helping me with the assignment in Human computer interaction

Me/phase1/My Submission Phase 1.docx

Ahmed Aldhawyan Comp325 Phase 1

Step 1:

Demographic Information:

Name: Ahmed Aldhawyan

Age: 23

Occupation: Student

Brief description of the location/environment of self-observation

There are several places and environments where I express myself from. The way I express myself in these places and environments, clearly define my behavior, opinions, experiences, skills and other characteristics that I possess in general. The places I mostly express myself is in home, school or in events such as birthday parties. How I express myself is defined by the hardware devices that I use from time to time. I have a laptop, android phone and a tablet. I like listening to music, chatting with my friends by texting them and then they reply, and also sharing with friends the interesting and trending news. When I am at home, I mostly use my laptop but when I am at school or when travelling, I use my phone and tablet. When using the laptop, I use VLC media player to play music and Facebook to chat with my friends and share interesting news. I use my android phone to chat and to share interesting news and pictures through WhatsApp and Instagram. I also use Android VLC to listen to music.

What are the characteristics of your self-expression are they temporary or permanent? Do you create them alone or in a group? Do you express yourself in the real world, digital world or both? Are there any differences when and why you should choose one over the other?

The characteristics of my self-expression are permanent. I always listen to music and communicate with my friends through texts. I create these characteristics in a group. This happens when I text my friends and then they text back. We can also share interesting news through our devices. I choose express myself in the digital world. I express myself in the digital world when I am in low spirits. I post how I feel in Facebook and there are many friends who are willing to comfort me as I pour my issues therein. In real word, the friends who surround you are few or none at any given time. So, chances of having a shoulder to lean on are slim.

Are you active in expressing yourself? Do these artifacts originate from your own creation or are you more passive selecting other people’s work and express your own ‘personal brand’ through your choices?

I am passive when expressing myself. I prefer to use other people’s work to express myself. I find in more fast and fulfilling than to express myself actively. I use the artifacts that best fit the situation that I am facing or how I feel. This makes people to understand me better. I fear that in I use my own creation, people may take time to understand my prevailing condition or miss the point altogether.

What type of artifacts can you produce?

I can produce several kinds of artifacts, although I prefer using other people’s artifacts to express myself. I can produce songs, dance, photos and tweets. I dance when music is playing while wearing a cowboy hat. I dance to any kind of music. This makes me to relax my mind when I feel too low. I take a lot of photos to capture the many exciting moments in my life. When I want to look cool, I put on the shades so that when I upload the pictures in Facebook and Instagram, my friends can comment on how I look. This makes me know what is appealing and what isn’t. I like tweeting a lot. I can tweet my own tweets or re-tweet other people twits that I find interesting.

Which temporary types of self-expression do you perform?

The types of self-expression that I perform are playing Arabic guitar which is called The Oud,

singing or listening to songs that I have saved in my laptop and phone and playing badminton. I also attend the cinema complex with my friends once in a while to watch a movie or two as we relax and refresh ourselves with drinks. I also watch movies that aired between the programs with my family. Attending the local football matches is also so exciting for me.

During the weekends, when I am not in the mood to watch movie or sing, we go to any Arabian coffee shop to smoke Shisha and watch the European football clubs play against each other.

Fig. 1 Me (playing Arabic Oud)

Does your expression of identity happen more introverted or extrovertly? Do you keep you expression to yourself or do you love sharing?

My expression of identity is introverted. I like expressing that which is coming from within me. That way, i am able to understand how people see me and i can adjust accordingly. I do not keep my expression to myself but rather, I like sharing with my friends so they can comment on it. Through this, I feel satisfaction that emanates from within. I can be able to know what is good for me and that which I am supposed to drop for me betterment. I willingly share with my friends the songs that I listen to, my photos and news that I find interesting. Sharing with them always makes sure that they will share back their interesting songs, photos, tweets, blog, drawings and paintings.

Fig. 2 Facebook app for chatting and sharing news

Is your self-expression based on creativity, intellectually based, belief-based, political, physical or emotional?

My self-expression is based on intellectual, creativity and emotional. Before I sing or dance, I make sure that the attire that I am wearing matches with type of song and dance. This makes me to feels that I am really into that song or dance. The photos and news that I share with my friends must be so creative so that my friends can be comment on them. I use my android app to express my emotional part with my close friend whose contacts I have in my phone.

What is your motivation for expressing your personal identity? If you produce an artifact, will it have a further use?

My motivation for expressing my personal identity is the good feeling that one experiences when you share these artifacts with your friends. There is a time I posted my graduation photos in Facebook, one of the last graduation photo is on page 1 which were taken by my friend last week when we celebrate our graduate last week, because i am one of the Waikato university graduation students, the couture mission of Saudi Arabia had just made a big graduation ceremony in Auckland. As i posted it on Facebook, Congratulatory messages poured in from all my friends. I appreciated all their messages and these made me feel proud of myself and I felt that I had achieved something great although I had not performed so exemplarily. I did that purpose to feel the connection that I have with my friends in Facebook through my laptop.

All the songs and photos that I have produced, I have saved them in my laptop and the tablet. I listen to the songs when I am relaxing at home or when I am travelling or when i go shopping. I enjoy looking at the pictures once in a while. These remind me of the moments that I have had in the past. I have kept these photos and songs in different categories so that it will be easy to retrieve them in future when needed.

Fig. 3 Photo2 categorically put in a folder.

I have saved all the songs in my tablet just in case I feel so bored when I am travelling; I select and play all of them. This makes me feel nice and relax. At any particular time when there was no artifact produced, I do not think that there will come a time I will want other people about self-expression. This might occur when I will move on from social media such as Facebook and enter into the real physical world.

How do you store potential artifacts? Do you have a system of organization how you manage them?

Virtually all of my artifacts are digital. All my potential artifacts I store them in a special folders so that I will store then in my own free time. I store my artifacts categorically in folders. Each of the digital artifacts: songs, photos and interesting news that I have shared, I store them in different folders where it will be easy to retrieve them when I need arises.

Fig. 4 Organization of artifacts in folders

Any other identity-related behavior associated to producing, managing and sharing/expressing your personal identity?

I always have a belief that good values and morals play a big role in ensuring that I express identity to the people in the way that it will be simple and quick for them to decipher the kind of behavior that I want to show.

Brief overview of what you have learned about your own methods.

My methods have helped me to stand out among my friends when it comes to matters of expressing me. I will continue using them as tools of self-expression because I am sure they have helped to mould my behavior when it comes to how I express myself.

Step 2

Interview and observation:

Name / Gender: Ahmed aldogaim / male

Age: 19

Occupation: Student

I interviewed the young man who is my best friend. He is studying a Bachelor of Economics and Business Statistics in Auckland. My friend is currently on a holiday. I choose to interview him since he is a good guy and very honest so I knew that the interview results were to be accurate and detailed. I asked him if he could allow me to interview him which he agreed without hesitation. The interview took place at 3.00 pm on Wednesday 13-8-2014 which was obviously on the same day of my ceremony graduation last week in Auckland. Also, he attended my graduation as you can see, the meeting was in Starbucks Café in Auckland city after we had just finished the ceremony. However, the following is an overview of the interview questions and responses that I gathered from the interview.

Fig. 5 my friend and i

What are the characteristics of your self-expression are they temporary or permanent? Do you create them alone or in a group? Do you express yourself in the real world, digital world or both?

The young man says that characteristics of his self-expression are permanent. He always took more time to chat with friends and less time to listen to music. He creates the self-expression as a group and does this using the digital devices which includes; a Dell Laptop, a Samsung Tablet, and a Samsung Galaxy Note 3. He also shares the pictures that he takes with friends on Facebook and Twitter. He prefers sharing issues on Facebook and Twitter than in the real world.

Are you active in expressing yourself? Do these artifacts originate from your own creation or are you more passive selecting other people’s work and express your own ‘personal brand’ through your choices?

The young man prefers to express himself actively. He also uses his own work in trying to express himself and this way he finds it more fulfilling that expressing himself passively. He also says that he uses artifacts that fit best his current situation and that represent his own feelings. “By this, his friends are able to understand me better and I feel appreciated” says the young man.

What type of artifacts can you produce?

The young man says that he is able to produce many artifacts by himself which includes; songs, jokes, funny posts, photos, tweets and personal ideas. Songs makes him feel creative and relaxed. He also takes a lot of photos using his 3 electronic devices. He also posts personal ideas, photos, and jokes on Facebook and creates tweets on his Twitter account daily.

Which temporary types of self-expression do you perform?

My friend Ahmed says that there are many types of self-expression that he performs and includes; playing guitar, reading poems, analyzing the funny posts on Facebook and Twitter, playing rugby and watching the movies that he has saved in his Laptop.

This is important as it makes him feel relaxed and happy despite the factors that might make him feel down. By these, he argues that he is relieved from any stress in his environment. He also goes to the town to visit friends when he is bored.

Does your expression of identity happen more introverted or extrovertly? Do you keep you expression to yourself or do you love sharing?

My friend says that his expression of identity is actually introverted since he likes expressing whatever that comes from within him. This is very important for him as he is in a position to understand how his friends think of him and how this can affect his progress in future. He likes posting photos on Facebook and tagging his friends as well.

He also posts ideas and funny photos on the Facebook pages of his friends who later on comment or like. By this, he is able to understand how his friends think of his ideas.

Is your self-expression based on creativity, intellectually based, belief-based, political, physical or emotional?

His self-expression is actually based on intellectual power, creativity and belief-based. This is the case since he is very creative in all what he does such as coming up with new songs, his funny posts, and his funny photos. He has a strong belief on what he does and he knows that he will do it well. In addition to this, he says that his intellectual powers helps him to become more creative.

What is your motivation for expressing your personal identity? If you produce an artifact, will it have a further use?

My friend says he is motivated by his friends and family members for expressing personal identity. He knows that is friends are happy on all what he posts on Facebook and the music that he shares with them. “My family members and friends also send me congratulatory messages via Facebook and SMS” Said the young man.

How do you store potential artifacts? Do you have a system of organization how you manage them?

My friend says that he stores his potential artifacts using various approaches. Since he has a laptop, a tablet and a Smartphone, he uses them to create the artifacts and stores them via the same media. “My devices have a large storage and this helps me store photos, songs, movies and funny clips. I have an external backup for all these artifacts” says the young man

Brief overview of what you have learned about your own methods.

The young man says that his methods have helped him to socialize with friends and be free with all family members. He argues that he will continue using these methods in future.

Step 4

Critique an existing personal expression system

In this case, the critique will be for a system that has currently gained popularity among the young people. This is called MySpace which is a social network such as Facebook and Twitter. MySpace is a common social network site with a very strong music emphasis and is owned by Specific Media LLC and Justin Timberland who is a singer and actor of pop music. This social network was launched in Aug 2003 and the headquarters are in Beverly Hills in California. By the month of April 2014, MySpace had over 1 million U.S. visitors who were unique. This was founded by Chris DeWolfe with Tom Anderson in 2003 but was later on acquired by News Corporation in 2005. From that year to 2008, MySpace became the most visited website in the U.S. and this surpassed Google in 2006 as the most visited website in the U.S. But this social site did not overdo Facebook as Facebook has many unique visitors who joined each year. MySpace had a lot of influence on the pop culture and music given the fact that Justin Timberland is a pop music singer as well as an actor.

MySpace also created a certain gaming platform that launched and initiated the success of Zynga and RockYou. There were other gaming platforms that were created by MySpace and that helped in improving the social interaction. The site also boosted the activities of companies and artists. This was done by creating a unique URL for these companies and artists in order to make it easy to share their profiles on the social media.

In this critique, the analysis will be based on what MySpace supports in line with the mentioned behaviors in step 1 and 2. This is important as the critique will to see the trends of MySpace in line with the objectives of creating self-expression for personal identity. The critique will also check if the system of MySpace supports the user needs as identified in the above three steps. This will also involve checking if there are some behaviors or user needs that this system does not support as mentioned in the steps above. This will also include some screenshots in order to give a brief view of the systems.

The first part will analyze the behaviors and user needs that are supported by this system of MySpace.

a) MySpace enables an individual to update his/her status moods. This is the same case with Facebook and Twitter as someone can be in a position to update their status and show the world what they feel like. The users of MySpace use music, photos, and also art to update their status.

b) MySpace also encourages users to customize their profile and also show their history record on their wall. The current version of MySpace allows the users put a full screen cover image and a profile default image which has got space for links to the other online presences. This has a biography section which helps a user to update the world on various matters.

c) MySpace also encourages the users to share latest music with the other users. It has a discover option with some unique content that is ranked by popularity amongst the crowd who are also using MySpace. This helps to share music and this creates a good ground for self-expression of personal identity.

d) In addition to this, MySpace enables the user to modify and build a given profile according the already created themes. This is very important as it helps the user to change his profile depending with the current events. The profile has a section that includes an “About me” and “Who I’d like Like to Meet” This creates a good way of self-expression for personal identity.

e) There is a feature of Bulletins in the system of MySpace. There are posts on the user’s page for the friends as well as family with a group feature that allows one to share a common board. This helps one to share a lot with friends and family members as it the case with Facebook and Twitter.

f) MySpace encourages privacy in communicating with friends and family members. This includes a service referred to as MySpace IM which is an instant messaging feature. The users can hence communicate using this private message option.

g) Sharing of ideas, music, video, news, polls and forum is also possible by using the system of MySpace. This increases the self-expression interests of the people and leads to personal identify. These unique features includes; MySpace TV, MySpace Mobile, MySpace News, and Karaoke Section.

The above are the behaviors and user needs that are supported by MySpace. In the next part, an analysis of the behaviors and user needs that are not supported by MySpace will be made in order to understand how MySpace prevents or hinders self-expression for personal identity;

a) MySpace lacks the option of tagging friends on pictures and posts as it is the case with Facebook and Twitter. This means that one cannot be able to share pictures or idea about a certain events with friends. This hinders self-expression.

b) MySpace does not allow one to post ideas and photos on his page. This is because the system is meant for music only unlike Facebook and Twitter where the users can be freely post ideas and photos. This means that one cannot express himself freely by using the system of MySpace.

c) In addition to this, there are few members registered on MySpace as compared to Twitter and Facebook. This means that one cannot be able to connect with many friends using MySpace since many have not joined the website. This is likely to reduce the chances of self-expression since there are few people to share ideas and situation with using MySpace.

d) The final point is that the system of MySpace does not allow an individual to play games. This is a main drawback under this system since Facebook allows people to play games and share them online. Hence, MySpace hinders self-experience for personal identity.

Step 5

Summary of user needs:

In this final step, a summary of user needs is to be made with focus on the identified user needs in step 1 to 4. This will be followed by evidence on the same area from the above steps. To start with, a good internet access is necessary for most application to be run well. Application such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and MySpace all require a reliable and strong internet connection in order to help the user improve on his self-expression for personal needs. As seen in step 2, my friend argues that he is able to access the fast internet that helps him to share photos and posts on Facebook and tweets on Twitter.

Adding to this, a user requires having strong devices that are functioning well. The devices should have high performance rating that will help in accessing the Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and Instagram. Mobile phone and laptops used in this case should be performing well to avoid unnecessary delays. The cameras on these devices should also have a high resolution to help capture quality photos. As seen in step 1, the android phone, tablet and laptop have high quality hardware device that helps in capturing photos and sharing them on the social media. If this factor is considered, the user needs will easily be met.

The final one is that one should try to maximize the number of friends on the social media. This is important as it makes it more fun to share the photos and ideas when you have many friends to share with. This is because of the comments, re-tweets and comments from friends which increase the self-expression needs of the people. The users should add as many friends as possible and should include family members, classmates, age mates, distant friends, and even older people in the community. As seen in step 3, sharing photos of the cow was good enough since there were many friends who liked and commented on the photo. This is important factor to consider as it will make the user needs to be met in terms of increased self-expression for personal identity.

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