sheet for the Hamilton demonstrations in Week 12 of the semester; Judy Bowen will arrange the demonstrations for TGA which will take place on Friday October 24th. In this demonstration, you will show us the functionality of your system by conducting a walkthrough of one of your scenarios; and you will explain any interesting/useful/fun/intriguing elements of your interface design and prototype.
Step 2: Test your Software Prototype (20%) For this step you are to undertake two different evaluations: 1) Ask two or more people to “use” your computer-based prototype. You may include both general impressions of your system and more specific testing based around the scenario you used for the design and evaluation in Phase II. Observe them as they proceed and make paper-based notes of their interaction (as you did for Phase II). See the Ethical Notes at the end of this document. You should use what you learned from the first tutorial (observational studies) to plan your testing and decide beforehand what sorts of things you will measure (ability to complete tasks, time taken, difficulty for participants etc.) and how you will ensure you successfully capture and record this data during the study. 2) Using the two evaluation heuristics:
a) Speak the user's language b) Prevent errors
evaluate all of your computer-based prototype. Explain why your prototype passes or fails these guidelines. Deliverable: a 2-page report describing the main results of testing your computer- based prototype: both with users and against heuristic guidelines. Discuss how you carried out the evaluations and present the key issues identified for your design – both positive and negative. For the user test, you can include actual comments made by the testers to illustrate your report. Also submit any original notes you made during the testing sessions (these should be as you wrote them – don't format or type them in). Remember that we can only give marks based on what appears in the report—please allow us to give you credit for the work that you do, by writing full and detailed
summaries of your testing results.
Step 3: Critical Assessment of your Chosen Software Prototyping Environment/Tool (10%) Discuss your experiences in developing the software prototype: 1) how well / poorly the environment supported you in creating that prototype 2) whether there were aspects of the design in the paper prototype that could / could
not be effectively conveyed in the software prototype 3) any technical difficulties that you encountered in creating the prototype, and any
aspects of the prototyping that were particularly easily done with that tool or environment
4) how easy or difficult it would be to modify your prototype 5) how easy or difficult it was to test the software prototype with users, in
comparison to the paper prototype 6) speed of prototyping, particularly in comparison with paper prototyping 7) … any other interesting, relevant aspects of using your chosen environment or
tool to create the software prototype Deliverable: a 2 page report describing your experiences of prototyping in Phase III.
Step 4: Refinement of your Prototype (10%) Provide a list of the recommended changes to your computer-based prototype. Link your explanations and changes to the results of your testing in Step 2. Deliverable: a 2-page report describing and justifying your recommended changes. This report should be structured as a list, in which each recommended change is immediately followed by a justification for that change (in other words, an argument as to why that modification to the interface design is necessary). The justification should include evidence from Step 2 or 3 (or possibly from additional reading that you have done on interface design or the application domain).
Presentation, Spelling, Grammar, Clarity, Coherence: 10%
Material to Submit You should hand in a report containing all the deliverables specified in Steps 1 – 4 (apart from the electronic code submission). This report must be word-processed, using Times font, size 12 point, and single line-spacing. Use margins no larger than 2.5 cm on all sides. Make sure you include your name and student ID number on the coversheet. Electronic Submission of Code
All students must submit your code electronically on Moodle by Friday 31 October 2014. You should provide an executable version of your code that we can run. If you have developed on another platform (e.g. Linux) provide clear instructions on how to run your prototype. If you have used an online prototyping tool that does not allow you to download your code, please upload a document to Moodle giving details as to how the prototype and its code can be accessed.
Demonstration of prototype
You are required to conduct a 5 - 10 minute demonstration of your prototype 20th-24th October 2014 (study week). Sign-up sheets for demonstration times will be available in Week 12 of the semester.
Submission of Report
Hamilton students: Submit your completed report electronically on Moodle by 17:00 on Friday 31 October 2014. In addition you must submit the notes taken during user testing in the COMP325 assignment box (outside the Computer Science office, first floor, G Building) by 17:00 on Friday 31 October 2014.
Tauranga students: Submit your completed report electronically on Moodle by 17:00 on Friday 31 October 2014. In addition you must submit the notes taken during user testing to Judy after your prototype demonstration on Friday 31 October 2014.
Ethical notes An important aspect of conducting HCI research is to behave ethically. For each person who tests your paper prototype you should do the following:
• Give a copy of the Research Consent Form and Participants Bill of Rights to your participants (see SCMS website for copies of these forms; you will need to adapt the Research Consent Form for your needs).
• At the beginning of each session, verbally explain these documents, with particular reference to the participant’s right to withdraw at any point without explanation.
• Get the participants to read through the documents carefully. Two copies of the Research Consent Form need to be signed by the participant and yourself. One copy will be retained by the participant, and you will keep the other copy.
• After the end of this semester, when your grade for COMP325 has been finalized, destroy any data that you hold that was gathered from your participant(s).
Final Phase/phase3-marks-scheme-2014.pdf
COMP325B 2014: Introduction to Human Computer Interaction Project: Phase 3 Designing a system to help people brand their personal identity
Student Name:
ID:
Marks
Step 1: Construct a Computer-based Horizontal Prototype Deliverable: code submission, screenshots of scenario & total system design Assessment: summary of target user group; screenshots of scenarios from Phase II step 1 (use the scenario text to explain the screenshots), screenshots of the rest of design with explanatory captions and any changes (from Phase II) noted, code submission (with instructions for running it). Demonstration of your prototype (20-24/10/14).
50
Step 2: Test your Computer Prototype Deliverable: 2 page report describing the results of the two types of tests Assessment: description of the results of your user testing. Description of the results of applying the 2 heuristic guidelines. For both tests descriptions of how the tests were performed and both positive and negative results. Additionally submit notes made during the testing – in their original format.
20
Step 3: Critical Assessment of Programming Tool Deliverable: 2 page report critiquing your chosen software prototyping tool in Phases III
Assessment: critical assessment of ‘fit’ of your chosen software prototyping language / tool / environment to development of prototype for Phase III
10
Marks
Step 4: Refinement of Computer-Based Prototype Deliverable: 2 page report describing recommended changes to your prototype
Assessment: description of recommended changes to your prototype. Evidence of the need for these changes as uncovered by test results in Step 2.
10
Presentation Spelling, grammar, formatting, clarity, coherence. 10
Total 100
phase 2 Assignment NAIF.docx
Comp325 phase II
Step 1: Target users and Requirements
The target audience in this case is the youth. The youth here comprises of both male and female who are aged between 15 to 27 years. The youth here presents the audience who also works as the main agents of the systems. The systems supports the varying needs of the youth. The needs of the youth remain the most important as it is the only chance of the youth to exploit their talents. The system in this case supports the basic interests of the people by providing entertainment. The youth are happy watching comedy clips on their computers. The comedies are played on their computers that have a screen with high resolution. The system allows the youth to download, streamline, recording, sharing, and managing the online comedies. The comedies are a source of entertainment for the youth. The youth really enjoy watching the comedy clips on their computers. There are major equipment provided by the system to help in provision of high quality education. The equipment are keyboard, screen, mouse, webcam, and strong internet connection. They all help at making sure that the process of providing the entertainment is good and flows well. It is installed on the laptop or computers with varying data sizes. The system will help the youth carry out various functions with minimal difficulties. It supports searching for online comedies, watching, downloading, and saving different types of movies. The movies are all online and hence the need of a strong internet connection.
The system helps the youth to manage watching videos by having a browser tool. The browser tool is important as it helps simplify the process of watching, streaming, downloading, sharing, and saving the comedies on the laptops. The laptops here are important for this purpose to create a better touch with the varying needs of the youth. It gets even more fun when people are enjoying watching the comedies as a group. The system allows the people to connect the computers with a projector to watch on the large screen of the projector. The browser tool in this case provides an option of streaming online and managing the comedies instead of using other program browsers. It becomes easier to watch the comedies on the YouTube and other sites. The youth really enjoy the services of the browser tool as they watch their favorite comedies.
There is a history tool on the system. The history tool helps the people to recall the previously watched comedies on the YouTube. The tool can recall all the previously vested links from the system browser. It helps to recall the nature of comedies already watched if the youth does not recall well. The history tool is seen by pressing the control and letter “h” button simultaneously while on the browser. The person then selects the link want to revisit to watch the movies. It becomes more fun since the tool helps one watch their best comedies repeatedly.
The search tool is available on the system’s browser. The tool here helps to search different types of comedies. While on the browser’s first page, a search option is available. The search option helps the person to allocate the comedies easily. One just types the name of the comedy on the search bar then presses the enter button. After a short while, many suggestions appear on the screen and the person selects the name of the comedy to watch and later on download it on the system. It is more and more simplified as the best quality of the comedy is usually on top. The person then clicks on that link and watching is just enjoyable and fun. In this search tool, there are two options available. The first one is simple search option that allows the user to simply search for the comedies. Advanced search is another option that helps one search for movies but using complicated mechanism to do so. The search option helps the youth save time while trying to retrieve a certain comedy or any other type of a comedy.
The system also allows the youth to share their comedies with each other. A person can easily share the comedies on their laptop with friends and get what they do not have. It is important to share the comedies since one cannot download all the comedies online. Using the Bluetooth device on the computers, the youth can comfortably share the comedy clips they have. One just clicks on the selected comedies then presses the share icon and shares with the available open devices. The process of sharing is very easy and does not require much expertise or experience to do so. The sharing of comedies is possible by making use of emails. The emails also share the links by copying and pasting them then sending to the selected email address. The receipts then receives them downloads the comedies for the future.
There is a recording tool in the computers. It helps the youth to record various parts of the clips and saving them on their computer. One can easily record the comedy even when playing on the selected bowser. Using the webcam, it become easy to record the whole comedy as you watch by just setting the webcam settings. It provides some high quality of recorded clips since there are no external interference when recording.
The system supports categorizing the comedy clips in various options. To start with, the person can categorize the clips depending with the nature and content. By using folders, one can categorize the clips into size, type, time, length, nature, content, and name. It is easy to retrieve the comedy files using the categories with fewer difficulties. It can also vary depending with the interests of the user. In this case, it becomes easy to locate the different types of comedy clips using the folders.
The manage tool is also important for the youth to utilize. The manage tool has very many options that help organize the comedy clips well. The manage tool helps to save, delete, rename, copy, paste, and make a list of all the clips on the computer. One can create a favorite list of comedies using this tool. The youth enjoy this tool as it makes their computer’s hard disk look more decent and neatly arranged. The manage tools can be customized by the users.
There is a burning tool on the computers. The tool helps one to burn selected clips of comedies into a DVD. Most of the youth use Ashampoo Burning Studio. The person first selects the comedies he wants to burn and follows the instructions provided by the computer. The instructions are simple to follow hence the process of burning is not complicated at all. The people just share the DVDs with friends to help them watch the clips that they lack.
Step 2: Personas and Scenario
Persona #1 Peterson
He is a Male Student. He is 21 years old. He studies at the University of Kota. He is a fourth year student taking a degree in Economics and Business Studies with Information Technology. Peterson undertakes a full-time study program at the university. He is a freelancer.
Peterson is a social person and love making new friends daily. He is very busy during the weekdays since he undertakes a full time study program that make him remain tied to classwork all day long. When he leaves school in the evening, he goes home to do some of his freelancing jobs as he also helps his brother do his assignments. When free, he goes to his friend’s place to have a chat and share some stories. It really gets fun since Peterson loves telling stories about his early life back in Kenya where he lived before moving to India to carry on his education. On the weekend, Peterson goes to the cinema to watch different types of movies for only 2 hours.
Peterson is a fan of comedies. When he is free, he takes a lot of time to download the comedies. He streamlines the comedies on YouTube to select the best type of comedy for viewing. It becomes easier for Peterson to locate previously visited links to help him view them. It becomes easy to watch the clips since there is less disturbances on the system. Peter also loves sharing whatever he has with friends. He achieves this by connecting his laptop to that of his friends using a cable. He then selects the clips to share with his friends and sends to their computers. He also gets a chance to receive some comedy clips that he does not have. It is obvious that he cannot have all the comedies on earth. The process of sharing at times is difficult when he cannot retrieve the files he saved on the computer. He also forgets how he saved the comedy clips previously downloaded. He has an IDM software but at times, it is very congested with different types of downloads making it hard to identify the clips. He has many categories of comedy clips saved on his laptop. He easily customizes the clips in different folders to suit his personal interests. The manage tool helps Peterson to store or even delete the comedy clips depending with his interests and likes.
Peterson is currently staying with his brother at India on a rented house. They all moved to India to carry on with their studies. They left their parents back in Kenya where they work as government officials. Peterson works as a freelancer and is able to meet their daily needs with his brother. Peterson takes his academic very serious since he wants to become an accountant at the biggest bank in Kenya after completing his PhD level.
Goals of Peter
1. Downloading high quality comedy clips
2. Having increased number of comedies
3. Sharing comedy clips with his friends
4. Having short and long comedy clips
5. Having a customizable list of comedy clips on his laptop
Persona #2 Steve
He is a male student. He is 24 years currently taking a degree in Human Resource Management. He is studying at University of Toronto. He is a third year student and a full-time student. He has many computer skills. He took a diploma in computer before joining university.
Steve is a social person who loves making new friends all the time. He always love being open to other people and this increases his chances of having very many friends and sincere ones. He does not violate the principles of his friends. He takes his studies all day. In the evening when he goes home, he takes time to design some websites where he gets some cash for entertainment and daily uses. He is very busy during the weekdays with books.
Steve loves watching comedies. He spends his weekend watching comedies with friends. It makes him happy as this is his hobby and he cannot get bored at all. He spends the weekends downloading the latest comedies on YouTube, as this is the best site where he can get the best comedies. He then downloads the comedies on his computer to watch later when he is free. The good part of it is that he can access the previously accessed comedies using the history tool on his computer. The tool helps him to revisit the previously viewed comedies on YouTube if he had forgotten the name of the comedies or even the artist. The manage tool helps him to save the comedies on different folders to help him access the comedies easily with minimal disturbances.
Steve loving sharing the comedies with friends. First, he always pastes the links he has created on his Facebook wall. His friends can easily access the comedies by clicking on that link and watching the comedies on the YouTube. Second, he shares the comedies using a flash disk. He transfers the comedies in the flash disks and later on transfers the same on the computer of his friends. Sometimes he cannot retrieve the comedies as he thinks that some virus attacks have affected the files. It makes is hard to obtain the comedies as he cannot recall how he saved the downloaded comedies. Sharing these comedies is much fun though as he really enjoys the entire process.
Goals of Steve
1. Downloading the comedies.
2. Accessing the new comedies in town.
3. Increasing the number of comedies in his computer.
4. Sharing downloaded comedies with friends.
5. Having a good way to categorize the comedies on his computer
Persona #3 Susan
She is a female student. She is 22 years old. She is taking a degree in Business Administration. She is a third year student studying at the University of British Columbia in Canada. She has many skills in computers. She takes her study as a part-time student. She works as the secretary for a bank near her school.
Susan is very busy during the day and at night. Daytime, she is busy at the bank to ensure all runs smoothly as expected. At the evening, she leaves to school for the part-time lectures that last for 3 hours. After school, she drives back home to finish her class assignments and prepare food and take a rest. She usually works on a fixed schedule on the weekdays but affords a break on the weekends. During the weekend, she is free and gets time to socialize and make friends while she goes out. She loves swimming since this is her hobby. She goes to the swimming pool to swim and have fun with friends. Swimming is the best thing she can do especially when hot. She also loves dancing and she goes to the club on Saturday nights to dance and have fun with friends.
She loves watching comedies and animations. Whenever she is free, she must take time to watch her favorite clips. She loves watching as this keeps her happy and busy as well. The process of watching also imparts some knowledge to her. She watches the comedies on YouTube and other sites. It is easy since she has a good internet connection provided at the place where she lives. The internet is from a Wi-Fi connection that is open all the time. She watches the comedy clips and stores them on her computer that has a 500 GB hard disk.
She loves sharing her comedy clips and animations with her friends who are near her and far away from her. She is very social and extends her socialness to sharing of these clips. She uses emails to share the clips with friends. She has a long list of email address on her computer. She selects the best clips to share and uploads them to her friends. She also receives some links from friends. The sharing is mutual. She categorizes her clips in various ways. The categories are in form of size, name, content, and time of accessing the clip. She has a folder of her favorite clips and does no struggle accessing them. She manages her clips well using the manage tool available on the browser. She at time finds it hard to trace the downloaded clips on her computer. It really stresses her and disappoints her especially if she want to share them with her family members and friends. The process is not that easy and she gives up in most cases especially if she cannot retrieve the same clip for her to share.
Susan is currently staying alone far away from her parents. Her parents moved from Canada to Mexico after receiving a transfer from their office. She is happy living alone since she is able to pay her bills and meet daily expenses with minimal struggle. He job provides some good income to carry on this activity. Her parents pay the school fee for Susan.
Goals of Susan
1. Having a long list of her favorite video clips
2. Creating special folders for her clips
3. Sharing the clips with many friends
4. Finishing her degree program
5. Making new friends every day
6. Having better clips to watch and enjoy
Scenario 1 Primary Persona:
It is on a Friday evening and Peterson has just arrived at his place. He feels very exhausted and tired. He decides to take a hot shower and relax. After some time, he is back to normal. His friend sends him a text message telling him that he had emailed him some links to his favorite comedies. He opens his email on his computer and gets the link to the comedies. He opens the links, watches the comedies, and downloads the content. He achieved his goal.
Scenario 2 Primary Persona:
It is on a Sunday night. Steve has finished watching the news. He decides to look at his computer but finds that it is not properly organized. He decides to categorize the comedies into different folders that he can easily access. He categorizes the comedies folders depending with the size, name, time, and content. He finds his computer very neat now. He really appreciates the ideas and achieves his goal before sleeping.
Scenario 3 Primary Persona:
Susan just arrives at her room on Saturday evening feeling a bit dizzy and tired. She decides to take a one-hour nap. Afterwards, she is relaxed and ready to prepare her supper. She remembers that her computer’s hard disk required some partitioning. She transfers some comedies on her external hard disk so that she does not lose her comedies while partitioning the hard disk. She achieves her goal.
Step 3: Paper-based Prototype
Step 4: Testing the paper prototypes
There was a request for the participant, in a silent room, to accomplish scenario 2 in the primary persona. I was able to identify that some were stuck in their tasks. I took advantage of this chance by remaining silent and taking several notes. I took the notes until the last moment when the testers finished. I had the chance to evaluate the prototype in the case of scenario 2 in the primary persona. I got the following results that were of most concern with regard to the observations. There were both positive and negative issues. These issues slightly differed with thee various user’s needs but all were the same. The positive issues supported the main ideas whereas the negative issues did not support any idea. They opposed the main ideas as presented by the participants.
Negative issues
The first negative issue is on the menu bar. The initial impression displayed for the users was not that good as expected. The users were not sure where to go in order to search for the music files. They took a lot of time to identify the search tool icon. This tool was invisible under the tools found in the menu toolbar. They had a tough time before identifying the actual tool that could have helped get the music they wanted.
The other negative issue is the missing function control. The users were unable to know the next step after typing the name of the music they want to search. The system could not search for the music since the command was absent in this case. The users were even more confused and left hanging without accomplishing their goal.
The other negative issue is confusion arising from the different labels. The people usually confused the labels and they did not use the right label for the intended purpose. It became even worse when they could not get the direct option on which label to apply as they searched for the music.
Finally, the navigation bars led to a negative issue among the users. The users could not identify the easiest way to use the navigation bar. The navigation bar usually tells someone where one is exactly. The participants felt lost because of the confusion brought about by the navigation bar. The exactly location where they were remained unclear.
Positive Issues
Regardless of the negative issues originally identified, some positive issues were evident. The positive issues arose because of the increased value of the users in line with the participants’ needs. I got several positive feedback from the users in line with individual needs and preferences.
The first positive issue that I received was familiarity by the participants with the system. The system appears very familiar and in a simpler visual to the users. They find it easy to access the different music files found online because of the good internet connection and familiarity with the system. The system is easy to use even by the users with little computer experience.
The other positive issue was on the windows selected on the computers. The computers operates on Window Operating System 7. It is easy to use this operating system and the users can witness this. It support many applications and the user can access the music stored on the system easily.
These positive issues were necessary as they helped the users effectively maximize the system. It was easy to streamline, watch, save the files, and share the music files with friends and family members.
The negative issues however would be resolved much easily using various ways and methodologies. These solutions however differ with the different user. The main aim is improving the usability of the system to the users. The users could easily identify their problems and weaknesses hence easy to come up with the solutions.
The first solution is adding the search button for search textbook. The aim of this is to simplify the function action for execution by the mouse. It replaces the need of using the keyboard only.
The second solution is adding the navigation bar to the system. It really helps the users to identify the current location of the window he is operating. It is much easier that way instead of having only one bar item on the system.
Step 5: Refined paper-based protocol
Adding the search button and the navigation window to get suggestions about the comedy
Adding navigation tool on the system
Adding the labels on final downloads and saving the comedy
2
image3.jpeg
image4.png
image5.png
image6.png
image7.png
image8.png
image9.png
image1.jpeg
image2.jpeg
Comp325 Phase 1.docx
Naif Alqarni Comp325
|
Comp325
|
|
|
|
|
|
PHASE1 |
|
ddddf |
|
|
|
|
NAIF ALQARNI
Step 1 : Interview/Observation
Gender: Male
Occupation: Student
Personally, I feel that there are two types of traits needed to answer this kind of self-interview when expression is concerned with the identity of self. One is termed as self-identity and another is called as social identity. The former deals with the way as how we are looking at ourselves, whereas the later deals with how others use to see us. One simple example, I can take from my school days. As I use to be a good student who always scores highest gradein my routine exams. The moment, I use to be worried about my preparation for the next day’s exam, I use to feel low and tensed. On the contrary, others who are near to me (including my parents, my siblings and friends), they use to think it is one of the regular stuff I use to do and I am fine with it. Probably the reason is the confidence they have that I can score nice as usual. Thus the picturesque presented in this context is general and has two different prospect of same individual (that is me). The present era can be more or else a part of digital world as well. Here we have a real world where we use to eat, drink, gossip, read books, writes on a piece of paper. On the same hand, we have a digit world as well, which deals with chatting, talking on phone, have face to face chat over Skype with another person who is probably 1000 miles away from us. So the best way to deal with both the situations, that is real world as well as digital world, it is must to develop a strong brand which can be self-explanatory about yourself. At present I am sitting in my study table, where I am asking all these questions to myself and finding the way which is suitable for describingme. While jotting down the interview with myself, I am at present, is sitting on my working chair in my home, with my laptop. As per the virtual world is concerned, I am connect with my Facebook in my I-pad and internet in my laptop. More or less, let me concentrate on the some of my part which I like to do much in whole day. I use to read newspaper, magazine, and blogs and watch television to keep me updated with the present going in the world.
How do I use to express myself when I use to be sad as well as in happy moods?
Say for instance, when I use to read the newspaper, the colorful pages is what attracts me too much. Personally I feel like I have more interest in some of the particular sections such as, Politics, Fashion and Sports. The related issues of world politics what is happening these days are really a matter of concern. Every day after reading such news, my first work is to update the fact as my status in both Facebook as well as on Tweeter. Also I use to share the same thoughts with my friends through other system such as Whatsapp and Google plus. The news of latest fashion including bikes, new arrival branded cloths and electronics also fascinates me. I admit many a time when I have nothing to do; I use to see Google images related to sci-fi bikes and cars. These are some of the way I use to share the things of my mind. Seldom there are many a things which makes me feel happy as well as sad. Say during the last session of FIFA 2014, when Brazil loses the semifinal match against Germany, I felt very depressed. In either of the case, it makes me feel relieved when I can share the things with my friends. Means of such expression are phone, chat, sharing links of blogs writing small comments in many websites and Tweeting. Some of my means of self-expression are:
1. Selfie representing various moods, and keeping them as profile photos in all digital system.
2. Sharing the news of any interesting event across the world on Facebook and receiving the comments. .
3. Any special status as like “Feeling Happy”, “Watching Movie at INOX”, “Having fun with childhood friend”, “Brazil enters into semis – FIFA2014”.
4. Having any issue at home, skipping meals, busy schedule etc. I would like to share it with the friends.
5. Any important update related to International affairs which I come to know, would like to share them.
6. Magazines having articles of my interest, I use to purchase and keep them.
7. Blogs which contains my favorite sport information will be saved as bookmark for timely update.
8. Important clips on Youtube and sharing it on my profile pages.
Likewise, I also use to share the same feeling on my social networking webpage as well. It would be accurate to admit, just like we feel good in getting sympathy and support from our near ones in real world, the same feeling use to come from the friends and partners with whom we are connected in the virtual or digital world. Just so as to have updates for all important happenings in nation, I have activated by mobile phone with subscriptions. Some of the simple examples of expressing me in my ways are:
1. Tweeting “GAZA status needs to be thought carefully, taking into consideration of children and women.”
2. “What a football match!!! Neymar broke the spinal, Brazil in trouble for next matches in FIFA 2014.”
3. Hitting like on the You Tube videos which I like such as Hollywood trailers, Latest songs form Backstreet Boys, Clippings from football match highlights.
4. Cutting newspaper sections and storing them in my file at home.
5. Checking out food menu in restaurant and informing all my friends on Whatsapp.
Similar is the case, when I use to feel good, enthusiastic and confident about any particular matter. In other words, the moment my mind use to be happy, I use to express it with all my connections. The interesting part being, if there is my idol joined with me on tweeter account, I like to follow his lifestyle and fashion trend. Any new latest fashion-ware arrived in market, I should try them, release of my favorite Hollywood movie, I must see it at the nearest theater.
Is it something called a material which better representing my expression and mental status?
To some extent it is also true. Seldom when we use to be happy, we were unable to control ourselves in being silent. It is more interesting to share the joy, happiness, and sadness as well with either whom so ever is near to us or even with any one whom we feel comfortable with. It is interesting to be engaged in shopping, eating in some restaurant, having a time in pub and night clubs especially there are certain moments to enjoy. In my opinion this is needed to drive myself out from any boredom with the regular life schedule. This is indeed the most important one which I use to follow very thoroughly. Taking participation in any curricular activities within my college, nearby clubs or associations fascinates me. More or less if I will talk about my personal interest, it will include the reading and watching news. The things which I often use to like as such are:
1. Reading the headline of all new articles present in newspapers.
2. Checking the Sports section immediately after reading out the first page.
3. Looking at magazines for articles related to national news, international sports, colorful advertisements.
4. Often the political meeting, agendas, external affairs, opening of newer schemes related to education system, construction and heavy traffic news, crime associated in the nations are some of the topics I generally use to stick with.
5. Having a glimpse at the Official videos from various websites which I came across through newspapers, magazines, flyers etc.
What are types of artifacts I use to make as a part of my expression?
In brief, some of my activities that help in managing my way of expression throughout the day are:
· Opening the LinkedIn to view profiles of other similar professionals of my field.
· Yahoo cricket is my favorite to watch the updates.
· YouTube I use to open to see all latest trailers and music launch
· Google Drive – the best thing in all forms. The cloud computing offers a lot to share both for professional purpose and fun purpose.
· Facebook to be connected with the friends.
· Twitter to share, follow and view mindsets.
Figure: A Rough scratch prepared from all the virtual sites where I like to spend more time.
My best artifact use to source from:
1. The news channels, such as Al Jazeera, Al Arabiya, Arab Media Television, CNN, Times Now and IBN News.
2. Similarly the newspapers which I use to perch maximum time of the day are, Qatar Tribune, Morocco Mirror, Arab News, Times of Oman, Daily News Egypt etc.
3. Popular magazine issues mainly include Al-Arabi, Majalla and Al Fanar.
4. Blogs which I use to check routinely are Alexa, Yahoo.com, Dubizzle.com and Gulfnews.com,
5. Wikipedia is also one of the most favorite sites to acquire any latest and old information.
Overall it can be said, not only the materials but also the feelings emerging out of it that satisfy some curiosity, learning, perceiving and identifying things are important for self-expression. It is more often when I know something; I would be able to communicate with my friends and relatives. The effective means of communication is through chat and gossips. Other than that to highlight the mindset, it is more important to display the topic with the profile signature such as updates, mental status, and feelings in various networking site. Other things which I would like to keep with me are the videos, which I use to download from Youtube or other available blogs for watching them later.
What is the basis of my self-expression?
The points which best can explain the basis of my self-expressions is:
1. Intrinsic motivation – Feelings of sadness or happiness
2. External regulation – Dealing with some good political news makes a concept of good discussion and display.
3. Identified regulation – Such as scheduled football matched, upcoming holidays and planning of outing with friends.
4. Physiological Safety – Uploading and downloading movie clips on Youtube, Updating achievements on LinkedIn, Revising the television schedule form newspaper and Reading articles from magazine.
5. Utilitarian Gains and Losses – Getting gifts from friends or family members, receiving a good comment on the mental status over Facebook, Argument on Twitter with the help of Tweets, Bad news of followers with respect to some updates.
6. Legal complications – National news related to amendment of any legal issue, declaration of specific signatory moments such as match won by favorite team in sports and Getting social approval with respect to justice read through newspaper.
7. Identification of status – Meeting an old friend through networking site, sharing a joke through messaging, writing down personal experience in daily diary.
Above all the precise basis of self-expression is to be familiar with all the current affairs happening in local area, national region and international scenario of world wide. The most of the part include the developmental news of nation (in terms of science and technology) passing, amendment of bills, external affairs with the neighboring nations and lifestyle. What could be the consequence of any particular activity of any nation is what always makes me fascinating to know it. Even in terms of sports (say recent FIFA 2014), I use to keep constant eye on each and every update such as match schedule, winning rewards, man of the match and other related news.
What is the motivation behind my self-expression?
The motivation of self-expression is basically concerned with the thoughts being exchanged in mind while doing any particular instance. Below examples can best explain the concepts
1. While reading newspapers:
· What are the political happenings in nation?
· How neighboring countries are dealing with our nations.
· External affairs, such as prime minister’s tour to foreign nation.
· What are the sports highlights for today.
· What social goodness is happening for the day and how much crime is witnessed to the society?
2. While having a glance at magazines:
· Beautiful pictures present.
· What are the highlights of index section?
· Various attractive advertisements presented.
3. Spending some time in reading blogs:
· How is the theme of any article
· Who is the writer – is it familiar to me or a new one.
· What are the links provided and how much relevant they are to the context.
· Any video present?
4. While using any social networking site:
· To update my status with any recent news of the day.
· What are the likes and comments of my previous activities?
· Any friend available for chatting.
· Checking out any special offer with the displaying advertisements.
· What are the things shared by my friends and how much interesting they are.
· Checking any informative link or video if shared.
5. While watching videos and other websites:
· Checking with the newer things for the day.
· Any interesting article, it should be saved or shared with the links.
· Favorite movie clips, songs and sport clips to be downloaded and saved for watching next time.
· Sharing of interesting stuff such as moral videos, videos of nature, any special issue related to the nation, with the help of Facebook, mail or Whatsapp.
What are the suitable places to store your artifacts?
There are many of the places to store the artifacts. During my school days, I use to pain a lot and use to save them in my scrap book. Hardly have I had any of them to be displayed here. With the time as I grow my preferences changes and mode of expression also changes. Yet I believe, any artifact, be it physical or digital, both should be stored in order to get the fun and feelings in later times. Some of my activities related to storing my artifacts are:
1. Cutting of interesting section of newspaper related to national issue, sports photographs, and pictures of nature or wildlife.
2. Downloading the videos and saving them on laptop.
3. Saving webpage and marking them as bookmark, containing interesting stuffs to see later.
4. Saving and sharing the links in the form, of status update, profile message and email.
5. Storing the happy moments with friends and relatives in form of photos and movie making with camera.
6. Other relevant important documents I use to store in hard drive, CDs and Pen drives.
7. Using other social media sites to store photos and videos such as Flickr, Window Live Space.
Any other related behavior!
The most of the interesting activity in which I seldom feel myself to be involved is news. Most of the time when I use to be free in home, in college, in library and other relevant places; I use to find something through which I can get some news. The media which I use for these things are Newspaper, Television channels (as mentioned above), Magazines, Social Networking sites, Blogs, Emails and off-course radio many a time. The types of news I mostly prefer are:
1. Local News – What is going on in neighborhood?
2. National News – What is happening in nation, example passing of a bill.
3. International News – News happening around the world – Sports, Clashes and Summits.
4. Feature Articles – May be profile of any person or could be new stories.
5. Editorial – Containing opinion of writers.
6. Column – Written by some of the personalities regularly.
Each of these mentioned portion many a times contribute to follow some of the words or personalities which are well shining in my profiles of social networking sites. Often these also frame the motivation of self-expression.
Step 2
Interview and observation
Gender: Male
Age: 58
Occupation: retired Army Officer
My friend in this is a retired Army Officer. He is 58 years old. He is far older than me but he is my close friend to me. Since he was working as an army, he used to visit us at home and give me presents. This created the good friendship between us and hence I was aware that he would feel okay if I interviewed him. The interview took place at the leaving at my place while we were having some drinks. The following is the overview of the interview:
How do you use to express yourself?
The question what everybody will smile at a glance, and obviously he also does. He said, “People use to respect me because I am a defense person.” Obviously he was getting many of the advantages being a retired person, and he appreciates himself always for the same. Here are some of the points which he uses to express himself.
· Meeting with friends and having a long chat.
· Cooking food and making new dishes.
· Uploading the pictures and sharing it on the social networking sites.
· Being online on Whatsapp and available for all his connections throughout the day.
· Updating the concern of nation and world in form of status updates in all possible sites.
· Few of them are on Yahoo, Rediff and Wechat.
Differences:
· What basically here I feel, unlike me this person if far more interested with the social life in both real world as well as virtual world.
· Probably owing to the free time more than me, he invests more time as compared to me.
· Interested in other activities also such as cooking food or meeting friends.
· Unlike me, who use to be interested in particular things such as politics, sports or fashion; he seems to be using the digitalization without any particular interest. It can be more considered as better option for him to be online maximum of time, for just passing it.
What represents better for your expression?
According to him, a timely conversation with his wife represents his expression best. . The better way to express the things is to learn from the internet about preparation of new dishes. Basically to highlight his ways of expression, it would be:
1. Cooking food.
2. Reading blogs based on cooking continental and Italian dishes.
3. Preparing random cartoons.
4. Uploading and sharing all such moments in social networking sites. The most preferred one are Twitter and Facebook.
Difference:
1. He seems to be more interested in cooking as the same way; I use to be interested for reading news.
2. He loves to cook and get them offer to his friends, family member. The interesting things is, he use to upload these stuffs on his social profile, whereas I use to upload majority of things related to current affairs, sports and fashion.
3. Sharing and archiving interesting links about restaurant, food ingredients and preparation steps in email.
What are types of artifacts you use to make as a part of my expression?
The most interesting artifact is to cook food and share it on internet. That is more or less is a special part which attracts him the most. He said he use to read many a things on internet and more often he also like to read and try out new recipes. He said, the most exciting thing he likes, is to call upon friends and have a dinner at home. Reading blogs and gathering information related to food varieties in other countries are some of his favorite stuffs. Collection of various cooking books, spices information and information of regional food are also a part of his artifacts which helps in making a part of expression. Some of the related highlights in this context are:
1. Collection of books related to cooking.
2. Learning from friends and others about new dishes.
3. Information of nearby restaurants and their relative special menus.
4. Copying various related information form websites and saving them in word document.
5. Clicking photos of newer dishes or favorite dishes every time he cooks.
Similarities and difference:
1. Just like I use to click for my interesting activities, he uses to do the same for cooking and sharing them on internet.
2. Saving important cooking related information from website, whereas I also use to do the same, but in a bit different manner like sharing links, making them bookmarks and cutting pieces of papers.
3. I use to collect videos and save them in laptop, whereas he never use to do the same.
Photo2: Some of the cooking book collection of that person.
What is the basis of your self-expression?
The most important basis of self-expression is cooking. The moment he uses to get to know about any information or link related to cooking, he uses to surf it to the maximum level. Similarly, he said, if you put a magazine of cooking food before him, it would be difficult to take his eyes away from it. Most of his pictures on the social networking site are full of cooking food, information related to region specific food, location and description of any restaurant he attended last time. He drives him more to call upon all the friends for dinner at his home and cook food for him. Personally, I found him often involved in completely and thoroughly while he was engaged in the kitchen to cook his menu. When asked about some of the key words of his cooking way he said: “The most common key words are Olive oil, Onions, Lemon, Vinegar, Garlic, Sugar, Rice and Spices.”
What is the motivation behind your self-expression?
Motivational sources when asked behind his self-expression, is the appreciation and self-satisfaction that comes when he finished his task every time. Often in free time he use to go for shopping, bringing home some of his menu related vegetables, species and other related ingredient. The features which best describe the motivations are:
1. Any special program on television which hosts new items.
2. Flyers and advertisement may be related to food junction, restaurants, kitchen item or food carnival attracts him the most.
3. Self-driven enthusiasm to prepare some of the rare dishes or favorite dishes and uploading the photos on website.
4. Bringing home relatives and friends to serve his skills over their plate.
Suitable places to store your artifact!
Upon asking what should be the suitable place to store the artifacts, he said, “It does not depend what is the form of artifact”. According to him, if the artifact is just a memory, it should not be enough to keep it stored in mind. Also if it is physical, it cannot be stored in the physical format. He knows how to best utilize the microwave oven and refrigerator. He uses to preserve all his important ingredients at the best and so is for food storage also. He said the best way of storing the artifacts being share it with all the near ones, and social networking site is the best place suitable for this purpose. He seems to be far more enthusiastic while showing his WhatsApp connection with all the friends and relatives and having chats of all his cooking experiences. Hence it can be concluded that he loves to share all the mental status and involvement to his food preparation with appropriate person and probably this is the reason why he things to store the artifact is one of the suitable option for making himself a popular brand.
· Updating and following people on Twitter.
· Uploading the pictures which demonstrate some special event or moments related to cooking on Facebook.
· Apart from cooking, he also like to art any special cartoon sketching and keeping them stored in files.
Differences:
· As like I use to read and share the news items, he used to read share and make it practical.
· Apart from being dependent from the source of knowledge, he uses to try new things from his own.
Any other related behavior, if you would like to share for expressing yourself?
“Live life a king size, but don’t you forget keep connect to with everyone”, this statement is what he shared with me in relation with this question. He didn’t say any other behavior except to have a healthy life and to keep updated, which in my opinion is also important.
Above all the interview of him in this conjunction narrates as he loves his family and wants to be connected with his friends. The most important one is to have a good and healthy life.
Some of the differences which I found him to be varying with me in many respect such as:
· Involved in cooking and other home related works, which I never use to.
· Not enjoying any night parties and longtime outing, but such activities are my favorite.
· Talking about me, sharing in Twitter are more biased towards news and general affairs and not related to personal feelings.
· Connected more with family and relatives in digital world and not with friends and strangers. On the contrary, I feel being younger, am much open to all.
· One of obvious thing, I noticed regarding the total time spent on digital world by me is much less compared to that of him.
· Not much fascinated about latest movie, song release, online ordering of food from restaurants, online shopping of garments, rather he prefers these to be purchased from stores directly. I must admit, am very much fond of these.
Step 3
Diary Study
Day 1
|
Time & date: 29th July 2014 |
|
Location: At my bed-room |
|
□Creating identity expression □Sharing identity expression □Managing identity expression □Destroying identity expression □Other |
|
Devices Involved: My I-pad |
|
Description of the event: Adding new friends who are based abroad |
Day 2
|
Time & date: 4th August 2014 |
|
Location: At the Basketball pitch |
|
□Creating identity expression □Sharing identity expression □Managing identity expression □Destroying identity expression □Other |
|
Devices Involved: I used my phone |
|
Description of the event: My friend recorded a video while I was being trained to play basketball |
Day 3
|
Time & date: 13th August 2014 |
|
Location: At home |
|
□Creating identity expression □Sharing identity expression □Managing identity expression □Destroying identity expression □Other |
|
Devices Involved: I used my laptop |
|
Description of the event: I uploaded some funny photos in Facebook and Twitter that I downloaded |
The key: The box ( □)describes the personal identity expression that I am doing
By summarizing the diary form above, I can conclude that I am available on the social sites such as Facebook because I have a strong internet connection. This is the case since my internet is reliable and strong. This is very important as I can be able to upload photos and videos with my friends. My devices have the required hardware components that make it easy for me to access the internet without any delays. Adding to this, I am interested in the social activities around me hence I cannot get bored. The following is a summary of the diary form:
Day 1: Using my new I-pad, I was able to add new friends on Facebook. I was just bored and resting on my bed and decided to add new friends who are based abroad. This was just fun since the friends were online and hence they accepted my friendship requests instantly.
Day 2: Using my phone, my friend captured a video while I was being trained to play basketball. We were at the basketball pitch at this time. I edited the video on my phone and later uploaded it in YouTube. It was fun to have 35 viewers within 5 minutes of uploading the video.
Day 3: Using my laptop, I downloaded some funny photos on Yahoo website. The photos were actually funny since they had some animation elements in them. I later on decided to share the photos with my friends on Facebook and Twitter. I later on tagged them. It was extremely fun to see how they liked and commented on the photos.
Step 4
Critique an existing personal expression system
Literal meaning of personal expression or self-expression is display of own personality or feelings by means of conversation, paintings, music, dance, poetry, stories and in many more possible ways. Nowadays sociology researcher considers the personal expression as a core value in process of modernization. Personal expression can also be observed in the tolerance, satisfaction etc. In 21st century Internet has evolved as a dynamic tool for presenting oneself before the society. More over the rise of social media has vividly evolved the methods for expression of concepts and ideas. With the emergence of social media like Facebook, Google Plus, Twitter, Flicker etc. and media editors such as Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Audacity etc. a person can express his innersole and feelings by means of these above mentioned modern day tools. Here there is description of few social websites regarding how they assist their users to in producing, managing, and sharing self-expressions.
Facebook is the one which I personally am comfortable with, in comparison to any other paradigm available for self-expressions. There is also available, much different kind of systems available for the same purpose but this one is far better as because of these features:
· Easy to update the mental status and get response from all who are connected with.
· Space is available to upload pictures and get them tagged with others whom we want to notice with, who are attached with the picture or both.
· Space for creating, follow and like any special page which you like say for instance, anybody like national news there are pages which specifically upload pictures and information related to new place every now and them.
· There is a place to “comment” and “reply” for any particular comment which we like or dislike. This helps in getting views from others as well as provides option to express self-response as well.
· It is also possible to get attach with any news officials such as CNN and IBN. One can easily follow them for any website or visual adventure. Moreover I am comfortable to have the same news in both Arabic languages as well as in English which adds me flavor in both direction.
· It is interesting to know that Facebook recently support application of similar Apps such as WhatsApp. Other similar applications are Skype facility. Hence it is possible to have more than one experience from single system.
· There are options to send messages, in case the one we wanted to get connected is not available online.
· There are reminders which can help you in recalling the birthday, important events, official meets, sponsored conferences etc. It just like an alarm, once you open it you can get recalls many important memos as well.
· Last but not the least all the profile information and data sharing is secure and hence makes the user more comfortable to reply upon.
On the other hand, many a times I feel some of the important parts to be missing, which if can be joined would make it more lucrative and complete. In this context, here are some of the features which if present in any system, would help me in expressing myself in much better way.
· There should be some space for live video recording. This can be helpful to save some clips which can help in recalling the moments of happiness or sadness.
· Online painting, photography competition, writing competition and other lucrative events that can keep the user more busy and involved.
· Some secure place are need where we can save our important phone numbers, billing details, email contacts and important information which can be retrieved as when required from anywhere.
Step 5
Summary of user needs
Rating of daily activities
Every activity in conjunction to individuals’ self-expression is a mode of satisfaction when it comes to brand. The moment we share I use to share the updated related to politics or sports; I expect my friends and other connections to give response to it. Similarly, the person whom I interviewed uses to invite his friends often to display his cooking and desire to get appreciation which is obvious. Hence the system which we are often using such as Flicker, Facebook, and YouTube should have work system, which can review the whole day’s activity like sharing thoughts, photo uploads, and video sharing and can rate them according to response from other connections.
Suggestions related to self-expression
All the important schedules, such as office stuffs, home related task, partying time, important meetings, scheduling of some special arrangements are some of the regular usage which I personally feel. The system should be designed in such a way that it can be created, stored, alarmed timely. As for example, many a time I use to find some advertisement on television, newspaper and radio describing any particular debate program at a particular time. As stated above, I use to write them somewhere so as to get reminder. If the same thing I can get as reminder message or alarm from the existing paradigm, it would be too much helpful.
Similarly, according to the interest of individual, say I feel more comfortable in gathering information as what is happening all over the world, and the person I interviewed, he loves to cook different dishes, there should be some suggestions from the system we are using for expressions. These can be informing of pop-up menus or flash links, which can present new arenas which we like. Examples of these are any important breaking news, Schedule of new match series to be started at any corner of world for me. Similarly, combination of spices good for health, cooking tips and new cooking book release can prove good suggestion for that person.
Collective display of previous activities as old memories
Recently Facebook developers introduces one activity where the sum collection of all the activities like most liked comment, status which receives maximum of comments, best photo uploaded, most interesting video to make users for excited. Another similar activity adopted by Flickr, is they combined all activities in form of movie which makes the users feel good. Such collection activity can be presented as an option for user where they can prepare photo collage, video combining and share them on social networking sites. As like I use to cut articles from newspaper and save them, it could be better option for me to have those collections saved as archive in digital format and display them combining. This not only presents a good feeling for the user but also help them in getting better way for self-expression.
What’s your interest?
This is certainly one of the most excited things which should drag the interest of individual according to their likings. Say for example, the person whom I interviewed likes to cook food (Step-2); in this context if the system can provide some tips every day, assuredly the user will be benefited with it. A drop down menu can be provided with lot of such options, like I use to read magazines and newspapers, (Step-3), such option can suggest me some new arrivals and more breaking news. It will be the user who can select those features and make them fixed according to their flavor.
Important links
Important tips such as exercise, information related to balanced and healthy diet, news of nation and international happenings and many more things are important (Step-1, Step-2 and Step-3). Is the system can be designed to contain such links (Step-4), it would surely ensure the personal to express their interest more. Just for an example, many of my friends too like to share important links over Facebook, Whatsapp and Gmail. When I use to come across those links, I found that information very much important for me. Hence such suggestions and tips regarding newer links and videos can prove to be very informative for any individual in expressing themselves.
1
